Chapter 23 #2
I turn to look at him. “Do you want me to save you?”
“W-w-what?”
“Do you want me to protect you from Blythe?”
Something shatters in Heine’s eyes.
When a tear runs down his cheek, he wipes it away with the back of his sleeve.
Heine gives a disbelieving laugh. “I thought that you’d be happy to see me like this.
Do you know, I’ve waited all my life to hear someone say that.
I waited so long to hear Jude say it. But he never did.
He just sent me home back to my dad. And now, you’re offering to be my white knight when you’re the one in fucking danger. ”
I give him an intense look. “Yes.”
Heine pushes himself to his feet, pacing the kitchen. “I don’t deserve it. I’m weak. Unlovable. A little shit. Ask anyone. Blythe. Jude. My dad.”
“I’m not them. I’m the freak, loser, psycho twin.”
Heine falters, staring at me.
“I wish that I had met you when we were both kids. We could have been friends.”
“Unlikely.”
He sniffs. “Highly unlikely. Still, isn’t offering to protect me what friends do?”
When he stares at me, I realize that he’s really asking me.
He doesn’t understand emotions, friendship, or love any more than I do. Did he ever or has it become too twisted in his mind?
“I don’t think so.” I tilt my head. “I don’t like you but I still want to save you.”
Heine hunches his shoulders. “Of course you don’t like me.
People only ever pretend that they do because of my dad’s money.
I tried everything but I couldn’t get Jude to love me.
It didn’t matter how much I studied to be a perfect sub or how good I was.
I would have let him hurt me anyway he wanted. But none of that was enough.”
“You’re the one who hurt Jude.”
“I only wanted him to notice me,” Heine whispers. “I wish that I hadn’t—”
“He still has nightmares,” I growl, and Heine flinches. “Can’t touch a flogger. Couldn’t go back in the playroom until we’d gutted it.”
Heine wraps his arms around himself. “I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“Because I never wanted to hurt him; I wanted him to fucking love me.” Heine’s voice is becoming dangerously loud, as he loses control.
I glance behind him at the door that leads deeper into the cottage.
He’s going to wake Blythe if he’s not careful.
“I have learned this little truth from the useless therapy that Dad threw me into since I was a kid, however, I often confuse pain and love. It’s hard not to, when as a kid I went to bed each night with bruises around my throat and tear tracks on my cheeks, swearing to myself that I would be a good enough boy not to get myself beat the next day.
Good enough not to feel his hands at my throat. ”
My stomach lurches, as Heine raises his hands to touch his reddened throat.
His dad would strangle him…?
Heine appears lost in the past.
Shay gets the same look sometimes when he’s skating.
“Charles,” I try softly, attempting to snap him out of it.
Heine stares unseeingly at the wall, still clutching desperately to his collar. “I still feel his hands. I can’t…I won’t… So, I thought that if I was going to have bruises here…feel something here…why not have something that I chose myself? Why not…?”
“Be quiet,” I order, sternly.
It works.
Heine’s mouth snaps shut.
Commands work with Shay. Heine is a sub and may find them comforting too.
“Stop touching the collar and sit down.”
Heine instantly calms, sitting opposite me. His breathing steadies.
“Thank you,” he whispers.
I am shocked, however, by the slow clapping from the door. My head shoots up.
When did it open?
How long has Blythe been standing there, watching us?
Blythe’s long black hair is pulled into a tight ponytail with a diamond clip. She is tall with immaculate makeup, designer glasses, and pink lipstick. She is dressed in a glamorous powder pink dress, which clings to her like a second skin.
“He is like a performing dog, isn’t he?” Blythe says, contemptuously.
Heine flinches. Instantly, however, he pulls himself up into a kneeling position. He lays his hands in his lap. His back is ramrod straight.
I am too aware that my head is still fuzzy, my muscles weak, and my hands tied together.
If I wasn’t still recovering from the effects of the tranquilizer, I would have been able to escape from the rope around my wrists by now. D’Angelo has spent enough sessions on bondage with me, and these knots are clumsily done.
They must have been tied by Heine.
If the knots were tied by Blythe, then I want to laugh in her face that she’s trying some kind of dom contest with D’Angelo.
I could beat her and I’m still in training.
