Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Zara
I was an idiot. No. I was a fool wishing on a star praying for a unicorn to appear and somehow make a fairy tale real. That was the only explanation for why I was standing on a Philadelphia side street in front of what looked to be a club praying that a man who I’d met for less than ten minutes had really meant it when he offered to help.
I clutched his now crumpled business card tightly in my trembling hand as the Uber drove away. There was every possibility that Colin was in league with Mihal, but my exhausted brain couldn’t come up with a better plan. There was only one address on the card, and I seriously hoped that if he wasn’t here, someone could direct me to him. I’d honestly expected the address to be the headquarters for the security company but maybe their offices were in the upstairs of the bar.
Truth was, I’d barely slept for the last week, so I was pretty sure I wasn’t making the best decisions. It had all started when, instead of playing things smart, I’d thought I could bully my way through Mihal and get myself back home.
My pulse raced as I stepped into Mihal’s office with a mix of determination and dread. The large room had seemed bigger in the past, but after his veiled threats it felt like the walls were closing in on me. As if the room couldn’t hold enough oxygen to sustain me without breathing quickly.
“Sit down, Zara, it’s time for us to talk.” Mihal’s tone was casual, but his eyes held an anger that looked ready to explode.
I took a seat, my hands folded tightly in my lap to conceal their slight tremble. “Mihal, I want my passport back.”
I was proud of how steady my voice was as I maintained eye contact despite the sinking feeling in my stomach. I’d grown up around evil men and knew better than to present myself as a victim. They respected strength up to a point as long as it was tempered with respect and a dash of subservience. Hopefully, my boss was cut from the same cloth.
His lips curled into a patronizing smile as he leaned back, steepling his fingers in front of him. “No.”
“What do you mean, no? I want to go home,” I replied, my voice steadier than I felt inside. “I’ve made up my mind. You can’t keep me here against my will.”
“Can’t I?” His facade cracked, a flash of anger flickering across his face before it settled back into a mask of indifference. "You're mine. I’ve already gotten approval from the family to marry you."
Was this man insane? What family? But most of all…“Why would you want to marry me?”
He stood up and circled me. The urge to lash out at him was strong, but even if I thought I could take him, the hulking brute of the man who had escorted me to his office was standing by the door killing any hope of escape. I shuddered as he ran a hand down my hair.
“Do you know how rare innocence is? You're beautiful, smart, and untouched. You have no family or friends to cause trouble. You haven’t contacted a single person since you got here. So no one will stop me from taking what I want. By the time I am done with you, you will be an obedient wife. One created by my design.”
Untouched? Did he think I was a virgin? I wanted to laugh. My sex life might have been non-existent for the last few months but that was only because I was determined not to let a relationship get in the way of my goals. During college I’d experimented a lot. I wasn’t ashamed of the men I’d been with but if I was being honest I’d not been impressed by them either. I wanted someone to take my breath away. Someone I could trust to explore my fantasies with. Until I found them, it wasn’t worth the effort.
But why would he assume I was untouched? Horror swept over me as I remembered his bodyguard back in the U.S. He’d tried to seduce me. Rather than deal with a man with hurt feelings connected to someone I was working for, I’d told him I was waiting for marriage. I’d been surprised at how quickly and respectfully he’d backed off but never imagined…
The room seemed to close in on me, the weight of his words pressing down like a physical force. Telling him the truth now would not go well for me. But I had no intention of marrying a crazy man who thought he could make that decision without even discussing it with me.
“I have rights,” I insisted, my voice rising slightly despite my efforts to stay composed. I stood to make myself appear more confident. “If you don’t give me back my passport, I'll contact the U.S. embassy.”
The threat hung between us like a storm cloud, tension crackling in the air. In an instant, his demeanor shifted from composed to volatile. With a sudden movement, he struck me across the face, the sharp sound of skin meeting skin echoing in the room. Pain exploded through my cheek, tears springing to my eyes from shock as I stumbled back against the chair.
There were more blows and things got blurry for a while. When I came to myself, I was in a strange bedroom. When I looked out the window, to my horror, I recognized Mihal’s sprawling estate. In the mirror over the dresser, I could see the damage Mihal had done. My face was swollen and bruised as were my ribs where I faintly remember him kicking me. On the bed next to me was a short note.
We will talk again in the morning.
M
That unmitigated asshole!
I pushed back the memories, not wanting to dwell on them till I was safe. So many times on the journey from there to here I thought I’d escaped him only to have men show up everywhere I went. I’d searched all my belongings for electronics or trackers and finally decided he had to somehow be tipped into the system that tracked passports.
I’d known I was right when I started through customs in New York and saw several Albanian-looking men searching the faces of the people coming through the gate. I’d rushed back inside under the pretense of using the ladies room. After an hour or two of scouting the areas I had access to and they didn’t, I picked the lock to a maintenance hallway and snuck out of the airport like a criminal.
It was during those hours that I’d come up with the idea of finding Colin. It took most of my remaining cash to convince a taxi driver to take me to Philadelphia. Luckily the safe that had held my passport had also held my purse and about ten thousand dollars in U.S. currency. My conscience hadn’t even twitched when I’d taken it.
The bruises on my face weren’t swollen anymore but had turned a sickly yellow. The sympathy they’d gotten me had gone a long way in making people not question why I needed to pay for everything in cash. For all I knew, Mihal would be able to track my credit cards as easily as he had my passport.
The smart thing to do would be to go to the police. I’d done nothing wrong. But after my childhood experiences with the law, and knowing how easy it was to bribe them, it was impossible to make myself trust I would be safe. So why was I willing to risk my safety on Colin?
I had to trust my gut even if it made no logical sense. It was only six o’clock and from the outside, there was no way to tell if the club was open yet. Thankfully, the door was unlocked and I stepped inside.
