DELIVER(10)

She rose and stalked toward him, her stride commanding, her expression blank. “I am a deliverer. I deliver the strikes that enforce your obedience.”

Her voice, sweet Jesus, it was so cold, so wrong. He slid to the side of the door, choking on panic, and smacked the keypad. “Open the door.”

“I deliver the sexual training that justifies your purchase price.”

If he screamed for help, would anyone hear? “What’s really going on here, Liv? If you’re in trouble, I can help you. I know people you can talk to.”

She stepped into his space, the wall pressing against his back. “In ten weeks, I will deliver you to be sold.”

His breath caught. “You’re insane.”

What he saw in her eyes wasn’t insanity. Deeply-embedded resolve held her pupils immovable.

“Requirement number three. Slave will keep his eyes down unless Master requests otherwise.”

The impulse to fight strengthened his spine. He was a linebacker, trained to run and tackle, so he lunged. Grabbed her shoulders. Slammed her chest into the wall beside the keypad. She didn’t fight, didn’t squeak under his rough handling. He pressed against her back and gripped her neck. “Enter the pass-code.”

Her body slouched, free of tension beneath the brace of his arms. She wasn’t fighting him, and he realized why when the door swung open. He swiveled, muscles heated to bolt, and met the short barrel of a revolver.

A hulking man strode through, his face shrouded by the hood of his sweatshirt. He kept the pistol aimed between Josh’s eyes and closed the door. “Release her.”

Josh let go of her neck, his jaw clenching painfully. She’d let him pin her, knowing she held the upper hand.

He took two steps back, hands up, and searched her face in a Hail-Mary hope her rigid mouth would crack into laughter and say, “Ha, ha. You’ve been punk’d.”

Her hips rocked in tight circles, slowly, seductively, as if an erotic dancer had taken over her body. She sashayed to stand beside the man with the gun and raised her chin. The chill in her voice stopped his heart. “Eyes. Down.”





Chapter 5




“Joshua Carter no longer exists.” Liv gave him a second to absorb that, though the firestorm thrashing in his eyes told her he might need more than a pregnant pause. Her own heart rate threatened to rob the strength from her knees, and that kind of weakness pissed her the f*ck off. She gathered control over her features, arranging them into the stoniest expression she had. “For the next ten weeks, your name is whatever I want it to be.”

“Let me go.” Despite the pallor blanching his golden complexion, he glared down at her with the composure of a fearless man. His maturity was emphasized by the whiskers darkening his square jaw and the carved contour of his rigid muscles.

She needed to think of him as a boy. Boys were malleable, unsteady, and less attractive. “For now, your name is boy.”

Standing by the door as if its proximity could save him, he set his jaw, green eyes sparking with defiance. Van kept his position beside her, the gun level with the boy’s head.

“Eyes down, boy.” Not that she expected him to obey. That progression had to be paved with his blood and tears. The thought stabbed a terrible pain in her chest.

His unwavering stare continued to press against her skin, and there was so much force in it, she didn’t think she could endure it much longer. She would, though. She would do anything for the hope that awaited her at the end of the night. The hope that would feed her famished heart.

In the center of the room, the girl remained folded on her knees. Since her training neared completion, she could demonstrate some expectations for the boy. Liv approached her, injecting her command with unfeeling iron. “On the cot, slave. Cuffed.”

The girl crawled to the cot and lay on her back, hands reaching above her head to grasp the handcuffs on the wall. She locked in her wrists. The cuffs connected to steel eyehooks and were sturdy enough to restrain the strongest of struggling slaves.

The boy’s glare ticked between the girl and the gun, tension rippling over the hard lines of his body. He closed his eyes, opened them, and met her gaze, nostrils flaring. “I kissed you.”

Her insides tightened, and Van’s finger twitched on the trigger. Just a twitch. Van’s role that night was to keep quiet and ensure her success in confining the boy in the box. The rational part of her was glad Van was there. If she were alone with the boy, she might’ve anchored her thoughts in the intimacy they’d shared and weakened under the resentment of her betrayal.

Van’s presence kept her frigid, focused mask in place. But he was undoubtedly raging with jealousy. Too damned bad. He knew the job and what it involved.

She reached up and slid back his hood, caressing his scar. The affection catered to his possessiveness, calming his inward battle, evidenced in the subtle slackening of his finger on the trigger. But unveiling his expression also served as a warning for the boy. Van outmatched him in muscle and cruelty, and under the fluorescents, she knew Van’s eyes were blades of silver and cut just as deep.

The boy swallowed. “You said something about—” he gritted his teeth “—you intend to sell me? Like a…a slave? This isn’t a game?”

No way did the boy fully grasp what was going on. He was probably still clinging to the hope of release when they were done with him.