THE DARK

CHAPTER FOUR

THE DARK~

JASMINE VALE

I didn’t know where he was taking me.

The only thing I knew for certain was that I didn’t want to go but had no choice.

The man was a beast. The kind I had never wanted and never thought I'd come to know.

I rubbed my ass on the soft lush leather of his expensive car.

The car roared to life whenever he grabbed the steering hard or swerved to another lane.

I sat rigid in the back seat, hands clenched in my lap.

I kept my eyes on the blur outside the window, but it offered no comfort—just more darkness and distance from everything familiar.

I felt sick.

Not the kind of sick that a peppermint or deep breath could fix. This sickness sat in my belly like a weight, twisting with every turn of the wheel.

Dread. That’s what it was. Cold, crawling dread.

Dormani didn’t say a word. I didn't even want him to but each time I glanced at him, I'd recall how easy it was for him to take a life.

I didn't even know the man, but I had seen him take a life... twice.

He drove like a man who didn’t need to explain himself—like someone used to people obeying in silence.

My pulse hammered in my ears. I wanted to scream at him, ask what he was doing.

Demand he stop the car and let me out but something about him—about the way he gripped the wheel, the quiet intensity in his profile—made my voice die in my throat.

He didn't even think twice when he pushed me onto his knee and wreck my ass.

I was still sore but feeling a little better.

He had actually put his hands on my...ass.

My ass!

We passed the city limits ten minutes ago, and I hadn’t seen another car in five. Buildings had given way to tall, stretching trees and shadowy fields.

Civilization was a fading memory in the rearview mirror.

"Where are we going?" I finally whispered, more to myself than him.

One minute.

Another.... And another.

He didn’t answer.

Of course, he wouldn't. He hadn't said a word ever since we walked out of my apartment.

I pressed my back against the seat and forced myself to breathe. Whatever this was, I had to survive it.

I had to be smart. Panicking wouldn’t help—not with a man like him.

I was yet to know why and where he was taking me.

I didn't do anything. CG or whatever his name was had followed me to my home and talked about Dax.

I had figured that Dax would be the same man, Dormani had shot that night.

"Dax is dead because of you, whore."

Because of me?

I wasn't the one who pulled the trigger, and I never told the man to do so either.

I would never take a life. I was not a murderer.

I heaved a deep breath and relaxed back on the chair.

••

Eventually, the car turned onto a narrow gravel path that cracked beneath the tires. There were no street lights here, only the car’s headlights slicing through the pitch-black ahead. My stomach tightened even more.

Then I saw it.

The house.

More like a Castle.

It stood alone, like it had been dropped into the forest from another world.

Enormous, old, and dark.

The kind of place that didn’t welcome guests—it warned them.

Stone walls rose up in jagged lines, the entire property wrapped in shadows and darkness like they belonged to it.

He parked.

The silence after the engine cut off was deafening.

I didn’t move.

Neither did he.

Then, finally, he got out and opened my door. I didn’t look at him.

I stepped out slowly, heart pounding so loudly it drowned out the sound of the wind.

“You brought me all the way here to what?” I asked, my voice sharper than I expected. “Kill me? I didn't do anything."

His eyes met mine.

“If I wanted to kill you, Mia bambina." He said calmly, “You’d already be dead.”

The chill that ran down my spine had nothing to do with the night air.

He turned and walked toward the house.

No answer.

No explanation.

Just the silent command that I follow.

And, God help me, I did.

Armed men lined up through the front door and around the corners and perimeter of the house. They didn't look friendly not even a smile.

"My name is Jasmine, not Mia bambina." I cut through the silence as we walked through the hallway.

We walked upstairs, and there were still men stationed in the hallway, each with a gun long enough to take my height.

"This will be your room."

"How long will I be here? And why I'm I here?"

"Your life is in danger."

"My life is in danger? I don't know why CG or whatever his name was came to do, but I didn't deserve any bit of what happened. I wasn't the reason Dax died, that was all you. I want to go home." I said.

He didn't say a word. Just regarded me with those cold eyes.

"Are you done, Mia bambina?"

No, I'm not. I can continue all day." I hissed.

"I don't know you, Mr Dormani. The day I brought Tiramisu to your club was the first day I met you. We don't know each other, but you shot a man dead, and now someone is telling me you did that for me, and I never asked you to do that. If we're being clear here, you're the danger and you're the reason I'm being followed like a rat. Today is the second day we saw each other and you've put me over your knee and spanked me like a damn child! And now I'm in this fucking Castle with you, with no friends, no familiar item...just your brooding cold fucking self, telling me to get inside my room like you're my fucking father and how many times I've I said the word fucking? Fuck!" I cursed.

This was the first time I had cursed so much in my life.

I never did.

Dormani grabbed my neck with his hand and pushed me to the door and stepped forward, till I was pressed into the door with no escape.

I gasped, my eyes dilating as he stepped further, his cold eyes matching my fury.

"How about I put you over my knee for the second time, Mia bambina? Huh? How would that feel? Cause I want to fucking do it again and again, till you can't seat and your ass cheeks bears my fingerprints." He whispered, his fingers trailing a path down my jaw like a sinful trace of wickedness.

"Don't—"

"Stop? Don't worry, Mia bambina. I do not have the intention to stop." He whispered as the door behind me unlocked and staggered backwards and his hand came around me once again.

"I'm going to have to put you over my knee once again." He whispered and Whack!

His hand came down and I gasped.

"Shuussh." He hushed.

"Relax your ass for me Mia bambina, I've just began."

TBC