Page 33 of Twisted

Rancho smoothed his palms together, seemingly waiting for more, as though he knew this man could not resist a certain temptation. Finally, the behemoth spoke, his words full of a kind of awed hope.

“What is the weakness?”

“A daughter.”

A slow, small hint of a smile quirked the man’s lips, but it never fully formed. Jaeger wondered if he’d ever learned to smile. It was just as quickly gone, and those black, all consuming orbs met Jaeger’s again, only this time, he seemed to study him much more closely, and when he was done, he frowned.

“Take the kid back to work.”

“Sure thing, El Diablo,” Rancho said with a heavy sigh as he stood. A small huff of a chuckle escaped the man’s thick lips. Jaeger was shocked. Perhaps he and Rancho had been friends for longer than anyone realized. Rancho gripped his arm, towing him back toward the doors, but Jaeger stopped, eyes on his new idol. If he was going to be just like him, he needed something to cling to, a memento of this meeting.

“What’s your name, sir?”

Rancho’s grip on his arm tightened in quiet admonishment, but the man shook his head, eyes on his letter as his pen scribbled. There was still that hint of a smile on his face. When his eyes bounced up that final time, Jaeger could see the malice that danced there, and it chilled him to his core. He was in the presence of pure evil incarnate.

“Hades,” he said simply.

Maisie

Present Day

Jaeger was warm. Despite the hot summer day, the night had grown chilly. A soft whimper escaped Maisie’s lips as he gently carried her back toward his cabin. She had no strength left in her, no attainable thought in her head. He’d stripped her of everything in the matter of a day, had somehow figured out how to get her to comply, all the while giving her climax after climax until her sex throbbed a steady beat.

Head resting on his shoulder, arms around his neck to aid in his carrying, she wavered in and out of sleep; she was exhausted. Each rough step over a log or rock that jarred her peace sent shockwaves of aching pain through her. She whimpered again, hating how pathetic she sounded, but for as broken as she felt, she didn’t care.

“Almost home, baby,” his gentle, deep voice soothed. Home. Such a strange notion. Home to her was her room at her parents’ house. She’d thought she’d make a home with Carter in Charlotte, but time after time, he’d kick her out, forcing her to leave her keys behind. She used to sob when he did that, plead with him to see reason, that she wasn’t as much of a fuck up as he made her out to be. Eventually Carter would relent, the monster slinking back into its cave to fight another day.

Maisie had no home.

She had nothing.

Nothing, save for some strange symbol carved into her hip. Nothing except this man’s arms around her. Nothing but fear of the unknown anymore. It was making her crazy.

“Quit thinkin’ so loud,” Jaeger mumbled, a teasing note to his voice. God, he was confusing, able to go from stoic-torturer to amazing lover to soft and gentle and compassionate. She wasn’t sure which side she favored yet, but as her cunt rippled again with a remnant of her latest orgasm, she had a pretty good idea.

Chewing her lip, she breathed in deep, his scent familiar now. Leather and tobacco, but also the exhaust from a motorcycle. She knew the scent well; her father used to have dirt bikes and the like. Before she could think to potentially steal any form of transportation, the idea was shot down. She had no idea where she was anymore.

“Gonna get you cleaned up and patched up,” he said, and her feet stung at the mention of her other injuries. She’d twisted her ankle between a moss-covered rock and an old log, and she’d tripped about a thousand times, marking up her hands and elbows and knees, but her feet hurt the worst.

“Think I—” a yawn forced its way past her lips mid-sentence “—stepped in nettle.”

His answering chuckle rumbled through him, and he held her tighter. She could at least admit to herself that this felt nice—this being held close after such intense sex. Her and Carter never had passionate relations, and he’d never cuddled her after, so it was easy to understand why her heart was singing at the moment. There was something quietly powerful about Jaeger, knowing he was so dangerous and calculated. She felt safe in his arms, out in the woods at night.

“Good thing I got calamine,” he jested, peeking down at her for a moment. His eyes glinted gold in the moonlight, complimenting the way hers turned silver in the pale tendrils of the moon’s beams. He was smiling that damn boyish smile, the kind the rebellious kids in high school wore. Self assured, cocky, but able to back it up. And there was a sweetness to it, too, something she’d missed because she’d initially hated him.

It gutted her, how she realized she didn’t hate him, not really. She hated three people in this world, and they were gone and could never hurt her again. Jaeger, even with all the mystery surrounding him, didn’t seem the type to take joy in pointless pain.

Up ahead, lights flickered through the gaps in the trees. It stilled her heart; she’d not paused to gaze at the ethereal beauty of his cabin as she’d escaped from it, but as they broke through the last of the brambles, a small smile lit her face. It was quaint, half smooth boulders on the bottom, half log on the top, with a deep green tin roof and a covered front porch. String lights hung fastened to the gutters and wrapped around the log beams supporting the porch cover. The front door matched the roof in its earthy green tone.

Everything about this place was peaceful, serene, quiet. The lull of the crickets sang to her, and her eyes grew heavy. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in that huge four poster bed she’d seen in his room, but she’d even take the worn, squishy leather couch at this point.

“It’s…beautiful,” she whispered, unable to stop herself. Their eyes locked briefly, and she studied the planes of his face in the glow of the lights. Behind him, a few lightning bugs flitted by, lazy and blinking. When he smiled down at her, it was lopsided, lips bracketed by those curved lines. He looked less sinister when he gave her a grin, and it made her heart beat a painful clench in her tired chest. His dirty blond hair was tied back as usual, but it was springing loose about his summer-tanned face from their most recent…activities.

“Glad ya think so. Worked my ass off to get it up and runnin’,” he said, setting forward again. As soon as his boots hit the porch, Maisie’s gut churned, and she wriggled in his arms, panicking but not understanding why. Her once calm breathing turned rapid, her pulse jumping erratically.

“Put…put me down!” she breathed, voice rising in her angst. Jaeger ignored her, and she felt them both descend as he sank into an Adirondack chair near the front window on the porch. Shifting her in his lap so he was hugging her from behind, he forced her to sit still as tears pricked her eyes and her heart beat a staccato rhythm.

“Jaeg…Jaeger—”

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