Chapter 12 #2
His fingers flex more, pushing me harder into the rough bark of the tree. I moan loudly, and birds rustle in their nests above us.
“What do you want me to do? Should I tie you up? Spank you? Or perhaps I should strap you down to a table and make you scream.”
“Yes. Yes. All of it. Yes.”
He watches me as I pant before him. And then he loosens his fingers, and I slump forward. “Or maybe I shouldn’t do anything and make you wait.”
I gasp, my mouth falling open. “That’s mean, Georgiy. I don’t deserve that.”
“Maybe you do.”
My lips purse, and my hands fall to my hips. My cock is still hard, but it’s waning in enthusiasm.
“This is unfounded. I demand a trial!”
Georgiy’s lips thin. “The only trial you’ll get is being tied down to a bed and your ass spanked red.”
“Promise?” I whisper.
Georgiy grunts and then brushes his hands off. “Let’s go speak back at the house. I have things I need to take care of, and you, Bane, won’t be out of my sight.”
Georgiy takes me to his room first, where he orders me to pull out my dick and sit on the bed, hands under my ass. He then proceeds to ice my dick until it grows flaccid. Then he snaps a cock cage on it and tucks me back into my pants.
“You don’t come until I’m ready for you. Understand?”
I nod eagerly and then make sure to pout so he knows I’m feeling very bratty about it.
“Come with me,” Georgiy says, putting a hand on the back of my neck and directing me toward Anthony’s office. Inside are Anthony, Luca, and Viktor, and oh, that’s Senator Ruiz. He’s so handsome, all fancy suits and graying hair. When did he arrive? I didn’t even notice.
It must have been when Georgiy was icing my erection. It was quite the distraction.
“Hello,” I say, and Georgiy’s hand tightens on my neck.
“Hello, Mr. Bane,” Senator Ruiz says. “Nice to see you again.”
His eyes twinkle, and Georgiy’s mood plummets, but Senator Ruiz and I are friends.
Just friends, no matter how sexy he is in real life.
When we first met, he wasn’t sure about me, but then I made him this really nice jewelry piece for his wife, and he really liked that I did that. She even wears it to parties.
“So nice to see you, too. How long are you staying? I have so much to tell you,” I say.
“Well, we’ll have to make time. I’m just staying tonight. To make sure everything gets sorted.”
“Oh, well, I have something for your wife.”
Georgiy’s hand loosens slightly at that, and my chest puffs up from the knowledge that he was jealous.
Georgiy is jealous over me.
Delicious.
We all take our seats, Nova bringing Ellery into the room to tell everyone what they know. It’s the same thing they relayed before.
Henry is Samvel.
Virgin is Emma.
Fuck, why does the name Samvel sound familiar? I don’t know. Everything about my past is foggy and confusing. He made sure of that.
I don’t even have a real name.
I gave myself the name Bane.
I don’t even remember what I was called when I was younger—just a boy left to rot in small spaces. Hidden in the walls. A disgrace. A forgotten piece of history.
I shift on the cushion next to Georgiy as everyone discusses and interrogates Ellery. They chat about the clues they’ve collected, and Senator Ruiz agrees to look into any underground casinos or mentions of the Mavericks with his dealings in San Francisco.
“Is it retaliatory? Is this all related?” I hear Luca ask. More murmuring and discussion, and then, “This could be a full-on war if we let it get out of hand. And what about those drugs they’re trying to frame us for? Pink.”
“We don’t know yet. We don’t fucking know anything yet,” Anthony says.
“I need to know who the fuck Samvel and Emma are. Have Lex or Diablo gotten any information? Sebastian? Is he still at fucking Disneyland? Goddamnit. I need some fucking answers. I’m tired of operating blind.
Do you remember where this house was, the one where Samvel and Emma lived? ” he asks Ellery.
“I don’t fucking remember. I was young, and we moved around a lot. I’ve lived in five different states. Military kid with shady parents and all,” Ellery says.
“Fuck. Write them all down, and we’ll get Diablo on it. What if we show you a map? Will that help?”
“You can try, but I have a selective memory. A lot of trauma, you know?”
Anthony’s eyes twitch. “Nova, you keep her in your sights at all times until she can remember where that fucking house is. I need to know where Samvel and Emma stayed. And I need to know now.”
“Yeah, yeah. I can’t remember when I’m under stress. I think I need a spa day. Especially after you gave me the wrong pronouns.”
Anthony growls, but I’m fading into some kind of state. The way he says those names. Over and over. Something inside me shifts, and I feel my stomach clench.
Samvel and Emma. Samvel and Emma.
Not Henry and Virgin.
Different people, lies.
It was all lies.
Ara.
