Page 7 of Darkest Before Dawn (His Perfect Darkness #2)

I nara

My breath comes faster, staring him down. He’s a formidable opponent and there’s no way I can overcome him physically. And I haven’t had much luck fighting him any other way.

I have to get him to see reason. “Let’s just slow down.” I raise a hand. “We want the same thing—to stop the murders.”

“I’m not willing to sacrifice your safety for that.”

I open my mouth to tell him I’ll be perfectly safe, but I can’t make that promise. Ever since he came for me, I’ve dreamed of dying. Ever since arriving in New Rome, I felt that my time would come soon.

If it’s at the hands of the Bondage Killer, so be it. I’ll just have to make sure I take him with me.

Knowing the end is close tears me up like knives in my insides. But my visions always come true, so I might as well resign myself to it. No one can save me from my fate.

Not even a man as wealthy and powerful as Rex.

“It’s not your decision,” I say. “It’s mine.” I whirl and look to the left and right. “Get me out of here.”

“Inara, wait.” His voice has softened, so I pause.

“I can’t let you. . . I don’t want to lose you.” For a moment, I hear the little boy he was, begging for his parents not to leave him. Begging the gods to let his mother and father live. “It’s not safe out there. Please, let me keep you safe.”

“I’m going to be safe. I’ll be smart. But Rex. . . I have to stop him.”

“You’re leaving me,” he says.

No, I want to insist, but I clench my teeth and nod instead. It’s for the best.

For a second he turns to stone, as if bracing himself for a blow that already came. Then, his torso deflates with a sigh. “The elevator’s this way.”

I want to open my mouth and tell him I’m sorry it has to be this way, but what good will that do? Any bit of hope I give him that we can be together will be cruel.

He leads me over a metal bridge suspended with cables.

The elevator doors open when we approach.

I’m surprised and grateful when he steps in with me and hits the button for the correct floor.

It’s awkward standing with him, staring at the stainless-steel wall, but I would never find my way out of this place without him.

“There’s nothing I can say to keep you here?” he says without looking at me.

Oh, Rex. My heart is breaking for us. Maybe if we were different people. Maybe if I had more time. But the circumstances that brought us together are the same ones that will rip us apart. “No.”

The elevator doors open, and I exit, only to halt in confusion. I’m in an unfamiliar hallway.

“This way,” Rex says, leading me to the right.

“This place is a maze,” I mutter. I don’t like this hallway. It has a low ceiling and not enough lighting. Rex opens a door and holds it for me, waving me through. I go through without looking first, which turns out to be a mistake.

I’m in a small, windowless room. The walls are black panels, there’s a thick carpet on the floor, a low gray chaise lounge, and a bed made up with black satin sheets and a velvety coverlet, but no other furniture.

The door slams behind me, along with the unmistakable click of a lock. I grab the handle, but it doesn’t budge. “Rex?” I pound on the door, but it’s solid. “What the hell?” I ride the wave of anger, ignoring the tinge of panic. “Let me out!”

His voice comes muffled through the door. “Your life is in danger. I can’t let you leave.”

“Are you serious right now?” I shout, even as my organs turn to concrete. He’s lost it. He’s finally gone too far. “You can’t do this.”

I wait for an answer, and there’s only silence.

The realization that he can do whatever he likes hits me. “You won’t get away with it,” I yell. But he will. He’s rich and powerful enough to make anyone disappear. That he’s doing it out of some misguided attempt to preserve my life doesn’t reassure me.

I forgot that Rex isn’t an ordinary, rational man who plays by the rules. He’ll do anything to get what he wants, the law be damned.

“Please don’t do this to me.” I’m begging, and I don’t care. The weight of what’s happening hits me, and I slump against the door. If Rex wants to keep me here, he can. He can lock me up for a long, long time.

Who knows how many lives the Bondage Killer will destroy if I don’t stop him?

“I have to.” His voice is firm, even muffled by the door. “I just got you. I’m not letting you go.”

