Faithless (Mistress & Master of Restraint) (120 page)

The Brawny
Prince: 

Never underestimate the power of a really hot teenaged boy on an impressionable teenaged girl
- or is that the other way around? Niel got more than he bargained for with Ava. The girl has the sexual appetite of a man, the insanity of her father, jealousy that rivals Cort’s, and the sadistic needs of Katya, Dexter, and me combined. A kiss turned into a blowjob turned into a meeting in the middle of the dungeon with Marcus and Ava going head-to-head. I’ve never seen a boy more relieved to have his master order a NTP, no touch policy. It worked, completely throwing Ezra, Katya, Cortez, and Marcus off their game.

Piss in my
cereal, I’ll shit in your oatmeal
:

Grant and Roman,
with the help of Niel and one from his gaggle of girlies- Whitney, launched an attack campaign on author Cortez Abernathy. For every phony bad review, they created two for Cortez. But they also created hate pages on Facebook and blogs dedicated to smashing Cort’s works. It is rumored that the cocksucker has writer’s block, and hasn’t been able to write a sentence, let alone an entire book.

Call on KINK, and I’ll raise you a French Kissed Kink
.

In preparation for the imminent
closure of Kink, Olivia’s heart and soul, I purchased the building next door to Restraint. I’m no longer playing by the game’s rules; I’m playing by school yard bully rules. If you take my toy away, I’ll make you choke on it. When Kink closed, FKK opened right next door to Restraint. Obnoxious, and one hundred percent heterosexual- strippers and call girls are shoved down Ez’s throat every time he enters his establishment.

The Homeless shall capture Misery Castle:

Another imminent disaster: what happens when Ez fucks up with his capture of ShadowHaven? I learned this trick from Kink. I could’ve stopped the closure of Kink, but FKK was the perfect punishment for Ez.

Niel already manipulated Daniel into appointing Whitt as his successor- which
will commence as soon as we load the bus.

Misery Castle:
check.

How to get the homeless to Misery Castle?
inside a bus, of course. But naturally, you must make them homeless first. Ez managed to bilk his mother out of her home, much as he did with Kink. Boyd’s expertise is corporate espionage. Those talents came in handy while patiently waiting for the foreclosure sale of ShadowHaven. Boyd swooped in behind Ez, and bought it.

Last week
, we perfectly timed the eviction of those bastards from their haven. They are piled into The Edge Building like sardines. It has been an endless source of telescopic entertainment. Currently, there are no less than five telescopes pointed at The Edge Building. How does it make Ezra feel to be a rat in our maze?

Not good at all.

And it was a play by Ezra that worked to our advantage, placing all the major game players inside that one apartment.

Capturing Misery Castle
will put everyone in one central location with our people watching their every move.

I’m your biggest Fan
. I’ll follow you until you love me. Paparazzi:

Everyone is in The Edge
Building through no fault of their own. Ezra’s brilliant plan backfired. Paparazzi descended on Restraint’s Masters causing them to scatter like cockroaches from the light. Most ended up at Edge, a handful at the Brownstone, and many fled back to Misery Castle. One unfortunate side-effect is that when Paparazzi get into your shit, it splatters on your professional life. Marcus, Dexter, and Regina were hit the hardest.

Only
reason Ezra still breathes, not once was my identity revealed.

Plans that quickly
turned to a clusterfuck of shit: As predicted by Zane.

Operation Chaos:

Wil, Julio, and my mother staged fake fights. My mother, while in her late forties, can pass for a woman in her early thirties. Wil, he is so innocuous that you have no idea how old he is. They entered Restraint as an unhappy couple, and Julio stepped up to be the hero. We used this strategy several times over, with excellent, chaotic results. Regina and co. were working their tails off to keep up with the trio or chaos-creators. Wil had had to use five or six different identities because Regina keeps tossing his ass out the side door to the alley and calling the police.

Sounds successful, right?

Wrong.

Ezra is no fool with his surveillance. Noting Wil as the troublemaker, he upped the ante. Forget a slap to the cheek or a dumped drink in your face.
Can you run a club without employees
combined with
operation chaos
created the perfect storm. With no security, Ez dropped a motherfucking bomb in the middle of the dance floor- not a literal bomb, but he might as well have.

