Page 25 of Capturing the Ruthless Billionaires

She needed the cape. Without Cara seeing, she’d spotted a pocketknife in the room and slipped it into the pocket of the cape. Without a weapon of some sort in her, she would be powerless.

Slade bent his knees and lowered himself to her level.

“We would prefer if we didn’t start the evening by pining you over the armrest of a chair, burning through your dress to bare your ass, spanking your ass, and then plugging your hole with this,” Slade said as Cian handed him what looked like a dragon’s head with a dome-shaped body.

She wasn’t that naive not to know it. The bottom part resembled a butt plug.

“We’ll leave that for later, but for now, will you get up off the floor, take a seat at the table, and indulge in the feast our chef had spent the whole afternoon preparing, without the cape?”

What choice did she have?

She rose from the floor and stiffly walked over to the table. She hadn’t eaten the entire day, her stomach full of nerves, apprehension, worry, and sadness.

Cian pulled out the chair for her, and she sat down, keeping her body rigid and her mind clear. They were not going to outwit her.

“Eat,” Slade ordered her. Giving him an unapologetic glare, she picked up her spoon, dipped it into the soup, and brought it to her mouth. Without eating themselves, they watched her, and she couldn’t be bothered anymore. She needed some sustenance, and the soup was amazing, and the bread rolls were perfect.

But her stomach had shrunk from being in the dungeon, and she couldn’t eat anymore. But when she looked for something to drink, she found she didn’t have a glass of her own.

“Professor,” Lachlan said, and a man she hadn’t seen before came out of the shadows with a dragon-shaped goblet in his hand. He was dressed in a robe, with a dragon insignia. While she had tried everything, she hadn’t overeaten to the point of feeling sluggish. Her stomach wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Not another robed man and a dragon goblet. Oh no.

God, she couldn’t do another ritual. The last one had destroyed her and had made her believe that no other men could touch her because of the way they had touched her. Her logic was so flawed, that she wanted to cry.

“My lady,” the robed man said, placing the goblet in front of her. She would again rather throw herself into that raging fire over there than drink anything that looked that suspicious.

“Just tell me what you’re going to do to me.”

“A ritual. But a dragon one this time,” Lachlan said, taking a sip of his Scotch. “Drink up, pretty girl.”

“Please don’t make me do this. I didn’t want to do the ritual. I wanted to escape. I was on the pill. There is no way I could be pregnant. You have no ties with me. Let me go, please.”

“You were on the pill? Interesting.” Cian stroked his jaw.

“When was the last time you took it?” Lachlan asked.

“Five days ago. You have no ties with me. You can let me go.”

“On the contrary, it just means we have to keep fucking you until you're pregnant, Alexandria.” Slade’s words broke her. He was still playing with the dragon-headed butt plug, the one he had promised to put in her ass. He flipped it over again and again, not caring how this was affecting her.

No. No. No. She couldn’t let them touch her.

“Why? So you can record all that and send the footage to my parents and the councilmen, and then what? What is that going to get you? In case you weren’t aware, you kidnapped me out of a dungeon where I was held prisoner for helping my sisters,” she emphasized the word sisters because Cara would always be her sister as well, “escape. And you. I was awaiting my sentence, which would probably be death or being cast out to the monastery, where I'd clean toilets for the rest of my life.

“So you see, if you think you can use me as collateral damage against my family and Swan House, they pretty much won’t care whether I live or die.”

“You think that’s our plan?” Cian asked.

“What else could it be?”

“We want world dominance, little princess,” Lachlan said.

“As we speak, all Swan House shares have crashed,” Slade said. “The six billion debt they have has been called in, incidentally, by a financial institution that we just purchased yesterday, so everything that belongs to anyone by the name of Swan belongs to us.”

“Every single person with the name Swan will have nothing. No houses, no cars, no savings. Your parents will be using their last hundred dollars at a cheap hotel tomorrow night. No Swan will be left unchallenged.” Cian continued. “We’re still deciding whether we’re going to kill everyone in your family or just your parents and the councilmen.”

Blood drummed in her ear and in her head. Rhea. She was safe. They couldn’t possibly know where she was.

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