He thinks he owns me. I thought we had something, but he only saw me as a possession. Something he can lock away whenever it suits him. He never considered me his equal. I was nothing but a trophy to him, a toy.

And that hurts more than anything.

Rex

I watch Inara lean against the door like it’s the only thing keeping her upright. The room is secure and outfitted with cameras that will allow me to keep an eye on her.

Her hand is planted on the door, and I press my own palm opposite hers, imagining I can feel her warmth through the thick surface.

I’m not sorry to lock her up. She’ll hate me for it, but it’s for the best. One day she’ll forgive me, but even if she never does, I stand by my decision. I’ll do anything to keep her safe.

When I return to the cave, Hamish lifts his head from the microscope.

“Have you found anything?” I ask.

“The paper is old and dates to the time the Bondage Killer was last active.”

“Really?”

“Yes, and I have a theory about the smoky quality of the paper. It might have been from the killer’s personal supplies in the warehouse.”

“How is that possible?”

“He could’ve slipped back in to salvage his possessions after he was presumed dead.”

I curse. Damn this serial killer for returning to haunt Inara decades later. “Or it’s a copycat. Someone who was obsessed with the original Bondage Killer and decided to hunt down the one person who escaped him.”

Hamish inclines his head. “Another excellent theory. There’s no way to conclusively confirm it without more evidence.”

I have a thought. “You said the NRPD found a letter at the scene of the latest murder. Can we test that letter against these?”

“I’ll see what I can do.” He’ll have to use his contacts to obtain a sample from the evidence locker. Not legal, but necessary. And right now, time is of the essence. Even now, the killer could be choosing his next victims.

“Has Detective Ramos left?” Hamish asks.

“No, there’s been a change of plans.” There’s a little stone in the pit of my stomach, the tiniest regret. I wish I didn’t have to lock Inara up. But it only takes a second of imagining what will happen to her if the Bondage Killer gets her in his clutches to harden my resolve.

Hamish has paused his work, waiting for me to explain further. He’s not going to like this, but I tell him anyway. “She’ll remain here as our guest while the killer is at large.”

Hamish’s eyes narrow. He knows when I’m glossing over the truth. “As a guest? Or a prisoner?”

“I prefer to think of her as a reluctant guest. Her unwillingness is temporary. She’ll come around.”

Hamish sighs. “I see.” Over the years, I’ve grown used to his unspoken disapproval. He supports a certain amount of lawbreaking in the name of justice, but there are moral lines he won’t cross, especially when it comes to torture and murder. I keep those activities off-site.

He doesn’t approve of locking up a woman for any reason. But he understands how important she is to me and how I’d do anything to keep her alive.

“Sir, if I may give you some advice?—”

“I don’t want a lecture, Hamish.”

He gives me his silence instead, which is worse than a lecture. Finally, I groan, “Say your piece.”

“I know you’ve searched for her for a long time. But now that your search has borne fruit, you would do well to put some thought into how you will keep her by your side.”

“Right now, under lock and key.”

“I can’t imagine she’s happy with that.”

“You don’t have to imagine.” I instruct Alfie to cast the surveillance footage on a nearby screen, and Hamish and I both watch Inara tear apart the room, running her hands over the walls and investigating the in-suite bathroom in her search for a way out.

“I’ll handle all contact with her. Meals, et cetera. She’s off limits.”

He presses his lips into a disapproving line but acquiesces. “Understood.”

I should stop broadcasting the footage and get to work, but I can’t take my eyes off Inara.

Her expression is closed off and focused, but she’s still breathtakingly lovely, marching around the room looking for ways to escape.

I admire her determination, even while I want to soothe away the haunted look on her face.

I move close to the screen to block Hamish’s view. I don’t want anyone looking at my little bird. There’s something satisfying about having her at my mercy. It’s wrong to keep her this way, but it soothes my deep need to possess her.

Hamish speaks quietly to my back. “When I was a boy, I found a butterfly that had hurt its wing. I thought I’d care for it by placing it in a glass jar.”

