Chapter Seven
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Henri
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I’M GOING TO LOSE MY ever-loving mind.
No, not just my mind.
My soul.
My heavily-tattered, black-riddled soul would soon be nothing more than shreds of humanity, torn apart from the beast’s claws inside me.
“Fair skies tonight, sir,” the captain smiled from where he stood at the top of the private plane. “We aim to have you touching down by four forty-five. Just in time for dawn.”
I glanced at my antique Casio watch my mother had gifted me for my thirteenth birthday—one of the few things she’d given me. Basic and ancient analog, with no fancy pedometers or heart rate monitors. I didn’t need a watch to tell me my heart was sick and skipping...I felt it thank you very much.
The hands showed 1:30 a.m.
Three hours?
We’d be flying for three hours?
Damn, a thousand islands existed in the Atlantic Ocean with that sort of travel time. Some known. Some not. Some private. Some full of partying tourists.
Where the hell is his estate, and how am I supposed to let Q know that Victor has radio-scrambling technology?
I smoothed down my charcoal blazer and ran my fingers over the concealed weapon inside the lining.
I couldn’t risk bringing a gun—no matter how small—especially after the pat down I’d had before getting onto the plane, but I had spent hours last week, unpicking the silk lining and inserting a wickedly sharp switchblade.
Ily glanced at me as I fingered the hidden knife.
Her eyes narrowed; she shifted in the cream leather airplane seat.
“I’ll kill you for this,” she whispered, shooting a look at Victor, who spoke a few words to the captain.
Roland didn’t give a shit about us as he tucked into a plate of syrup-drowning pancakes across the aisle.
The stunning blonde air hostess had delivered the meal to him the moment we’d climbed on board, almost as if there was an app to order a midnight snack while travelling to ‘rapist island’.
“I’m the only thing protecting you from them,” I whispered back, careful not to raise my voice. “I suggest you don’t kill me just yet.”
She rolled her eyes. “Says the guy who almost took me against my will. The guy who kidnapped me. The guy who—”
“Who’s doing his very fucking best to stay human.” I folded toward her, pressing my mouth to her ear. “I’m the only friend you have, Ily, so I wouldn’t piss me off if I were you.”
“Friend?” She shoved me away. “You had your fingers inside me when I hadn’t said yes. You were seconds away from raping me. That’s not a friend. That’s an enemy.” Her chin tipped up. “I despise you in a way I’ve never despised anyone. I hate you. I curse you. And one day, I will make you pay.”
I didn’t bother telling her that ‘one day’ was today.
Tonight.
She was already making me pay just by existing.
I’d been prepared to do all kinds of heinous things. Fuck whoever I needed to fuck. Play the part I needed to play to buy myself a ticket to the worst kind of purgatory, but I hadn’t planned on bringing someone down with me.
I figured if I ever earned an invite, I’d screw slaves already broken, biding my time until Q arrived to slaughter the men imprisoning them. I would’ve kept a clear conscience because I’d be just another bastard using a slave already shattered beyond repair.
But that was before.
Before this girl.
Before this terrible, unfortunate girl who made lust slash through my veins and blood turn black with urges.
My cock thickened even as nausea crawled up my throat. The tip of my dick still burned with the slick heat of her.
I’d been so close to thrusting inside.
Another heartbeat and I would’ve been balls deep.
My teeth ached.
I couldn’t stop remembering how good she felt. Imagining how she would’ve screamed as I filled her. How she would’ve fought to get away as I pinned her down and took everything I wanted.
I would’ve lost myself.
I knew that.
I would’ve snapped and splintered and fucking enjoyed it.
I would’ve enjoyed it far too much, and when I finally came inside her, I would’ve become a completely different man.
No, not a man.
A monster.
A monster who would break her body and mind.
Merde, if I touch her...
When I touch her.
Fuck.
Q will take one look at me and know.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and hung my head. Pain throbbed in my temples.
I didn’t have the strength to do this.
Not with her.
Not with an innocent.
Not with someone who still had her fight and future...someone who I wanted to protect as much as I wanted to drag into the darkness and bleed her dry.
“Thank you, Captain,” Victor finally said, cutting into my thoughts. “I appreciate you flying us home so swiftly.”
“Not at all.” The captain bowed a little and grabbed the handle to the cockpit. “There might be some turbulence on our ascent. A storm is brewing. I suggest tight seatbelts for the duration, just in case.” He vanished into the dark control room and closed the door.
The minute he was gone, Roland licked syrup off his lips and snickered.
“A storm is brewing in my pants too, and I know exactly which jewel I’m going to have take care of it.
