SweetSunshine18: I bet I could make you happy. Want me to turn on my camera?
MrWyatt2U: If you want to.
Wyatt was struggling with a lot of things, but at the end of the day, he was still an older man that messaged an eighteen-year-old girl—looking for something. He just wasn’t bold enough to ask for it, so I led him straight into the temptation he was looking for—the place in the back of his mind that convinced him to message me in the first place. I made sure I was wearing skimpy clothes every time the camera was on—and eventually, he gave in. He told me how hot I was, how much he desired me, and I encouraged him to tell me more. It took a while to get enough to feel like I could blackmail him, and it really did rip out a piece of my soul to actually go through with—but I was desperate—desperate enough to shatter him in order to get what I needed.
Present day
I sat in my own sexual filth after the room was plunged into darkness and the afterglow from my orgasm began to seep into my veins. It should have been calming, but what the man with onyx-colored eyes—Reynard—forced me to do made me sick to my stomach. The worst part wasn’t that he made me do it in front of him. The worst part was that when he called me a dirty little slut and a filthy whore—it turned me on. He wasn’t the first man to call me that. I usually got called every name in the book when I laid out my blackmail scheme—by all of the men I stole from—except Wyatt. Wyatt just looked heartbroken. I asked him for a lot of money by my standards—fifty thousand dollars. He paid it without blinking, without saying another word to me, and then logged off. His screen name never logged on again—I knew that because unlike the others, I didn’t block him. I didn’t have the heart to.
If I’m in this cage because of what I did to Wyatt, then I deserve to be here.
The darkness didn’t send me into madness like it normally did when the lights went out. I just sat behind the black veil and cried. What else could I do? The answer I was looking for was worse than I imagined. I could have handled being in the cage for any of my sins—but Wyatt? The one I truly regretted more than any of the others? That just broke my heart. It shattered my will. It took away every bit of hope. There were times when I wanted to be punished for what I did to him. I expected him to lash out and when he didn’t, it felt like there was no conclusion. If he would have verbally destroyed me like the others did—I might have been able to move past it.
Was he so angry that he sent his brothers to do it instead? That doesn’t even seem like him—I can’t believe he would let them hurt me—even if I do deserve to face the consequences of what I did to him.
I was done fighting—done asking questions—done bargaining with Reynard. I didn’t need anything else from him except his wrath—because I knew it was Wyatt’s wrath being delivered vicariously. If a penance had to be paid, then I would do it. My comeuppance was my path to redemption, even if I never left the cage. Reynard obviously took pleasure in watching me suffer—maybe that’s why Wyatt decided he was the man to deliver my destruction. All I could do was willingly walk into the pain—accept my consequences—and face the agony of defeat. There was no happy ending—especially for someone like me—someone that got turned on when Reynard called me awful things. I really was the girl I pretended to be online. It wasn’t just a mask I wore for profit. That version of myself had always existed. I finally saw that—and that meant I was where I needed to be.
Locked away so that I couldn’t hurt anyone anymore.
Caged—so that I could wallow in my regret.
Mauro
“You told her why she’s in the cage already?” I raised my eyebrows in surprise as I looked over at Reynard. “I thought you were going to hold that piece of information back for a while.”
“I was, but I let my rage get the best of me. I wanted to see how she reacted.” He growled under his breath and filled the two glasses in front of us with whiskey.
“And?” I tilted my head to the side. “How did she react?”
“She knew his name.” Reynard shrugged and lifted his glass. “I don’t think she knows he’s dead.”
“Interesting.” I picked up my glass of whiskey. “Maybe she wasn’t going to keep blackmailing him then? Surely she would have tried to contact him again—and saw the news article at some point.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Reynard shook his head back and forth. “She’s done more than enough to earn her spot in that cage.”
“I know she’s all that you’re focused on right now, but—I had a visitor at the office today. Josef Weber.” I exhaled sharply.
“What the fuck does he want?” Reynard narrowed his eyes. “I told him we weren’t interested in hearing his proposal.”
“Word is getting out that you’re not exactly involved in the company anymore. We don’t have a Jackson sitting at the head of the table in Chicago—I’m the only one left in New York. The sharks are circling us—Josef Weber may be the first, but he won’t be the last.” I lifted my glass and took a sip. “I really need you to come back, even if you just sit in your office and fuck off day—just be there.”
“Dad ran the company just fine on his own. That’s your thing, not mine.” Reynard shook his head back and forth.
“Yes, but Dad had a certain ruthlessness to him—as we both know since we were on the receiving end of it most of the time.” I sighed and shook my head. “Besides, the company is twice as big as it was when he was running it on his own.”
“Fine.” Reynard nodded. “I’ll put in an appearance—cancel my leave of absence. That should show the sharks that there’s no blood in the water.”
“Yes, I believe it would—because they’ll be afraid you’ll stab them in the face if they get too close.” I chuckled under my breath.
“One problem with that though…” Reynard glanced over his shoulder at the screen that showed his captive in her cage. “I don’t really want to leave her here—alone. Will you stay with her for a little while and let me head to the office?”
“Sure.” I sighed. “I guess I can watch her—do whatever she does in that damn cage all day.”
“You can do anything to her that you want.” Reynard chuckled and stood.
Part of what I said to Reynard was a lie. I didn’t believe anyone would actually be able to make a move on Jackson Investments. I rejected every proposal that came across my desk, but they were starting to come faster than normal. The sharks could circle but I wasn’t going to give them anything to nibble on and most of our clients were loyal—but some were smelling the blood. Things weren’t the same after Reynard took his leave of absence and dove headfirst into his obsession. He might not have done a whole lot when he was at work, but he was a Jackson, and that meant something.
There was more to my request than just the business need—I also wanted Reynard out of the house—away from the screen that had become his obsession. I feared that he was sinking into his own darkness and that he never found a way to deal with his grief over losing Wyatt. He channeled it into a rage, but that wasn’t going to last forever. Eventually, he would break his toy and get tired of her.