Chapter 7
Ella
I knew it was going to be satisfying when I jabbed him.
I also knew I was only going to get one chance.
I think I played it perfectly. All that rope tied around my clothes made it easy to hide a small syringe, and this guy is very particular and focused when he wants to fuck.
There’s not a lot of sensual massage or exploration that might have revealed my little tool.
I feel so fucking satisfied with myself, pushing the ropes that are now loose and useless off my body as Leo Levin tries his best to fight off the sedative. He has something of a chance of that. The dose was calibrated to me, not him.
That said, he still can’t stand up. As he tries, his legs buckle. He hits the floor and rolls over onto his back, limbs spread, legs helplessly trying to walk in thin air.
Getting myself out of the rope and into some decent clothing is my first priority.
Leo is now writhing around on the floor in the way that people do when you hit them with dissociative sedatives.
He’s seeing God right about now. I wonder what kind of conversation they will have.
I wouldn’t like to be in Leo’s position if I were him.
It’s going to wear off faster for him than it would for me, but that’s fine. I’m not going to hang around long.
As much as I enjoy being held sexually captive by this psycho, there comes a point where a demonstration has to be made.
These men have been following me, circling me like vultures.
They think I don’t notice them. But now that I have been caught out once or twice, I feel them coming the same way a spider feels a fly zipping into her web.
Their arrival is never truly a surprise.
They think I still don’t know who they are. They think I don’t know what they want. They think their animal impulses and lusts are a surprise to me, but it’s no surprise to any woman when a man wants to fuck her.
And I know more about them than they can imagine. Their secrets are not secret from me. Not anymore.
“You’re pretty when you’re incapacitated,” I tell him, crouching down next to him and letting myself enjoy this little moment of mastery.
That’s quite the compliment coming from me, but of course he doesn’t entirely appreciate it. He makes a growling sound not unlike an animal. He can understand me, I think. He just can’t do anything about it.
That must be driving him mad.
“I know you’re used to being in control,” I say. “I know that you think every woman is ripe for the taking if you feel like taking her.”
I slap his face, my fingers making contact with that hard jaw and cheekbone of his. He really is sculpted for the gods, a perfect human predator in so many ways. He has the devil’s allure—and his soul.
“And I know what else you do. I know why you need to be stopped.”
His eyes widen a little, then flash with fire as he realizes the mistake he’s made.
He tries to make a coherent response, but the part of himself that understands what is happening is locked away right now behind layers of drug-addled muscle control.
He can’t do a thing. He’s helpless. I’m sure he hates how it feels.
I fish through his things, and find quite a number of restraints.
So many, in fact, it reminds me of a cliché of a woman going on vacation and taking too many shoes.
There are plastic cable ties, there are silk ties, there’s rope.
I discard those as an option. They’re far too breakable for my liking.
I settle on a classic pair of heavy-duty cuffs.
“Were you planning on cuffing everyone you met? Or do you just like choices?”
He’s a heavy weight to wrangle, so I end up cuffing him to the bed frame. It’s pretty heavy, and metal, and it will take him some time to work himself free from, if he can do it at all.
Then I take his wallet and his car keys, and I walk out the front door. My clit is tingling and my pussy is aching the way it does when it has been properly fucked. Almost makes the ordeal of being tied up and left in a car trunk for a few hours worthwhile. Almost.
It’s hard not to be smug, knowing that maybe the worst of the Levin brothers has been bested. The other two aren’t threats to me. Aiden Levin is far too busy to pay attention to a plain little thing like me, and as for Luke, he’s always been a mess.
What happens next is, well, not my proudest moment.
“Get absolutely fucking wrecked,” I murmur to myself as I get into the driver’s seat of Leo’s car and put it in gear. I set off down the road, leaving him to his fate. It’s not a very safe thing to do. It’s not a very nice thing to do. But it what he fucking deserves.
Suddenly, I feel cold steel at the back of my neck.
“Keep your eyes on the road and keep driving, please, young lady,” Aiden says.
I look in the rearview mirror and see those reddish-brown eyes regarding me with a deceptively calm gaze.
“What are you doing here?”
