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W e head back inside and as soon as Kieran slides the door closed behind us, he clears his throat, stopping us in our tracks on our way to Alex’s office.

“Everything okay?” Alex asks in a sweet voice, but Kieran doesn’t respond. Slightly confused, I step toward him to ask the same question.

“Darlin’, are you—” He cuts me off mid-question, clamping his hand around my throat so fast that I nearly lose my footing. Alex gasps from somewhere behind me, but all I can focus on is the hungry, sadistic expression on Kieran’s handsome face.

“I think it’s time we play another game. Only this time, I make the rules,” he growls as he inches closer, catching my bottom lip between his teeth with a predatory smile I thought he had lost since the night we took our little Dove.

I am stunned, amused, and judging by Alex’s silence behind me, I’d say she is too. My lips turn up at his sudden change in demeanor, feeling my body heat with excitement before apprehension and doubt clouds my mind.

“What do you have in mind?” Alex asks curiously while I challenge him with a look that dares him to try whatever he’s thinking.

“Take off your clothes and crawl to me,” he responds to Alex while meeting my challenging gaze. His tone is serious and low. “Hmm, mind letting go so I can watch?” I chuckle.

Kieran’s grip tightens and his smile grows wider. “Beg,” he demands, and when I do not comply, he forces me to my knees, grips tighter than before with a warning smirk.

After witnessing me bringing Fintan to his knees for not doing as he is told, Alex decides to be a good girl for me and starts undressing with her unwavering eyes on me.

She lowers down until her knees meet the floor before starting toward us. Pride blooms in my chest as she comes to a stop next to Fintan.

He is staring at me, but the smirk ghosting his lips assures me that he is too curious to do what he always does.

I think I might disarm him further.

“I know you won’t submit to her , but perhaps you’ll do it for me,” I whisper as I release him and step back to look at them kneeling before me.

This may be slightly out of character for me, but perhaps this is how I work through this. I need to dominate them. I need to take back what was taken from me.

Fintan’s expression falters at my words, but he doesn’t say anything, and I don’t expect him to.

“Basement or bedroom?” I ask as I dip my hands into my back pockets and muse at the looks on their faces.

“Bedroom,” Alex answers, her voice tinged with nervousness, and yet her intrigue is evident.

“Great, basement it is,” I say with a low, amused growl.

Her eyes grow wide, and I can’t help but chuckle as her body turns shades of pink and red. I wonder if she is thinking about all the toys she has down there and how much fun I am going to have using them.

Fintan clears his throat and starts to stand when I snap my eyes to meet his. I notice his annoyance, as if thinking I am making a joke. I am not.

“You seem eager,” I say to Fintan as I reach down to help Alex to her feet.

Fintan lets out a breath and cocks his head. “You’re serious?” he asks incredulously, and I wink at him before I guide them toward the basement door.

Alex looks fucking delicious and tense as she walks us down to where it happened. My eyes train on the scars above her ass and she looks amazing wearing our names.

She unlocks the door and we descend the stairs into the space I wanted to erase from my memory.

The walls feel like they’re closing in on me as soon as I step into the middle of the room, taking in every detail I have been trying to forget. Every single memory comes flooding in and I have to breathe.

“Breathe before you hyperventilate,” I tell myself.

This place looks exactly how we left it. I wonder if Alex has been down here since she let us go. From the steel table to the toys on the walls, barely anything has changed or moved.

The only differences are our “spots” on the floor, the blankets, pillows, shackles, and chains. They’re gone.

After a few heavy breaths and the concerned looks from Alex and Fintan, I steady myself. “Take off his clothes, Dove,” I order, lifting my gaze to Alex as I look her over.

She straightens her spine, meeting my hungry gaze with one of playful defiance. “I’m sure there is nothing wrong with his hands. He can do it himself, no?”

She knows what I’m doing. She’s done the same.

I watch her lips tilt in an understanding, consenting grin when I don’t respond; it makes my heart drum fast with the promise of ending the nightmares and terrible memories that were born from being locked in this place.

Amused, I smile at her before we both turn to watch Fintan, waiting for him to do as he is told. It's almost as if we had somehow planned this earlier.

“No,” he growls. “I’m not sure what you two think is happening here, but you are not ordering me around.”

When his words register, all I see is red.

Kieran moves toward me with unexpected speed, and I gasp as he grabs me by the waist, hauls me up over his shoulder and walks to the other side of the basement before he drops me on my feet against the cold concrete wall.

Holy shit!

“What are you going to do to me?” I say, biting my lip as I try not to squirm against the wall.

I am so very aware of how naked I am when his almost animalistic gaze burns every inch of me. “Wait and see,” he grins, and it sends a hot shiver down my spine despite the chill of the wall against my bare back. There is nothing gentle remaining in his eyes or in his touch.

Grabbing a set of handcuffs from a hook near my right, he pins my hands above my head, my breasts bobbing from the quick movement as he cuffs me and hooks the chain to the ring bolted to the concrete.

My eyes flick to Fintan and despite my knowing him by now, I’m actually surprised that he just stands there. Watching. He has a smirk on his face, and he looks amused. Like even he has never seen Kieran behave this way.

Kieran was brutal and downright primal the night they took me to their building; but this is…different.

A whimper escapes my throat as soon as he moves away from me and locks those green eyes onto Fintan.

He looks reckless and dominant. More than before.

Fuck, even more than Fintan usually is.