Tag: suspense

 

Mekhi had never before in his life seen so much blood pouring out of one person.

The pain in her stomach was excruciating.

The only thing stopping her from passing out was fear for Mekhi. His crazy brother, Damian, had attacked him while they had been in the shower.

They had been kissing, on the brink of making love, when all of a sudden Mekhi had slumped to the floor. The water had run red with his blood, and for one horrifying moment Alayna had thought that he was dead.

He wasn’t.

But now he was lying, beaten, on the floor, forced to watch his brother torture her.

She did her best to hold back her screams, aware of how much they agitated Mekhi. She was worried that at any second he was going to launch himself at his brother and his brother’s men and wind up getting himself killed.

Her vision started to go hazy. The world around her started to spin. Alayna clung to consciousness, she was terrified of what Damian was going to do to her if she passed out. He’d said she belonged to the family now. Did that mean that Mekhi’s brothers and father intended to rape her? Were they going to keep her prisoner here? Were they going to hurt her like Damian was right now? Was this why Mekhi had locked her in that box, was he just trying to protect her from his family?

All those questions made her dizzy.

Just when she started to teeter on the edge of consciousness the world erupted into gunfire.

Gunfire.

Mekhi.

Where was he? Was he hurt?

Strong hands gripped her arms and started to pull her away. She had no idea who it was and she fought against them as hard as she could.

“I suggest you sit,” a gentle voice instructed, guiding her down to the floor.

“Mekhi?” she asked, desperately.

His face appeared above her like magic. Only he didn’t look relieved, or happy, or even angry. He looked terrified.

Was something wrong?

Alayna never got a chance to ask because pain engulfed her and she slipped away.

Something was wrong.

He knew it, he just couldn’t figure out what.

Where was Alayna? That was Mekhi’s only concern. He didn’t care about himself, he didn’t care about anything, so long as she was safe that was all that mattered.

“Are you awake yet?” a voice demanded as someone kicked him in the ribs.

Sucking in a painful breath, Mekhi opened his eyes. He was naked and lying on the floor of his bedroom. His brother stood over him. A few feet away was Alayna. She was naked too, and held between two of his brother’s men. Her blue eyes were wide with fear, but not for herself, for him.

His girl might look fragile, her delicate features and pale skin made her look like a porcelain doll. She couldn’t get a tan to save her life. He knew this because the trip they’d taken to the Caribbean they’d spent hours lying out on the beach and by the pool as Alayna tried vainly to get her milky white skin to darken. Instead she’d come home every bit as pale as when they’d left. But his little china doll was anything but fragile. If she was he would never have fallen for her. She would hold it together until he got them out of this. And he would get them out of this.

For the life of him he couldn’t remember his brother entering his room. The last thing he could recall he and Alayna had been in the shower. The raging headache that centred in the back of his head, and the stickiness he could fell all down his neck said that he’d been knocked out, the blow had obviously taken his memories along with it.

“I see you’ve been hiding such a pretty thing from us,” his brother said as he went to Alayna and trailed a hand across her smooth stomach and up to her breasts, circling them slowly. Alayna squirmed. trying to get away from his hands, but there was nowhere for her to go.

Anger coursed through him. How dare his brother lay a hand on his girl. “Stay away from her,” Mekhi snarled.

His brother just smirked. “You know we share in this family. What’s yours is mine.” He crushed his lips against Alayna’s and she struggled harder.

He saw red.

This was exactly why he had feared for Alayna’s safety when they started dating. His brother was a much bigger monster than he could ever be, and the things he would do to Alayna would end up destroying her.

“Let her go, Damian,” he growled, his voice gone low and feral. No one hurt his girl.

“Uh, uh, uh,” Damian chuckled. “She’s ours, and since you seem to have had your fill of her its my turn.”

He shouldn’t have stayed here last night. He knew his brother was on to him. He should have grabbed Alayna and fled, only he thought he had enough time. He thought he’d assuaged his brother’s concerns long enough to gain the upper hand.

But he had been wrong.

And now Alayna was going to pay the price.

“Cross stitch or blanket stitch?” his brother sneered as he held up the large needle threaded with thick black thread.

“Touch her and die,” Mekhi snarled. A long, slow, excruciating death. He would have launched himself at his brother, but Damian could be unpredictable, and he had a head injury, he couldn’t risk Alayna being caught in the cross fire.

“I’m just going to make sure she grasps the situation. She’s ours now. She belongs to the family. To all of us. I can do to her whatever I please.” Damian was going to sew the word ‘ours’ into her stomach. He did it to all the girls unfortunate enough to find themselves in his clutches. And unfortunately for Alayna this wasn’t the worst thing he was going to do to her.

For as long as he lived, Mekhi would never forget the sounds of Alayna’s screams as the needle pierced her flesh.

Those dark eyes, blacker than black. Alayna couldn’t resist staring into them. She shouldn’t, she knew that, he was dangerous, and he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt her if she made him angry.

And yet . . . he was Mekhi.

She should be afraid of him, and part of her was, but the other part loved him in spite of who he was.

“Do you need help?”

His words ripped her from her thoughts and she quickly shook her head. She may still love him but he had kidnapped her and locked her in a box, and she wasn’t quite ready to forgive him yet.

Stubbornly, she struggled off the bed and to her feet. Her wrists and ankles still burned with pain, it would take weeks for them to heal, and even then there would be scars. How many more scars would Mekhi put on her body? How far would he go next time? Would he end up killing her?

A gentle hand grasped her elbow. “I apologised for putting you in the box, stop sulking about it.”

She rolled her eyes. How generous of Mekhi to give her a whole couple of hours to get over him torturing her.

“I know what I’m doing, Alayna. You might not understand it, but everything I do I do because of you. To keep you safe.” He reached out and swept a lock of hair off her cheek, tucking it tenderly behind her ear.

The constant dichotomy of Mekhi’s two sides was confusing. One second he treated her like she was made of porcelain, the next he was cruel and vicious. He was going to make her lose her mind with this constant back and forth.

He led her into the bathroom and turned on the shower. She still wasn’t wearing any clothes, but he threw off his pants, then guided them both into the shower. The hot water pounding down on her still sore muscles was heaven, and lulled her into a sort of trance. She didn’t object when he lathered up his hands and began to wash her body.

Mekhi worked those magic hands over every inch of her, working out every kink and knot left behind by those hours in the box. When he reached her neck he paused, his hands wrapped around it but he didn’t squeeze, instead he pierced her with his black gaze.

“Trust me, Alayna.”

Vulnerability bloomed in his face, and it was so unlike her strong, arrogant man that she quickly wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed herself against him.

Taking what would probably be the biggest leap of faith of her life, she whispered, “I trust you.” She meant it. She just hoped her trust didn’t end up getting her killed.