Page 261 of Deep Cover

She was angry. She was furious and hurt and scared and unwilling to show it. She ran more than once, striking out over miles of desert with no idea where she was or which way Vegas was, or any other town or city.

When she was under my control though, and every time I dragged her back, I was able to institute more control over her. I was able to trip her up when she thought she'd found loopholes. I kept her second guessing and off-balance. I put her in situations she wasn't used to and I exposed her equally to things she loved and things she hated. I exploited her own masochistic tendencies and I kept her bored enough to want to explore them.

I liked her fire.

I'd known other damaged women without it. Like Kie. Already vicious, already lost because her Master was Vincent Geddes. His cruelty was enormous. All I had to do was look at the scars on her cheeks where he'd marked her after she hurt Annie at one of our dinners.

She'd deserved punishment.

She hadn't deserved that.

Kie was lost. Whatever she'd chosen to do would have ended her life. By coming here, she'd meant to either have her revenge on me and on Annie, or end everything in a hail of bullets.

Instead, she now stood angry, twitching, looking to see what weakness in the room she could exploit.

There were none.

I would not make Annie kneel in front of this woman. Later, when we were together, I would teach her to never take so long to answer me, and to not police her own behavior in the presence of Kie.

"Annie?"

Her chin came up and she glared. "How did you think I was going to run? Past all the hired muscle? Pasther– " an indignant and murderous look at Kie – "Holding a razor to your throat? Did you think I would abandon you to that?"

"Did you think you couldfixit?" Arguing with her made me look weak. I was too angry not to.

"Ididfix it," she said. "What do we do with her?"

There was nowe. It was all up to me. There was no common ground. No cooperation. We were not partners. She was mine. My property.

"What doIdo with her?" She needed to sense my tone.

She gave me a look that said she had and she didn't care. "Fine. What doyoudo with her now? You think I want her on my hands?" She threw a venomous look at Kie.

Who spat.

I expected Annie to leap at her.

Instead, she just laughed.

Good. We'd worry about her behavior later. For now, I was glad to see her unbroken in the face of the woman who had given her nightmares and night terrors in the days after we returned from France.

Later, after Kie was taken care of, after Annie and I had time alone together, I'd show her what submission really meant.

"We need to talk. Come with me." I turned to leave the room. The guards would watch Kie. For now, I needed Annie's mind while she was still acting as if we were equals.

No one was prepared for how fast Kie moved. The guards in the room broke formation instantly, surrounding her, holding her in their sights. No one fired.

She had moved like lightning, flashing across the space between us. Annie had nearly been as fast, winding up between only one gunman and Kie, her hand poised to deliver a punch to the back of Kie's neck.

She didn't strike. The guards didn't fire. And the target was the back of Kie's head, the back of Kie's neck, because Kie knelt at my feet, her hands balled in the leg of my sweatpants.

I looked down at her and felt desire race through me. I was hard a second after she landed, unarmed, at my feet. So submissive. So already primed for someone to beat her. Whatever I wanted to give her, she'd take and ask for more. She'd beg for it.

I wanted nothing of her. But my cock didn't know the difference between friend and foe. It saw a woman on her knees and was stiff as steel.

"Let go of me."

She did. Instantly. Without argument. She simply slid lower to the floor, on her face, her hands out in front of her, beseeching.

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