I was impressed once I stepped through the innocuous doors. The outside and inside were so different. A gigantic hallway with a red carpeted runner down the center was wide enough that a dozen people could walk side by side. The walls were lined with black and white art photos of couples and groups doing all types of kinky things. I wasn’t sure about what the kink represented in the art hanging on the walls meant. But as I stepped into the next room, it became very clear. The overall setting was like I had somehow stepped into the set of The Vikings Series from Netflix.
The mix of rustic with contemporary comforts had my jaw dropping. Well, it wasn’t just the obvious money that went into making a place like this, but what I saw in the back two-thirds of space that made up the club. I was no prude, but there were things even I didn’t recognize as my gaze roved over the vast assortment of bondage and BDSM equipment.
Before I could get a better look and maybe guess at what some of the stranger things were for, a voice called out. “Can I help you? We’re not open yet.”
I squealed in surprise. Crushing the urge to run screaming from the room was harder to resist than I’d like to admit. Before fear overrode reason, I found the source of the words. A handsome man, maybe six feet tall, and built like a bodybuilder. The look on his face was that of annoyance not anger.
“Dottie, did you forget to lock the front door after you came in?” he yelled toward the back.
“Sorry boss!”
One of the sexiest women I’d ever laid eyes on came hustling from the back, her figure-hugging clothing showing off generous cleavage, a trim waist curving into a wide flare of hips that were attached to legs that went on for days. The man she called boss slapped her ass on her way past him.
“You know that’s called sexual harassment, right, boss?”
“Consider it a punishment for leaving the door open.” Her light mocha skin pinkened for a moment, but her eyes sparkled with amusement. “I sure hope you can do better than that, boss, or I may have to do more shifts at Valhalla and get me some real action.”
She winked over her shoulder at him, while missing the daggers he tossed back with the scowl on his face. I wondered if they were a thing. She stopped in front of me, cocking out one hip and placing her fist on it. “Now who might you be, darlin’?”
“My name is Zara Foster. I’m, uhm, looking for Colin Kinnaird. He gave me a card and it has this address on it but no phone number. Maybe his office is upstairs?” The thought of Colin working above a sex club sent all sorts of wicked thoughts chasing through my brain.
Mr. Dark and Swarthy at the bar came over and joined us.
“Nice to meet you Zara, I’m Rafe, the manager of Club Midgard. Can I see the card?”
“Sure.” Handing the card over made me nervous, but after a quick look, he handed it back.
“How did you meet Master Vidar?”
“Master who?” I was starting to feel like I’d stepped out of my nightmare and into an alternate dimension.
“Colin.”
“Colin is Master Vader?”
His laugh was musical but it made me feel uncomfortable. “Vidar not Vader it’s the name of a Norse God. How did you meet him?”
Oh my god. Colin came to a sex club and used the nickname of a Norse god. Could things get any weirder? “He was at my work doing security consulting and gave me his card and told me I could contact him.”
“I think he might have given you the wrong card. This is a VIP guest pass.”
I slumped forward and wanted to bang my head against the nearest pillar. I probably would have if I hadn’t known how badly it would hurt. My movement must have put me into the direct light of the bar making the bruising on my face visible, because the next thing I knew, I heard a sound that had me look directly at him.
“Who hit you?” Rafe’s growl was impressive but I had nothing left inside me to get nervous.
“It’s a long story and no offense, but I don’t know you. Do you know how I can get hold of Colin or not?” My heart ached at the thought that it had all been for nothing.
“I have his number. I’ll give him a call. Dottie, can you get Zara a drink and keep the lady company?”
“If I say no, will you put a little bit more effort into another smack on this succulent ass?”
“Dottie,” he almost groaned, “not now.”
Despite feeling like I’d landed in an alien colony, I couldn’t hold back the giggle at her shenanigans.
“What can I get you to drink, girlfriend?” Before I could answer she said, “You look like you need something strong, how about a scotch on ice, side of water?”
Damn, that was exactly what I wanted. I felt the tension ease a bit from my shoulders.
“That would be great.”
“Take a seat at the bar and I'll get you that drink.”
I watched Dottie as she hustled around the bar and poured me a premium scotch. I hoped she wouldn’t get into trouble for giving Lagavulin. She placed it down in front of me. “Here you go, sweet thing, now tell Dottie all your troubles.”
I took a gulp from the deep tulip glass, appreciating the warm burn down my throat. “Actually, I’m very confused right now. Why does Colin have a club name and how is he associated with this place?”
Dottie’s expression turned to one of sympathy. “Colin is part owner of this club and two others as well.”
“Oh. I thought he was a security guy. I met him in Albania when he came to check into our local security servers.”
“That is his day job and he owns G well, they don’t usually orgasm publicly, but the play leading up to it is usually very much public. Those two can bring a woman to the edge and toss her into sexual bliss like no other. Believe me, I’ve thought about signing up to be their plus one, but I don’t want to turn into a whiny bitch when they turn me down a second time and they do.”
“I’m sorry, they do what?”
“They only play once with a woman, so it would only be once for me, and I’m so damn insatiable I just know I’d be crawling around on my hands and knees begging for more.”
I nodded my head not knowing what to say to that.
Dottie eyed me with a knowing smile. “I’m sure you’ll find out just how good they are soon enough.”
I chugged down the last of the scotch. Images of being tied down and taken by two men danced on the edges of my imagination. Was this other man as handsome as Colin?
It wasn’t the time to be fantasizing though this place did inspire dirty thoughts. I was tired and on the run. Unfortunately, my exhausted brain didn’t care about my situation as it reminded me of all the times in the last week that I’d woken up from wet dreams heavily involving Mr. Colin Kinnaird and how much better they would have been with another dark mysterious man in the mix.