Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
She tilts her head to the side in thought and asks, “Did you honestly think they wouldn’t make you pay for killing them?”
I say nothing.
She stands, her fingers running across my chest, feeling my heart race. “It wasn’t all bad, was it?”
“Fucking hell,” I answer.
She laughs, and it makes my skin crawl, knowing what she’s done to my brothers. I tried to take on as much of her punishment as I could to save them. But she knew that and didn’t do them any favors. “Let me make it up to you.”
“No thanks.”
“They told me you’d be the hardest to break but also the first one to step up…take the fall so to speak.” She grabs my arms and turns my hands over-palms up. Her eyes look over my recent scars from the suicide attempt that they accuse me of doing. I yank them out of her hold.
Her eyes meet mine. “Let’s see how true that is.” She pulls a manila envelope out of her purse and hands it to me.
I take it from her and rip it open, removing the content. It’s a picture of Adam. He’s in a hotel room. He’s standing naked at the end of a bed. A woman lies on it, also naked with rope tying her hands to the headboard and a blindfold over her eyes. Her legs are spread wide as he admires cum leaking from her cunt. I toss it onto the coffee table and look up at her. “You of all people know what sex looks like.” Giving her my back, I make my way back to the kitchen for that scotch.
“That was taken last night…in Vegas.”
I come to a stop at the island and look up at her, my body trembling at her words. FUCK!
“He’s on the run, right? I feel sorry for that poor innocent girl he killed.”
My teeth grind. “He didn’t do it.” She’s missing. No body has been recovered.
“I hear there’s evidence that he did.”
Shit. Shit. Shit. She’s got me cornered. Again! Whatever she wants, I have to give her. Adam is in Vegas to watch over Ashtyn. Does she know they’re both there or just Adam? I won’t rat him out.
“What’s it going to be, Haidyn? You…or Adam?”
I pick up the scotch and throw it across the room. It shatters when it hits the wall, and the scotch runs down it to pool on the black marble floor.
When my eyes meet hers again, she’s giving me that smile that I’ve grown to hate so fucking much.
FORTY-FOUR
CHARLOTTE
I’ve been a prisoner at Haidyn’s for a week now. Being his fuck toy isn’t as bad as I originally thought it would be. I get fed three meals a day, provided with an endless amount of snacks, and am fucked senseless. What else can a girl ask for?
The Lords have been silent, and I’m starting to think it’s because they know I’m no longer seeing Haidyn inside Carnage. My only question is what do they want me to do now? How long until they decide I’m failing my assignment and just take me out?
I’m uneasy, and Haidyn sees it. At least I’m able to blame it on the incident that led me to being his prisoner inside his home.
He’s hidden my laptop because I haven’t seen it anywhere in this house, and I’ve looked every chance I get-which isn’t much. I swear the guy never sleeps. And he’s only left that one time after finding me upstairs in the other man’s bedroom.
I haven’t heard one word from my mother, and I have this sinking feeling that I’ve failed her. I’m the only one who can carry on my father’s legacy, and I can’t even do that right.
I sent a few messages to Wesley. I told him I’m still away, which isn’t a lie since I’m not allowed to go home right now. I sent him a few selfies and Photoshopped the background. I felt bad when he told me how gorgeous I looked and wished he could have joined me.
I’m lying in Haidyn’s bed. Muffin is curled up on his pillow like she owns the place. She quite likes it here. She loves all of his windows and spends most of her days bird-watching and napping.
The door opens, and Haidyn enters. He’s got a towel draped around his shoulders with a T-shirt and sweatpants on. He’s been working out in his home gym. It’s part of his daily routine. Sometimes he’s in there more than once. Without saying anything to me-doesn’t even look my way-he enters the adjoining bathroom and shuts the door to shower.
Waiting for the shower to turn on, I pick up my other cell phone. I chose to leave my real one back at my house. This is the number that Haidyn knows. If he hears another phone going off, he’ll start to question why I have two. He’s already taken my laptop; I don’t want him to know the Lords gave me this too.
Turning on the spare phone, I see it has an email. I open it up to see there’s a video attached.
My eyes go to the closed bathroom door quickly before grabbing my earbuds out of my bag. I put one in and leave the other out. That way, I can hear when he’s done in the shower.
I wonder if the Lords know he has my laptop. If they can monitor which device I access the emails from?
Getting back into bed, I sink down into it and pull the covers up and over the phone as I open it up and push play.
It’s a concrete room. It reminds me of being in my basement, but I have no doubt that it’s at Carnage. The camera is positioned high up in the corner, so it shows the entire room. The sound of a squeaky door opening has my eyes looking up at the bathroom door. It’s still shut, and the shower is still running, so I drop my gaze back to the video on my phone.
Haidyn enters the room, pulling a gurney inside. Saint pushes the other end. A woman lies on it with duct tape from her jawline to right underneath her nose. A black tube sticking out the center of her mouth makes it possible for her to breathe, and a blanket covers her bottom half.
It’s Ashtyn!
I sit up straighter in bed and once again check the door to the bathroom to make sure Haidyn hasn’t finished. Then I go back to the screen.
They remove the blanket that covers her, and I gasp, slapping my hand over my mouth when I see she’s strapped down to it. Her arms are secured in a straitjacket, and her legs are buckled to the bed. She screams behind the tape and thrashes in the bed that she’s secured to.
The bed is adjusted into more of a sitting position, and the belt around her neck pulls tighter on her skin.
It’s choking her.
Both Haidyn and Saint go over to the cabinets. “Adrenaline?” The sound of Haidyn’s voice makes me jump.
“No,” Saint answers. “I don’t want to kill her. I’d prefer her to pass out.”
What the fuck are they going to do to her? I thought they loved her? How long ago was this taken? A quick look tells me that it’s old because neither one of them has any ink.
“And if she doesn’t?” Haidyn asks, but his tone doesn’t give off any concern. It’s more like curiosity.
“She will. Her body won’t be able to handle it.”
Ashtyn yanks on her arms secured in the straitjacket and begins to choke as saliva shoots out from the black rubber breathing tube from underneath all the duct tape. Saint turns and walks over to her. She’s naked from the waist down. He wipes her pelvic bone, and my heart hammers in my chest, wondering what they’re going to make her endure.
My eyes go to Haidyn, and he hands Saint a branding iron with the Lords crest on it. “Take a deep breath, Ashtyn,” Saint tells her.
“Are you sure?” Haidyn asks once again.
“No,” Saint answers. “Go ahead and give her the adrenaline.”
Ashtyn shakes her head, and her wide eyes go to Saint, pleading for him not to do it.
Haidyn walks over to the counter, opens a drawer, and fills a syringe from a clear vial. She’s screaming into the tape as he walks back to them. Haidyn undoes the belt around her neck to the stretcher, and she goes to lean up, but he grips her taped face, tilts her head back, and pushes the needle into it. She instantly goes limp, and her eyes close.
Then the video goes dark. I close the email and open it again quickly, wanting to see more, but it’s gone.
The shower turning off has me yanking the earbud out and shoving it along with my cell between the mattress and box spring.
I lie down and pull the covers up and over my face, praying that he thinks I’ve gone back to sleep so he won’t find me all worked up and wonder why.