Counsellor (Acquisition Series Book 1) (11 page)

“Excellent work, whore. Maybe I’ll only beat you once tonight.” He turned to Stella. “Strip, bitch.”

I hit him. I dropped him. I didn’t even think. I just acted. Mistakes always seem to happen that way.

He rolled on the ground, hands to his face. He pushed his mask off and felt around his eye. “The fuck, Sin?”

Shit
. This was not the plan. Getting angry and decking one of our number was definitely not part of a winning Acquisition.

Cal’s laughing voice boomed over the sound system. “Now
that’s
a show, ladies and gents!”

Chapter Thirteen

Stella

Red picked himself
up. He was shorter and smaller than Vinemont, but clearly angry. “You want to go outside?”

“No. But I may go over to your mother’s place and release some aggression later.” Vinemont smirked, clearly baiting Red.

Red swung. Vinemont backed out of the way easily and rushed forward, tackling Red to the ground. They devolved into a rolling, punching mass on the floor. I looked around. The nearest guests were focused on the fight. I took a few steps backwards, then a few steps more, then I was in the thick of the masked crowd. Some of them glanced at me and went back to their work. Others couldn’t tear their attention away from the fight.

I turned and ran. I had no thought except escape. It was as if a host of klaxons were ringing in my head, my heart, alerting me to the mortal danger. I cut through the reaching hands and past the servants around the edges. I ran through the first open set of doors, my heels almost going out from under me as I turned the corner. I sped faster until a man stepped in front of me. I slammed into his chest and he wrapped his arms around me.

“Going somewhere, Stella?”

I knew that voice. “Lucius?”

He dragged me sideways into an antechamber off the main hall and kicked the door closed behind us.

“The one and only.” He held me close to him, his hands pressing into the bare skin at my back. A deep emerald mask hid his face, but I could see his eyes, light yet piercing. “Where were you going?”

“J-just away from there.”

“Wouldn’t that kill your father?” He slid a hand lower down my back.

Guilt crashed down on me. I had run from pure instinct, just as if I’d pulled my hand away from the fire. I couldn’t do things like that. I had to leave my hand in the flames until it crisped and charred. My father’s life depended on it.

“Yes.”

“I could save you, you know?” His hand went lower, and slid beneath the fabric of my dress.

“What?”

“I mean, you’ll still be an Acquisition for a year, nothing to be done about that. But you could choose me. You could tell Sin you’d rather be mine.”

“You’re even worse than he is.” I tried to back away, but he held me fast and pinned me against his chest.

“Am I? Am I the one who threatened your father? Who prosecuted him? Who forced you into the contract?”

No. Vinemont had done all those things and more.

“See, Stella. I haven’t hurt you or trapped you.” His hand smoothed along my ass as he put his other hand at my chin and pulled my face up to his. “I could make this whole thing more bearable for you.”

“I don’t trust you.” My voice was so breathy, like he’d taken the air from the room with his seductive words.

“You shouldn’t.” He leaned down, his lips so close to mine.

The door burst open as Vinemont rushed in. “Stella?”

“Another time, then?” Lucius whispered to me.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Vinemont rushed to me, a trickle of blood flowing from his busted lip. “Get away from her.”

Lucius released me. “I was just talking to her.”

“Like hell you were.” Anger rippled off Vinemont. “She’s mine, Lucius. Leave her alone.”

Vinemont stood behind me and wrapped a possessive hand around my neck. “Mine.” It was more of a growl than a word.

Two servants rushed in behind Vinemont.

“I think you’ll find this man doesn’t have an invitation. You’ll need to escort him out. Roughly.”

“Come on, Sin.” Lucius smiled.

Lucius’s snake-like charm didn’t work on Vinemont.

“Out.”

Each servant grabbed one of Lucius’ elbows and hustled him from the room.

“Later, Stella,” he called. His voice echoed along the now-empty marble hallway.

Vinemont turned me around so I was forced to stare up into his unmasked face. “Did he hurt you?”

“Did
he
hurt me? Do you even hear yourself?”

