Bought (9 page)

The way he looked at her made her heart beat
faster. “I’m glad,” she said. “I wouldn’t want you to have any
regrets.”

“I don’t have a single one.” He reached out
and laid his hand over hers. “Well, maybe one.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And what’s that.”

His voice was low as he said, “That I didn’t
meet you sooner.”

With a smile she said, “Me, too.” She thought
for a moment and said, “How do you just happen to be into
kink?”

“It was one of the reasons that I wanted to
be on this case,” he said. “I knew about KC and I like a little
kink. I could be more active in the group and observe things and
talk to people inside without raising suspicions.”

After a moment she changed the subject back
to something she needed to know. “What about the killer? Do you
think he’s a member of KC? Was he at the auction?”

“One of our leads is a member of the KC but
his alibis have appeared solid.” John frowned and shook his head.
“Something about the guy just isn’t right. We don’t have the
manpower to keep an eye on him and the other more suspect
individuals in the case.”

“Who is it?” she asked then realized it was a
question that wouldn’t get her anywhere.

“I can’t discuss that type of information.”
He pushed his hand through his hair again. “I wish I could.” He
leaned close to her. “Let’s just say I’d like you to steer clear of
Drake Pierson. If you see him around at all, you get somewhere safe
and call the police and me.”

A slow chill rolled through her. “I bumped
into him at the grocery store the morning after the auction.”

The line of John’s mouth grew tight. “He
approached you? What happened?”

“I was getting a carton of milk and he was
right there when I turned around and I dropped the milk. He—he had
a loaf of bread and wanted to invite himself over.” She rubbed her
arms, trying to chase away the chill. “He offered to walk me home
but I said no.”

John’s expression grew darker. “Has he made
any other contact?”

“I saw him at that dungeon party.” Her cheeks
warmed. “Where I thought you were with another woman.” John gave a
nod for her to continue. “He wanted to go someplace but then you
talked to me and he disappeared.”

“Does he know where you live?” John grasped
her upper arm, surprising her.

“I don’t think so.” Confusion clouded her
brain. “Oh.” Her eyes widened. “He has my phone number.”

“Damn.” John cursed something worse under his
breath, too. “You need to stay here. With me.”

She started to protest that she’d be okay at
home, but she saw the wisdom in what he was saying. “Okay. I just
need to get a few things.”

He gave a nod. “I’ll go with you.”

Another week went by and then another. The
killer hadn’t struck again and she hadn’t run into Drake Pierson.
She started to feel more relaxed. John had said Drake’s alibi had
panned out, and he was currently out of state on vacation, staying
with a relative in Boston.

John was still concerned about Drake, though.
He’d said something about the guy just didn’t sit right with
him.

It was after work on a Friday. It had been a
long and trying day, but like always when she came home to John’s
house, she was able to leave her problems on the doorstep. She sat
down in his recliner with her iPad, wishing that he were home. She
would be happy to make his day far more enjoyable.

An email popped into her inbox and she looked
to see that she had a message from him. “Speak of the devil,” she
murmured. She loved getting messages from him. Sometimes he emailed
her or sent her text messages just to tell her that he was thinking
about her. Other times it was to give her instructions on something
he’d like her to do that would liven up their evening.

She opened up the email and read it.

I left a package for you in the closet, on
the shelf above my suits. I want you to put on the handcuffs, hood,
and blindfold, plus something else I’ve left you. When you’re
ready, lie on the bed with your wrists cuffed together. Leave the
ball gag on the bed.

I’ll be home at 7:00. Be ready by 6:30. I
like the thought of you waiting there, secured and blindfolded,
waiting for me and thinking about me.

She smiled and replied to his message:

I’ll be waiting.

She glanced at the time on her tablet to see
that it was around five-thirty. She set the tablet aside, went to
the bedroom and into the closet, and reached up on her tiptoes to
grasp the box he’d left and took it down. It wasn’t too heavy and
she carried it to the bed and opened it.