Riots.
Riots.
And more Riots.

Ez not only created chaos
, he created a stew that had left injured, maimed, and molested patrons all over the club. The last straw was when the club was being run by every member of Restraint. Ezra unleashed a devastating riot that had my sister prone on the ground with two guys trying to rape her. I had a concussion from my skull making contact with the bar. Regina almost killed one of the men, and both attackers were permanently impaired.

This led to the closing of Restraint, which led to its rehab and
grand reopening. 

Dalton: the good, the bad, and the Oh My Fucking God:

Dalton, if I could bleed for him, I would. He was impacted in so many ways by Ezra’s exploitations- too many ways to list.

Dalton felt responsible for the information leaks within Restraint, not realizing he was helping the greater good. A devastating guilt washed over Dalton, and only Dexter’s sadism could diminish the pain.

One riot was a ruse, a distraction from the greater scheme. Dalton was tied to a rack in the middle of the dungeon and beaten. This event culminated into so many pivotal events: from my mother’s mutilation to Dalton believing his mother, not only hated him and his sister, but wished him dead.

A group of men
were beating Dalton, and when our members tried to intervene, they in turn started a brawl between the members and the insurgents. Once cooler heads prevailed, the bastards, knowing who was who because Ez hired them, turned the tables on Julio, Wil, and Gwen. Caleb, having to go along with it, improvised.

Dalton ended up in bed, passed out, while Dexter and Regina handled the shit-storm. I had to sit idly by and watch my husband, my mother, my self-appointed brother, and my bodyguard get interrogated by my mentor and friend. The beaters pinned the entire thing on my
husband and mother, and all my family could do was go with it or chance exposing the game.

During the interrogation Wil admitted his real name and my mother reinvented herself into Sarina. But this was only after Dexter started hacking off parts of my mother’s perfect flesh. Wil would’ve admitted he was an alien life form to save Gwen.

After Gwen was admitted to the hospital for shock and maiming, Wil and I spent the night puking our guts up from distress and shock, with Caleb profusely apologizing and wiping our brows.

A few good things came about from that insanity: Wil and Caleb, a
.k.a., Levi and Gunner, were brought into the inner-sanctum by Regina and Dexter. It didn’t matter that Roarke and Aaron had a fit, because here was Restraint without viable security and our people were being hounded by the paparazzi. Ezra had no choice but to surrender to our people invading his privacy.

Gwen found a strength I didn’t know she was capable.
My mother is now Restraint’s newest bartender, Sarina, Mistress-in-training, and missing a portion of her left pinky finger, just above the top knuckle.

Dalton, after all the torment and torture, finally found love with my baby brother, Whitt. There is a perfect symmetry with my soulmate’s brother becoming my brother’s soulmate.

The Game Master of Misery Castle:

A thrill of excitement flows through the crowd as we embark on a new adventure. The capture of Misery Castle is not the tale of a long-lost King reclaiming his birthright. It is the beginning of the end. They will be trapped within the confines of that great and looming mansion, and the only way to get out, is to play the game.

~Chapter One-Hundred-Six~

“What are you smiling about?” Aaron asks me, as
we lounge on the limestone front steps of Misery Castle. I bask in the warm glow of the midday sun. The members of Restraint are scattered around, and most within earshot.

“Oh, no reason, really,” I flawlessly lie, but my satisfied smirk no doubt gives me away.
Aaron scowls at me, clearly frustrated that I refuse to let him in.

How do you beat someone at their own game? You don’t. You can never be
a step ahead of someone when it’s
their
game that is housed within their mad mind. You win by creating your own game, and maneuvering them into position.

... And who would have believed that it was three hormonal teenaged boys that came up with the plan.
Watching the boys pretend to share, while Niel was in all actuality blocking Zane and Tori from the girls, gave me an idea. But it was Torian’s tenacity that proved the most inspirational.

We’d been taking and taking and
taking from Ezra, because that’s what he’s doing to us. What happens when you stop taking and start giving? We shall see.