“What did I say to you about keeping quiet?” Blythe strolls to Heine, who stiffens in fear. She grabs him by the arm and drags him with surprising strength to the dog bed, shoving him down into it. “Stay, bad boy.”
The casual cruelty makes my eyes blaze.
I glare at her.
When she turns back to me, she appears surprised that I don’t drop my gaze.
Blythe’s lips pull up into an insincere smile. “You always were the brave twin. Smarter, more interesting, and far less clingy. It’s a shame that you’re dominant. Although, I am certain that I can train anyone.”
Funny.
She thinks that she has the control here. Yet if she believes that she can train or break me like she did with Shay and Heine, then she is wrong.
She is not even in control right now.
She doesn’t have my survival skills.
I have spent my life learning them because no matter how safe my adoptive parents, professionals, and therapists promised me that I was, I have never felt it. I needed to be certain that I could save my brother and myself if we were ever held captive or treated like property again.
And I was right.
I can play along.
She is my prey, however, and not the huntress.
My eyes gleam.
I’m finally in the same room as the Number One Most Wanted on my Burn List. And she’s the one who brought me straight to herself.
Blythe cocks her head. “Don’t you believe me? Christ, how rude. Look what I have achieved with that bitch who is cowering under the table. D’Angelo thought that he could blacklist me, embarrassing me by spreading rumors amongst my social circles. Well, I’ll show him the consequences.”
“Jude doesn’t care about Charles,” I say, bluntly. I avoid looking at Heine. I’m not killing him and that’s the most mercy he deserves. “Your revenge is bullshit.”
I expect her to strike me.
Instead, Blythe’s smile is icy. “I just wanted to show that I could destroy someone who loved him. Then I will destroy someone who he loves.”
I bare my teeth, struggling to my feet.
My legs feel like jelly. I have to rest my back against the wall.
Blythe watches me struggle. “Calm down. You wouldn’t want me to have to punish you already, would you?”
I shrug.
“Of course, pain won’t work with you,” she says, casually.
“Your brother was different. Hmm, I wonder how much pain he is in knowing that I have you? My revenge doesn’t seem like bullshit now, huh?
Still, you should try and get some sleep.
Busy day getting to know each other properly tomorrow.
The first day of training is always intense.
Just ask Charlie here. The poor dear was not prepared.
Although, he’s another one for whom pain isn’t the most effective discipline.
To truly break him, do you know what I did? ”
“Mistress, please.” Heine rocks on the bed, hiding his face on his knees.
“Dear God, one more word, and I’ll lock you in the closet again.
” Blythe wanders to the table, flicking through the newspapers.
“To finally break him, I ignored him like he was a ghost for an entire week. No matter how much he begged or what he did, I acted like he was invisible. He fucking shattered.”
My stomach lurches.
I’ve been that shadow for most of my life but I still always had my twin who saw me.
I would have broken too.
“Oh,” Blythe clutches her chest in mock concern, “my word, have I scared you? Sweetie, you have no idea how much you’re being held back by that selfish bastard D’Angelo and your brother, do you?
There is a wide world out there. You could see it with Charlie and me.
Be a good boy, and you’ll experience and see things that you can’t even imagine. ”
How does this work on other people? I would rather cut off my own balls.
I shake my head.
Blythe’s expression hardens. She taps one of the newspapers on the table.
“You like reading, don’t you?” She says, coaxingly.
“My family’s newspaper and media company has been around since the seventeenth century.
I could take you to any library in the world.
I could give you a job in my company. It would be much better than your current simple PA role.
You would meet the most amazing literary people.
Just think how you could help your parents. ”
“Don’t talk about them.” I lean over the table, as if I’m looking at the newspaper, when in fact I’m assessing the best weapons in the kitchen. “And I’m not a simple PA. I’m PA to Jude fucking D’Angelo. The best PA.”
“Sweet.” The insincerity drips from the word. “But I’m not talking about a job, rather a career with a hefty six figure salary attached. Christ, don’t you have any ambition outside of being your brother’s shadow? Don’t tell me that you’re still his parasite.”
I take a quick step backward, paling.
Is that how people see me?
Blythe looks pleased with herself. “Think about it. Now, I need my beauty sleep. Training starts tomorrow. Then we’ll be catching a private jet.”
