Chapter 3: The Game Begins

My mother's heels clicked against marble, each step a countdown to disaster.

Julian's fingers were still inside me. Silas's hand was still clamped over my mouth. And Mom was maybe thirty seconds away from walking into this office and finding her daughter naked on her employer's desk.

"Elena? Sweetheart, are you up here?" Her voice was closer now, right outside in the hallway.

Silas's eyes locked onto mine. He didn't look worried. He looked interested — like this was all just another variable in an equation he was solving 

"Julian," he said quietly. "Under the desk. Now."

For a second, I thought Julian might refuse. His jaw clenched, and something dangerous flashed in his eyes. But then his fingers withdrew from me — slowly, deliberately — and he dropped to his knees, disappearing into the shadows beneath the massive desk.

Silas moved faster than I thought possible. He grabbed my dress from the floor and shoved it into my hands, then positioned himself behind the door just as it started to open.

I barely had time to yank the fabric over my head before my mother walked in.

"Oh! There you are." She smiled, her cheeks flushed from wine. "I've been looking everywhere. Silas wanted to give us a tour of the—" Her gaze landed on me, and her smile faltered. "Honey, are you okay? You look flushed."

"I'm fine." My voice came out too high. "Just felt a bit dizzy, so I sat down for a minute."

She stepped closer, and I heard Julian shift beneath the desk. If she came around to this side, if she looked down—

"You should have said something. Silas could have—" She turned, finally noticing him standing by the door. "Oh! I didn't see you there."

"I heard her call out," Silas said smoothly, stepping forward. "Came to check on her. She seems a bit overwhelmed by the move."

"She gets like this sometimes," Mom said, reaching out to touch my forehead. Her hand was cool against my overheated skin. "Sensory overload. Too many new things at once."

Beneath the desk, I felt Julian's hand slide up my calf. Slowly. A warning or a promise — I couldn't tell which.

"Why don't you go back to the party, Martha?" Silas suggested. "I'll make sure Elena gets settled in her room. We wouldn't want her to feel uncomfortable her first night here."

"Are you sure? I can—"

"I insist." His tone left no room for argument.

Mom hesitated, looking between us. For one horrible moment, I thought she saw something — some evidence of what had just happened. But then she smiled and squeezed my shoulder.

"Get some rest, sweetheart. We'll talk in the morning." She kissed my forehead and headed for the door, pausing at the threshold. "Thank you, Silas. For everything."

"Of course."

The door closed. Her footsteps faded down the hall.

None of us moved for a long moment. Then Julian crawled out from under the desk, and the look on his face made my stomach flip.

"That was close," I whispered.

"That was fucking hot," Julian corrected. His hand was back between my thighs before I could react, fingers finding me still wet, still ready. "You almost got caught with my fingers inside you, and you're even more soaked now than you were before."

"We're not finished," Silas said, locking the door again. This time, he turned off the overhead lights, leaving only the glow from the monitors. "Not even close."

He walked over to the desk, and I saw something in his hand. A phone.

My phone.

"How did you—"

"You left it on your bed." He tapped the screen. "Unlocked. Very careless, Elena."

My blood ran cold. "What are you doing?"

"Making sure you understand the stakes." He turned the screen toward me. It showed my text messages with Jess, my roommate. "One message from me, and she'll think you're asking her to come visit this weekend. Imagine what could happen if she saw something she shouldn't. If she became another loose end we had to deal with."

"You wouldn't—"

"I would." His voice was matter-of-fact. "But I won't need to, as long as you remember what you agreed to. You're ours now, Elena. Every part of you. And that means we control what you see, where you go, who you talk to."

Julian's fingers pushed deeper, curling inside me. "Starting right now."

"Wait—" But the protest died in my throat as pleasure sparked through my body.

"No more waiting," Silas said. He set my phone down and started unbuckling his belt. "You made your choice. Now you live with it."

The sound of his zipper was impossibly loud in the quiet room.

"On your knees," he commanded. "And open your mouth."

I should have refused. Should have said the word "red" and ended this nightmare.

Instead, I slid off the desk and dropped to my knees on the cold floor.

Behind me, Julian made a satisfied sound. His hands gripped my hips, pulling them up, positioning me.

"Good girl," Silas murmured, his hand threading through my hair. "Now show me how much you want to keep your mother safe."

The first thing I tasted was salt and power and everything I should have been running from.

And then Julian pushed into me from behind, and I couldn't think about anything except the way they were taking me apart between them.

Two hours later...

I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling, my body aching in places I'd never ached before.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand. Against my better judgment, I picked it up.

Two new messages.

Tomorrow, 7 AM. My office. Don't be late. - S

Sleep tight, Elena. Dream about us. Because we'll be dreaming about all the ways we're going to use you tomorrow. - J

I set the phone down with shaking hands.

Outside my door, I heard footsteps. They paused. A shadow appeared in the gap beneath the door.

Then kept walking.

I pulled the covers up to my chin, even though I knew they wouldn't protect me from anything. Not anymore.

Downstairs, I could hear my mother laughing with Silas's business partners, toasting to new beginnings.

She had no idea her daughter had just sold her soul to keep that laughter alive.

My phone buzzed again. Another message from an unknown number.

PS - We installed cameras in your room while you were in the shower. Smile for us, beautiful. We're watching.

I looked up at the ceiling, at the smoke detector that suddenly looked wrong.

And realized with perfect, terrible clarity that the nightmare wasn't ending.

It was just beginning.