Chapter 36

Colette knew what she should do. How she should behave. She'd survived nearly two weeks as his captive before, and she could do it again.

Colette tried to take deep breaths to calm herself, but with the way her body was stretched and pulled, deep breathing didn't feel possible. The short, almost panting breaths she was taking only amped up the panic she felt. As did the taste of blood in her mouth and the way her stomach rolled and knotted thanks to the blood she'd swallowed.

Breathing wasn't helping, so she'd have to think her way to calm.

Yes, the permanent chain cuffs were distressing, but he'd most likely use padlocks to connect them. She'd used her hidden cuff key to pick a padlock before. There was no reason to let fear take over. Like before she just had to wait for the right moment to escape.

But as she watched Tonsure clean a long needle with alcohol wipes, she was afraid.

Not just of the pain she knew was coming, but afraid that it was already too late. That even if rescue came, she'd be permanently changed. Damaged.

It was that fear that finally broke her control. She knew what she should do and how she should act, but when Tonsure approached her with the piercing needle, she kicked him. He fell back, knocking into the other man who hovered behind him. They both went down, knocking over a table, the jewelers kit, and a chair.

Colette stared at them, horrified at what she'd just done—and the repercussions.

Damien grabbed her by the throat, shoving her back against the glass. The added tension on her wrists made it feel like the tendons below her thumb were going to snap, and her shoulder muscles screamed in pain.

He squeezed, cutting off her air.

How many times had Landon grabbed her like this? His command and control of her body was delicious. Never once had she feared for her life.

Damien could, and would, choke her to death.

Spots danced at the edges of her vision, and her mouth opened and closed. Damien leaned in, his body painfully heavy as it ground her into the window.

"Wife," he chided, lips near her ear. "You're being rude."

She tried to speak, but couldn't. Tried to move, but was trapped.

Damien eased back, dropping his hand from her neck to her breast, squeezing hard. Colette sucked in air and coughed several times.

"You told me," she wheezed. "Not to let anyone else touch me."

It was a stupid, transparent ploy, but she was desperate.

It worked.

Damien grinned, his grip going from hard to soft as he stroked her breast, then ran his fingers along the healing wound he'd cut into her skin, stopping to play with the belly chains along the way. "You're right. I did. But when I give them permission to touch you, you don't fight."

Colette nodded. What else could she do?

Tonsure was back on his feet, needle in hand.

"Maybe you should hold her," Tonsure said.

"Yes," Damien agreed, jamming one hand against the base of her throat, the other on her stomach, once more pushing her against the window. He leaned into her, hard enough her bones groaned. The glass was no longer cold against her back.

Tonsure stared at her breast with none of the calm detachment of a body modification artist. He looked excited, a smile curling the corners of his mouth.

Colette had never pierced her nipples, but she'd seen it done a time or two. Tonsure held what looked like a too-thick hollow piercing needle, and nothing else. No piercing clamp. He didn't have the jewelry ready.

"Now?" Tonsure asked.

Damien leaned in, nodding.

Tonsure gripped her nipple with his fingers, pinching hard. Colette sucked in a pained breath, though she knew worse was to come.

Tonsure pulled her nipple, stretching it.

"Not too far back," Damien said. "I want it through the tip."

Tonsure nodded, pulling harder. Her skin felt like it would rip. Colette couldn't stop the whimpers that vibrated her throat.

Tonsure positioned the angled tip of the needle against her flesh, and then shoved it through.

Colette screamed, the pain white-hot. Tonsure released her nipple, and that brought a fresh wave of bright agony.

Colette looked down, at the long silver needle piercing her nipple, a dot of blood trailing down her battered and bruised flesh.

Tonsure fitted one end of a thick-gauge, too-large, gold ring into the hollow needle end of the needle, then pulled it back, guiding the gold through her wounded flesh.

She assessed the piercing with a detached air that helped her divorce from the pain. It shouldn't be a ring, it should be a barbell. And the ring was far too big—the weight of it tugged at her nipple.