Right now, we’re all improving our tans or sitting on the sweltering bus while Niel changes the game. Whitt is in the Whittenhower Study signing his life away to Daniel. With Niel’s help, the game will be introduced. He is breaking no rules because everyone involved is in the game, whether they know it or not. He’s going to send them on a wild goose chase. I just need the game on their radar,
and Ezra will inadvertently do the rest.

“You’re up to something,” Aaron says me. How a man as large as
Aaron can pout, is beyond me. His bottom lip curls down, making him look like the young boy I once knew, not the beast of a man with a gentle heart.

“No. But you sure sound awfully guilty, my friend. What dirty work are you doing for Ez today?” I stretch like a well-contented cat and
widely yawn.

Aaron and I both look to his Master. Ez and Katya are sitting beneath a shade tree in Whittenhower Estate’s front lawn
- several feet separating the pair. Ez watches Cortez and the children as they play catch with a pinecone. Little Ez’s delighted giggle when his palms connect with a catch is pure music for the wounded soul.

Katya looks uncomfortable around them all
, unsure of how she fits into their group. But it’s Ezra that looks downright miserable. His stormy gray eyes are red-rimmed as if he could cry at any second. Losing your family home will do that to you; especially if it’s the home you and your partner were born in and spent the best years of your lives together. I’m sure the Ezes will miss the woods where their special tent rests. I imagine they believed their children would run in those same woods and camp out in that tent. A lot of memories reside in ShadowHaven, even for me. It’s why I own it, and it will be placed in Zane’s name on his eighteenth birthday. It’s up to Zane to decide if his father deserves his house back.

Am I being cruel? No, I don’t think so. Actions have consequences, and that trio beneath the shade tree never thinks twice about their action before they do what feels good… and it’s always those around them that
suffer- Zane, Ava, Azriel, and little Ezra.

I’ve lived a hard life- a life
that has even harder decisions and the hardest of consequences. My life has given me the clarity to see what I am and accept it. Those three fucked up lives that are fucking up even more lives, live in an altered state of reality, and not a one of them ever takes responsibility for their actions.

“You haven’t helped him, you know?” I say to Aaron.
Emotions get clogged in my throat. “You’ve gotten your life together. You and Kayla are good together. Don’t let Ez shit all over your happiness because he’s miserable. If people would’ve told him how it was, he wouldn’t behave how he does. He was a spoiled brat at twelve, and he’s still throwing an epic twenty-year tantrum.”

“I just do what I’m told,” Aaron
defensively says, as if he says that statement multiple times a day. But he’s exhausted by it, and doesn’t believe in it anymore.

“Sometimes you disrespect your master by doing what y
ou know is wrong, when they are too blind to see that it’s not right.”

“I’m not in the mood for riddles,” Aaro
n sounds defeated. “Ezra has no plays in motion. You can rest easy… but can he?”

“I haven’t rested easily since I was a baby, so it would be wise if Ez didn’t either,” I warn
, standing up. “Later- the sadist in me needs to set up an appointment with our resident masochist,” total bullshit. I just had to get away from Aaron and his puppy dog eyes. Ezra is in the wrong, no one can dispute that. But two minutes with Aaron and I’m the one that feels guilty.

Dalton longingly gazes at the huge dou
ble doors that are the main entrance to Whittenhower Estates. He leans on a gargoyle statue, his body resembling the stone mythological creature. His shrunken shoulders are slumped inwards as if he’s lost and trying to comfort himself. His head is bowed, hair falling to cover the beauty of his face and the emotions that lurk beneath.

N
o doubt Dalton feels frozen out of Whitt’s life. If the person who said they wished to spend the rest of their life with you had carried their wife over the threshold and left you on the outside looking in, you’d dream of stabbing the bitch.

I love Regina, but Dalton ain’t feeling her right now.

“Advice,” I murmur, scaring the kid. Dalton makes a squeak noise and jumps a few inches. No one ever hears or sees me coming. I just don’t understand why they don’t
feel
me when I’m near. No self-preservation, I guess. I rest a palm on Dalton’s forearm and he instantly calms. Months of Aftercare has taught me that Dalton is a cuddler. “Whitt needs to cut the cord- now.”

