LOGINChapter 3
I stared at the folder for a long time after Damien left. I didn’t touch it. I didn’t even breathe. It sat there on the edge of the desk like a loaded gun. Just a few pages of cold, clinical language offering more money than I’d ever seen… in exchange for my body. My silence. My submission. Thirty days. It didn’t sound like much. A month. Four weeks. Just over six hundred hours. But I knew better. Time didn’t move the same when someone else owned your body. It bent. Twisted. Hurt. And yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I took the folder home, buried deep in my bag like a sin I wasn’t ready to confess. I didn’t tell my brother. He was passed out again, shirtless on the couch, mumbling in his sleep about debts he’d never repay. I stood by the window for hours. Trying to remember the girl I used to be. Before the club. Before loosing the house. Before I stopped dreaming about anything but surviving. That girl would’ve said no. She would’ve torn the contract in half, flipped him off, and walked away with her spine intact. But I wasn’t her anymore. And maybe I hated myself for that. Or maybe I’d just stopped pretending. Dignity didn’t pay rent. And pride didn’t keep the lights on. I didn’t sleep that night. But when the sun rose and the weight of reality settled into my bones, I knew what I had to do. I put on my best dress. It wasn’t much, just a black slip that clung to my hips and made me feel like I still had something to offer. I brushed my hair, lined my lips with what was left of my lipstick, and walked out like I wasn’t about to sell my soul. The car was waiting outside the club. Just like he’d said it would be. The driver didn’t speak. Just opened the door and offered a stiff nod as I slid into the back seat. The ride to his building was smooth, silent, suffocating. My hands wouldn’t stop trembling. When we pulled up to the entrance, I had to force myself to breathe. The glass doors opened like they knew me. The doorman didn’t ask questions. The elevator didn’t need instructions. Penthouse. Of course it was. When the doors opened, I stepped into a space that looked like it belonged in a magazine, marble floors, towering windows that drank in the city skyline, and the scent of leather, spice, and something darker. He was already there. Standing at the far end of the room. Watching me. Damien Voss. Black dress shirt. Sleeves rolled. Collar open. Casual, but only on the surface. His eyes were all control. I froze when I saw the folder in his hands. “You came,” he said. I nodded. “Sit.” There was only one chair at the long table. I took it. He opened the folder and placed it in front of me. The page was already marked. A silver pen lay beside it. My name was supposed to go there. “I need to hear you say it,” he said. “Say what?” “That you understand what you’re signing.” My throat was dry. “I do.” “You obey me. Without question. In and out of the bedroom. You speak to no one. You lie to no one. You do not run.” “And in return?” “Security. Freedom. No more double shifts. No more wondering how to make it through the month. And at the end of thirty days, you walk away with half a million dollars.” My heart stuttered. Half a million. It felt like blood money. I picked up the pen. My hand hovered. This was it. The last moment before I let go of the illusion that I had boundaries left to protect. I signed. IVY DANIEL. The moment the ink dried, he closed the folder and looked at me like something had changed. Like I wasn’t a person anymore. Like I was his. “Take off your dress.” My breath caught. Here? Now? I opened my mouth, but no sound came. “Now,” he repeated. Calm. Sharp. Commanding. So I did. I reached back, pulled the zipper down, and let the straps slide from my shoulders. The dress slipped to the floor in a whisper, pooling around my feet. I stood in my bra and panties, trembling. My heart slammed against my ribs. He didn’t move. Just watched. “You’re beautiful,” he said. Then: “Take off your bra and panties.” Heat rushed to my face. But I didn’t look away. I slid them off while staring at him. He stepped closer. In one swift move, he picked me up and laid me across his knees on the leather couch. The first spank cracked across my ass, hard enough to make me gasp. The sting melted into heat, a tingling ache that spread between my thighs. Pain laced with pleasure. His hand smoothed over the skin he’d just punished, teasing, circling, lowering until his fingers brushed the slick heat between my legs. I moaned before I could stop myself. He found my clit and rubbed it gently, too gently. My hips twitched, greedy for more. Then another sharp spank. “Call me Daddy,” he said. I whimpered, “Daddy.” “Louder.” “Daddy,” I moaned again, my voice breaking. He kept fingering me until I was close, so close my whole body tensed with need. Then he stopped. I gasped, wide-eyed, flushed, trembling. “Why did you...?” “Beg me,” he said, his voice low and wicked. “Please, Daddy,” I whispered. “Please, I need to cum.” He slid his fingers back in and worked me fast and deep until I shattered, crying out, my body arching as the orgasm ripped through me. My legs shook. My breath came in short, uneven pants. I’d never felt anything like it. I was dizzy. Drenched. Wild. But he didn’t touch me again. Instead, he stood and looked down at me with something like dark satisfaction. “I’m not going to fuck you tonight.” My eyes widened. “You’re not?” “No.” He leaned down, brushing a hand along my bare thigh. “Tonight was just to watch you tremble.” This was a game. A dangerous one. And I’d already started playing. Damien leans back in the chair for a moment, eyes never leaving Ivy. Her breathing is steady now, slow and regular, but the faint rise and fall of her chest still tugs at him. Her fingers twitch slightly, weak, as if trying to grasp something, but she does not move on her own. He studies her, memorizing every line of her face, the uneven color of her skin, the bruises dark beneath the pale surface. His ribs ache sharply with every small movement, but he ignores it. He glances at the monitors, nods slightly, then stands. He walks to the small sink across the room, washes his hands, wipes them on a clean towel, and returns to her bedside, careful not to make a sound that might startle her.The nurses quietly handle her care. They adjust the IV, check her vitals, bring small cups of water and soft food. Damien does not interfere, but he watches everything. Every motion, every careful tilt of her head, every cautious sip of water. He notices when she swallows, waits until her lips relax b
