Page 40 of Keeping Her Under
I kick her in the kidney, then reach down and grab her by the hair. Yanking her into a sitting position as she cries, I drag her towards the back of the house, to where I assume is a bedroom.
“Stop! Stop, please,” she begs, but she got in bed with the dirty fucker who hurt my girl. There will be no mercy for her.
Her feet kick the tattered lino. Her hands fight at mine, but she’s too weak to stop me.
When I reach her bedroom, I let go of her and step back. She instantly tries to climb to her feet, but I shove her again, this time toppling her onto the bed. I climb on top of her and wrestle her up the crumpled sheets.
“Please… please don’t,” she cries.
My cock grows hard as she squirms against me. Anger turns my vision red. Even though everything about this fucking bitch disgusts me, my body is still responding.
Sitting up, I punch her in the face.
She instantly stills on a whimper.
But I hit her again.
And again.
And again.
Taking out all my self-fury on her until Asher pulls me off.
I breathe heavily as I turn to face him. He looks at me with too much understanding. This isn’t the first time he’s had to reign me back in. He knows the thoughts in my head. Knows the demons that seek to pull me down just as easily as those men did my pants.
“It’s okay,” he says as he squeezes my shoulder. “Let me take it from here.” He places the remote for the collar in my shaking hand. “Help me keep an eye on him, will you?”
I nod stiffly. I look down and see the blood from her busted cheek on my leather glove. Then I look at my hard cock pushing against my pants. Gritting my teeth, I conjure up the image of the S branded into my flesh, using it to calm the rest of me down. Summer is here for me, protecting me just like I am protecting her.
Finding my control again, I move away from the bed and watch my cousin at work.
Twenty-Four
“Here, let me see your face,” Asher says as he sits on the edge of the bed and tilts her chin to the side. In his other hand, resting on his lap, is the gun we took to Ryan’s. She whimpers as she tries to turn away, but there’s nowhere for her to go. “It’ll heal,” he reassures her, his voice soft and caring.
She breathes out shakily.
“Unless, of course, you die today.” He says it so casually, it takes her a moment to register. Then she starts to cry.
“But the choice is yours. You can either do what we say and not get hit again, or you can get beat to death in your own bed.”
“And then fed to the dogs out back,” I add.
Asher glances over at me, a question in his eyes. Then he shrugs and looks back at her. “And that.”
She starts to cry harder, pure terror in her sobs. She knows damn well what those dogs are capable of. Their barks and snarls get louder. The sounds of their chains snap harder against whatever they are tied to. A shiver runs down my spine at the thought of them breaking free. I doubt they’re small dogs we can run from, and Asher is the only one with a gun.
“Shhh,” he says as he strokes the side of her face that isn’t bleeding from my punches. “You have all the control. But first you need to stop crying so you can hear your choices.”
She tries to choke down her sobs. “What… what do you… wa-want from me?”
“It’s not what I want, love. It’s what you want.”
“What… what do you mean?”
“I don’t care if you live or die today. That choice is yours.”
“I want to live!” she cries, hiccuping and sobbing hard.
