I Thee Take: To Have and To Hold Duet Book Two by Knight, Natasha (books to read in your 20s txt) 📕

The men obey without a word, my struggles not hindering their efforts in the least, my curses doing nothing but earning a clucking of the tongue from Helga.

Once I’m naked, I’m lifted and hauled to the bed, my arms still behind my back, wrists still bound. The metal of the handcuffs digs into my lower back.

“Open her legs and keep her down.”

“No!” Again, it’s useless to fight. I know it. There are too many of them and I’m bound. One of the men takes hold of my shoulders to pin me to the bed. The others move to either side of me each taking a leg, spreading me wide.

Helga’s gaze shifts to my exposed sex then to my eyes. “Wider.” She runs the strap through the palm of her left hand, and I realize what she means to do. She’ll strap me there. It’ll leave a mark, won’t it?

“Good,” she says once my legs are at the point they’d break if they were spread any wider. “Hold her still.”

She shifts her position slightly, I guess to get at me at a better angle, raises her arm and brings the strap down over my sex.

For a split second, all I hear is the sound of the strap, then nothing. Just nothing. And then the white-hot pain.

“You’re a fucking sadist!” I shout when I can speak again.

She straps me again, not bothering to comment as she lashes me six more times. My crotch is on fire and I’m wriggling to get out of the way but can’t. She’s precise. She’s done this before.

“It’s enough,” Mara says from a few feet away.

I see she’s gotten off her chair, but she stops the instant Helga turns her attention to her. I see the girl’s throat work as she swallows in fear of the woman.

“Did I tell you to get up?”

“He’ll get less if she has marks. She’s swollen,” Mara tries.

Helga walks toward her. “Did I tell you to get up?”

“No, Ma’am.” She lowers her gaze to the floor.

“You’ve just bought her six more lashes. Unless you’d like to take them in her place.”

Mara looks up at her, then at me, tears in her wide eyes. Her lip trembles. This is what they’ve done to her these years? This child?

“Do you get off on this?” I call out to Helga. “Does it turn you on to look at helpless girls, Helga?” she turns her attention back to me, rage boiling inside her making her cheeks burn an angry red. “Are you going to fuck yourself when you’re done? Come thinking of how my pussy looked when you strapped it?”

She walks back to me. If the first six were painful, I know the next will be hell. But it’s worth it. I can’t let her touch Mara. I would rather die than let her do that.

So, I take it. I take the lashes and I clench my jaw so as not to cry out, but I can’t help my tears.

When it’s over, I’m lifted up off the bed and carried into the bathroom. It’s a good thing, I guess. My legs won’t quite work as I process the still-throbbing pain. There, I’m submerged into a tub of too-hot water, doubling the sting.

“Bind her hands in front of her. I’m certainly not paid to clean that filth.”

One of the guards does as she says, taking off the cuffs and re-cuffing them with my arms in front. It feels better at least. Easier on my shoulders.

Helga stands over me and grins, hooking the strap back on her belt. She leans toward me.

“Give me any trouble and your next punishment will make this one look like a walk in the park.”

I don’t answer with words. It’d be stupid to. But I tell myself I’m going to kill her if I get the chance. Even if it’s the last thing I do, because this is looking more and more hopeless the longer I’m here.

Cristiano is dead. No one is coming for me and there are enough soldiers out there to hunt me down or outright kill me. Even if I managed to get out of the house, I’m not valuable to them anymore. Maybe I’d be better off dead if I think about the alternative Felix has in store for me.

No. Dead is never better. Isn’t that what Cristiano always says?

Said.

Not says.

Not anymore.

She straightens, gestures to one of the men to give her the shower gel and shampoo.

“Now get out,” she snaps at the men.

The men look at each other like they’re confused.

She looks up at them as she sets the things on the ledge along the tub. “I said get out. Are you as stupid as you are ugly or just hard of hearing?”

“We’re to stay—”

“You can wait outside. I don’t want you near Lizzie and you’ve certainly had your eyeful of this one.” She turns her attention to me, looking like she’s disgusted as the men clear out. “Come back in fifteen minutes to take her to the waxing room.

Waxing room?

She turns back to me. “Get to work.”

I pick up the loofah.

35

Cristiano

“We have a lead on David,” Antonio announces as I turn away from the woman in frustration. Her English is broken but from what she’s telling me, she’s one of the women they’d trafficked at some point. Terrified out of her mind, she keeps making the sign of the cross every time she glimpses either of the dead men, a stream of words in a language I don’t understand pouring from her.

“They brought me to make the food,” she repeats again. “But the girl doesn’t eat.” When I turn away, she continues to tell one of the soldiers. “I go now,” she says, nodding as if giving herself permission to leave.

“Where?” I ask Antonio.

“Hotel in Amsterdam. I can get you there in forty minutes.”

“Does he know we found him?”

Antonio shakes his head. “The man who just delivered his dinner called. Soldiers are on their way, but it’ll be