Page 61 of Volatile Waters

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Whiplash Emotions and Fantasies

Hearing the SUV’s engine roar toward the house, I stared at Valerie. She had a choice to make. Here was the moment that would change her future’s outcome. Here was the very moment she could have saved herself. I exhaled regret as I watched her little bottom lip quiver.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, facing the door, she shook her head. “I… I want to be with him.”

Tires shrieked into the driveway as I said, “I should be killing you for what you already know about us, but I am giving you one chance… to run.”

As if sensing the dire mistake she was making, tears dripped from her eyes. “I can’t. Not from him.”

Surrendering to her fate, I nodded. “Now, the chance is over.”

The door swung open…

Kirill, frantically holding a collar and leash in the air, yelled, “Here is my claim—” He stopped when seeing Valerie clothed and unsoiled. His eyes raced to mine.

I shrugged. “Meh. I don’t like to fuck strippers—” I never got to finish.

Kirill had me in an embrace, whispering, “Thank you.”

He shouldn’t have thanked me. I wasn’t worthy.

Valerie would join him on our journey back to Russia.

And, Valerie would be dead in his arms within one year.

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The billionaire client I had to meet in No Cherries Here, to whom I was to cater, according to my father,had hand-picked his slave during an operation he recently experienced. Yes, while this man was home recovering, he was high on painkillers and dreaming of his young surgeon in a sexual sense.

Had the fresh-out-of-his-internship doctor only known.

Leaving one man behind to watch over Crash, I went with Kirill and Adrian to observe the risky slave we would soon apprehend. Generally, we preferred young adults who didn’t have many loved ones to search for him or her. A doctor, from a prominent family that moved from Holland to Connecticut for their son’s education? Not wise. They were going to bring lots of media attention. But seven-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars is quite swaying; hence, we found ourselves sitting in the SUV watching the doctor leave an apartment building that was not his.

Was it ironic that we were judging his affair while contemplating how to proceed with his upcoming abduction? Meh. Maybe so, but it didn’t stop us from searching for a weakness—clearly not his young wife waiting at home. My money was on his three-year-old daughter.

This educated man, who was somewhat arrogant with his accomplishments and stunning appearance, was not going to be easily fooled, drugged, and taken to another country for training. In fact, we were so confident he was going to be beyond reasonable that we were giving ourselves four extra months after his abduction, to break and rebuild him into the perfect sexual machine.

A full head of dark hair blew in the wind as his car lights lit up after he pressed a button on his key chain. His hair was shiny, straight, and fell past broad shoulders.

With binoculars, Adrian sharply inhaled. “Are those contacts?”

Now, we understood why our new client was so taken. The young doctor had grey eyes like I had never seen. It was as if they were beams of light, piercing with magical power in the night.

Kirill patted my shoulder. “You will have your hands full, training the Soul Reader.”

He was correct. Those eyes were for reading souls, and he would soon be reading mine.

Back at the rental house, we were greeted by an apologetic guard. He was trying to explain that he didn’t know Valerie had been in the garage and spent time with Crash until she emerged, crying.

Kirill quickly asked, “Where is she now?”

“In your room. Packing her duffle bag.”

Kirill ran down the hallway toward his bedroom as I faced the door that led into the garage.

I have many regrets when it comes to Crash, and the times we shared, including this time. I regret I was yet to have a better hold of my temper when he provoked me. I regret I was unable to recognize all there was to learn from such a selfless person. And, I regret what I did to him for three weeks in that garage. Once again, I was mistreating him with starvation, mental abuse, and most certainly physical abuse.