Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 108988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Picking up a knife, I went to him.
He swallowed at the sight, his eyes skirting between the knife and my face. “He’ll gut you, you know. You won’t even see him coming.”
“Maybe.” I trailed the tip of the knife across his chest. “That’s a cute little fiancée you have. Molly Easter.”
He paled again, but my words invigorated him. He tried breaking free from his restraints. I caught his chair, holding him in place. He tried swinging out at me, but it was a futile attempt. He could’ve hurt himself in the process, but I didn’t see that stopping someone like Ashton Walden.
His head reared back up, and he snarled, “I’m going to fucking kill you, Lane. If you touch Molly—I swear to Go—”
He wasn’t hiding his emotions anymore. He was letting them out, and I was reveling in it. I wanted to see everything he felt inside. I wanted to understand the inner workings of this man.
I gave him a moment. That was the usual thing to do? Blake would’ve known. I was guessing here. I was doing my best. After a few minutes, I leaned forward and dropped my voice, “You probably need time to process your emotions. You’re upset. I can see that.”
I waited, letting him work out his aggression.
He was relaying how much he wanted to flay my face open while I was alive. That would be interesting to witness. There were a few other threats that intrigued me. He wanted to disembowel me. I wasn’t sure about that one, though. He kept sputtering away until he began coughing up blood.
I frowned. That would cut our fun in half.
I cut him off in mid-threat of putting my balls in a blender and how he would feed them to Blake when she was starving. That—that made me pause because I wasn’t sure if I was mad at that threat or impressed. I considered it and decided that if he did do that, he would have Blake to fear once she found out. I was going to add that threat to his already mountain of debt.
“Walden, shut up. I’m here to tell you things, things you need to know before we finish.”
He drew quiet, coughing more blood.
My men had done more damage than I thought before I got here.
Others would wince at how he looked.
Not me. He looked like a masterpiece. He was bloodied, with different bodily liquids sticking to him. Bruises were coloring all over him. They were fresh, but the speed of how they were appearing promised me how beautiful he’d look by the end of our session together.
“What are you talking about?” he rasped out, more blood being coughed up, then trickling out of his mouth.
“You haven’t asked the basic question every captive asks.”
He frowned before giving that question thought. “Why the fuck am I here?”
I smiled. “See. Was that so hard?”
He looked at me as if I suddenly turned purple in front of him. “I’m here because you’re a piece of shi—”
I held up a hand, stopping him. “I apologize.” I motioned between him and me. “Normally I would enjoy the back-and-forth. That’s part of this dance we do. I’m sure you’d agree.” I grew serious again, letting a little of my mask slip. The one I wore so others only saw my dead eyes and didn’t see the real monster I could be. But we were having a moment, and if you couldn’t be yourself when you were torturing or being tortured, then when could you be yourself? Really?
His eyes widened, and a deeper emotion flared in his eyes. Fear. I inclined my head and lowered my voice. “I had you kidnapped because . . .” I raised my knife again. “You see, Ashton, there’s a lot you don’t know about me. Yes, yes.” I reached up and began using the knife to cut at the ropes he had holding him up. The ropes were thick, and the knife was dull, which was on purpose, so it would take time. I talked as I cut. “I enjoy fighting. I enjoy this whole thing we’re doing. You, me, your best friend. I like matching wits against wits. You see, I operate under a specific set of rules. Do you want to find out what they are?” I paused in my cutting to see if he was starting to understand.
Sweat rolled down his face. His one eye was dilated, and the side of his mouth was pulled back, as if in a perpetual grimace. That could’ve been from my jostling. He was probably in a lot of pain.
I liked pain. I also liked pleasure. Torture and sex. Now those emotions, I could feel.
“I mentioned your fiancée for a reason.” I cut through the last bit of rope and snap. He went down like a sack of potatoes.