Page 58 of Sacred Vow

CAESAR

I zaac walks beside me as we step out of his office, making our way toward the main bar on the VIP floor, my gaze already sweeping through the club. There’s no sign of Tilly. She should have been here at least fifteen minutes ago.

She usually likes to wait at the end of the bar, sipping her drinks as though she’s actually enjoying them, while waiting for me to find her. Only tonight, there’s no sexy little minx occupying the lonely chair at the end of the bar.

In a perfect world, I would have driven her here, but I came straight from a long day at the office, and Tilly Bardot is far too impatient to have waited for me to get home after work. She insisted that she meet me here, and to be honest, I thought she would have shown up long ago.

She’s been staying with me ever since the attack, and despite having cleaned out her apartment today, there’s no way in hell that I’m about to let her go back to living there.

Now that I know how sweet life is having her in my bed, I fully intend to keep her there, even if I have to chain her to it.

The thought has a laugh rumbling up my throat. Any other woman would run if they knew just how fucking serious I was about chaining her to my bed, but not Tilly. She’d rise to the occasion and order a shirt that says something along the lines of being Daddy’s personal little prisoner.

I won’t lie. I never really understood the whole Daddy thing before, but with Tilly, I fucking crave it. Every time that word slips from those sweet lips and she bats those long lashes, I all but fall to my knees with desperation. I’m immediately hard, and nothing will satisfy me except her.

Reaching the bar, Izaac and I order a drink, and as we wait, he places a hand on my shoulder, a sadness in his eyes.

The second I got here, he pulled me into his office, wanting to check on Tilly after her mom mentioned something to Aspen’s mom, which somehow turned into a wild gossip session that twisted and exaggerated the story.

Then, after making sure he knew exactly what had gone down, I told him about Annie, making sure her membership was revoked and any sight of her would have the Vixen staff logging an immediate call with 911.

“I’m glad Tilly’s alright,” Izaac tells me. “Aspen’s been worried.”

“I bet she has. Tilly’s been staying at my place, so if Aspen wants to come around and see her, that’s fine. We could have dinner or drinks while the girls talk shit about us.”

Izaac laughs. “Yeah, no doubt,” he says. “You’d think once they get you to admit you’re in love with them, the shit-talking would stop, but it only seems to have made it worse. Regardless, Aspen would love to do dinner. We’ll set it up.”

I nod just as the bartender returns with our drinks, only he has a woman’s purse lodged under his arm.

He slides the drinks across the bar to us, and once his hands are free, he places the purse beside my drink.

“This belongs to that young woman you’ve been with,” he tells me.

“She was searching for you earlier and accidentally left it on the bar.”

I almost roll my eyes. I’m not surprised. Tilly would forget her head if it weren’t screwed on.

“How long has she been here? I haven’t seen her.”

“Not long,” he says, “maybe fifteen, twenty minutes.”

I nod and glance around the VIP floor again, positive I must have missed her earlier.

“Did you see where she took off to?” I ask, hoping she’s not in any pain or suffering from one of those migraines that she’s been getting.

Though I think we’re past that now. The first few days after the attack were rough, but she’s been doing much better, which is why I thought it’d be alright to bring her here tonight, but perhaps I jumped the gun on that one.

It’s not as though I have anything strenuous planned for the night, but maybe her body isn’t quite as ready as her mind is.

“Uhh, yeah, actually. She was looking for you. I think I saw her head toward one of the private rooms about ten minutes ago,” he says, pointing off toward the rooms on the right-hand side of the VIP floor. “I wasn’t exactly paying attention, so don’t take my word for it.”

“Thanks, man,” I say, lifting both the purse and my glass off the bar before turning to face the row of private rooms across the floor, laughing to myself.

She joked about which one of us should bring the whips and chains, and if I walk in there to find her with a whip in her hand, I think I might just come in my pants.

I make my way toward the private room when a flash of red catches my attention, and my gaze sweeps to the left, finding Annie in her signature red lingerie, staring at me with a smug grin. She looks as though she’s waiting for me to come to my senses and spread her open.

My hand clenches around my glass so tight that it shatters under my grip, but I barely notice as I storm toward her. Who does this bitch think she is, showing up here like this?

