Razing Grace: Razing Grace Part 1 (12 page)

“One?” he says, walking towards my retreating body until the backs of my legs hit the bed. “You don’t need Miles to take you to your fucking room.”

I swallow. “Wait, I thought—”

He cuts me off. “Two? Stop asking questions, and just know that if I want you to know something, I’ll tell you.”

“Wait, can I talk?” He looks down at me, so obviously annoyed. “Because I have a few questions.” He stares at me blankly, like I’m the most frustrating female on the planet and he’s never had a woman, or probably anyone, question his words. Raze isn’t an alpha; he’s the alpha. He probably wipes his butt with sandpaper. There you go, that was funny. A small voice laughs in the back of my head.

He takes a seat on the bed and loosens his tie. “Shoot.”

“Why am I here?” I start off light, easy.

“Because I need your help.”

“Yes, but with what?”

He looks at me. “With something that involves you and that’s all I’m giving you for now.”

I drop it. For now. “Why do you have a collection of women?”

He laughs. “Jealous?” he asks with a quirked eyebrow.

“Excuse me? No.”

He wraps his hand around my wrist, pulling my body up and placing me on top of him so that I’m straddling his waist. Well, that escalated quickly.

“Don’t play dumb, Millie. You and I both know that’s not true.”

My eyebrows pinch together. “I’m not jealous, Raze. Because in order for me to be jealous, I must care, and in order to care, I must feel, which I’ve found out lately—I don’t. My feelings were robbed.” I raise my eyes to his, a small hiss coming out of my words at the end. Bringing my hand to his cheek and rubbing my thumb across his jaw softly, I bend down to his ear and whisper, “You robbed me of that.” I bring my face back and search his eyes. “So no, Raze, I’m not jealous, I’m not anything. I’m just me.”

He watches my face closely, his hands dropping from my back to my hips. “And who are you, Millie?”

I tilt my head. “Not the girl you kidnapped. Not anymore. So if the whole innocent thing turned you on, sorry to disappoint.”

“Get out.” He points to the door and my eyes snap up to find him smiling softly. He has a pretty incredible smile.

“I wouldn’t joke about that, considering I’m pretty much a prisoner, so I would run.”

“Yeah?” He smirks, his hand gripping the back of my neck to pull my face down to his, and his lips brush over my ear. “Well, I run faster.” He nips my ear lobe between his teeth. His grip loosens and he glides his thumb over the back of my neck softly. “In all seriousness, yes, you are a prisoner. I’m not letting you go, and if I ever decide to, you will know…” He’s watching my response, but it’s calm. “But I do need you alive, for now. For a few reasons, one of which I will tell you in due time.” He runs his hands over my upper thigh and I attempt to clench them together which, judging by the small dance in his stare, has excited him somewhat. “I’ll make you a deal.” He watches me closely. To say that it’s strange that there’s no awkwardness with our exchange is a little off-putting. But, although Raze was who he was in the dungeon, my body feels comfortable enough around him now to relax in his embrace. Crazy bitch.

“Hmmm.” I look up at the ceiling. “Why do I get the feeling I’m about to make a deal with the devil?”

He chuckles lightly, but I can see he’s attempting to keep his full laughter contained. “Because you are.”

I swing my leg off him, but his grip tightens, so I take that as a clue that I should remain in the same spot. The fact that I’m sitting on his hard stomach is making this a little more comfortable because if I was sitting on his dick, I’m sure this conversation would be one-hundred percent more awkward.

“You help me with what I’m going to do, and I promise you will see your sister again,” he says easily.

At the mention of my sister, I flinch. “What if I don’t want to see her again?”

He tilts his head and I run my eyes over his chiseled jawline where tattoos run underneath and then around to the back of his neck, going up to his scalp. “Really?”

I shrug. “I’m not sure.”

“Well, let’s say that I’ll let you live, with the possibility of seeing your sister again, if you help me.”

“Will you let me go after it’s all done?” I whisper, bringing my eyes to his.

“Maybe.”

“How can I turn that maybe into a yes?”

He smirks, and before he says it, I know what he’s going to say. “For me to set you free?” His hands run towards my upper thigh, his fingertips skating over the softest part of my leg. “I want this.” His thumb grazes over my clit and my jaw slams shut. It’s going to happen one way or another, and I’d much rather get it over with earlier than later. Besides, Raze already knows my body probably better than I know my own body.

“Fine,” I say through clenched teeth. “I help you with whatever you’re planning, give you my virginity, and then you let me go.” I keep my eyes locked over his shoulder before a smile touches my lips.

“What’s that smile for?” he asks, bringing his hands back down my thighs.

I tap his nose with my finger. “That’s none of your business.” I swing my leg off and he releases it this time. “Who is Cassia and should I start carrying a knife around the house with me?”

He laughs, standing to his feet and doing up his tie. “Cassia and Ella will be no issue to you.” His reply is blasé.

“Are you like Hugh Hefner? Just the…” I flick my fingers up and down his massive body. “…bad version?”

“No, Millie, not like Hugh Hefner. They look like cute little bunnies to you?”

I shrug as he takes a step toward the door. “If bunnies looked like hookers, then yes. Which, by the way, the Playboy bunnies sort of were.”

His hand grips the door handle. “They won’t be an issue for you. Cassia will retract her claws.”

He’s about to leave when I hold my hand up. “Wait!” Why am I about to ask this? “If you can have them, why do you want me?”

He smiles from over his shoulder. “Who said I wanted you?”

Ouch! And then he’s gone. I exhale a long breath that I didn’t know I was holding. Why is he so cold?

