Colter's Revenge (15 page)

“I was there. I heard him talking to someone named Bev on his cell.”

He tensed, his eyes narrowing into alert mode.

Finally!

“Did he see you?”

“No, but he’s suspicious. He thinks you have some gorgeous sex slave as a hostage.”

“Wouldn’t want him to think that now, would we? He might want to join us.”

The soft way he said it made her think it would be something he’d be interested in trying again.

“What if he decides to call in backup?”

“Because I left the cell on and he hasn’t called me. That is, unless I didn’t hear it ringing when you so easily fell into my arms.”

“Easily, my ass.”

He chuckled in answer. “Did you find what you were looking for in my cabin…besides Blade, that is?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Actually not right now. I have better things on my mind.”

He smiled and twirled a loose strand of her hair around his finger. Their gazes locked. There was no mistaking the sexual awareness in his eyes. The fast way he breathed or the awesome way his pupils dilated with hunger as he looked at her.

“Again?”

He nodded and clasped a leg over her thigh—the heat of his engorged cock scorched her flesh. She didn’t like the way he made her weak in the knees at his simplest touch. The way he made her control melt and slip away. And she found herself wanting to kick herself for allowing his luscious lips to settle over hers again in the gentlest of ways.

But she’d chastise herself for being a fool later.

Much later.

83

Jan Springer

Right now, she had better things to do with her time.

* * * * *

“I’ve sold your daughter to Cheri Blakely for her five sons.”

Ashley could do nothing but blink and allow the shock to sear through her at what the
general had just said. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She had to be in some twisted
nightmare!

“She said she’d enroll her in a private school for girls. They would teach her how to be
submissive to her husbands.”

He had to be kidding her. He just had to be playing another one of his sadistic jokes, but the
way his cold eyes twinkled, she knew he was telling the truth.

“God! She’s only a baby!” Her mind was screaming but her voice was barely a whisper.

“Babies grow up fast. She’s four years old. She needs to be trained. She’s valuable, Ashley.
Extremely valuable. She’s just not valuable to me. And you know I don’t keep things I cannot
use.”

His words slapped against the hysteria claiming her senses. Her daughter was a thing? She
was not valuable to him?

Although she hadn’t been his child, the general had doted on her from the day she’d been
born. Had been a most impressive father figure. Had given her everything a little girl would
want, to the point where he’d spoiled her rotten. She’d thought her daughter was safe with the
general. And now he was telling her Colette wasn’t valuable to him?

“Of course, her youngest boy isn’t much older than Colette and I’m sure Cheri will wait
until Colette is of breeding age before she allows the Claiming.”

“Oh, my God! You’re insane!”

“And you’re overstepping your boundaries, Ashley. Calm down or I’ll have you punished. I
know how you love to be punished.”

The general smiled smugly at her as he lifted his scotch glass and sipped peacefully. Too
peacefully. He acted as if he didn’t have a care in the world. As if he didn’t give two shits that her
world was crashing in on her.

Hysteria nudged its way back into her mind. She clamped down on the urge to just scream
and scream.

“I figure it’s best to get rid of her now. Before she reaches her menses and contracts the X-
virus. Cheri is willing to take a chance she won’t die, and the money I’ll get for her is hardly
worth laughing at. I can put it to good use.”

She could barely hear him above the roar in her head. She had to get away. Had to grab her
daughter and escape. Escape from this madhouse. Escape from the general. She should have done
it the instant she’d found out she was pregnant.

“At least let me say goodbye to her.”

84

Colter’s Revenge

“Not possible. I know you would do something stupid if I let you see her. You will remain
locked in your room until I can arrange for her to be shipped off to Cheri. Truly, Ashley, I don’t
know why you’re so upset. She wasn’t yours to begin with.”

“I’m her mother!”

“
I’m her owner. And I’m your owner. Seems as if you totally have forgotten that fact. I’ve
been too lax with you over the years, Ashley. I’d wanted Colette to be brought up with a mother’s
nurturing touch so she’d be sweet and happy for her new owners. Your usefulness for her is over.
It’s time I had you bred again.”

Breed? Sweet Jesus!

“I’ve already got a doctor lined up for the procedure. He’ll be coming in the morning to start
administering sperm washes containing only girls. With any luck, you’ll be pregnant with
another girl by the end of the week and I’ll be rich when I sell her. Do you know the prices girls
are bringing in? Men and their Claimed wives are willing to take huge chances, Ashley. They
are having bidding wars for girls who are still too young to have a man’s cock inside her. They
purchase girls for their sons. They are willing to chance that their purchase won’t get the virus.
And when she does get it, they hope she’ll live through it so they can become wives for their sons.
These are desperate times. Lots of money to be made by breeding women and selling the girls to
the highest bidder.”

He grinned wickedly and her stomach hollowed out as if he’d just sucker punched her.
The general stood and chuckled. It was an arrogant sound. A sound that sliced her heart in
two.

He held out his empty scotch glass to her. “Refill this, hon.”

She could barely hear what he was saying as she obediently accepted the scotch glass and
stumbled toward the bar. Tears burned her eyes. Tears that she knew when she released them
wouldn’t stop.

“You know, I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier. The price that Colette brings me
will give me the opportunity to go after some more valuable art for my collection. Or maybe I can
even bid on that X-virus cure Cheri Blakely has? What do you think? Art? Or the cure? Both
would bring millions on the black market.”

Ashley could hardly stand as she poured the scotch for him. Could barely contain her anger,
could barely hold herself together as anguish threatened to rip her apart.
He was going to sell her daughter as if she were some item he owned.

“I won’t let you do it,” she muttered beneath her breath. “No way in hell.”

“What did you say, hon?”