“Following a lead,” he says. “You’ve all been rather naughty, haven’t you?”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Aiden Levin is the most dangerous of them all. I thought I’d flown under his radar. Maybe I fucking would have, if Leo hadn’t kidnapped me and made me a big deal. Now I’m something to be fought over, thrown from one brother to the next like so many fleshy scraps.
“Where do you want me to drive?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he says. “Take the road to the highway and just keep going.”
“North or south?”
“Your choice,” he says.
This is freaking me out now. Why doesn’t he care? He should care. He kind of has to care.
“Are you going to kill me?”
“I think we both know you would deserve it if I did,” he says smoothly. “But my brothers enjoy chasing you about, and I know Leo is going to want his revenge sooner rather than later.”
I breathe a small sigh of relief, though I know really he can do a lot worse to me than kill me if he wants to—and I think he wants to.
I’ve been learning about these guys since Teddy died. Doing my own research. Talking to people. People I promised myself I’d never have anything to do with again. But they know the Levin family.
According to them, Leo is a psychopath, but Aiden is worse.
Aiden has a psychology that the people I come from can’t even properly guess at. Ruthless is the word that is used over and over again.
He doesn’t seem to enjoy sadism, but he engages in behaviors that would make a sadist cream themselves with glee.
I am about to discover that, and more.
I drive, choosing to go north. I don’t know why. I don’t think it matters. Aiden is offering me little in conversation, and nothing in comfort.
“What would you have done next?”
“Gone home?” I squeak the words. They’re lies, but they’re safe lies. He can’t possibly know what my plan was. If he knew what I’m tangled up in, who I have really been, I wouldn’t be driving this car. He would have shot me and left me up in the mountains.
“You would have left my brother to die and just gone home?”
“He’s hard to kill,” I say.
“Sure,” Aiden replies smoothly. “Unlike Teddy. He was easier to kill, wasn’t he?”
“I didn’t kill him!” My voice breaks with near hysteria. “You have to believe me. It wasn’t me. I could never have hurt Teddy. I fucking loved him!”
Tears start to run down my face. I have been trying to hold my life together by a thread for what feels like years. This is the closest anybody has ever been to tugging on it. Aiden could unravel me completely if he wanted to—and I think he does.
“Pull over,” he says, indicating a roadside motel.
I do as I am told. The sound of the gravel under the tires feels particularly ominous. This is how people die. Maybe I deserve to die. I feel a strange sense of calm settling over me. It’s odd, but some part of me knows I’ve been bested.
The whole time Leo had me in his trunk, I was working on a way to turn the tables. But there are no tables to turn here. Aiden is so calm, so focused. His attention is entirely on me, and he refuses to be clouded with lust.
“Don’t run. When we get out of this car, follow me to the door in front of us.”
“How does that work? This is a random motel. There could be anyone in there.”
“Do as you’re told, please.”
I take a breath and do as I am told. I get out of the car, and so does he. He doesn’t have the gun on me obviously right now, but he’s clearly capable of chasing me down.
He takes a key out of his pocket and opens the door with it. I can’t believe that worked. The room inside is empty. I can’t believe there’s nobody here.
“How did you do that?” I gasp. “Are you a fucking magician? Are you Christ Angel?”
Aiden smiles at me with that magnetic calm. “It’s not a magic trick,” he says. “It’s straightforward. You’d be disappointed if I explained it.”
“Please tell me how you did it. You’re going to kill me anyway. It won’t matter.”
He arches a brow slightly, then nods.
“The parking lot is empty, and the vacancies sign is on. This unit is almost certainly empty. As for the lock, these places all use the same three suppliers because they’re cost-efficient and offer discounts.
I know this, because we own all three suppliers.
That also means that I have the master key to most locks. I keep a copy on me.”
“Oh,” I say. “Huh.”
He smiles slightly. “I tried to warn you that it would be disappointing,” he says.
It is a little disappointing, even though it all checks out. The sense of supernatural ease fades a little, though if you pushed me I’d still say it was possible that Aiden is some kind of creature. There is something ethereal about him.
He pulls out the chair that sits at the desk that nobody ever writes letters at anymore.
“Sit down,” he says, dismissing me to the seat like a principal telling a schoolgirl he doesn’t have time to deal with in the moment to go take a seat. “I will be back.”
He turns around and leaves the room.