Diamond Kisses (The Jewelry Box #4)

“Did you piss on my floor, Paavak?”

I shot awake just as Victor kicked Peter across the room.

He grunted as Victor’s loafer caught him in the side.

Backing away, Victor growled at the closest guard. “Get a cleaner to disinfect the floor. He’s made a fucking mess.”

“Yes, Sir V.” The guard took off but not before his gaze narrowed on me as I fought trembling, exhausted limbs and tried to sit upright. I’d managed to ignore the slicing pain in my bladder, but…I wouldn’t be able to for much longer. And the thought of wetting myself added yet another layer of horror.

I stopped breathing as the guard skidded to a stop on the threshold and looked back. His gaze met mine. He sighed with a wince as if unable to stand our condition, then took off before I could decide if it was real or fanciful wishing.

Was that one of the guards Ben and Stewart said were on our side?

Closing my eyes, I committed him to memory. Lean but tall, narrow chin and short dark hair. Clean-shaven with a tattoo of a fading butterfly on his hand.

Henri cried out, wrenching my attention to him.

“D-Don’t…” I reached a feeble hand toward Victor as he wrenched off Henri’s hood.

My heart fisted with despair as I caught Henri’s gaze.

Last night, his eyes had been clear and fierce. Lucid and full of fury. Now…

God, now…

I flinched as Henri’s nostrils flared. He tried catching a breath around the ball gag. His face dripped with condensation from his breath trapped in the hood, and those stunning silver eyes no longer belonged to a man but to a creature.

A creature that’d been pushed to the brink of sanity and had stared into the pitch-black darkness all night. A darkness full of silence and terror, starvation and torment.

Henri… I smiled through my tears, begging him to come back to me. I’m here. It’s me.

Slowly, the wildness in his stare faded a little. Breath by frantic breath, the animal inside him crawled back inside, leaving the man I’d fallen so in love with.

You’re okay… I nodded, begging him to stay sane.

He blinked slowly, hearing me, loving me.

Victor sniffed and snapped a finger in front of his face. Wrenching off Henri’s headphones, he barked, “Your ears belong to me now. You will obey every instruction I give you without question. Do you understand?”

Henri glowered at him. His chin covered in spit from the gag.

“The same goes for your eyes. Whenever I am in the room, you will only look at me,” Victor said far too softly. “If you dare look at Ilyana, I will whip her with the very same whip I gifted you. Nod if you agree.”

Henri threw himself forward, the chains clanging as his arms stayed tethered above him. A feral noise growled in his chest.

“Why must you make me do this the hard way?” Victor rolled his eyes. “No matter.” Reaching into the back waistband of his aubergine suit, he pulled out the coiled whip that Henri used on me in Sapphire Scars.

Henri instantly went slack in his binds. His eyes flared. He groaned.

Victor shrugged and stepped off the stage toward me. “I warned you, my pet. Your eyes belong to me now. Your ears belong to me now. Everything you hear and look at must be approved by me from this day forward. You will understand how serious I am about this new rule, Henri. Otherwise, I’ll cut off your ears and scoop out your eyes and be done with it.”

Henri fought his cuffs as Victor stood over me. “Stand up, Ilyana. Hold on to a chair if you must.”

Henri roared behind his gag. He shook his head. His knees buckled as starvation tore through whatever meagre strength he had left.

Peter stepped toward me, yanked backward by his own chain. “Sir V…don’t—”

“You will be quiet, Peter. Otherwise, I’ll shackle you up there with Henri.”