That name flashes through my mind, and my heart thumps frantically in my chest. I scratch at it, trying to keep up with the conversation, but my brain starts to go slightly fuzzy and I start to itch. Everywhere. Georgiy’s hand on my thigh is the only thing holding me in place.
My eyes move to the wall behind me, and I feel the incredible urge to disappear into it. I want to move through the darkness for a minute, to be alone. I can’t breathe.
Ara.
“What’s wrong, umnyashka?” Georgiy asks lowly. “Is it the cage? Do you need it off?”
I open and close my mouth. It feels dry, sticky. That name. Why is that name showing up in my mind? Why is it when I’m awake and not when I’m asleep? That never happens.
It never…
“I—” I try to say, but nothing comes out.
“He needs a minute,” Anthony commands, moving toward me and handing me a bottle of water. My hands are shaking slightly as I twist the top off and take a long sip. It helps, the cold water centering me.
“What do you need?” Georgiy asks, and I shake my head.
“He needs a minute alone. Go on, Bane. Take your time. Come back when you’re ready.”
Senator Ruiz moves to stand, but Georgiy stops him by moving with me, following me to the wall.
My fingers find the small, almost hidden switch, and I push it.
The panel opens, and I slide inside, feeling Georgiy right behind me.
He’s a silent presence in the darkness. Something I never had all those years ago. Back then I was always alone.
His footsteps echo behind me, and when I turn into my space, I feel like I can breathe again.
I inhale deeply, and Georgiy stands near the doorway to my office.
“This place is filthy,” he murmurs, and I throw him a look.
“I like it. Go away if you don’t.”
He closes his mouth and stands completely still, watching me with those eyes.
“I’m fine. I just needed a minute. Like Anthony said. It’s probably just low blood sugar. Too much coming and not enough food.”
Georgiy continues to watch me, saying nothing. It’s making me anxious. Moving toward my desk, I fiddle with a few bones I’d laid out to work on but had gotten distracted.
My fingers knock against a patella, and it falls to the floor.
“Crap,” I mumble as I bend down and pick it up, knocking a glass onto the ground, listening to it shatter, tongues slithering across the floor.
“Blyat. What’s wrong?” Georgiy asks, moving toward me and picking me up, making sure my feet don’t get sliced from the glass, and setting me on the desk. Although I don’t think I’d mind it. The blood, the pain, would help straighten my mind out a little.
Georgiy’s hands move to my feet, and he examines them, looking for injuries, but there are none.
“What do you need?” he asks.
His eyes meet mine, and my fingers curl into the edge of the desk. My eyes are wet, my throat aching.
“I need to hurt.”
He cocks his head slightly and then nods. “Whatever you need.”
My dick tries to perk up, but is restrained by the cock cage. It aches, pulling my mind farther from the fog and right into sanity. Or as sane as I can be. I don’t think I’m on the sanity scale, actually.
Which is fine by me. I like who I am. Mostly.
What I can remember anyway.
“Whatever I need?” I blink up at him, and his hand comes to rest against my cheek. I lean against it.
“Yes, chortyónok. Whatever you need.”
“Then hurt me. Make me forget. And then, when I remember, bring me back to reality.”
“This reality?” he asks, and I swallow.
“The reality with you in it.”
He’s taking my request seriously. He doesn’t hesitate. He brings me up to his room and locks the door, opening a suitcase while demanding I undress.
I sling my clothes off so quickly that they lands on his head.
Georgiy turns and stares at me, one eye blinking, the other covered by my underwear.
“You look good wearing my clothes.”
He tosses it off and sighs.
“I’ll punish you for that.”
My ass twinges and my hole clenches as I think about what that may entail.
“On the bed. Now, Bane. Hands and legs outstretched.”
I do as he says, my dick already hard and aching behind the cage. The words that infiltrated my head and made me breathless are forgotten. I’m sure they’ll come back when I sleep, but right now, my mind is on a single track.
The one leading right into Georgiy’s hands.
I hope he makes me ache.
Leather straps are pulled from a bag and attached to my wrists and ankles, my body stretched almost to its limit. My joints ache, my muscles scream. And not to mention that my cock twinges in the cage, but he doesn’t undo it. Just lets me suffer.
Just like I asked.
“I know I usually tell you to be quiet, but this time,” he says as he wets his lips and stares down at me. “This time, I want to hear every scream. And while you do, I want to know how you got every scar on this body. Every one. And you’ll stay here until we’re done.”
“Oh,” I say, breathless. “Okay.”
“And Bane. You will not come until I tell you you can.”
I shiver, and Georgiy moves from the bed, taking one of the tables near the window and setting it near the bed. Then he pulls something from a suitcase. A scalpel, slim and shiny. The perfect toy.