To Master and Defend (The Dungeon Fantasy Club Book 2) (15 page)

"Now, that's not nice, sugar. We're going to be friends, you and me." He shoved her hard, scraping her cheek against the concrete. Fear descended in lacerating waves. No matter what happened to her, she had to protect her baby.

"Please don't hurt me. I'll do whatever you want, just don't hurt me."

His breath, smelling profusely of whiskey, washed over her face. "Well now, that's the spirit, isn't it boys? Why don't you just come with us? We're going to have ourselves a little party."

"Sure, whatever you say, just don't hurt me." She knew even as she responded, acting like she was too scared to try anything, that if she went with these men, she'd be dead by morning. If she could get him to release her just a little bit she could make a run for the front of the club. She'd never get the back door open in time, but if she sprinted to where the Dungeon Pleasures' bodyguards were located, she'd be safe and could have them handle these men.

The ringleader dragged her with him toward his buddies and the deserted alleyway in the exact opposite direction from her salvation. Swallowing her fear, Lia rounded on him, and using her self-defense training, she punched his jugular. He gasped in pain, releasing her for the split second she needed to make her getaway. Ophelia spun on her heels and made a break for it. Feet pounding against the pavement, she raced around the corner, then began sprinting down the alley.

"After that bitch!" the ringleader swore, making her pump her legs harder, faster.

Her feet ate up the distance between her attackers and the club entrance. The steady thumping bass beat of the music reached her ears and had never sounded so sweet. She would make it; her child was counting on that fact. Not more than twenty feet from the last turn, the one which would put her in the line of sight of the bodyguards monitoring the clubgoers waiting to enter, arms seized her from behind.

"Let me go, you son of a bitch! Help, someone, please help me!" Ophelia screamed as loudly as she could, praying that someone would hear her above the club music and come to her aid. Her three pursuers had caught up with her. She could barely make out their faces in the dark. She didn't know whether seeing them would make what was sure to come worse or not.

"Help!" She screamed again at the top of her lungs, knowing it was useless, but trying anyway. One of the men smacked her across the face and her head spun, but the minor delay in her struggles managed to give these brutes enough time to restrain her fully. They escorted her back the way she had made her mad dash, toward her doom and away from the club entrance.

They had shoved a dirty sock into her mouth as a gag, held in place by one of the men's hands. They were carrying her, the first one at her head, with his hand over her mouth with the gag, the second at her waist, restraining her arms, and the third guy had her feet imprisoned in his arms. There were so many things running through her mind as tears poured from her eyes. Regrets, wishes, but the thing she was most upset about was that she knew her child would die and there was nothing she could do about it. She'd fight, she'd give everything she had, but in the end, they were stronger.

Darkness receded in the alley with the flick of a switch. Floodlights blared over their bodies, illuminating the alley in bright light.

"Let her go." Tobias's voice cut through the haze of fear like a benediction.
He is here
was all she could think as she squirmed even harder.

"Frank, she's not worth it, just give her to him," the guy holding her feet said.

"Yeah, Frank, hand her over and this will end pleasantly for you," Tobias murmured, his voice deadly cool and calm, belying a hint of menace.

"And if I don't?" Frank sneered, tightening his grip on her body.

"You don't want to find out. You have three seconds to comply. Three, two, one. Time's up."

Most of what happened seemed to blur before her eyes. She watched Tobias and a few of his club bodyguards take the men down. Frank put up a fight, using her body as a shield at first until she kneed him in the groin. He still managed to land a few solid punches on Tobias. But Tobias flattened him, doing a TKO number that had him flat on his back and unconscious. By the time the flashing lights from the police cruisers arrived on the scene, Tobias and his team had subdued her attackers. They called an ambulance to patch up Frank before he would up bandaged up in the back of one of the cruisers. The paramedics gave her a once over at the scene. Even though the injuries she sustained weren't serious, the paramedics, upon learning she was pregnant, urged Lia to let them take her to the emergency room and get her checked out via ultrasound just to be on the safe side.

