Chapter 9

9

VICTOR

I return to my seat, licking my lips clean of the spoils from my plunder.

As I sit, I lock my wrists in the handcuffs. Partly because of the guards who will be here soon to take me away, but mostly because if I don't restrain myself, I won't be able to hold back my desires. Sedona's breathing hasn't steadied, and she's still sprawled out over her chair with parted legs. Her panties burn a hole in my pocket, and her clean-shaven pussy glistens under the low light. Without these handcuffs, I'm pretty sure I'd throw myself into her, and the Lord knows I don't want this office to be the place where I steal her innocence.

"Do me a favor and hide the keys this time," I tease.

"But it's the quickest way to get you back in here," Sedona says with a hmph but drops the keys into her drawer. A hand slips between her legs, and she runs a single finger through her slit. She moans as it gets drenched in the mixture of her liquids and my spit.

She's fucking teasing me, and now there isn't a thing I can do about it.

"Good girl," I say to all of it, and a smile beams across her face.

"Now I've fulfilled my end of the bargain, it's your turn to answer me."

"Are you sure you want the answer after I rocked your world? It's going to put a damper on the whole thing."

There's a moment of doubt in her eyes. Knowing that business and pleasure shouldn't mix, but doing it anyway because we can't keep our hands off one another. We don't have time to cuddle or kiss because everything is on a stringent schedule, yet we talk about the horrors of the past amid the intensity of post-orgasm euphoria.

With a sigh, she says, "If this is how we're going to do things, then we have to take the good with the bad. I'm a big girl. I can handle it."

"Don't say I didn't warn you, Doc. But if you insist." I take a moment to compose myself. It's mainly to clear my mind of what I just did to the good doctor. Delving into my mind is best done with severity. "Fifteen years ago, I had a sister. Called her Panda because she never brought any color into her wardrobe. Only black and white. She was seventeen and had her whole life ahead of her. She met a boy, Bryan Rodrick. A few years older. Introduced her to marijuana. Fair enough, a little bit of green won't hurt anyone." The first pang of sadness I've experienced in years stabs my chest. "But she didn't stay on it long. Turns out, he was a dealer for some heroin distributor out of California, and since she had a taste for the wild side, he dug his claws in deep."

Even as I give her the answers she so desperately sought, Sedona doesn't write a single word down in her notebook. She listens intently, as if this is a perfectly normal courtship conversation.

"Panda overdosed four days before her eighteenth birthday. I found her sprawled out in the bathtub, fully clothed in ice-cold water. I wouldn't have known had the tub not spilled over and caused a leak from upstairs. She was dead before my parents got her to the hospital." The more I talk, the more mortified Sedona becomes. Her face falls, tears well in her eyes, and all playfulness evaporates. "It was then that I made my vow of vengeance. Not only for my sister but every family that experienced the nightmare we did."

I give her time to process what I've said before finishing. "I don't hurt those who don't deserve it. Never have and never will. But I refuse to let anyone make me feel like a criminal for doing what is right. Revenge may only bring the smallest peace to the ones they've hurt, but it's better than nothing at all."