Page 53 of Chain Me
“Yoursister.The pretty one. He thinks of her often, though he guards those thoughts a bit more securely than the ones of you. Perhaps he’s fucked her as well? Don’t tell me you didn’t know… You didn’t! Oh, to see the look on your poor face.” She licked her lips in glee. “But now it’s time to go crawling back. The show must go on, my dear.” She snatched at my arm and stood, yanking me upright. “Don’t resist. I mean, honestly—”
She broke off, wrenching her hand from me as if burned. A series of unsteady steps propelled her back so suddenly that she struck the wall. Just as quickly, she recovered, and before I could even react, she grabbed me again, sliding her grip down to my wrist. Her thumb pressed against my pulse point as her eyebrows furrowed. When she met my gaze, I didn’t know how to read her expression. Something made her bite her lower lip as she finally let go.
“Clean yourself up.” She turned on her heel and retreated to a far corner. We were in that dressing room, but Yulia was nowhere in sight. “Here.”
I flinched as Saskia shoved something beneath my nose: a white handkerchief.
I took it and warily dabbed at my mouth. Then I gagged as the image of that girl replayed. Over and over and over…
Desperate, I scanned the room, my stomach heaving.
“Do it in this, at least!” Saskia shoved a round basin into my hands.
A wastebasket that held crumpled napkins and a fresh wave of vomit. I recognized chunks of my meals from earlier and cringed, disgusted but partly relieved.
At least it wasn’t blood.
“Come.” Saskia beckoned with a crooked finger and started toward the main chamber. “He won’t tolerate our absence for long,” she warned as I lingered.
So, I followed, my heart pounding with every step. I didn’t dare look up from the floor in front of me. I couldn’t see those women. Their faces.
But I could hear. Frantic breathing. A smothered whimper.
And then Saskia’s pleased giggle as she donned her ringmaster role once more. “A beautiful girl to be sure,” she called to a man eyeing one of the women. “And I can tell you enjoy her taste. How does five years sound?”
“Keep your head down.” The warning entered my ear as a familiar hand cinched my wrist, tethering me to a body chiseled from stone.
“Until next time,” a voice called out, dripping with false politeness. Raphael.
“Next time,” a woman seconded, Saskia. “Oh, and, Dublin? To new beginnings. For both youandEleanor.”
Veering away from them, Dublin steered me through the club until we finally reached the exit.
I barely had the chance to inhale the fresh air before he shoved me into a waiting car and appeared in the driver’s seat. As the door slammed behind him, I had enough sense to keep my mouth shut. To keep my expression blank and choke down my horror. I blinked back any tears, but I knew my heartbeat betrayed me, thrumming with shock and terror.
Dublin drove recklessly, cutting into the paths of other vehicles without a damn given for etiquette. He glowered at the road, his body rigid, his knuckles stark white over the steering wheel. The areas where he was gripping it bulged inward, and I feared the damn thing might snap in half as the car finally came to a stop.
Before I could reach for my seat belt, he opened my door—the right way this time—and I was in his arms. Rigid with tension, he carried me into a building I vaguely recognized: his high-rise. The ascent to the suite lasted seconds as he took the stairs in lieu of the elevator. When he finally hauled me into the foyer, Kate was nowhere to be found.
I was alone with him, a fact that he cemented by locking the door as he set me down, leaving me to sway with fragile balance.
“Where did you go?”
I bit my lip, hating the display of weakness. I should have been haughty and defiant, jutting my chin into the air. As it was, I could barely breathe without gasping. Panting. Whenever I closed my eyes, I saw them. Whatever horror they were currently facing was my fault.
All my fault.
“Look at me!” He gripped my chin, wrenching me around to face him, but what he saw in my eyes made him frown and release me. “Were you aware of him all along? ‘Protecting’ you?” he wondered, sneering the word. Turning his back to me, he started to pace. “Perhaps he’s the one you’ve really been fucking. Is it his?”
Hurt mingled with shame, searing my cheeks. “Who?” I croaked before an answer came as if whispered in my ear. “François.”
“Yes,François,” Dublin snarled, his voice booming.
I had never seen him like this. Smiling. Glaring. Vicious. Cold and blazing in one terrifying display.
“His kind don’t risk themselves lightly. And certainly not for a vampire-fucking whore as they would call you.”
I winced as the insult landed as intended. But I couldn’t even muster up the energy to feel insulted. “Where is he?” I despaired at my driver’s most likely fate. Still, I clung to a fragile hope even as I gritted my teeth to steel myself against the answer.