Oh gods, here it comes. A homily inserted in a fable. My childhood was rife with them.

“I thought the glass would protect it,” he continues. “But when I woke the next morning, I found the butterfly had died. Suffocated.”

“Let me guess. I’m the boy.”

“I know you want to keep the ones you love alive and safe. But lack of freedom is a death in and of itself.”

He leaves me staring at Inara’s desperate face, feeling more unsettled than I did a moment ago.

Inara

I’ve gone over every inch of the bedroom and its contents, looking for weakness. The door is solid. The furniture is sturdy enough to use as a battering ram, but I’m not strong enough to brute force the door open. The air ducts are up by the ceiling and too small to fit through.

There are no obvious knick-knacks lying around to use to pick the lock, but I learned a thing or two from my fellow inmates at the group home. One of the girls there who liked to sneak out to buy cigarettes taught me how to break out of locked rooms.

I don’t have a hairpin, but I’m angry enough to take the bed apart, which is when I find some cuffs and chains attached to the frame. Most mansions don’t have kinky implements in their guest rooms, but it fits with what I expect from Rex.

I can’t believe he would do this to me. I can’t believe I let him lull me into a false sense of security, thinking I was special. My psychic sense didn’t warn me. It told me he was safe, and I wanted to believe that, so I let myself indulge in him.

Now I know the truth: there’s nothing he won’t do to get his way. He acted like he cared about me, but the moment I made a decision he didn’t like, he treated me like a pet who tried to run away. He’s made it clear that he doesn’t think I’m his equal.

My heart is a cauldron of hurt and longing, so I ignore it and focus on my anger. I’m going to make him regret locking me in here.

I pry one of the chain links apart, breaking a nail in the process, and use the sturdy surface of the bed frame to hammer the metal flat. I need to act fast. I have no idea how long Rex will leave me alone.

I use my makeshift pick to tinker with the lock. The metal filament is too short to maneuver easily, but I somehow get the pins into place, and at last, the door clicks open.

I hold my breath and slip into the hall. I take a left and continue as quietly as I can.

I have no idea how I’ll get out of this place or, once I’m out, how I’ll get back to the city.

But I have to try.

Rex can’t win.

The hallway ends at another locked door. I pick this one, too, gritting my teeth so hard my jaw aches.

The room is dark, but I can sense how large it is.

When the lights come on all at once, I stifle a scream. I’m in the long, red-walled room Rex uses as a dungeon. I’ll have to cross it to escape.

I creep past the spanking benches, St. Andrew’s crosses, and other heavy wooden contraptions fitted with iron chains that belong in a medieval torture chamber.

I’m halfway through the room when I hear his voice right behind me, “Hello, little bird.”

I startle and break into a run, dashing toward the door ahead of me and freedom.

I’ve almost reached it when Rex’s arms close around me. “No!” I shout, but he lifts me easily off my feet.

I fight, but it’s no use. He’s bigger and stronger, faster and way more used to grappling with enemies than I am. He drags me to the floor and pins me face down. Even with me thrashing and flailing, he overpowers me.

My screams ring loud in my ears. I’m a wild creature full of panic, unable to think or reason. If I had a weapon, I’d stab him.

He isn’t the man who comforted me last night.

He isn’t the dom who gave me the pain and pleasure I needed.

He’s the monster dragging me into darkness.

I can’t give in.

There’s a hiss like a valve releasing, and I realize Rex has triggered a mechanism in his gauntlets that releases a plume of chemical-scented air. I breathe in a thick gas of some sort, and it clings to my face, filling my nostrils.

My limbs grow heavy like I’m moving through water. I sag in Rex’s arms, turning into dead weight. He rolls me to my back and lays me out on the floor. My head lolls on my neck, and I stare up at the opaque glass of the helmet Rex is wearing.

He lifts it off, revealing his starkly handsome face. His eyes are black, merciless.

He tackled and gassed me like he would a fleeing criminal.

“Why?” I croak.

He says something but it’s lost to my fading consciousness.