Dom came to a stop in front of me, her temple flexing. Her veins popped out on her neck and arms, the rivers of blood creating mountain ranges on her skin.
In the silence, I could feel her breath on my face. Her blue eyes pierced mine, an ice pick driving into my soul as she lifted the cup.
“Make this easy, Viper.” Dom’s voice was more a collection of reverberations than a voice. “Hands.”
18
KIERA
WasI ready to trust Dom?
I wasn’t sure, even after I looked to Spencer and Leo for reassurance. Standing at the edge of the light, they both gave me a reassuring nod. According to them, Dom was more than trustworthy. They’d been trying to convince me of that for weeks.
Despite how she treated me.
Sucking my teeth, I reluctantly held my hands forward.
Dom pulled the pin in a new pair of cuffs. They matched the restraints around my ankles, except these were double barrelled. My hands would be restrained together. Only then did I look above my head, where a gold chain, matching the pristine one in the cuff, dangled over me.
As Dom’s surprisingly warm hands wrapped around my wrists, pinning the shackle into place, my eyes darted from each chain. Each a different color, all of them used but cleaned.
Once the pin was in place, Dom’s gentleness disappeared. She grabbed the clip at the end of the cuffs and yanked my wrists over my head.
A whimper escaped my lips as I felt my joints pull. I’d felt a pain in them my entire life, trying to avoid overextending myself without ever knowing why. Checking with Doctor Leo, I knew that whatever was happening was something she’d given medical clearance for.
She wouldn’t let Dom hurt me, not in a real way.
It was a good pull, like a stretch I’d been trying to reach for decades.
Dom clicked the chain and the cuffs together, a gold clip welded to the bike chain overhead.
In my ear, Dom growled her line. “With this chain, I bind you to vengeance.” Her words dripped with meaning, something I’d yet to understand. But Dom always spoke in secrets and whispers. Always a piece of information missing.
Stepping back, Dom reached her arm to a bright red button on the control box, right at the middle of the post. A mechanical whir began as I felt the chain tighten on my hands, the lift slowly dragging my hands farther and farther above my head.
At the top of my reach, Dom lifted her hand from the button and stopped the lift.
I groaned as I felt the pull in my body, a little embarrassed by how good it felt to be strung up in front of them. So long as I pretended Dom wasn’t here.
From the look on my three captors faces, I’d given away too much. It was clear I liked it, being restrained like this. It was something I’d never asked a man for, not sure I could trust them with unrestricted access to me.
But these three… thesetwo, really, could have any part of me they wanted.
Dom was lucky I hadn’t punched her in the throat yet. Although, I was realizing by the second that my ability to do that was diminishing rapidly.
Testing the limits of my chains, I felt my joints adjusting to the pull. It was just enough to be uncomfortable and restrict my ability to stop whatever was about to happen to me, but not so much that I was worried about dislocating anything.
My eyes flashed to Leo. Her forehead was ever so slightly wrinkled, a concerned and curious expression as she watched my arms and legs in the chains.
“Higher.” I mumbled to Dom, the words falling from my lips before I could stop them.
Without turning her head, Dom waited for something. After a moment, Leo nodded to her as my bully reached for the lift button. The machine whurred again, lifting me a few more inches.
I felt my joints stretching, my muscles trying desperately to hold them in place. Rising to my tippy toes allowed me to relieve some of the tension.
A smirk took over Dom’s face as she growled. “Better.”
From the look on Leo’s face, I knew that she’d advised Dom on what would be medically safe for me. And I knew she was worried about me pushing it too far. But I’d lived my whole life in this body, and Leo knew that.
