Page 105 of The Devil's Reward
God, I have to get out of here.
When we go inside, I’m hit with the smell of mold and mildew. The place has obviously been ransacked, whether by this guy and his henchmen, or someone before. Dim yellow lights show the narrow hallway lined with doors. As we pass them, I look in and see beds with restraints, trashed rooms, and even one room full of nothing but boxes. I bite back a whimper when I hear something scurrying amongst the garbage and filth on the floor.
We don’t stop until he drags me down to the end of the hall and then down some steep narrow steps to the lower floor. It’s even darker down here, with only a red light at the end to guide the way. My heart hammers in my chest as we reach the end. I nearly start to cry when we walk in and see the table full of tools and the chains and hooks hanging from the metal bar in the ceiling. The floor is stained red with fresh blood, and there’s a drain in the middle of the floor. Bile churns in my throat and I fight to hold it back.
“String him up,” Dmitri tells Isidor.
“What the fuck?” Dagger screams, fighting as best he can. Dmitri watches dispassionately as Isidor punches Dagger in the temple, knocking him out instantly. Dagger collapses and the big man picks him up like he weighs nothing.
“What to do with you,” Dmitri murmurs, looking at me thoughtfully.
“I-I won’t say anything,” I whisper. “Please. I don’t know anything about this.” I have to fight to hold back the hysteria. I need to keep my head calm.
“And just who do you belong to, hmmm?” Dmitri asks, ignoring my pleas. “All the women there belong to someone. So which one are you playing whore for?”
I stiffen at his words. “I’m not a whore,” I say before I can stop myself. A slow, cruel smile pulls across his lips.
“All women are whores,” he purrs at me. “Though it doesn’t matter, because now you belong to me. I can kill you, fuck you, sell you, the choices are endless. But for now, I have other business to attend to, and I think I’ll leave you to the end.” Then he yanks me forward and flings me into a chair. The driver of the car is behind me, holding me down when I try to climb out. “Tie her up. I think she needs to realize who we are,” Dmitri says coldly to the man. “And we need to get her ready because those MC bastards will be here soon. Just how I want them.”
My blood runs cold as I realize something very quickly. Dmitri fully expects the MC to come, and he’s ready for them. It’s a trap. I struggle hard, because I can’t let this happen. They are the only ones who are protecting Macy, and Shadow is the man who promised me he would protect her for me. I can’t trust anyone else. “Let me go,” I cry, yanking at my bound hands and trying to head-butt the man behind me. I get a backhand from him for my efforts, which makes me cry out.
“Gag her,” Dmitri orders.
A piece of cloth comes around my head and even though I try to keep my mouth closed, the man grabs my jaw and forces it open before shoving it inside and tying it behind my head. I scream around it, struggling, my sense of self preservation kicking in.No, this can’t be happening. No, I need to get out of here. I need to warn Shadow.
“Wake him up,” Dmitri orders, and Isidor grabs a bucket of water and tosses it at the now hanging Dagger. I’m close enough to feel the splashback on my face. It’s freezing. Dagger gasps as he comes awake, but it takes him a moment to realize where he is. His eyes meet mine and I watch him realize what’s going on, that he is strung up with his arms secured above his head, his feet wrapped in another chain hooked to the floor.
“Dmitri,” Dagger rasps. “Wait,” he pleads. “I know you’re pissed, but you know you need me.”
“Do I?” Dmitri asks as he moves to another chair that Isidor has dragged out for him. Slowly, he strips off his suit coat and drapes it over the chair. Next the gloves come off, and I watch in dread as he pulls on each finger slowly before pulling the glove completely off, revealing hands covered in tattoos. He sets the gloves on the chair and then moves to the cuff links of his shirt, rolling up the sleeves to expose more ink on his arms.
The man is one large tattoo, and any other time I might wonder what they all mean. Right now, I just want to get out of here. I look over at Dagger and the fear on his face as he watches Dmitri is even more pronounced than before. He knows Dmitri means business, and starts to fight against the chains in earnest.
Dmitri approaches him, clenches his hand, and drives it full force into Dagger’s stomach, making him gag and try to curl in on himself. “Fuck!” he screams.
Dmitri doesn’t even look like he’s breaking a sweat as he hits him a few more times. “You think you can lie to me?” he asks, his voice rising as his anger makes his eyes glitter dangerously. I know that I do not want that directed at me. I silently plead for Shadow to get here. I don’t want to die. Not like this. Not here. Not for something that has nothing to do with me and is only the result of me being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I didn’t lie to you,” Dagger gasps. “I’ve done nothing but help you. Why would I lie?”
“You think you are so clever,” Dmitri hisses, grabbing him by the throat and squeezing hard enough that Dagger’s face turns an alarming purple color. “You think you can trick me and go behind my back? Without me knowing? I knoweverything.”
Dagger’s eyes widen as he stares back at him. “No,” he gasps, though it sounds muffled because of the way Dmitri is gripping his face.
Dmitri lets him go, then hauls back and punches him so hard across the face I hear bones crack under the force of it. Isidor and the driver don’t react at all as blood sprays and lands near their feet. I recoil, tears leaking down my face. I close my eyes because I don’t think I can watch anymore.
“Oh yes,” Dmitri continues, and I hear his shoes as he moves across the floor. “This is my town, my empire, and I have eyes and ears everywhere. Then, you brought the eyes of your own club on me by being careless. You fucking bikers are nothing more than rodents that need to be exterminated.”
Hysterically I think that anyone else might think it was the other way around.
“It wasn’t my fault,” Dagger moans. “It was the whores. They got in the way.”
“Ah, yes, the lovely Sage and Izzy. Both of whom you had orders to dispose of. And now, we have this lovely specimen. Who it seems, from both my men’s accounts and yours, was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” My eyes fly open as a hand clenches in my hair, yanking my head back painfully. I cry out around the gag, though the sound is muffled and I look up into the dark eyes of the devil himself. A sadistic smile pulls at his face when he sees my pain and my fear. “You, my dear, are one very unlucky woman.”
He lets go of my head and it flops forward, my head still stinging. I wouldn’t be surprised if he yanked out a few chunks of hair.
“They were under constant guard,” Dagger rasps, his own head dropping forward, refusing to look at Dmitri. “It was impossible to get them. That’s why I tried to run them off the road.”
So it was Dagger who almost killed them. Anger burns in my belly. How could he do that? To his own brotherhood? His President? Does he really hate them that much?