Shaken to her very core, she agreed, wanting to get away from the club at all costs. And she wanted to make sure her baby had remained unharmed in the scuffle. They had given her an IV to get some fluids into her, and had blankets piled over her to keep her shivering to a minimum. She was just so cold. They said it was shock from the trauma. Thinking about what had almost happened tonight, what could have happened had Tobias not been there, made her whole body tremble.

"Sir, only family and significant others are allowed in the ambulance."

"This is the mother of my child, I'm coming," Tobias stated, climbing in the back of the ambulance with his commanding, I-dare-you-to-try-and-stop-me attitude that brooked no further argument from the EMT as they shut the doors and carted her off to the hospital.

After the night she'd had, his words cut her to the bone. That was how he perceived her, as the mother of his child—not his girlfriend or significant other, or woman he was practically living with, just the baby maker. That seemed to sum up their entire relationship. He felt obligated to be there for their child, nothing more, not due to tenderness or any soft emotions toward her. It made sense, her mind understood his need to be there for his child at all costs, but her heart was shattering into a million pieces. He picked up her hand, linking their fingers, but she didn't grip his in return.

The ride to the emergency room was relatively short. However, nothing spells the eleventh circle of hell quite like the emergency room on the Friday night before Halloween. Since Lia had been attacked, a female uniformed officer joined the doctor and nurse with her in the examination room. Officer Lisa Gunther, a straight-laced, no-nonsense, stocky blonde, took photos and detailed notes of every scrape and bruise.

"Where were you headed this evening?" Office Gunther asked, noting the marks on Lia's arms. Constantly taking notes, the woman never stopped writing, barely looking her in the face other than to assess the damage.

"To Dungeon Pleasures," Ophelia replied. The doctor, nurse, and officer all shared a look. It was one of those shocked enlarging of the eyes, followed by a superior, holier-than-thou glare, as if to say 'what should she expect going to a place like that' and it infuriated her. Just because she had patronized a BDSM club in no way shape or form meant she had been asking for it or deserved it.

"I see, and what where you doing there?" Office Gunther asked, with the merest hint of rudeness under her breath.

"Does it matter?" Lia could see the judgement stamped across their faces at the mere mention of the club. And this crowd would never see it as anything but an abhorrence; a threat to everything they hold dear.

"Merely formalities, miss."

Uh huh, right. And she was the Easter bunny. "I'm seeing the club owner, Tobias Ford. We are expecting a child in May and I was on my way to visit him tonight. I have keys to get in the back entrance. They attacked me, I tried to get away. Tobias and his security team were able to subdue them. The end."

Ophelia sighed internally as the trio exchanged more looks.

"Thank you. I'm sure it's been a trying evening. Doctor, if you find anything else that we need to know about, please send it all to me here." Office Gunther handed the nurse her card.

Then she turned to Lia and handed her a card, as well. "When you are feeling better, we will need you to come to the police department and give your formal statement, okay? If I'm not there, any of the uniforms can take your statement, just give them this card with the case number on it." She pointed to the number that had been handwritten on the bottom.

"Thanks." Ophelia accepted the card.

After the officer had left, the doctor did a pelvic examination and ultrasound just to make sure everything checked out okay with her baby. Thankfully, despite the night's adventures, no harm had come to her little nugget. By the time all the tests had been run, and the discharge papers signed, it was nearly four in the morning. Tobias had gone home for a bit, at her urging, while they were running tests, to grab his car and the overnight bag she'd dropped in the alley.

Tobias treated her like glass as he helped her into his car and drove her home. She could only stare at the night sky. She had too many decisions to make, but there was one in particular she kept circling back to; her relationship with Tobias. She couldn't hold him if he was only in it for the baby. That was not what she wanted. If that was the only thing keeping him at her side, he would end up resenting her eventually.

He helped her out of the car, escorting her up to the front door.

"Thank you for seeing me home. I'll call you in a few days, okay?" she said. Much, much later… after she had got some much-needed rest and had some time to mull over what her next steps should be.

