It feels wrong to place it back on my hand. I feel like I am betraying Ren, and everything that we shared. I don’t want to be Sergei’s wife. I don’t want to be his possession. I don’t want to belong to him.
Fuck him and his punishments.
This I won’t give him. I take it off and place it on the table.
“No.” My voice quivers, but I feel strong.
He takes a long breath, nostril flaring.
“So be it,” he reaches into his pocket, and with lightning speed he snaps handcuffs on my wrists. “Let’s just get to the fun shall we.”
He drags me out of the chair, but I refuse to go. When he tries to pull me away, the sharp metal pierces my skin. He yanks harder, and it no longer matters if I fight; I am going, whether I like it or not. As we leave the room, he swipes the bag and leads me a few doors down into a small room with a setup not unfamiliar.
A chain hangs from the rafters in the middle of the room. Tears are already streaming down my face. He latches the cuffs to the chain, then with a glint in his eye, he takes the chain and pulls me higher. My body straightens, my arms taught above my head and my feet barely touching the ground. I am utterly exposed and ready for whatever he has planned.
My heart is pounding out of my chest, my skin is crawling with fear, darkness has settled deep inside me, and I watch helplessly as he unzips the bag. And then he pulls out a long black leather whip and I close my eyes, begging my mind and body to block out the pain that is about to come.
He cracks the whip, the snap like thunder in my ears and my eyes snap back open. Slowly, he walks toward me with burning desire in his eyes.
“Do you have any idea how beautiful you look right now?” He runs the leather over my body.
It slides slowly, like a snake, over my exposed back, slithering across my skin. The dress he chose makes perfect sense now. I shiver and tense, my body tightening in anticipation.
“Eighteen long months you left me for.” The whip cracks again, hard and sharp, but there’s no pain, he hasn’t struck yet. “I think one for each month should be a good start.”
That got me, and I sob, racked with fear. He groans, like a man making love. But love is the furthest from what this is.
36
Ren
Blacknesssurroundsoursmallboat somewhere off the coast of Coffs Harbour. We hired a team of ex-SAS soldier’s, conditioned and trained for jobs just like this. The price is hefty, but the cost of losing, unimaginable. They wanted more time to prepare, but I refused. I gave them an hour on our flight to the harbour and the additional time it took to catch up to the cargo ship.
I want her back, and I want her safe. My stomach has been in knots with a fear I’ve never experienced before. She hasn’t told me the details of what happened to her, I don’t think I could stomach hearing them. But my mind races with heartbreaking possibilities and all I can do is wait until we board the ship.
The plan is simple. Take the ship. Take out any mother fucker that stands in our way, find her and kill him. Whatever ends up happening, ends tonight.
All I need is her safe, and I pray untouched. The guilt is already suffocating. Guilt of not being excited to see my sister at the front steps knowing it’s Lilly who was sacrificed for her freedom. I’m relieved yes, and grateful seeing her unhurt, but the anger is there, underneath. I don’t understand why Amari would willingly go to him, leaving the house when it was so dangerous. If Lilly is hurt, or worse, I don’t know how I’m going to reconcile that. From my father, my decisions and failure at protecting my family I don’t know how she could ever forgive me.
As the lights on our boat go out, I know we are close. We need to be undetected until the right time. My eyes are fixed on the dark waters looking for signs of the ship, until a mercenary calls out the location from the other side of the boat. I race across the deck, and there it is. The large vessel holding the most precious thing in the world to me.
“Let’s strap up,” Mitch, the veteran says.
Vests, guns, comms, and weapons are handed out. Our first choice, silenced handguns, is the most important: we need as much time as possible to move through the ship undetected before the shootout begins. Dave, Dante, and I will be inside the cabin before we’re spotted. If all goes to plan, we’ll be able to sneak through before anyone can sound the alarm.
We can’t tell how many of his men are on board after we seized the security footage from the docks. He’s taken his usual small crew with him, but the ship has been docked for days to load the containers, and we didn’t have time to go back 72 hours to see who else could have boarded.
Once we’re ready, the boat pulls up unnoticed to the side of the ship. We turn off the engine, and the boat settles in the water. I hear Steve on the bow as he lets out the anchor. Once he’s secured it, we fall in line to move up the ladder of the ship.
“We’re going to get her back,” Dante says and comes to stand beside me.
Once the biggest critic of our relationship now his voice is just as determined as I feel.
I nod, too focused and filled with rage to talk.
Mitch takes a hold of the ladder first. “Let’s go!”
He rushes up the ladder, and we follow, scaling the side of the ship, moving silently. Once we’re on board, it’s easy to stay hidden, the stacked containers offering plenty of cover. We split up into our agreed formation and navigate our way forward. Moving into the shadow of the containers, we scan the deck. Ahead of us, Sergei’s man stands smoking a cigarette, right in our path to the entrance of the ship’s cabin. Seeing him is relief, confirmation that Lilly is close.