Oakman strolled into the room. “Come on. Can’t wait forever. The natives are getting restless for her walk and the rest of the festivities.”

“Just another minute, Cal, if you don’t mind.” Vinemont didn’t even turn to look at the host.

“That’s all you’ll get.” The gameshow host tone drained from Cal’s voice like water through a sieve. “Tradition can’t be broken.”

He shut the door behind him as he left.

“You can’t run, Stella. I’ll catch you.
They’ll
catch you.”

“The only one who caught me was Lucius.”

“And you were lucky this time. You won’t be so lucky again. Trust me.”

This was such a mindfuck. He acted like he cared one way or another what happened, but I knew all he cared about was winning this twisted competition. He wasn’t fooling me. No one was. Fuck him. Fuck all of them. I stepped away from him and walked to the door.

“Where are you going?”

“To do my walk of shame. Are you going to help me out of this dress or what?”

I’d never seen shock on his face. If he weren’t a monster, it would have been almost cute. He followed me back into the ballroom, new debauches going on all around as the ballgoers got their second wind. I didn’t see the other Acquisitions.

Once lined up at the walkway, I reached behind me to unhook my dress. Then I realized I had no idea how Enid had put the thing on me.

Vinemont was at my back then, his fingers pulling the fabric together and unhooking the closures that must have held it together along the center seam. He moved his hands up to my shoulders and inhaled deeply before slipping his fingers beneath the lace straps and letting the dress fall to the floor in a feathery heap.

Cold air rushed over my body, and the nearest revelers stopped what they were doing to watch me.

Vinemont moved his hands down my sides, feeling my curves before his hands settled at my hips. His breath was warm against my shoulder. His familiar scent was oddly comforting.

I took one step, and then another. I kept my head high as I walked. I fixed my gaze far across the room on one of the particularly beautiful chandeliers. Crystal drops hung from it, multi-faceted and shimmering despite the mass of human ugliness beneath it. It was untouched by the hideous inhabitants of the room. Maybe I could be, too.

I slapped away hands and fingers, refusing to let them degrade me any more than they already had. I ignored catcalls and whistles. When I reached the end, I turned and repeated my travel, glaring at Oakman as defiantly as I could. He stared back intently before unzipping his fly and motioning for one of the women below to “assist” him.

I dropped my attention and caught Vinemont staring at me, fire in his eyes like never before. He didn’t look down my body, just held my gaze as I walked, as if he were pulling me toward him with some strange gravity. I reached him and turned, making the circuit one more time under the watchful eyes and the grasping hands.

I reached the far end where a wrinkled man with a protruding erection waited for me.

“Ms. Rousseau, so pleased to see you again.” He grinned, a red mask obscuring his eyes, while his date for the night—a handsome man of no more than twenty—stood close behind him.

I knew his voice. My stomach flipped and soured. “Judge Montagnet?”

The judge’s date reached around and began stroking Montagnet’s cock, though the set of the young man’s mouth was less excited and more apathetic.

“Well, I must get back,” Montagnet said. “I just wanted to congratulate you. Keep up the good work, lovely girl, and I certainly hope the Vinemonts prevail this year. Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on your father for you.” He disentangled himself from the younger man’s grip and knelt down on all fours on a nearby divan. I turned my head away before I saw anything more.

The judge’s threat was a strangling vine around my heart, choking out any love or warmth, leaving only cold fear. I was foolish, so foolish for running. Never again. I was captured, bound by the invisible vise of these people, their power. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to turn. I scanned the crowd, wishing I could burn the chateau down on their heads.

One of the servants motioned toward me with the prod. I took a deep breath and finished my walk. I kept my eyes up, trying to distance myself from the horror of the scene. I refused to give in to the helpless feeling of being nude and on display for the faceless horde. They thrashed around me like damned souls in hell, their breaths hot and their hands clawing at me. I fought them off and hurried my pace.

No one managed more than a brushing swipe against my bare skin. I counted it as a win. Vinemont’s gaze was still rapt, though every so often he would stare daggers at the ones who reached out to touch me.

When I made it back to him, he offered his hand to me as I stepped down. I didn’t take it.