“
Yeah… no shit,” Dalton snidely says, his French accent making it sound like he’s hacking up a hairball in disgust. His foreign eyes glare hatred at the manse looming before us. “That cord is made of titanium, and not even a diamond blade will sever it.”

“
I could tell you how to cut it. But I need your help, and it will benefit you as well,” I lure him in.

“
What do I have to do for you to get what I want?” Dalton asks, knowing how I operate, but he sounds intrigued.

“
Break up with Whitt, and I promise it will result in you having him all to yourself.  But I need Whitt to have a layover with Ez. Feel free to enjoy Ez as well. The two of you would be a wonderful distraction for our sexually and affectionately deprived Master.”

“Why the hell would I do that?
I’m in love with Whitt, and I don’t want to share him!” Sometimes Dalton looks just like Spyder when he acts like a jealous teenaged girl. Green eyes glowing with a pissed off light, black hair flying around his head as he aggressively shakes it no.

Dalton is gorgeous in an effeminate way. If he’d get healthy, he would be devastating. But I’m sure Dalton’s wounded
animal aura draws Whitt in as it does every other dominant in the vicinity. We all want to heal and help and coddle the young man.

“It’s no
t sharing if it’s the three of you together,” spills from my mouth out of nowhere, stunning me. “Um… anyway,” I stammer, “you’re treading water. Whitt will never leave Regina unless you make him. Tell him you’re unhappy and have been banging… um… he’d buy Roman as a lover- he’s your buddy, after all. If Whitt is jealous and missing you, you’d be amazed at how far he will chase you.”

“I don’t believe you,” Dalton murmurs, but the calculating glint in his green eyes says I’ve hooked him.

“I think like a girl and a guy, but what I really think like is a dominant. We love the thrill of the chase. Dalton, hate to tell ya this. But right now, you’re being taken for granted. Whitt doesn’t have to chase you, and he isn’t even trying to get to know you. You’re a booty call.”

“Harsh,” Dalton wheezes out.

“Sometimes it takes harsh to get through to somebody,” I flippantly say. “Make Whitt earn it.”

“I’ll break up with my boyfriend,” Dalton’s voice sounds pained, “but I need something from you first. You’ve got something going on- all of you do.”

“I can’t tell you what- not yet anyway. Can I have a rain check for a few months?”

“A rain check and an answer,” Dalton negotiates with surprising ease. “Who is Levi to me?” he sounds like a lost little boy as he looks to the ground, his inky hair covering his eyes.

“Ask your mother,” I quickly say before the secrets spill with the words.

“I did, but I want to hear you say it,” Dalton demands
, angrily hissing between his clenched teeth.

“Levi is your mother’s first born,” I reluctantly answer, and instantly know I just f
ucked up. Dalton is stunned- that little bitch just tricked me. “For that, you have two hours to break up with your man,” I order, “or you’ll hate your next ‘therapy’ session.”

“
Thank you for trusting me, Syn,” Dalton mumbles as he stalks towards Misery Castle’s front doors.

“Um, hi!” a quiet but firm voice says
out of nowhere, as I’m tapped on the shoulder. I’d recognize that haughty cadence anywhere- a Whittenhower. I turn around and find Niel’s harem, minus Niel.

“Hello, ladies,” I greet, eyeing the pretty girly girls.
I secretly smile to myself. These ladies are going to ruin my boys. Why does that make me so pleased?

“You look like you know a lot,”
the oldest blonde says. The prim and proper girl must be Whitney, because she is definitely as willfully strong as Niel said, stronger perhaps. “And that you might not like everyone.”

“Strange,” I whisper underneath my breath.
“But not entirely untrue.”

“I need some help- we need some help,” she gestures to the rest of the silent girls
. Their eyes bug-out as they stare at me in awe. The three blondes and their raven-haired Spyder act like they’ve never seen a pierced face before- maybe they haven’t. “We have to find rooms for everyone. But some people,” she growls, staring across the lawn to Ez and his family, “I don’t want near other people. We need help keeping everyone apart and uncomfortable. I don’t want these people in my house for too long.”