Dylan stood outside the basement door at his cabin.
His lovely home away from home, held a secret. It was a guilty pleasure of sorts: the final straw that confirmed Dylan wasn’t normal and would never truly be. Taking one last relaxing breath, he slowly opened the heavy door.
Strapped to a chair with all too familiar chains was Romeo Bray. The one whothoughthe got away. Blindfolded, Romeo’s senses were heightened. Exactly how Dylan wanted him: aware and terrified. A collar similar to the one placed on Flora was tight around Romeo’s neck to prevent him from shifting. Romeo started to shake as fear and dread filled his body. Dylan’s heavy black boots thudded on the floor as he slowly locked the door behind him, causing Romeo to shiver and Dylan to smile. Twisting around a butterfly knife, Dylan remained quiet as he walked up to his captive.
“It’s too bad Cassandra died before I could do what I do best.” Dylan frowned, even though Romeo couldn’t see him. Dylan wasn’t too upset, though. Besides Flora, Willow was the next best person to deliver the final blow that would take out the enemy. Willow was one badass grizzly, and obviously, messing with someone she saw as her own was a deadly mistake. Dylan was happy the bear didn’t give Cassandra a quick death. Death was entirely too easy for the kidnappers. But Dylan couldn’t be too picky deciding their fate.
Dylan wasted no time, cutting the blindfold off, slicing the side of Romeo’s face in the process and drawing blood. Just enough to let him know the show was only beginning.
“I’m not one for many words. We both know what you did, why you're here. But what you don’t know is that you got lucky. Flora didn’t want anything to do with you,” Dylan began, pulling his jade knife out. Stalking around the chair, he reached up, knife in hand, and swung his arm down, piercing the knife through Romeo’s thigh. A scream full of pain and spit was Dylan's reward.
Smiling, he looked directly at Romeo, who had been silent since Dylan walked in. “See Flora has a heart; it shines and it's warm. Her panther, not so much. Getting mauled by a panther you betrayed would've been worse than death itself.”
“Unfortunately for you, your luck ran dry soon after and now you're stuck with me, and I don’t fight fair.” Laughing, Dylan pulled the knife out and stabbed Romeo’s other thigh. “Not when it comes to men like you, and especially not when it comes to my woman.”
“A round of questions seems due. For each one you get wrong, a finger comes off. Once all ten are off, your time is up, and the game is over.”
“Games can be won right?” Romeo trembled, tears falling from each eye. He thrashed, trying to break the chains around him until he finally figured out it was no use. Bargaining was his next attempt at being freed.
“Yes.” No, but Dylan decided to keep that little bit of information to himself.
“First question, what is my woman’s name?” Dylan asked, a smirk covering his face.
“Flora Larkspur,” Romeo answered, hope filling his eyes.
Just as Dylan planned. For a man who was used to everything going his way, Romeo was predictable.
Dylan moved to stand right behind him, tilting his head as if to give the man's answer a thought. Taking out another pocketknife, he sliced off a pinky.
“What the hell, I was right.” Romeo screamed, pain and suffering evident in his composure.
“Wrong, it's Flora Enchanted now,” Dylan shrugged. It wasn’t, not yet, but Romeo didn’t need to know that. “Next, when was the first time you put fear into Flora’s brilliant mind?”
“In the parking lot of that clothing store,” Romeo sobbed. Just what Dylan wanted to hear. This time he wasted no time cutting another pinky off.
“Damn, wrong again. It was the first night you followed her home, a few weeks before she met me. How the hell did you not know that?”
Dylan reminisced about that meeting that changed his life. Flora complained about walking in the gravel in her high heels, all sexy and beautiful as hell. Little did he know he would fall in love with the way she talked to him, took care of him, loved him.
“That was Cassandra!Fuck, just kill me already,” Romeo pleaded, straining in his chains.
“You don’t mean that, we’ll keep going till you do. Don’t worry,” Dylan confirmed.
* * *
Five hours,four fingers and three toes later, Dylan began to get bored. His version of justice only lasted so long before the treatment just became cruel. He put his bloody knives down on the floor. Out of reach of Romeo, of course, who only had at most three fingers to grip something.
“I would say now you know better than to frighten and kidnap someone again, but there won’t be a next time,” Dylan said, sitting crisscross on the floor. Romeo's head lolled to the side, tear-stained cheeks shining in the dim light, an overall bloody mess.
Dylan got up, loosening Romeo’s chains till they dropped to the ground. Circling around in front of him, he smiled. “On second thought, I guess you can go. I don’t really feel like cleaning up a dead body on top of all this blood.” To further add evidence to his words, he walked to the back of the room giving Romeo the space to run. Leaning against the wall, Dylan crossed his arms, waiting for the trembling man to make his move.
“Why?” A shaky voice finally asked after five minutes had passed. Romeo still sat in his chair even though he was no longer chained to it.
“Flora will look over her shoulder for the rest of her life, whether you are dead or not. The damage is done. Just like the damage I've done to you,” Dylan explained with a shrug of his shoulders.
Romeo didn’t move. True to his word, Dylan didn’t stop his torture taking fingers and slabs of skin until the light died out in his captive's eyes. The lack of effort to escape the room spoke for itself. He was done.
Dylan waited. Because of the blood loss from the stab wounds, it wasn't long before the last breath left Romeo’s body. Taking out a cloth, Dylan wiped his blade. The jade-colored handle reminded him of the moment he shared with Flora when he tried to make her breakfast in the hotel.
