ROMULUS (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 1) (27 page)

"Freeze, bitch," he snarled, "unless you want to lose one of those pretty eyes."

"What do you want?" Aster murmured through clenched teeth.

"Come now, Miss Mackenzie, I didn't take you for a stupid woman. However, since you just let me know you were expecting the big shot at the door, I guess we don't have time for any fun before we go. Your alien freak will be slightly delayed I'm afraid. I borrowed his car for our convenience."

Aster had been clinging to the fact that Rom would be bursting through the door any second to rescue her.

"I need your assistance with a small matter. I thought you might not do so willingly, so I took an added precaution. Your friend, Cherry, is in my protective custody. You will come along quietly or I will kill her...
again
."

He lowered the blade to slash one of her straps. Aster whimpered as a trickle of blood ran down from her shoulder. She tried to cover herself and watched the knife bite the back of her hand.

"I told you not to move. The next time you disobey me you will be half-blind. I'll take you either way but your
protector
might not appreciate my artwork."

She would not cry. If she could keep her wits, she might come out of this alive—again. "Where is Cherry? I'll do whatever you want. Just let her go."

"You don't need to know where she is. You will have to accept my word that she will be released if you behave. Now stand up slowly and get a piece of paper to write a note. He'll be coming along to fetch you soon enough. I only want to delay the meeting a bit longer.

"I am a very lucky man, you know. I thought it might be weeks before I'd catch you alone. I could hardly believe it when I got the call this morning. What's the matter, bitch? Somebody at his office a better lay than you?"

It took a moment for his words to sink in. He had an accomplice. Someone who had been watching her and Romulus was reporting to Victor. It had not mattered at all that he was far away at the Clinic.

"What do you want me to write?"

"Tell him you went out to run an errand."

"Can I tell him I borrowed his car? He loves that car more than me. He'll be very upset when he discovers it's gone."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. I knew you could be cooperative, with the right incentive." He twisted the knife in front of her face.

Aster tried to ignore the bloody cuts and the fierce pain in her jaw. As she composed the note, she told herself Rom would know something was very wrong.

R—Sorry I left you stranded. I needed the car to run an errand. You know how I love to drive it every chance I get.—A

"Okay?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

"Can't I get dressed first?"

"No more time. Move."

Just then the vidcom began to beep. Aster turned toward it but was brought up short as Victor grabbed her wrist and twisted it up her back. Shooting pain tore into her shoulder.

"Let it go," he ordered, giving her arm a yank and shoving her out the door. The insistent beeping continued behind them.

Victor again credited his good luck when no one noticed him pushing the half-naked bitch into the car. He snapped handcuff-like clamps on her wrists behind her back and stuck a piece of wide adhesive tape across her mouth. Another longer strip bound her ankles.

"Can't stand a broad talking while I'm driving," he said with a snicker at his own joke.

Aster closed her eyes against the reality of what was happening to her.
Rom! Hear me. I need you.

Victor leered at her breasts straining against the see-through material. The side with the severed strap barely covered her nipple. He pulled the sheer material the rest of the way down and cruelly pinched her flesh.

She couldn't stop the painful moan that escaped her throat. But as he proceeded to grope the naked breast, the taste of bile was worse than the pain.

"I've seen your big tits before, bitch, so you don't need to be shy with me." In answer to her furrowed brow, he replied, "I caught your act in the garden the other night. Interesting dialogue, although a bit corny for my taste. I have plans to thank you for the entertainment later." He stopped kneading her exposed breast to squeeze the growing bulge between his legs.

Rom! Find me!

* * *

"Thanks for the lift, Falcon. I really appreciate it. Let me know if you have any luck tracking my commuter." Rom was bewildered by the missing car. He was more upset by how it may have interfered with Aster's surprise. He had called to let her know about the inconvenience but she hadn't answered, which seemed very odd also.

"Chief Romulus. Stop." Falcon's raspy voice halted him before he reached the front door. "Your car was here a little over an hour ago." The tracker climbed out of his sleek speeder.

"That's impossible. I drove it to work this morning."

"Would you stand aside for a moment, please? There is a great darkness here." The man with the special abilities placed his hand on the door and closed his eyes. A violent shiver ran through him. "A struggle occurred. Let me go in first, before you disturb anything."

Rom stood tensed in the open doorway. Falcon moved slowly through the room, randomly stopping to touch objects. When he picked up Aster's note, he called for Romulus to enter.

"Tell me about this."

Rom took the paper and recognized Aster's handwriting. "This isn't right. I offered her the car this morning and she refused. She's afraid to drive it herself. What is it, Falcon? What's happened here?" A steel vise closed around Rom's heart.

"Do you know a man, very thin, almost your height and coloring, with a gem in his tooth?"

"Victor." Rom's voice turned to ice.

"He was here and took your female away. He is the one who stole your commuter."

"Let me see what happened."

"No. You do not want to do that. It is uncomfortable for me and I am not involved with her."

"I said show me! That's an order."

Falcon nodded and positioned himself in front of Rom. "What you will see and hear are the events as they happened and the words spoken aloud. I do not have the ability to discern thoughts of someone not physically present. You will not experience the emotions I am picking up. If you are certain you wish to do this, you may touch my mind."

Each man placed two fingers on the other's temple and closed their eyes. Like a video with poor sight and sound, the scene replayed in Falcon's head for Romulus.

