28. Hyacinth
TWENTY-EIGHT
HYACINTH
The flight back feels longer than the one in. The in-flight wi-fi is acting up, and I can’t get access to my messages. Zane had said he’d be there to pick me up, so he’s still alive.
Of course he’s still alive. If I couldn’t kill him, how could anyone else?
As I near the gates, I get a new message.
Zane
Had an emergency. On our way now. ETA 30 min?
I frown at the message. I’m glad he’s alive, but I can’t help the small disappointment knowing he won’t be there to greet me.
Hyacinth
I’ll take a cab.
Zane
Wait for me. I’ll explain when we arrive.
I scowl, but I can’t think of a good reason to disobey.
I don’t want to disobey Zane.
I’ll find a bench to wait on and keep my head down to avoid security.
There’s a commotion just past the gates, with cameras and people with mics. A news crew? Whatever. As long as they’re focused on their jobs, that’ll make it easier for me to slip by unnoticed.
Except.
“Oh, Hyacinth!” Keith’s familiar voice calls out. “My number one supporter!”
I freeze in my tracks, even though I know I should keep walking.
What the hell?
Before I can force my feet to move, Keith has a hand wrapped tightly around my arm.
“Here’s the person I was telling you all about,” Keith says to the collected camera crews. “They inspired me to be more honest with myself.”
My mouth drops open, and I get ready to eviscerate him—but the cameras are all there, filming.
He did this on purpose.
He knew I couldn’t do anything with cameras pointed at me.
I don’t even want to be on any camera at all.
A reporter steps closer. “You must be excited to hear about Keith Harrington’s new policies, Ms… Mr… ah.” She trails off, unsure of how to address me.
New policies? More open with himself?
I smile at the reporter. “Keith likes to talk big, but he shouldn’t count his chickens before they hatch. I’ll be excited about his policies if he wins, and if he implements them.” I try to step away from Keith, but his grip on my arm only tightens.
The reporters laugh, and even Keith plays along.
He’s pissed, though.
What did he expect? For me to pretend to like him? For me to be happy for this small scrap of acknowledgement?
“Hyacinth Cuore was instrumental in my choice to run for office,” Keith continues.
Fuck.
My full name, my face, in front of the cameras.
“Is this live?” I whisper to the reporter closest to me.
He shrugs. “Some of them might be. I’m with an internet news channel—”
I count the cameras, and there are at least ten different news outlets gathered. Was this all by accident? Or did he know, and he’s burning my identity on purpose?
I loosen my stance and step closer to Keith. “I’m so glad I was so inspirational, darling.” I drag my hand along his shoulder. “We’ll have to get together again sometime. Catch up, for old time’s sake. How’s that cute little boyfriend of yours?”
Keith narrows his gaze, even if he manages to keep smiling.
Once upon a time, I would have done anything to avoid his displeasure.
Now, all I want is to see the blood gush out of his neck.
I can’t believe I was ever into him.
“I think that about wraps things up here,” Keith says to everyone. “Make sure to send the footage to my office, and we can vet it before you air anything. Don’t add that last comment.”
Not live, then. That’s a small relief, but it’s still far too many people who are aware of me. I could erase the footage… ten different sets of footage, though, and I can’t kill every single one of them.
It’ll be small local news at best.
Nobody will even remember me in a week.
I can already hear Mom’s lecture, though, about how stupid I’d been to allow myself to be ambushed like this.
The news crews disperse. I try to leave, too, but Keith still hasn’t released me.
He isn’t a match for me.
But if I violently throw him off me, if I cause anything even resembling a scene, I’m not going to be forgotten with yesterday’s news.
“What the fuck do you want?” I hiss at him. “I’m busy.”
Keith starts to lead me away, his two bodyguards staying close. “I knew it was you, on the boat cruise. Zane Vilani? Really?”
“Why not Zane Vilani? I clearly have a type.” I reach for my pocket, but I don’t have a weapon on me. I’d left everything that could set off security back in Calamity, fully intending to restock once I was back.
The only thing I managed to sneak on board is the small ceramic blade embedded in the sole of my shoe, and that’s not particularly easy to access.
“I’m nothing like Vilani,” Keith mutters. “What happened to your promises never to set foot in New Valence again?”
“Only until I was over you,” I say. “And I’m over you. The moment we’re alone in a room, I’m going to murder you.”
We get to Keith’s large, black-tinted SUV.
“If I die now, everybody will know you’re the last person I spoke to,” Keith says. “Hyacinth Cuore. Nobody will have a hard time tracing your name. It’ll look like your family put a hit out on me. I wonder how that would go over with Dante. He’s already got trouble with the FBI, doesn’t he?”
I laugh darkly. “I don’t care anymore. What has the family ever done for me? Nothing. I’m done with them.”
Keith tilts his head at me. “Really? Then I suppose I’ll have to leak the other photos. The ones of you and Zane, naked.”
Do it.
I don’t care if anyone knows about me and Zane.
But Zane cares.
He wouldn’t want any nudes of us circulating.
And if those pictures are out in the world, everybody would know that I’m connected to him. It would put suspicion on Zane.
“How did you get those photos?” I ask, my voice brittle. “Did Richard Moore share them?”
Keith pauses long enough that I know I’m right.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Keith shoves me inside the passenger side of the SUV. “You’re going to play nice,” he says as he slides in close. He runs one hand along my cheek, and I turn my face away.
His fingers trace over my lips. “I missed you,” Keith says. “You were always such a good lay.”
I open my mouth—and bite down on his fingers.