"Now the other one. Do it fast. I want to see what she looks like with both." Damien sounded giddy.

This time Colette didn't watch. She turned her face into her arm, screaming when he thrust the needle through.

After the second gold ring was laced through her flesh, Damien released her. Colette swayed away from the window, the pain from her wrists and shoulders merging with the pain in her face and becoming a nice background throb for the pain in her nipples. She didn't think nipple piercings were supposed to hurt this much. She'd seen women barely yelp when it happened, and smile through the whole thing.

Her fear and horror might have amplified the pain, but she was fairly sure the large-gauge needle and heavy jewelry weren't something any respectable piercer would ever use.

"Do you want to add something? Before I close them?" Tonsure was hunting through the spilled contents of his box even as the other man cleaned up. Tonsure pulled out several small bags and boxes, offering them to Damien.

"Ah yes, I like this." Damien smiled in delight, taking something from a box. He brought it over to her, raising it so she could see. "Do you know what this is?"

She studied the small charm through watery eyes. "It's an eight-pointed star."

Damien started to frown.

"Depending on its form and placement, it can mean many different things," she hurried to add. "I believe in Russia it's known as the thieves star."

Damien grinned, then tugged down his shirt, showing her the eight-pointed star tattooed on his chest. Had she seen him shirtless in the beginning, back when she first arrived at his house to assess the collection, that tattoo would have made her run.

Tonsure offered Damien a few more options, and he took his time selecting items from the charms and pendants Tonsure had.

Then Tonsure moved his welding tool closer, that excited smile still curving his lips.

"The rings I've used aren't just gold," he told Damien. "They're stainless steel, coated in gold. Gold by itself is too malleable."

"Good, good."

"It will take a bit more work to close these. The thickness, you see."

"But they will be permanent?" Damien asked.

"Very. Yes. Once I'm done it will take a metal saw to remove them."

Colette swallowed fresh tears, closing her eyes as Tonsure threaded charms onto the ring through her right nipple, and started welding it closed.

* * *

"Where did you get explosives?" Andrei asked, sounding jealous.

Rolf didn't reply, busy fiddling with a neon blue remote-control car.

Landon hadn't noticed the bags Rolf and Andrei were carrying when they left the club, but his friends—and after this they were definitely friends—had come prepared.

He was glad they were here, and not just because they'd come well equipped.

Ten minutes ago, during their three-sixty recon of the small two-story hotel, Landon had almost lost it.

"That's at least eight men," Rolf breathed as they snuck along the convenient hedge that bordered what had probably once been a pretty garden on the west side of the small hotel.

"We'll do something that brings in local law enforcement," Andrei said. "To even up the numbers."

"Too dangerous. For them," Landon countered.

They rounded the corner of the building, all three freezing when they saw light pouring from a second-story window.

It took Landon a minute to realize what he was seeing in that lighted window.

The outline of a feminine body was clear, even with the sheer curtains. Her arms were stretched up over her head and bound in place, her head hanging forward.

Colette.

A shadow fell over her, obscuring the outline of her body. Then that shadow sharpened into the outline of a second figure as they walked up to her.

The shadow-man's hands reached for Colette.

Her head came up and she turned her face against her arm as the man touched her.

Landon leapt to his feet, pulling a knife from its sheath. Rage made his skin prickle, and his vision narrow. Fuck recon, and making a plan. She was right there and someone was touching her. Hurting her.

Rolf and Andrei grabbed him, forcing him down. They'd had a vicious, silent fight as Landon tried to throw them off, but Rolf was fuck-all massive, and managed to pin him. Andrei's cold, whispered reminders that he could only help Colette if he was alive allowed Landon to wrestle himself under control.

He promised not to run in, and together they peeked over the top of the hedge once more. For a moment his heart stopped, thinking Colette was gone, before he saw the shadows at the bottom of the window, partially obscured by the angle. Colette was now sitting on the floor, her arms still pulled above her head, the long rope or chain that bound them making a vertical shadow. She leaned to one side, head against her arm.