"I'm not leaving you alone tonight, Lia. That's not a good idea and you know it." He opened the door and she rushed past him. She couldn't let him touch her or she'd be lost and wouldn't have the strength to do what needed to be done.

"The men are locked up in the county jail overnight and until bond is set. They aren't going to come for me tonight. And I'd like to be alone, if you don't mind. I'm sorry you missed getting the club set up for the masked ball tomorrow, really I am. I don't think it's a good idea for me to attend it. I'm sorry, I know how much you were looking forward to it, but I can't go back there right away, not after tonight. Now, if you would be so kind, I'm really tired," she tried again.

His jaw hardened and he narrowed his gaze. "I don't give a shit about the fucking ball. You and the baby are what matters. I don't know where this is coming from, but I'm not leaving you. I'll sleep on the couch if you don't want me in your room."

"The choice isn't up to you, Tobias. I'm not your wife. You don't own me, and you said it yourself, I'm just the mother of your child, which means I have every right to ask you to leave my home. And right now, I need you to go," she begged him; she didn't want to do this tonight when she was still so raw.

"I won't let you shut me out like this, Lia. Not when you do it to everyone who might hurt you."

"What?" She reeled back as if he'd struck her. "What the fuck do you mean?" She hadn't been angry when they had first pulled up. More resigned and exhausted than anything, but she was livid now, in a smashing, evil lizard destroyer of cities way.

"You think I can't see it, that your sister doesn't, how you shut people out of your life when they show any inkling of being human. You cut off your emotions, not allowing yourself to feel anything, not remorse, or pity, or joy, or even love."

"Get. Out. Now," she chewed out.

"Or what?" he challenged her, advancing toward her and then stopping just shy of reaching her.

The bastard was probably thinking she needed a fucking spanking. She exploded, spewing vitriol so fast and furiously she was panting as she did so. "You're an insufferable ass. I don't want to do whatever this is between us anymore. I'm not a sub, can never fully agree to live in your lifestyle, and you will never fully fit into mine. It's done, finished. You can get your things this week. Or I can ship them. Either way, it's over. Shut the door when you leave."

She turned and strode to her bedroom door, closing and locking it, before collapsing on the bed. She heard Tobias moving around in the living room, more like stomping back and forth on her hardwood floor, for a few minutes, before she heard his feet walk to the front door, close and lock it as he shut the door behind him, and then he left.

Ophelia didn't realize she was crying until she heard the door slam shut.

Chapter Eleven

Ophelia spent the weekend in bed. She figured that, after the night she'd had—hell, the last few weeks—she'd earned a little rest and relaxation. She avoided anything that reminded her of Dungeon Pleasures, avoided her phone, avoided going outside, and just puttered around the house for a few days.

She went to work and her classes at the university, but they didn't soothe her like they had in the past. Lucy still hadn't made it back stateside, saying something about a race somewhere that she had to attend. Which was fine by Lia; she didn't really feel like explaining herself to anyone right now anyway.

It wasn't until she received the mail on Thursday that her world turned in on itself once again. The lovely, buttercream-colored envelope had been expertly addressed with a flourish to her, and was postmarked from Scotland.

Ophelia shut the door, allowing the rest of the mail to fall to the floor as she ripped open the envelope. Inside was an elegant wedding announcement, inviting her to her sister's wedding in Scotland. There was an RSVP response card inside that had her name plus one, with a request to respond by November thirtieth.

A fissure cracked inside her, then another, and another, with heart wrenching sobs escaping her mouth with each break. Her sister was never coming back. Lia was alone, more alone than she'd ever been, and it was exactly how she had engineered her life. Into a safe, emotionless void of existence.

Her phone chose that precise moment to buzz in her pocket. As she fumbled to answer, seeing her sister's image pop up on her screen, Lia controlled her hyperventilating.

"Zoey, I just got your—"

"How could you do this to me? Do you hate me this much?" Zoey's voice blared through her smartphone.

"What are you talking about? I don't hate you, Zoey. I love you, you're my sister, and I'd never do anything to—"