Page 16 of The Devils' Darling

He nods and jerks his gun toward a door at the end of the hallway. “Down the stairs.”

I walk toward them, my heart pounding as I descend the stairs into the basement. My fucking father and his love of basements.

But my fear of the dark and small places is eclipsed by what greets me.

Mackenzie is on her knees, locked inside a large cage. She’s naked from the waist up, collared, and chained by her throat to the bars. There’s a bandage around her upper arm, and dark blood spots seep through the white.

My soul breaks in two.

I stare at her, and she looks up at me. All I see is despair. I hold her gaze, trying to show her with my eyes that I love her so fucking much.

Something else catches my eye. Inside the cage with her are two metal bowls.

The sight of them propels me back in time, to when I was a child and it was me in that cage. The impact on me is so strong, it’s as though someone’s just shot a syringe of adrenaline into my heart. The dank basement seems to pull away for a moment, and, for one crazy moment, I think I might pass the fuck out. I fight to control my breathing and regulate my heartbeat, and gradually I come back fully into the room.

I’m not a child anymore. I’m a grown man, and I need to handle my shit for Mackenzie’s sake.

I want to go and cover her, but I can’t show even a hint of weakness to my father. He’ll kill me if I do, and then he’ll fuck Mackenzie himself.

“Igor is indisposed,” I say to Grigoriy as he regards me coldly.

The guard, Rufus, has also followed me down the stairs. He has his gun on Mack, not me.

My father raises an eyebrow. “You got here quickly. You really hate the idea of your old man touching your woman that much, huh?”

“Yes,” I say simply. “She’s mine, not yours.”

“Fine.” He jerks his chin. “Then fuck her. Make her have your child.”

“She’s on birth control,” I say.

He gives a sly smile. “Not anymore.”

So that’s what the bandage is for. The son of a bitch cut out her implant. He’s a fucking monster.

“It could still take weeks for her to get pregnant,” I say incredulously. “People will be looking for us.”

“Breed her, or I fucking will. Then you will marry her as soon as I can get a priest here. Once you and she are married, no one can put a stop to it, or do anything about it. It’s the way things work in our world. You know that.”

I stare at him in horror.

My father laughs. “Now, I see you think I am sick. Maybe I am, but not so sick I want to watch my son fuck his little kitten. I’ll leave you with Rufus here, and Vadim.”

I turn to see a second man has entered the room. Vadim is one of my father’s most dangerous guards. His soul is pitch black and his anger management non-existent. When I was younger, I thought there was something supernatural about him because of the paleness of his eyes.

“If my son fails to mount his kitten,” my father commands them both, “feel free to shoot him and let me know so I can do the job properly.”

My father stands and slaps me on the back.

“Have fun, son. She’s a gorgeous little pussy cat.”

Then he leaves the basement, and I turn to face Mackenzie, dread balling in my stomach.

Chapter 7

Mackenzie

I wrap my fingers around the bars and stare out at Kirill.

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