"We know where she is," Andrei said. "That's good."

"I have a plan," Rolf declared. "And explosives."

Rolf had explosives, a drone, a remote-control car, and a rifle with tranquilizer darts in his bag. Landon would have preferred a gun that shot bullets, but those were hard to come by.

Then again, a tranquilizer gun should have been hard to come by, too…

Andrei's supplies were various electronic gadgets, including a portable EMP generator, and several knives.

Landon and Rolf slipped their phones into metal-lined bags Andrei handed them. The bags acted like a portable faraday cage, protecting the phones from the electromagnet pulse.

Andrei turned on the pulse generator and set his watch to count down until the battery that powered the device ran down. Rolf flew it up onto the roof with the drone.

No one would be calling for help, or backup.

Including them.

Rolf strapped a small block of C4 to the remote-control car, attached a detonator, and drove the toy under the white van parked in the circular driveway of the hotel.

"Everyone knows what to do?" Rolf said as the toy bumped over the gravel.

Landon nodded, watching to see if anyone in the hotel heard the whine of the remote-control car.

His part of the plan was simple, because Rolf and Andrei planned around him. More accurately, they'd planned to handle everything and everyone, leaving Landon to run directly for Colette.

He was terrified that once the explosion happened, someone would slit her throat as a precautionary measure.

Rolf shoved in some ear plugs, Landon and Andrei doing the same.

Landon got up on his toes, crouched like a sprinter. He watched the white panel van explode, a fireball shooting into the night air.

Beside him, Rolf grinned like a kid.

He had only a moment to see the grin before Landon was running. They'd picked their entry points during recon, and Landon shot straight for the side door that let out onto the garden. He cracked a pane of glass with the butt of his knife, stuck his arm in and opened the door just as men started to shout in Russian.

He'd looked through pictures of the interior of the hotel on the real estate listing on the drive up, and Landon followed his mental map to the stairs.

He was near the top when a man came around the corner at a run, nearly plowing into Landon.

Landon didn't hesitate. He grabbed the man by the shirt and yanked, throwing him down the stairs. His body made heavy thudding sounds.

Rolf had stressed the importance of not killing anyone, so Landon hoped the man knew how to take a fall.

Counting doors—he'd counted the windows from the outside—proved unnecessary. The room Colette was in was the only one with light spilling out around the edges of the door.

The door handle had a card reader rather than a key lock. Andrei had given him something to help open a card-locked door, but it was complicated to use and slow.

Landon gripped the handle, prayed, and turned the lever.

Unlocked.

He opened it slowly, naked knife in his right hand, the blade resting along his forearm.

On the other side of the door was a short hall, with a closet on the left.

He eased the door closed, then flipped the security latch before inching down the hall. He didn't want anyone coming in behind him. He crouched before looking around the corner. A bed, oddly surrounded by lights, a few chairs near the windows, and an open door to what was probably the bathroom.

He didn't see anyone. Including Colette.

Weight on the balls of his feet, Landon slowly rose, constantly scanning the room. Someone could be crouched on the far side of the bed, or hiding in the bathroom.

Only when he was at his full height did he see her. He'd known this was the right room—he'd seen the chain hanging from the curtain rod, but Colette herself had been hidden by the chairs.

Now he could see her, and his heart fucking broke.

Landon raced across the room, fumbling the knife into the sheath a second before he hit his knees in front of her. He should have cleared the room, but now that he saw her, he needed to go to her more than he needed his next breath.

"Colette."

She looked up, her eyes glassy.

She was naked—except for a band around her chest and some ugly jewelry—sitting with her legs folded to one side and her arms stretched high above her. Her chin was smeared with blood, her lower lip swollen and split.

An elastic bandage was wrapped around her breasts, and the flesh he could see above it was marked by fat bruises and teeth marks.

He wanted to grab her. Needed to hold her. Was afraid to hurt her.

Landon reached for the gold cuffs around her wrists. "It's okay, love. I'm getting you out of here."