Rescuing Melissa (ALPHA TEAM: Guardian Hostage Rescue Specialists)

48. Tunnel

FORTY-EIGHT

Tunnel

PIERCE

The man before me paled compared to the legacy I had modeled my life after. Scott Patterson came desperate and needy, so much less than the man who had accomplished greatness in the past. The voice in the letters, the years of correspondence we had exchanged, I thought he stood at a fount of wisdom dispensing knowledge through the years.

How horribly wrong I had been.

And I didn’t want to share my Queen.

Lines of power needed to be established. Fear poured off my Queen when she looked at him. That adoration belonged to me. Not to the shell of a man who had once been my mentor.

“I can’t believe you dug this out yourself,” Scott said with awe.

He wouldn’t have the patience for something this scale, nor the strength to build it with his bare hands.

“It took time.” My comment fell on a mind lacking vision.

“Where did you keep them while you were tunneling this out?”

“I only had Belle. She stayed in the basement.”

“Ah, your Belle. I’m intrigued to meet her.”

My shoulders stiffened, thinking of his filthy hands touching my Belle. “Belle won’t be playing tonight,” I announced with more bite than intended. Belle was—forever and always—mine.

Now, how to get rid of him? I couldn’t turn him in. That was a one-way street for us both. He would head back to execution by lethal injection. I might be judged, but my actions wouldn’t buy death. A lingering life in prison would be my fate, a decision made by those who didn’t understand. I would die before going to jail.

He knew this as did I.

We were locked in a stalemate.

I couldn’t deny his request. He didn’t dare cross me. We were like the armed society of the old West, polite to the extreme because the damage we could cause with our weapons would be lethal to us both.

Allowing him this night of punishment, even if it meant letting him defile one of my princesses, would be worthwhile if it ensured his departure in the morning. Two men, such as us, did not belong together. We were two very different beasts.

I had waited for years to bring my Queen to her kingdom. I itched to stroke her skin, to feel every inch of her flawless body. Having to wait—being forced to let him have her first—filled me with rage. Jealousy burned my gut, and I swallowed against the rising bile every time he opened his mouth.

There were only two outcomes. We separated at dawn, or one of us died tonight.

I couldn’t deny Scott’s skill, vision, or unique perspective, but how dare he stick his nose in the middle of my business?

Prison had made him weak. He could barely hold the weight of his wife. I think his mind had weakened too.

“I’m impressed with your thoroughness,” he said. “No one will ever find the tunnel the way you have it hidden behind the wine.” He tipped his head, but his praise meant nothing.

Our eyes locked, and I measured the man I’d idolized for so many years. The study of his techniques had provided me long hours of practice. I had explored and accepted my dark urges under his tutelage. At the same time, he guided my hands, honed my skill, and kept me safe when I had been inexperienced. His advice saved me from prison many times, stupid mistakes I would have made had it not have been for his caution.

I owed him some small measure of gratitude for that, but a truth hung between us, unspoken and dangerous. The student had surpassed the master. Perhaps this was fated to be—the two of us sharing this night? A graduation of sorts.

“Welcome to my dungeon.” The left side of my mouth crooked up.

Scott stepped forward in a rush. I whispered into my Queen’s ear, trying to soothe her as I prepared her to endure. “I can protect you, but only if you obey. You won’t suffer long at your husband’s hand.”

She refused to meet my eyes, but I didn’t need her consent. All I required was she understood her place.

“This is your home now. You decide your fate, my Queen; every choice is yours to make. Every consequence is a result of the decisions you make.”

“Holy fuck! You have a man chained to the wall.”

I flinched at the recrimination in his tone, then straightened my spine. An extreme homophobe, I needed to make sure he didn’t get the wrong idea. I lay my Queen on the four-poster bed’s black silk sheets and unlocked the chain connecting her wrists and feet. Poor thing must be in agony, but now she could stretch out and relieve the kinks in her body. Her comfort was important to me.

I kept the chain attached to the collar around her throat, and her wrist cuffs locked together, but I freed her feet.

Our Fairy Godmother had been placed in her cage nearest the bed. Her eyes showed white all around as she clutched the bars.

Delicious to see such fear.

“You have a thing for guys?” Disgust ran thick in Scott’s voice.

I clenched my jaw and forced a smile. Gretel lay in her cage covered in bandages. “I got carried away with some knife play. He’s a nurse and stitched poor Gretel up.”

Scott looked at me as if I were an idiot.

I didn’t like his expression one bit.

He continued in a caustic tone. “You can always get another princess.” He jerked a thumb toward my bound, hooded, and gagged, male nurse. “He has to die.” Scott made the pronouncement into the silence of my dungeon like it was his place to decide. It was not his place at all.

I hated him. This was my kingdom, not his.

The nurse thrashed in his chains, pulling and tugging until I thought he would dislocate his shoulders. Blood dripped down his wrists from his previous attempts to free himself.

“That isn’t our agreement.” I shrugged. The nurse was a dead man walking, but I still needed him. “Once Gretel is better, I’m letting him go.”

Scott rubbed his hands together. “That’s a mistake. Let me take care of him.”

More thrashing followed, bringing a smile to my lips. Now, this could be interesting, and a perfect way to keep my hands clean.

Scott Patterson was such an idiot.