Page 38 of Break Me
Lifting my gaze, I see Lavinia watching us. Her chest shakes from the shock of it all, but there’s relief in her eyes as she glances back and forth between Dax and me and down to my arm where I bear his mark. I’m guessing she’s putting two and two together.
I avert my eyes when Dorin steps up to her and releases her from the wall. But I can’t help glancing back up, needing to see that she’s okay, but also curious about his seeming protectiveness toward her. As Dax does with me, Dorin checks if Lavinia is okay, but instead of searching her body, he searches her face.
His touch seems more practical than tender as he grips her head between his hands and bends his knees to look deep into her eyes. He’s cold and mechanical, yet somewhere in his hard disposition seems to be a flicker of affection. Or maybe obsession. It’s hard to tell, but it’s clear she’s more than just another victim to be trained and sold to him.
She’s as hard to read as he is. Averting her gaze, she denies him the connection, and her whole body seems to try to turn away from him. But when he brushes a fleeting stroke across her cheek, I can see the pain in her eyes—the longing.
She wants him, but for some reason, she can’t accept it.
22
DAX
“She needs to be punished,” Dorin says, casting a furious glance at my sub. “By me.”
Dorin’s girl squeals a protest in the background, but all my attention is on Dorin as I dart up off the floor. “The hell she does,” I bark, about to fly in his face, but Mikhail stops me with a hand on my chest.
“What happened here?” he demands, the only person keeping his cool.
“She bothered my girl.” Dorin points his thick baton to my sub. “Made her cry.”
“Why was she here in the first place?” Mikhail looks between Dorin and me, and it’s only then that I wonder the same thing. When Mikhail called and said the words “cell number one” and “your girl” in the same sentence, I got tunnel vision. I just knew there was trouble with Dorin. He’s been oddly protective and acting strange about this girl from the day he came into my office and asked me to make her a paper bracelet instead of chipping her. I was so focused on keeping my sub safe from Dorin that it didn’t even occur to me to consider why she was here.
“To harass my girl,” Dorin accuses.
“Dax?” Mikhail asks, probably hoping for a less dramatic explanation.
“If Dorin didn’t bring her here, I have no clue.” Turning my gaze toward my sub, I clench my jaw as the realization strikes.She fucking wandered off.I remember how she asked about the singing girl. She surely came here to hear it again. I rub my stubbled jaw harshly as I try to rein in a sudden flare of anger. “Did you walk off?”
She gives the tiniest nod, and shame is heavy in her eyes as she lowers her gaze to the floor.
“See, she has to be punished,” Dorin repeats. “Since she bothered my girl, it’s only fair that she gets it from me. If you want to have a go at her too, be my guest and continue once I’m done,” he tells me.
“No, Dorin,” the blonde begs again. “It’s not her fault. She tried to help me.”
“She fucking went to you without permission. She gets punished,” Dorin says with finality, then turns to my sub and threatens, “You’ll learn your lesson hard.”
The blonde scurries around him, pressing herself into him to gain his attention. “No, Dorin. If anyone has to be punished, punish me. I’ll take it for her.”
He shoves her aside, but the girl is reckless, moving straight back into the eye of the fucking thunderstorm.
“Please, Dorin. Let me take it.”
“Silence,” Mikhail demands, his voice cutting through the space and quieting everyone. “I’m sick of this. You two clearly aren’t capable of figuring this out yourselves, so I decide who gets to punish who.”
Dorin and I both watch him, accepting his decision. I don’t know how the hell he does it, but Mikhail can gain the respect of the most brutal, willful men and make them accept his rule without much effort. It’s more than a little impressive, to say the least. So is his composure in the face of two bulky men with violence itching in their fists.
Mikhail looks from one girl to the other, assessing the situation and their reactions. Gesturing to Dorin’s girl, he says, “She gets the punishment.” He moves his hand to my sub. “She gets to watch.”
Relief is a weight off my chest that makes the air swoosh into my lungs with a deep gush. I’m not sure what I would have done if Mikhail had let Dorin punish my sub. Punch him in the face, fight Dorin, or fling my sub over my shoulder and take her out of here before Dorin could lay a hand on her. I don’t know. Something reckless and impulsive, that’s for sure.
Mikhail’s choice of punishment seems ridiculous, but right now, keeping my sub safe from Dorin is all that matters. I can remedy the lack of punishment later when I’m alone with her. Because watching another girl get beaten won’t be enough for her major infraction. At least, that’s my first thought.As I watch her frantically shaking her head as she grips my jeans, begging me through her eyes, I realize the shrewdness of the plan. These two girls have bonded. So much so that they’re willing to offer themselves up to protect the other. Seeing Dorin punish the blonde will break my sub.
With that realization comes another. One that has me biting down on my molars as it dawns on me that this is not the first time she has run off to come here.I fucking thought she’d obediently stay put when I put her in the hall.Apparently, my training isn’t working as well as I thought, and it almost angers me more than Dorin’s ridiculous demand to punish my sub did.
Dorin is about to protest Mikhail’s decree, but Mikhail cuts him off before he can get a word out.
“I don’t have time for this. Get on with the punishment, or I’ll hand your special little project off to someone else.” With that, he walks off, leaving no room for discussion.