The gusts of wind whipped through Raze’s hair as he ran in circles around the large tree stump which sat outside The Army base. Raze was turning four today and Courtney told him they were going somewhere special for his birthday. Raze didn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to run around usually, but he guessed that that was what normal kids did because he had never been around kids his age. Kurr’s jeep pulled into the high monitor gates of the base and Raze leapt up from his spot to run towards his dad. Raze looked up at his dad like any boy did. Kurr didn’t live where Raze and Courtney lived at the volcanic base. He lived at The Army’s other base. Raze walked towards Kurr and looked up at him through bright eyes. Kurr looked down at him.

“Daddy?” Raze said.

Kurr dropped down to eye level with Raze. “Son, where’s your mom?”

Raze shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Why do I never see you?”

Anger flared over Kurr’s eyes for a brief second. “Why don’t I show you why Daddy’s busy?” Kurr scooped Raze into his arm and nudged to the men he brought with him. Kurr bounced Raze in his arm as he walked back towards the jeep. “Wanna be a big boy, Raze?”

Raze nodded his head with a wide smile on his mouth. “Yes, yes! I want to be a big boy!”

“Good,” Kurr grunted, placing Raze into the backseat of the jeep. “Because you’re going to need to be a big boy today.”

The drive to where Kurr was taking Raze wasn’t long. It was just over twenty minutes later when they were pulling into an industrial alleyway.

Kurr pulled up the emergency brake and turned in his seat to look at Raze. “Come on, son.”

Raze jumped out of his seat and pushed open his door. He quickly fell behind Kurr’s large steps. There were two men in front of Kurr and two men following behind Raze. Raze wasn’t sure what was going on but he was excited. Maybe now he could see what his daddy did for work so he could be just like him when he grew up. Deep down, Raze loved his dad and his mom, but he hated how unhappy his dad made his mom. Sometimes when Kurr would come to the base, he would leave with his mom crying. One day, Raze walked in on his mom because he wanted to see if she was okay. He pushed open the door and saw his mom’s naked body bent over a table in the laboratory. Her pants were around her ankles and Kurr’s hand was gripped firmly around her mouth. Raze froze at the doorway and Kurr looked right at him. Raze raised his eyes to meet his mom’s, and that’s when he saw her red eyes laced with tears that spilled over Kurr’s hand, which was wrapped around her mouth. What little makeup his mom wore was now smudged from the pain of her cries. She panicked. She didn’t want Raze to see this, to see that Kurr only came every week so he could rape her, not to actually visit their son. She swore that one day she would be the one to end him. It just had to be her. Raze quickly ran out and never looked back. After that, every time Kurr arrived at the base, Raze knew what he was there for. When Raze heard the muffled cries of his mother, or the banging of the desk in the lab, he would drop his head and walk away.

“Come on, son, this is a quick in-and-out job.”

A job! Raze’s eye widened as he followed behind Kurr, walking through the large open doors of an overly large shed.

Raze paused when Kurr stopped in the entryway. “What do I need to do, Dad?”

Kurr lifted Raze off the ground and placed him on his shoulders. “You see that man there?” Kurr pointed towards a man who was hanging from the roof with rope bound around his wrist, naked from the head down and his head hunched between his arms.

“Yeah?” Raze answered, a little scared, but he was a big boy today, Kurr had told him so.

“He’s a bad man, Raze. He needs to be dealt with so you can have a future. You think you can handle that? Or should I get another big boy to do it?”

Raze nodded his head furiously. “I can do it!”

Kurr chuckled and the motion jiggled underneath Raze’s butt. “Good, son.” Then, Kurr handed Raze a heavy black knife.

Raze took it and looked down at it in amazement. “Wow, this is a cool knife!”

“Ahhh, boss? Courtney is calling— “

“—Ignore it!” Kurr interjected. “This is important. It’s what is going to put in motion my plan, so shut the fuck up and let this happen or I’ll slit your fucking throat right where you stand.” The soldier nodded his head, stepping back to where he was standing. “Now, son,” Kurr continued, stepping towards the hanging man. Once they were directly in front of him, Kurr wrapped his hands around Raze’s ankles to steady him on his shoulders. “You see this?” Kurr pointed to the side of the man’s neck.

Raze nodded, swallowing past the fear that was rising up his throat. “Yeah, I see it.”

“Good. That is where I want you to start your cut, and here,” Kurr ran his index finger across the man’s throat, right to the other side of his neck. “Is where I want you to end the cut.”

Raze nodded again. “I can do it. I want to do it.”

Raze wasn’t sure, but he knew adults knew what was best, and Kurr was his father. Anything he said to Raze must be right.

“Good, show me what you got, boy!”

With one swift movement, Raze sunk the end of the military blade into the part where Kurr told him to start and blood began to squirt everywhere, dripping over Raze and Kurr’s face and body.

“Carry on, son! Finish him!”

With a pounding heart, Raze followed his father’s orders and slit the knife with jagged precision across the man’s throat until the deafening sounds of the man choking on his own blood disappeared. More blood showered out everywhere, hitting the back of Raze’s mouth. “Good boy, son,” Kurr said, tapping Raze on the ankle, then chuckled with triumph. “The Executioner has been born.”

MILLIE

The sound of hushed voices pull me from my deep sleep. My eyes peek at the alarm clock which sits on the bedside table. High pitched laughing vibrates through the air. I roll onto my back in a huff. “Just have to get through what he needs me for and then I can go.” I roll onto my side, watching the twinkling of the bright stars out my window, when another girly laugh sounds out, sandwiched with a deep voice. Picking up the remote on the side table, I turn the television on, not wanting to hear whatever it is that they’re doing. Not because I’m jealous, but because it’s the last thing I want to hear at four a.m. Who is even awake at this time, anyway? Playboy bunnies, that’s who. Sluts.