Page 18 of Destruction

I strike the globes of his ass, knowing not to go up any higher. I start out light before ramping up the intensity. I chose this paddle for a reason. It’s drilled out with one word: Mine. I want him to be able to feel it and remember that while he’s here, and I’m Head of the Family, he belongs to me.

By the time I reach twenty, he’s crying. At thirty, he breaks down and I back off, finishing with five light taps to bring him down. I press my fingers against the word covering his ass, loving the heat. I briefly consider fucking him, but discard it.While an orgasm may reduce my stress, I have no desire to reach it with Luca. At least not right now.

I carefully put the paddle back on the cart before I undo the manacles. With an oomph, I catch Luca as he collapses into me. I grit my teeth as I struggle to move him to the bed in the playroom. I finally manage to make it over there, and unceremoniously dump him onto it.

Sighing, I grab the arnica cream so that I can treat his ass. I rub it in, trying to be gentle as he starts to come around.

“I won’t interfere again.” His voice is scratchy from the sobs, but it’s enough.

“Good. Because I don’t want to have to punish you again. Especially because next time I won’t be so nice.”

“Yes, Boss.”

I breathe out, letting the tension flow out of my body. That acknowledgement is what I needed. “Get some rest. We’re going to need all hands on deck to find our Master.”

It’s the only small peace offering I can give right now. I make sure he has a glass of water next to the bed before I leave, letting him slip into sleep. When I walk out of the room, I’m not surprised to find Benjamin waiting, even though I gave him time off.

“He still alive?”

“Yeah, I was careful.” I run my right hand through my hair, resisting the urge to yank on it. Fuck.

“You’re already doing great as a Boss. It’ll get easier in time. Now, how about we get you some coffee to cheer you up?” Benjamin nudges my side, drawing a smile from me.

“Only if we can terrorize the chef.”

“I have no idea why the two of you like to fuck with each other so much, but whatever. If it makes you happy.” Benjamin snorts as I follow him down the stairs, taking in the crystal chandelier when we get to the bottom.

The sight causes me to flash back to the moment I met Master, and how I had no clue what was going to happen. Both Benjamin and I were brought into the Family through unconventional—and unwilling—means, but look at us now.

“It does. Oh, and I get to remind him I’m the Boss now. That will definitely be fun.”

Benjamin’s loud laugh reverberates in the entryway. My own laugh is more muted, but it’s there. Thank fuck for his friendship. It’s the only way I may get through this.

My chair is yanked out from behind my desk and I jump, gasping at the sudden motion. Turning away from the screen, I blink, my eyes dry and gritty from staring at the monitors for too long.

“I have work to do,” I say, glaring up at Tennant.

He shakes his head. “It can wait until the morning.”

“It really can’t. In case you didn’t hear, Ten, Cristian ismissing. So is Il Padrone. I need to find them.”

He reaches for me and I pull my knife on him, better trained now than I was before. Not that Ten cares. He takes the cut to his forearm as he grabs my chin, forcing my gaze to stay on his as he squeezes my flesh between his tight fingers.

“It can wait,” he says again, his tone carefully controlled. “Do whatever you need to, and then we’re going upstairs. Roman needs us more right now.”

“You can’t use him against me.”

“I can, and I will. Hurry up before I drag you out of here.” His calm, level tone doesn’t change, but I know a threat when I hear one, though it’s more like a promise. Fucker’s done it before.

With a long, drawn-out sigh, I pull out of his grasp and turn back to my monitor. Getting automations up and running is easy, as most of them were already doing the bulk of the work. I just needed to sift through the information they gathered, while also pulling profiles on anyone who could have possibly turned on us.

Setting alerts for all of our devices, I finally put my workstation into sleep mode and allow Ten to pull me out of the chair.

“Where’s Leandro?” I ask, as he leads me out of the office.

He huffs a laugh and shakes his head. “I sent him to bed about an hour ago. You were so lost in your own world, you didn’t notice. Nor did you seem to realize I was in the room with you at all.”

I grimace. “Sorry. It’s just…it’s been a long fucking day.”

---