“Well, now that we’ve got the easy parts over with, let’s get on to the main attraction!” Oakman, as ever, kept the entertainment fresh.

I glared up at Vinemont. “Wait,
that
wasn’t the main attraction?”

He showed no emotion, just held my gaze. He was somehow steady even as I felt the storm rising around me.

“Bring them on up,” the voice boomed.

Vinemont squeezed my arm and pushed me in front of him, toward the stairs and to the tree. Gavin and Brianne were ahead of me. As they made it to the top, I heard metallic clanging sounds above. Brianne shrieked.

“We haven’t even hurt you yet.” Oakman’s laughter infected the room until it was a cacophony of soulless mirth.

I took the final step. Brianne was sobbing again. Gavin just looked catatonic, as if none of this was registering any more. They were both chained, their fronts facing the tree. Vinemont guided me to the one empty spot against the trunk. He raised my wrists and clamped the shackles down around each one. He pulled the chain down from above and hooked it to the chain in the center of the restraints. Then he fastened my ankles with the restraints at the base of the tree.

I shook. I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t stay strong in the face of what I knew was coming. Oakman stood and trailed the end of a whip through his hand lovingly. Moving slowly, I bet the leather was smooth and supple. Moving as he swung, it would tear my flesh. My tremor grew until the shackles were shaking, clanging against each other.

“Oh, I can fix that.” Oakman yanked on a chain hanging from a pulley next to him. It pulled our arms upward until all three of us were pressed against the tree, the metal digging into our wrists and ankles and our backs on display.

“Everyone, the years just keep getting better don’t they?”

A smattering of approval rose from below. Even with the spotlight in my face, I could sense they were all still, watching. A tremor roared through me at the realization. What could be so fascinating to stop the roiling beasts from clamoring and rutting?

I tried to turn, to look at Vinemont. To try and will him to free me, save me, let me go. I couldn’t see him. The blinding light and tight bonds mastered me. I was held fast, blood already running down my forearms from the shackles. The pain in my wrists and ankles was growing by the second, the metal cutting deeper with each of my breaths.

“Two-hundred and fifty years of pride. And this year is the best of all. Twenty-five Acquisition Balls, twenty-five strokes of the whip for each of our guests.”

The crowd roared with approval.

I couldn’t stop the sob that rattled up from my lungs. Brianne began screaming, her voice a high, blood-curdling shriek. It died away, muffled by Red’s handkerchief or some similar gag.

My thoughts scattered, unable to focus on anything. I clamped my eyes shut and forced myself to focus on why I was here. Dad. He was there on the back of my eyelids. Standing over me as I awoke in the hospital. He smoothed my hair from my face even as I was bandaged and strapped to the bed. Was this so different? I bled, I was bound, I was wavering between the world I’d known and one I could only imagine. But now, instead of breaking him, my suffering would save him. Tears slid down my cheeks and disappeared. I would endure it. All of it.

“Now, who wants to go first?” Cal broke through my memories.

“That’d be me.” Vinemont spoke, his voice harsh and strong.

“That’s my good man. Here you go. Make them count.” Oakman laughed.

Vinemont stood behind me and ran a lingering hand down my skin, the whip hanging from his other hand. His touch was warm, somehow gentle. I let myself feel it, if only for a second. Let myself imagine he cared for me, that his was a lover’s touch. That he wouldn’t hurt me.

The warmth disappeared. He backed away.

I held my breath. I felt like the entire room held its breath. And then I was awash in pain. I didn’t know I’d screamed until the sound died in my lungs from the force of the next hit.

“He’s really going all out. This may be your next Sovereign ladies and—”

I couldn’t hear his words, couldn’t hear anything except the sound of my pain. It was my scream, eating up the space inside me, bleeding out my ears. Agony like I had never felt before erupted along my back. Lines of destruction. I could feel my skin separating with each of his vicious strokes. Blood leaked and trailed down my legs. It felt the same as I remembered it from those years ago, the same way as my blood felt dripping from my arms. But this time the damage was bigger and offered no promise of release from this life.