Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 148397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 742(@200wpm)___ 594(@250wpm)___ 495(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 742(@200wpm)___ 594(@250wpm)___ 495(@300wpm)
I couldn’t have talked, even if he held a gun to my head.
A few Masters behind me chuckled. “Always love the vibe down here, Vic. Especially love a nighttime play. You can almost feel the ghosts of the tortured highlanders who suffered in the real one.”
“Thank you for saying so, Larry. I’m glad someone appreciates my attention to detail.” Victor looked over his shoulder and smiled. His eyes caught mine. “Are you quite well, my friend? You’re looking a little pale.”
I choked, coughed, and cleared my throat. “I-I’m fine. Just…taking it all in.”
“Plenty more to see. Plenty more. This way.”
Picking up the pace, he yanked Ily along with him.
Her bare feet would be so cold.
Her body icy from the bowels of this earth.
The tunnel meandered like a labyrinth. Widening in places and forking off in others. Dungeons large and small appeared in the gloom. Some with typical looking torture equipment, others with brand-new BDSM crosses, leather tables, and racks full of salacious toys.
I completely lost my sense of where the fuck we were as we stopped at another barricaded heavy wooden door. A guard opened it with another set of clinking keys.
“I thought access this way wasn’t possible anymore?” Ian enquired behind me, his dark skin soaking up the night.
“It wasn’t.” Vic nodded, patiently waiting for the guard to wrangle the damp-swollen door open. “But I’ve had a team evacuate the cave-in and they managed to clear it last week. Just in time for this.”
“Perfect! Much easier going this way,” Larry said.
“I agree.” Victor smirked.
My racing mind latched onto the fact that Larry was here.
The weedy little wretch I’d almost slaughtered.
I thought Vic wasn’t a fan.
The day after I’d killed Daxton, he’d mentioned he’d sent the snivelling man home.
I jerked, remembering what Peter had said.
Larry had a guard on his retainer.
A guard who would happily give up his gun when and if Larry wanted to shoot me.
Christ, can this get any worse?
Boxed in beneath the earth, surrounded by enemies, utterly powerless, completely useless, all while the love of my life was manhandled by the worst bastard to ever exist.
I hated myself.
Fucking despised myself for putting her in this situation.
We should’ve gotten out sooner.
What the hell were we thinking, waiting for Christmas?
We should have fought the moment Victor flew away for a month.
Fuck!
“This way, gentlemen.” Victor descended yet another staircase.
My knees trembled as I followed.
Down and down, the musky earth turned sharp with rock.
Pebbles and dust crunched beneath my shoes as we finished descending and stepped into yet another corridor. My black cape tugged my shoulders as it caught on the jagged sides.
If the last tunnel had been a coffin, this one was a casket.
Not just any casket.
One made from stone and ions of pressure from above.
The same overbearing heaviness of the caves a few months ago returned, crushing my head, my spine, driving me into the dirt beneath my feet.
No.
Please tell me we’re not—
“Almost there, friends.” Victor shoved Ily in front of him and pushed her along. The tunnel was only wide enough for a single person.
I lost sight of her apart from a flash of her transparent ivory dress.
I wanted to be sick.
My guts churned; sourness splashed over my tongue.
I swallowed the urge.
I balled my hands.
I forced myself to think.
Peter was here, along with Ben and Stewart. If luck favoured us, perhaps one of the guards Stewart knew was also in this procession.
We could fight.
Here and now.
I could kill Victor. Finally.
Let myself go. Completely.
We could be free tonight.
Free or dead…either choice was better than this.
This scratching anticipation.
This nerve-wracking apprehension.
I couldn’t fucking stand it.
My blood bounced.
My muscles bunched.
I vibrated with war, all while unable to see what side my enemy would strike first.
No one talked as we cut through the earth like worms through soil.
Lanterns decorated our journey.
No glow worms.
No stalagmites or stalactites.
Just chiselled rock that’d been forced to part, leading us closer and closer to the heavy crash of surf smashing itself against stone.
No.
Fuck no.
Peter tripped and went to his knees.
Victor turned and sneered at him on the ground. “Get up, Paavak. Now.”
Peter sucked in a gasp.
“What? You didn’t think I knew your real name? I hear everything, little Peter. I know all. Why give me a false one, hmm? Yet another thing you’ve kept from me.”
I wanted to barge past the two guards in my way.
To haul my friend to his feet.
To beg him to be with me when the time came.
But the guards didn’t move, and Peter stumbled upright with a bow. “Sorry, Sir V.”
Victor chuckled and patted him on the cheek. “You know…you have my permission to say what you truly feel, my pet. Enough of these charades. I’m sick of them.”
For a moment, Peter did nothing.
But then, he dropped all his obedience and cocked his chin. “Fuck it.” Baring his teeth, he snarled, “Do whatever you want to me. I won’t do a thing to stop you. But…leave her out of it. Whatever you think we’ve done? It was all me. She had nothing to do with anything.”