The van swerves into the hospital driveway so fast the tires screech. Damien throws the door open before the vehicle even stops. He lifts Ivy with both arms. Her body is limp, head rolling against his shoulder. Her clothes hang in strips, soaked in dirt and dried blood. His ribs scream as he bolts through the sliding doors, but he keeps going.“Doctor,” Damien shouts. His voice blasts across the lobby. “Now. Someone get a doctor now.”The nurses freeze for a second when they see Ivy. One of them drops a clipboard. Another jolts into action and hits an emergency button on the wall. A team rushes out from behind a desk. They take one look at Ivy and guide Damien toward a hallway.“Bring her in here,” one of them says.Damien hesitates for half a breath, thinking they might take her from him, but they push open a door to a bright room marked VIP. He carries Ivy inside and lays her carefully on the bed they point to. Her head sinks into the pillow, her chest rising unevenly.The doctor wa
“Get me Killan. Now.”Static crackles, then a voice comes through, steady but cautious. “Boss.”“I just got a message,” Damien says, voice raw from shouting and no sleep. “Unknown number. Images of Ivy. There is a countdown. I want the origin traced. Right now.”“Send it through.”Damien forwards the file, fingers shaking. His chest is tight, heart hammering. “God please don’t let anything happen to Ivy.” He whispers it, the first prayer he has muttered since his mother disappeared.Killan’s voice returns, clipped. “Got it. Location pinged. License plate matches a van. I have a street address. You want me to send coordinates?”“Yes. Coordinates. Now.”Maps pop up on the screen in front of Damien. Pins, lines, nothing but movement, everything pointing to a single building on the edge of the city. A warehouse district, empty streets, perfect for hiding.Damien grabs his coat, pistol in one hand, chain in the other. He signals to his men, their eyes wide but knowing. No questions. They m
Chapter 23He ripped the chain from his arm and hurled it. It slammed into the wall and clattered to the floor like a thrown sentence. The sound felt small and hollow compared with the ache inside him. Ivy was gone. The room held the ghost of her. That was enough.Damien did not pause to mourn. He moved through the house like a storm, voice cutting orders, body smashing through furniture without noticing. Staff scrambled. Guards lined up, faces pale. He did not look at them. He barked, he shoved, he demanded. He needed every eye, every hand, every pair of feet focused toward one point. He needed a perimeter of motion expanding outward until it reached the city line.“Listen to me,” he said, voice tight and raw. “If anyone lies, if anything is hidden, if even one minute is wasted, I will make this city burn until there is nothing left to hide behind. Do you hear me? Everyone move. Now.”They moved. Men with keys, drivers with maps, housekeepers with lists of deliveries, mechanics who k
Mr. Voss’s shadow filled the doorway, calm and absolute. The guards stiffened. Damien froze only for a breath. Then he pushed. The chain screamed and the bolt tore loose from the wall.The sound was sharp, metal on stone, and the guards spun toward him. Damien swung the length of chain like a weapon, slamming it into the nearest man’s head. The guard crumpled. Another lunged, baton raised, but Damien shifted his weight and wrapped the chain around the man’s arm, wrenching it until bone cracked.Mr. Voss didn’t flinch. His eyes were steady, cold, proud in a way that cut deeper than any weapon. “My son,” he said, as if watching a lesson unfold.Damien ignored the words. He spun again, chain striking, boots kicking. Another guard fell. A baton struck his ribs and pain exploded through his side, but he did not stop. He could not stop.Blood smeared the floor. Keys scattered. Damien dropped low, snatched them up, and ripped the manacles from his wrists. His skin tore where the metal had cu
Chapter 21Damien moved slowly, painfully. Every shift of the chain made metal rasp and his skin sting. He counted nothing. Counting was useless. Only movement mattered. He tested the links again, each one a tiny chance, a whisper of freedom. A link shifted a fraction and he froze, listening.Footsteps echoed in the corridor. A guard laughed and cursed under his breath. Keys jingled. The pattern was familiar, mapped from long hours of observation, long hours of suffering. Timing was his weapon. Muscle memory became a map of survival.He twisted against the chain. Pain erupted in his shoulder but he ignored it. A link gave a fraction more. That fraction meant leverage. He pushed again. Metal groaned and he inhaled, sharp and shallow. Each small sound in the facility was magnified, a signal he could use.The door creaked as someone approached. He pressed himself against the shadows of the wall, waiting. The guard appeared, keys at his belt, flashlight in hand. Damien stayed still, silen