With every step I take toward her, that smug expression only gets worse, and as I start really thinking it over, my stomach begins to sink.

Tilly always waits at the bar for me. She’s more than happy to wander, but not since we’ve been doing our thing.

She gets her drink and sits at the bar, but if she had gone into that private room ten minutes ago, she would have come searching for me already.

She’s not a patient woman, but the doors of every private room are closed, telling me that they’re in use.

So either Tilly is in there with another man, or Annie has done something with her, and judging by Annie’s smirk, this bitch has done something with my girl.

I cross the VIP floor within seconds, my heart pounding with fear.

“I knew you’d come back to me,” Annie purrs as she rests against the loveseat I’ve taken her on a million times. Those soulless eyes I once tolerated now make me sick to my stomach.

I scoff and step straight into her, my hand closing right around her fragile throat and ripping her up off the seat, slamming her back against the partition between the smaller booths.

“Where the fuck is she?” I growl, my hand tightening just enough for her to understand how quickly I could snap her neck.

“Relax,” she says, her voice catching as her voice box is severely compromised. “She’s having the time of her life.”

“Where is she?”

“God, you’re so sexy when you’re worked up like this,” she says, trying to swallow beneath my tight hold, her eyes wild with hunger. “Forget about her. I’ll fuck you how you need. I’ll even let you throw me around if that’s what you want. I know you like it rough, Caesar.”

I tighten my grip, getting the sickest satisfaction out of the way her eyes bulge in fear. She’s finally understanding how capable I am of breaking her neck, and that I will do it without hesitation if she doesn’t give me what I want.

“Let her go, Caesar,” comes a stern warning from Izaac as he steps in beside me, his gaze shifting between me and Annie while his security swarms around us. “Don’t throw it all away like this.”

“She’s done something with Tilly,” I tell him, knowing that with those few words, he’ll understand just how far I’m willing to take this.

“Fuck.”

He takes a small step back, giving me the all-clear to deal with this as I see fit. Rage tears through me like never before, and without hesitation, I close my fist as tight as it will go and watch the way Annie’s face turns blue.

I know what it’s like to have almost lost her once, and I won’t do that again.

Panic surges through her stare, and she starts to claw at my hand. “Caes . . . Caesar. I—”

“You have roughly nine seconds before you run out of oxygen and your body starts to give in, so I suggest you hurry up and tell me where she is before I send you to the grave alongside your son.”

She clenches her jaw, and even still on the brink of death, I see that need to put up a fight, but as the seconds start to tick by and her body screams for oxygen, realization finally dawns, and her gaze flicks across the VIP floor toward the private rooms. “Third . . . door,” she croaks out, her eyes growing heavy.

I pull her off the wall and throw her to the ground, not waiting to see if she is even capable of taking a breath beneath her crushed windpipe. I race across the floor, sprinting toward the third private room with a fierce desperation.

I hear Izaac heavy on my heels, calling out to his security behind him. “Detain her,” he demands, racing after me.

We reach the third door within seconds, and I don’t stop to try the handle.

I simply barge straight through it, a wildness pulsing through my veins.

My feet pound against the floor, breaking deep into the room as my gaze shoots around the room, taking in the three men assaulting my girl as she’s cuffed to the X frame.

One of them—a younger guy who I’ve seen hanging around—holds a whip, brutally cracking it against her waist, and judging by the raw marking across her soft skin, it’s not the first hit she’s received.

The second guy standing behind her at the X frame isn’t someone I know, but he’s someone who’s actively known for playing out rape fetishes.

He has one arm locked around her chest, keeping her still as his fingers dive into the cup of her bra, roughly pinching her nipple.

His other hand is at her hip, trying to tear her thong as she wildly bucks to get him away.

The third guy—Liam—is a friend I’ve known for a few years, and just seeing him in this room tells me that he has no idea that this isn’t a consensual act.

He stands across the room, looking uncomfortable as he searches the wall of BDSM toys, but he’s a pleaser, and if this is what he thinks she wants, then he’s going to try and give it to her.

“GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF MY WIFE,” I roar, racing toward Tilly as tears stream down her cheeks, soaking into the fabric that’s been tied over her mouth, taking away any hope for giving or denying consent.