A lovely little diamond called Mollie.” He winked in my direction, sending a ripple of disgust down my spine. “She’s such a good girl.”
“I bet she is.” I smirked, well used to acting around this creep. “Might need to sample her myself.”
Ily huffed and glowered daggers at me.
“She sucks like a champ.” Roland laughed. “Even with a black eye.”
I laughed to hide my grimace.
Fucking cunt.
The last porn he’d made me watch had earned him an early grave.
The ages of those girls, as he jerked off in the dark to their screams, ensured I didn’t eat for two days straight. If anyone deserved torture and mutilation before he died, it was him.
I might be built wrong.
I might house a curse given to me by my father.
My soul might be filth and my heart might be foul, but at least I wasn’t as sick as some.
Yet.
Waving his fork at me, he grinned. “Bet you’re a frustrated bastard with a painful hard-on, huh, Henri?
Damn cops giving you blue balls.” He leered at Ily beside me.
“How did she feel? That first touch? I admit watching you line up, seeing the way she flinched as you notched inside....Oh yeah.” He shuddered dramatically.
“I’m gonna need a front-row seat for when you do fuck her. ”
Victor smirked as he sat in an empty row, buckling up with elegant hands well used to the opulence surrounding us.
His private plane dripped with decadence from the oversized cream leather seats to the rose-gold accents and twinkling starlights above us.
“Henri is in for the time of his life. We’ll all have to watch how he adapts. ”
I forced a smile. “Can’t wait.”
Ily muttered a slur under her breath.
Victor chuckled. “To think...two new guests. One potential Master and one new jewel. I love when things work out.” Running his forefinger over his bottom lip, his gaze slithered from me to Ily and back again. “You’re sitting beside a stunning girl, Ward, yet you’re not touching her. Why?”
I choked. “Why? Eh, because we’re not at your estate yet?”
“Wrong.” He shook his head. “You’re not touching her because you still don’t think you can.”
“She’s yours for the weekend; you heard the Master Jeweler.” Roland chuckled. “You can touch her any place you want. Any time you want.”
“Like hell he can,” Ily hissed. “Let me off. Right now. You’ve all had your fun. If you let me go, I won’t say a word to anyone, I swear.”
“Ah, you could’ve come up with something original, my sweetling,” Victor drawled in his posh French accent. “Do you know how many times I’ve heard that one over the years?”
Ily turned into a statue, her midnight hair kissing her bare shoulders. “How...how many girls have you taken?”
“You know what? I seem to have lost count.” Victor grinned. “Boys too. We don’t discriminate. We’re an inclusive society, aren’t we, Roland?”
“Very inclusive.” Roland finished his pancakes and licked his lips. “And don’t worry, once Henri has broken you in, we’ll all have some fun. Diversity is key, after all.”
Ily shifted as if she was moments away from launching across the aisle and stabbing Roland with his syrup-sticky fork.
She’d struggled when I’d first shoved her onto the aircraft but wisely stopped when one of Victor’s guards pressed a gun against her temple and raised his eyebrow.
“He’ll pull the trigger, my pet,” Victor had drawled as he’d climbed into the cabin behind us. “I don’t tolerate uncontrolled crying, fighting, or begging. You can sit quietly and behave, or you can die and have your body dumped at sea.”
Ily had complied, but it seemed as though she needed another reminder.
I clamped a hand over hers on the armrest.
She sucked in a breath as her eyes whipped to mine.
My skin stung where I touched her and every part of me screamed to stop. To rip my hand away so I didn’t suffer the infectious heat prickling between us, even now.
Her overbright gold-hazel eyes trapped me into my chair, and I had the awful sensation that she saw straight through me. Saw the deal I’d made with my stranger-of-a-brother. The cracking of my resolve. The blackness I could never quite tame, no matter how hard I tried.
“Don’t touch me.” She yanked her fingers from under mine. “Ever.”
I sighed heavily, clenching my fist as residual tingles stung. “You and I both know that’s not going to happen.”
My gaze dropped to her mouth and my mind exploded with images of her cuffed on the table. I’d never been so hard in my life. Never been so close to throwing every moral out the shattered fucking window and sinking inside her with no control.
I was grateful we’d been interrupted.
Thankful for the time it’d taken to drive to Charles De Gaulle in a black limousine.
Ily had fought.
She’d screamed.
It hadn’t made a damn bit of difference.
She’d cowered against the side of the limo, glowering at all of us, her golden eyes darting from Roland as he poured some champagne to Victor who typed on his phone.