Inside was a wide collar with an O-ring in
the front and D-rings on each side. She had seen these used before.
It was a posture collar that restricted head movement. Also in the
box were sets of ankle and wrist cuffs, a small lock, and a red
hood that had an O-ring on top of it. She set those aside and saw
that John had picked out some very sexy lingerie for her. A red and
black corset, with matching panties and stockings.

He had wanted her to be ready early and she
intended to make her man happy.

Her man. She liked that. Liked it a lot. She
hoped that he thought of her as his woman.

She stripped out of her clothing and slipped
into the lingerie that he had left her. It was silky and erotic
against her skin. She felt sexy and wanton and so hot for him she
could hardly stand it. She loved the fact that he had bought it for
her and he had picked out just this for her to wear. There was
something hot about a man buying a corset, panties and stocking for
her.

She still had plenty of time so she sat down
to read a little more and kept an eye on the clock. She wanted to
be ready when he’d told her to. For all she knew he was going to
come home early and check to see if she had obeyed him.

After she climbed onto his king-sized bed and
pulled on the hood and blindfold. She had gotten so used to the
hoods he had that she actually enjoyed being inside them and had
started to look forward to wearing them. It was hard to explain to
anyone who hadn’t experienced wearing a hood. It made her feel like
she belonged to him somehow. She was his property.

When the hood and the blindfold were on, the
ball gag on the bed beside her, she locked her wrist cuffs together
with the small lock that he had left. She settled back on the
pillows and closed her eyes as she waited.

Only a few minutes seemed to have passed by
when the bed dipped and she heard the muffled sound of the
bedsprings squeaking. He had come early like she’d thought he
might.

She started to tell him hello, but he pushed
the ball gag into her mouth. He did it so hard that it mashed her
lips against her teeth and she tasted a bit of blood.

He pressed a cloth to the nose holes in the
mask and she tasted and smelled something odd. A mere fraction of a
moment passed and then she slipped away.

“Wake up, princess.”

Roni felt groggy and out of it as she heard
him speak. Everything was dark.

Something felt strange and odd, almost like
she was floating yet bound, and she tried to think through the
fuzziness in her mind. Then she realized she was hanging, her body
somehow suspended. She could feel rope against her bare skin she
felt a kind of rope body harness.

She was wearing a blindfold now and not the
hood, and the ball gag was in her mouth. She tried shifting her
head and neck, but the posture collar kept her head from moving and
the D-rings had been secured to either side of her neck.

John had drugged her and suspended her.
Apparently he was taking their play to a whole new level. Was this
yet another way to cause her to experience fear? It had been a
couple of weeks since the last time he had scared her. She could
still remember how freaked out she’d been when she thought he had
brought other men into the room.

“Are you awake now?” His voice was still low,
hard to hear, as if he was talking from a distance. With her head
and neck secured she couldn’t nod, so she made a sound behind her
gag to answer his question.

“Good.” He unfastened the gag and she licked
her lips as he moved his hands to her blindfold and removed it. She
blinked and her eyes unfocused and the focused.

It wasn’t John looking at her.

It was Drake.

Raw terror ripped through her and she
instinctively pulled against her bonds. “No.” She tried to control
her breathing as she stared at him. “Please, no.”

“That’s a big yes, honey.” He reached out and
pushed her and she swung back and forth and she felt like she might
fall even though she could tell she was secured to well. “Isn’t
this perfect? I like redheads and you like fear. Before I kill you
I’m going to give you a lot to be afraid of.”

She stared at him, her heart beating so hard
it was going to come out of her chest. Drake. The killer was Drake
and he had her. He really had her.

Her voice shook and she almost couldn’t speak
because she was having a hard time catching her breath. “Did you
hurt John?”

Drake brushed the question away with a wave
of his hand. “I’ve got a better way to deal with that dick. I
ditched a few things in his apartment that will be considered
evidence that he’s the real killer.” He gave a smile that was in no
way handsome. “When I’m finished with you I’ll drop you in the
dumpster. His fingerprints are going to be all over your collar and
cuffs. He might be facing the death penalty for what he’s going to
be accused of doing to you and the other poor girls.”

