Page 39 of Wickedly Played (Checkmate #1)

Chapter Thirty-Five

SERENA

The constant rocking is what wakes me up from my sleep. I attempt to stretch as much as I can in my position, but my arms won’t move. Neither will my legs. “Hello?” I cry out.

My throat feels like I have swallowed sandpaper.

My nose feels as if I have sniffed a bunch of poison, but it is the cold metal I feel on my body that scares me the most. Carefully, I peel an eye open to take in my surroundings.

From what I can make out, I’m still wearing my lingerie from earlier, and I’m tied to the chair.

What I don’t know or understand is why my thighs feel as if they have been strained.

My lower muscles hurt like I just had sex. Wait, what is going on?

“Hello?” I try again.

“Oh, good. You’re awake,” the familiar Irish lilt shakes me to my core. “I’ve missed you, love,” my father says.

“What am I doing here?” My voice sounds so choppy since I’m thirsty, but I do my best. “Dad, why am I here?” My arms and legs are bound to the chair I’m seated in, but it is my neck that hurts the most. Did he tie my neck to the chair, too?

He walks closer to my body and touches my face. “My dear daughter. I’ve missed you. I didn’t want you to go away.”

“Dad, please. Why am I here?”

He snaps his fingers, and a group of men comes out from behind the divider. Some of them are holding random stuff in their hands, but they look menacing. Every nerve ending in my body is telling me I need to get out of here. I know nothing good is going to happen to me.

I can make out a couple of the men, but it is the one on the end that I feel the need to snipe at. “Adam?”

His face is bruised and caked with blood. However, I don’t miss the sinister smile on his face. “Everything would have gone on as planned if you had just stayed at Alpha, Serena,” Adam’s voice is chilly.

I blink several times to clear my thoughts, but my facial muscles hurt. I’ve been involved in this life for long enough to know what that could mean. “Why did you drug me and then beat me up?”

Lorcan McGuire, also known as my father, gathers my hair and pushes it off my shoulders. “Have you not figured it out yet?”

“I am your stalker, Serena.” Adam’s teeth glint in the fluorescent light, making him look demonic. “Max was supposed to be a means to an end. He was only supposed to guard you and then fuck off like he normally does.”

“I don’t understand. When have I seen…” I begin and then clamp my lips shut.

“Go on, little girl. Ask me when we saw each other,” Adam taunts.

My mind flips through my clients. Every single one of them has usually been a repeat or someone I have developed a D/s relationship with. I don’t remember when I met Adam. “When did we see each other?”

“It was two years ago. I subbed for you a couple of times, and then you got too busy to see me regularly. I would watch you on your cams. You were so pretty on them. Every time you called someone your lover, I knew you were talking to me.”

“Why didn’t you just try to talk to me?” I beg. Tears are rolling down my face from frustration and feeling utterly betrayed. Did Max know about this all along? Has he been in on the deceit? If he hadn’t been, was he played, too?

Dad stands off to the side, lights his cigar, and begins to puff on it.

He couldn’t look more stereotypical if he tried.

“Just wait, honey. The story gets better.” He steps closer to me with the smoke billowing around me.

“Max and Adam have been working for me all along. You didn’t think Max was just ex-military, did you? ”

I feel something inside my chest slam shut. My eyes feel like needles are poking them repeatedly, but it is the way my stomach turns to acid that gets to me. “This was all a game?” I ask weakly.

Connor, my ex-husband, smiles wickedly. I haven’t seen him since our divorce, as I have been avoiding all family functions.

This is too much. I can’t… My breathing becomes ragged as I try to force myself to inhale and exhale.

Nothing is working. My head feels light, but still heavy at the same time.

“Serena,” Conor greets me.

“Will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on here?” I demand.

“Everything will make more sense in just a moment, darling,” Dad tells me. “I’m just waiting for a couple more of this dipshit’s friends.” He is pointing at Adam.

I hope he can feel the daggers I’m flying at his head from over here. He set me up! My thighs jolt from the exertion, causing a slight strain. “Did you… Did you rape me?” My voice is small under the pressure of being surrounded by so many men.

Adam stands off to the side with a proud look on his face, but doesn’t confirm. He’s too chicken shit to admit to what he did. He knows he’s about to die.

Dad won’t let anyone get in his way to get what he wants. If he wants me back here, he will burn the world down for me.

“You wanted it,” he throws out.

Connor has his forearm pressed against Adam’s neck, and he has been tossed up against the wall. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now.”

“Tie him up in the other chair. I have a feeling we will be getting company soon,” one of Dad’s men directs.

Adam is immediately tied to a chair with a rope around his mouth to keep him from talking.

“Dad, why am I here?” I ask again.

Dad stands in front of me, snaps his fingers at one of his guys, and then sits in the chair that has been placed below him. “Serena, I have given you plenty of leniency. You have done what you wanted to do and made a mockery out of our family.”

I try to talk, but he shoves his finger against my lips.

“You don’t get a chance to speak.”

My eyes fill with tears. If I have to come back here, I might as well have them kill me. That is what coming back here will do for me.

“Amanda has struggled to get pregnant. We need an heir,” Dad casually informs me. “After you have produced an heir for Connor, you can go back to your life.”

My head is swiveling on a spicket right now. There is no way I heard him right. “You want me to be a breeder?” I spit out.

The mafia has never made it a secret that they have some women who are only meant to produce babies for the high-ranking men.

These women are looked down upon and are seen as less than garbage on the side of the street.

These women are addicted to drugs to get through the day and get passed around like baseball cards. Being a breeder is a death sentence.

He scoffs. “Darling, don’t look at it like that. This is your opportunity to make it up to me for turning your back on our family when we needed you the most.”

“I did what you wanted! I married Connor, then he cheated on me, and then I was granted freedom! Dad, you can’t make me go back there.”

Leaning back in his chair, he looks me up and down.

“I can make you do whatever I want. This is the part you don’t understand.

In fact, you and your sister are spoiled little mafia princesses who think the rules don’t apply to you.

You are only as good as the male heirs you bring into this world,” he breathes out.

“Dad,” I cry.

“Don’t look so sad, Serena. As long as you do what you’re supposed to do, and that’s spread your legs, you should be free to live your life.”

This is punishment for leaving. I got cocky and thought I could survive this.

I don’t know why I thought I could be the lucky one.

No one escapes the McGuires. No one has lived to tell the story of how they escaped the patriarchy of the family.

Dad won’t ever let me leave. He will find another reason for me to stay.

“Trust me, the last thing I want is your used-up pussy,” Connor spits out. “Especially after that asshole nutted in there,” he grumbles, pointing at Adam.

“Why?”

Dad leans forward to touch my cheek. “You belong to me. You have always belonged to me. The sooner you come to terms with that, the better you will be.”

I feel another scratch on my neck before the darkness takes me over. Instead of fighting to stay present, I welcome the blackness of oblivion. Here, I can imagine whatever I want. Here, I can picture Max coming to save me. Here, I can picture how easy it would be to kill my father.

Lorcan McGuire might get what he wants from me, but I’m not going to make it easy for him.

My last thought is of how it felt to have Max hold me while we napped together. At least I will have memories of him. I know what my life is going to become.

I might as well die.