Keith yelps, then slaps me hard.
It’s a familiar sensation.
Slapping had been a large part of our play together. He’d loved to slap my face, leaving it red and bruised for days.
So I wouldn’t be able to leave the apartment without standing out.
So there would always be an excuse as to why I couldn’t join him.
There will be cameras.
You aren’t fit for the public.
You’re too femme. Everybody will know.
I clench my fists into my skirt. “Do that again, and I won’t care who will find out about all this,” I growl.
“Are you telling me you don’t like it anymore?” Keith asks. He grabs my hair and pulls it tight. “You didn’t miss me tying you up and giving you the best fucking sex of your life?”
My eyes flutter at the pain in my scalp.
I’d missed it.
For years, I’d longed for the sensations he’d given me.
I’d just started to forget what it felt like when Forest had called me back to the city.
“Miss what?” I taunt. “The weak, clumsy, inexperienced domming? Zane—”
“Zane Vilani will know just what it means to steal from me,” Keith counters, his voice rough. “You thought you were free, simply because I let you go? Maybe if you’d stayed away. But you came back. Your place is at my feet, Hyacinth. Not with that upstart who’s about to lose his empire anyway.”
My vision goes hazy, and this time I do lunge forward, consequences be damned.
“You’re going to regret coming back into my life,” I hiss at him. “You don’t own me anymore, Keith. You’re nothing—”
Before I can finish, the bodyguard in the passenger seat grabs my arm. I try to shake him off, but he’s strong, and I don’t have leverage.
My eyes widen when I see the syringe in his hand.
“Don’t—”
It’s too late. He injects it into my arm. The pain of the needle is nothing, but a few seconds later, I feel my limbs go limp.
“There you go,” Keith says. He repositions me to lay against his shoulder, and he drapes his arm around me. “Much better. I always did like you more when you were shutting up.”
“Fuhh…” I slur.
I knew I shouldn’t have gotten into the car with Keith.
I wake up with my wrists tied to a far too familiar bed, staring up at a disgustingly familiar ceiling.
Forget my mother killing me.
I deserve to die for this stupid mistake.
I keep my body still, gently testing the bonds to see if there’s any give.
Unfortunately, Keith knows me far, far too well. The cuffs are secure, and since I wasn’t conscious when he tied me up, I couldn’t use my usual tricks to get a looser fit.
My legs are cuffed too.
And I’m naked.
Even if I had had any weapons on me, I wouldn’t have access to them.
I close my eyes and listen.
Keith’s soft breathing, coming from my left. That’s where his big armchair was, and I assume he hasn’t redecorated at all since then.
Back then, I would have been elated to be tied down like this with Keith watching over me.
Now, I have to force myself not to struggle.
But like I’d told Zane: I’ve done far, far more difficult escape rooms. I just have to work out the puzzle to get out of this one.
I don’t hear anyone else, although that could mean they’re being inordinately quiet. Keith used to keep our sessions private, but I wonder if he still trusts—ha!—me enough to do that.
I tilt my head in his direction, fluttering my eyelids to appear groggier than I feel.
Whatever he’d dosed me with, it seems to have run its course. There’s no numbness in any of my limbs, and my fingers and toes move when I tell them to.
“You’re awake,” Keith says. He gets up from his chair and walks over to me. He’s shed the suit jacket and has unbuttoned the top of his shirt.
I’m relieved when all I feel for Keith is disgust, not lust.
Keith rubs his hand along my jaw. “You were taunting me, weren’t you? When you showed up in the mask. You wanted me to notice you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have talked to me at all.”
No. I’d wanted to make Zane jealous.
That had worked spectacularly well, actually.
“I barely even… barely even remembered you…” I need to get Keith to undo the cuffs. Once I’m free, he’s got no chance against me.
I’m going to string him up from the hooks on the ceiling and butcher him like cattle.
Keith laughs. “Don’t fucking lie. There’s no way you could have forgotten me.” He runs his hand down my throat and to my nipples. He tugs on the rings there. “You kept them. If you wanted to forget me, these would be gone.”
I regret not removing the rings now, all because Zane had enjoyed playing with them. But if Zane likes the rings, I’m not going to deny him just because Keith put them there.
“When my family finds out—” I say, and I start laughing. “They will. You’re going to publicize it. If you do anything, they’ll know it was you.”
Keith scowls. “I already told all the reporters to cut out the section with you in them—but my associates have copies. If you do anything, that footage is going public.”
Of course it is.
I hold perfectly still when he moves on to cupping my cock.
I don’t want to grow hard for him.
Bodies don’t always obey us, though, and the gentle touch sends small waves of pleasure through me.
“What do you want?” I demand. “Just to fuck me? Do it and get it over with, then.”
No.
The only person who deserves to touch me is Zane.
I don’t want Keith’s hands or lips or cock on me.
“Get it over with?” Keith sits back. “It’s been so long. I’m going to have so, so much fun with you, Hyacinth.”
I clench my fists. “What will your current toy think when he finds out?”
“He won’t find out.” Keith moves across the room to his toy chest. He pulls out his favorite cane and runs his fingers along the length. “Who’s going to tell him? Not you. You’re never leaving this room again.”
Oh.
How fucking mundane.
Last time, I’d stayed willingly.
This time, he’s going to trap me.
Either way, I’m right back where I was five years ago.
Except I know better.
I’m going to escape.
Because it’s an escape room. No matter what he does, I know how to keep going. I know how to use everything I learn to fight back.
I just have to hope Zane will still want me when Keith is through with me.