My heart speeds up. “Where are we going?”
“A secret location, sweetie. Let’s just say that it’s an island owned by a dear friend where difficult pets can be broken.
Why are you looking so frightened? Don’t worry, you won’t be alone for long.
As soon as you’re trained, I’ll allow you back to meet up with your brother in Pittsburgh.
I am certain that D’Angelo and his two pets will be extremely accommodating of my demands, once I have you broken and loyal to me. ”
She’s dead.
Not soon.
Tonight.
I stare at her in silence.
Unnerved, Blythe takes a step backward. “I said, sleep, psycho bitch.”
It didn’t take long for her to drop her mask. Did I only receive ten minutes of love bombing?
Blythe turns on her heel and marches further into the house, slamming shut the door.
Heine breathes out.
“Is the back door locked?” I ask, quietly.
Heine nods. “If you’re thinking about anything silly like an escape attempt, which I wouldn’t because my Mistress will break your legs, there is no point.
All the doors are locked, and Mistress keeps the keys on her.
This cottage is a couple of hundred years old or some such shit.
They built things to last back then. It’s why doors can’t be kicked down.
I did try one night, when I was going half mad, and I just wound up busting my ankle.
And Mistress busted my ass for it the next morning. ”
“Undo my hands.”
Heine shakes his head.
“Do it.”
Heine crawls out of his bed, pushing himself to stand. “You’ll kill me.”
“Untie me, and I promise to get you away from Blythe.”
Heine squints at me. “What will happen to me after that?”
“Probably jail.”
Heine turns away his head, closing his eyes for a moment and taking a shuddery breath. “I have very good lawyers.”
I hold up my hands, and Heine works at the ropes with trembling fingers.
When the ropes fall like a dead snake at my feet between us, for a long moment we stare at each other.
Heine braces like he expects me to break my promise and attack him anyway.
Tempting.
Instead, I stuff my hands in my pocket, hoping that Blythe didn’t think to steal my PA shit.
A PA should be prepared. I always carry a mini pen and notebook, lighter, and heavy duty paperclips in my pocket.
Except, I don’t only carry them as stationary.
My heart sinks.
They’re gone.
“Are you looking for this?” Heine pulls out my stuff from his own pockets and drops them onto the table.
I glare at him on principle for touching a PA’s kit.
My heart leaps in excitement, however, and I grab up two paperclips.
My wrists are still aching. They’ve been bruised by the rope. It’s hard to breathe against the pain on each step in my chest, and I am staggering from the weakness in my muscles.
Yet I make it to the back door and drop to crouch in front of it.
I straighten one of the paperclips and turn the other into an L shape as a tension wrench.
Then I focus on picking the lock.
Heine hisses out a shocked breath. “You’re mad.”
I ignore him.
Why do people keep saying that?
I’m the one who is helping him to escape.
I am making sure that Blythe will never have the chance to use me against either my twin or the best people who I have met, D’Angelo and Robyn.
I narrow my eyes, patiently setting all the pins.
“She’s going to come back,” Heine whispers, pacing. “We’re dead. We’re dead. We’re…”
The lock clicks, and the door opens.
“You did it.” Heine’s hand closes on my shoulder.
He drags me up in excitement. “Shit, shit, I didn’t think that you actually would.
But wait, I can’t just go. Mistress has control of my finances.
Passwords. You don’t understand, she took photos of me in every kind of compromising, humiliating position that you can imagine.
Filmed me. She’ll release everything if I disobey and leave.
She has them on Shay as well. She’ll destroy his life. ”
“I know.” I turn back to the table, snatching up my lighter.
Then I turn on the gas stove, listening to the hiss and wrinkling my nose at the sulfuric scent of the gas as it starts to spread through the kitchen.
Heine’s eyes widen. “What are you doing?”
I stalk to Heine, grabbing him firmly by the shoulder. I pull him out of the back door into the pale light of dawn.
“Burning down hell with the devil in it.” I flick on the wavering flame of my lighter, before tossing it behind me into the kitchen.
The explosion roars with the cleansing flames of retribution.
Setting the fire is as gratifying as I always knew it would be. Burning Blythe is even more of a rush.
She will never hurt anyone again.
My brother is finally free.