Adrenaline pumped through her body and she
trembled from it. She could see just enough to tell that she was in
some kind of basement and a door was just at the top of a rickety
looking staircase.

Could John possibly find her here? Where was
here?

She struggled to find something to hold him
off. “How did you know I was at John’s apartment?”

“I’ve been intercepting your email for some
time which is how I found out about your taste for fear.” Drake
smiled. “It wasn’t hard to figure out where you lived. Broke into
your house a couple of times while you were at work.”

He reached for her and squeezed her shoulder.
“I like computers. It was not too hard to set up to tap into your
router and follow your emails. I’ve been monitoring it, waiting for
the perfect time. The plan the dick laid out today was too
perfect.”

She bit the inside of her cheek hard as she
tried to figure a way out of this. “Please don’t do this. I’ll let
you do what you want but don’t do this.”

“What would be the fun in that? I like
fucking with my women. Figuratively and literally. So I will fuck
with you for a while.”

Cold fear made her start to tremble. “Please
let me go, Drake.”

“I don’t like hoods too much so I took yours
off.” He tugged at strands of her hair. “I don’t like how it covers
up your pretty hair and the fear on your face.” He picked something
up and then she saw that he had a butcher knife with a gleaming
edge. “I’m going to cut some of your pretty hair for a souvenir to
go along with the rest of my collection. While I’m at it, I might
just carve your face a bit. You are so beautiful and I will love
seeing my mark, on you.”

He moved closer and held up the knife and
repeated, “So beautiful.”

Roni screamed as loud as she could, putting
everything into it that she had.

Drake slapped her, cutting off her scream,
the power in his swing so hard that she felt dizzy.

“Shut up, bitch.” He shoved the ball gag back
into her mouth, mashing her lips against her teeth and she tasted
blood again, only this time more.

He picked something up and raised it so that
she could see. It looked like a policeman’s baton. “I can snap
every bone in your body with this. Do something as stupid as that
again and I start with the bones in your face first.

“But right now I want to play.” He set the
baton down then raised the knife and put it to her cheek—

The door at the top of the stairs exploded
inward.

John stood at the top of the stairs with a
gun aimed at Drake. “FBI. Don’t move.”

Roni’s heart leapt.

Drake looked shocked but the knife was
already at Roni’s face. He shifted fast enough that he had it
pressed against her throat, hard enough that it bit into her skin
and she trembled as she felt a droplet of blood roll down her
throat.

“Put the weapon down.” The expression on
John’s face was murderous. “Move away from her, Pierson.”

“You are going to let me out of here or she’s
dead.” Drake spoke with a calm, even tone, as if he was talking
about getting himself a cup of coffee. “And she’s coming with
me.”

He pressed the knife tighter against her
throat and she felt more blood trickle down. “Throw your weapon
over here. Slowly. Then I want you to come down here.”

John kept his eyes on Drake as he tossed his
gun. Drake caught it and then pointed it at John.

Roni’s terror rose. She looked from John to
Drake and saw death in Drake’s eyes. He wasn’t planning on letting
either of them out of here alive.

“Hands up.” Drake waved the gun at John. “And
take it real easy walking down those steps. Wouldn’t want you to
have an accident.”

The stairs creaked with every step that John
took until he was at the bottom. He stood there with his hands
still raised.

“I’d love to hear how you found the basement
door.” Drake said. “It’s well hidden.”

“Not hidden well enough,” John said in a
growl.

“You heard the bitch scream didn’t you.”
Drake’s jaw tightened.

John said nothing, just stared at Drake.

“Take her down.” Drake stepped aside, gun
still on John. “Don’t move too fast.”

John met Roni’s gaze. Without words he seemed
to be trying to tell her that everything was going to be all right
and that they would get out of here some how, some way.