He was behind her now. She could feel the hard length of his cock pressing against her ass.
Could feel his hands slide against her waist.

Ashley couldn’t stop herself from stiffening.

“I’ve got some men coming over tonight. Can you feel how hard I am for them?”

She closed her eyes and fought hard to hold herself together. He’d just sold her daughter and
all he could think about was having sex with his men?

“Get your hands off me.”

85

Jan Springer

The sharp, shocked inhalation of his breath made her realize she’d overstepped her bounds.
She’d never pulled away from him before. Had always allowed him to touch
her the very few
times he’d been halfway affectionate to her. That’s how starved she’d been for human affection.
This time he’d gone too far.

The rage came out of nowhere. Red-hot fury at what he wanted to do to her daughter.
His hands were still on her body. She wanted them off.
Now!

“I said get your hands off me!” Without thinking she pushed her body against him, so hard
that they both stumbled backward…they both hit the carpet hard. She heard a grunt from him
and then nothing.

When she managed to get her bearings she noticed the general had sprawled against the
fireplace hearth. Noticed the odd angle of his neck. The unseeing stare of his eyes…

Realized now was her chance to grab Colette and escape.

A sharp pain to her cheek brought her out of the nightmare and she awoke to find hot tears streaming over her cheeks and drenched in a cold sweat. Her heart beat frantically against her chest and bitter bile was slipping up her throat. She quickly swallowed it, forbidding herself to be sick.

“Starry Eyes, are you okay?”

She felt Colter’s warm breath whisper against the burning heat of what must have been a slap to her face. A slap that had thankfully broken her from the terror, the guilt. She opened her eyes to find him staring down at her with furious concern. His face seemed too pale in the moonlight, his breaths too fast and too hard. The sight of him, the thought of him seeming so worried for her uncoiled some of the tension she’d accumulated from the nightmare.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to slap you but you just wouldn’t wake up. You were crying…are you okay?”

Such worry in his voice, such concern. For a fleeting moment she felt the old safety, the love and tenderness he’d once shown her so openly. She reached up a shaky hand to run her fingers over his sexy beard bristles. His face felt warm beneath her fingertips. Right then she just needed to touch him, to know he really was there and that she’d really finally escaped the general.

“It was just a dream. I’m fine,” she whispered, trying hard to throw him a reassuring smile but it felt watery, false. A sudden chill slapped against her damp flesh and she drew her hand away, tugging the sheet around her nakedness, trying hard not to melt against his warm, safe body. He would be only a false security blanket. It was better she try to stay strong and focused, and not let the memory ruin what confidence she’d managed to gain over the past few days.

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Colter’s Revenge

“Jesus Christ! You scared the shit out of me,” he whispered hoarsely, and sank down onto the bed beside her. He closed his eyes and his chest rose and fell as he inhaled deep, slow breaths as if trying to calm himself.

For a few moments she thought he’d gone back to sleep but then he whispered softly, “What was the nightmare about?”

When she didn’t answer, his weight shifted the mattress and he turned to face her. Confusion blazed in his eyes and suddenly she wanted to cry again.

“What’s bothering you? What was it about? Tell me, Starry Eyes.”

That familiar need to submit to his command seemed to swoop in over her again. God, was it already time to take her medication? She did a mental check and calculated that no, she had lots of time. Odd that her virus medication didn’t seem to work around Colter very well.

“I…the general. It was about the general,” she said in a surprisingly even voice. Anger seemed to twist through his features at her admission. She sensed him pulling away, not physically but emotionally.

“What about him?” he asked tightly.

She was about to tell him everything when a sharp knock at the cabin door reverberated through the room.

The knock on the door frightened Ashley. Understandable since she’d just had a nightmare, but there was something she’d been about to tell him. Instincts told him it was something big.

“What should we do?” she breathed. The split second of terror in her gaze, the same look he’d seen when she’d first opened her eyes made nausea spill through his senses. Something horrible was bothering her and now it was coming out in her dreams. He’d have to get down to the bottom of it. Now was not the time. She was too edgy. Too upset for it to have been merely a dream as she’d Claimed.

“Here’s your chance to scream and tell them I’ve been having my way with you for hours and hours against your will,” he chuckled, trying to lighten her dark mood. Her eyes widened with surprise and thankfully her shoulders slumped slightly as more of the tension left her.

“You won’t try to stop me?”

“Only if you want me to.”

The knock came again, more insistent this time. Why the hell didn’t they just leave the food outside the door as he’d instructed them to do?

“How would you stop me?” her eyes twinkled. Thankfully her sense of humor was coming back.

“Hmm, perhaps with a ball and gag?”

She giggled. “We haven’t tried that angle yet, have we?”

87

Jan Springer

“I much prefer stopping you by a kiss or stuffing my cock into your mouth.”

“I prefer those methods myself,” she whispered, and finally she melted against him. Her hand slid around his shaft and she squeezed gently. Oh man, that felt good.

“Hello! I’m sorry to interrupt,” came a man’s curt voice from the other side of the door.

“What is it?” she called out then nipped playfully at his bottom lip with her sharp teeth.

There was a slight hesitation and the man’s next words froze Colter’s blood.

“I have a message from Cheri Blakely.”

Oh shit! A hell of a way to rain on their parade. Before Ashley could respond, he slipped a hand over her mouth.

His heart clenched as betrayal splashed through her face. To his surprise she didn’t so much as struggle.

“There’s a meeting in one hour. Dungeon room 1. Will you be attending?” the attendant asked.

Ashley tensed against him.

“I don’t want you near that bitch,” he breathed quietly. He was a damned fool for keeping her there with him. Now she was in danger once again. “But I have no other choice. We have to keep up appearances until I can get you out of here. Tell him you’ll be there. Is that clear?”