"I'll destroy him," Rom growled as he broke contact.

"He did not say where he was taking her but I can follow their brain waves. I should be able to overtake him with my speeder. I will contact you when she is safe."

"Like drek you will. I'm going with you." Romulus's powerful grip closed over the other man's forearm.

"Romulus, you will be in my way. You are so full of anger that it is interfering with my reading. Besides that, you are burning for her. I felt it the second I touched you. I would be distracted by your emotion. Let me go so I can help her."

"I'll get it under control. I have to go." Romulus was out the door and in the speeder ahead of the tracker.

They were beyond the city for several minutes before they both realized precisely where Victor had taken Aster. Falcon shifted his speeder and they soared into the air toward the Rehabilitation Clinic.

* * *

Victor's timing was perfect. The daytime employees of the Clinic were gone for the day. The skeleton evening crew never came to this end of the building. He had spent enough nights in the laboratory to know he had complete privacy.

He removed the wrist cuffs and gave Aster a shove. "Lie down on that table, bitch. And don't try anything cute or you'll watch me when I slice that little Cherry into bite-size pieces."

She obeyed as slowly as she dared. If only he would remove the tape on her mouth, she could try to talk to him.

Victor snorted loudly at her grunting and expressive eyes. "No, I will not remove the tape. You have nothing to say that I want to hear. I, on the other hand, have several things to say to you." He painfully secured her wrists and ankles in the restraints at the table's four corners.

"Oh, my. I forgot to take that thing off you before I got you ready. Well, we can fix that."

Aster shrieked with terror as he brought the blade down to the hollow between her breasts. Dragging the razor-sharp edge down the center of her body, he split the teddy in half, leaving a thin bloody trail behind. With a flick of his wrist, the material fell to her sides, exposing her helpless body to his greedy eyes.

"My, my, how pretty you look in red. I think a touch more color would make it even better. We want to make sure the chief knows we mean business, now don't we? Let's see. We have this nice spot here by your eye." He touched the point to her cheekbone and fresh blood crisscrossed over the dried blood dripping into her hair. "Then we have an attractive decoration on the right shoulder."

Aster held her breath as the steel passed across her chest to prick the other side. "There. That's an interesting addition. I think one more line right here should complete the look." The knife sliced across her ribs, more deeply than the other cuts. Aster could feel her taut skin pop open like a zipper as her blood seeped down her sides and under her back.

This is not happening! It's another nightmare and it's going to end in a minute and I'll wake up in Rom's arms and I won't cry because this isn't real. Lord, tell him where I am, Aster's mind screamed as she tried to block out the pain.

"You think you're too good for a Julio like me, huh? It didn't need to be like this you know. When I came to your apartment house, you could have been pleasant. You could have offered to help me, simply as a kindness, but, no, you had to be a smart-ass, some kind of ice queen. And all the while sleeping with some creature from outer space like he's normal and I'm not. I don't think he'll be so hot for you after I get through."

Aster tried to follow him with her eyes as he strolled around the table then stopped near her face.

"I know. I'll brand you, like the cow you are."

Aster gagged on the acid that rose in her throat as he carved a deep V in her forehead. The bubbling red liquid gushed into her eyes, burning and blinding her.

Victor's demonic laughter echoed in Aster's ears and she slammed her eyes shut against his insanity and her own pain. Why am I still conscious? she thought, surprised at her ability to stand the agony wracking her body.

"Are you praying, bitch? You should be. Pray that that freak boyfriend of yours cares enough about you to give me what I want. Otherwise, what I've done so far is nothing but foreplay for the big finish!" Victor snickered at his metaphor. "I almost forgot about that character flaw of yours—being so very religious. He used to laugh at you. Little Miss Innocent praying in church for salvation every Sunday, especially after she had done that dirty awful thing with him on Saturday nights."

Aster blinked open her bleary eyes and warily listened to his cruel words. He swaggered up several steps behind a raised counter. Suddenly an enormous light glared down on her. It was so bright it made her squint, even with her eyelids closed.

"You never had any idea, did you? That was the funniest part. You, so righteous, engaged to one of the crookedest pigs on the Frisco police force."

Certainly her hearing was being affected by the searing pain coursing through her. The only person she was ever engaged to was Dennis. Victor could not be talking about him.

"I see I have your full attention again. Your name was familiar to me when I heard it on the yacht but it wasn't until a few days later that I put two and two together.

"He talked about you a lot, especially when he was high. So beautiful yet so cold. If it wasn't for the fortune you inherited, he would have kissed you off after he had you the first time. He said you lay there like a dead fish. He didn't know you were only turned on by aliens."

Aster blinked against the verbal assault. This had to be another part of Victor's perverted torture. Dennis had been a good police officer. He had hated drugs. He had loved her, not her money.

The light burned through her eyelids. What was he talking about now? She could not remember. Was it important? She was so tired. Maybe Victor would let her take a short nap.

Victor!
Her mind snapped to attention again. She recalled the healing light from when she first arrived in Innerworld. It was similar to this one but not so bright. Victor was operating this light. Perhaps if she concentrated very hard on what he was saying, she would stay awake.

"Are you still with me, bitch?"

Aster blinked.

"Are you relaxed yet? No? You will be soon enough. Then I'll sample what you never gave easily to good old Dennis. I don't like women who move around too much when I take them.

"He said you only did it one night a week and even then you were stiff as a board underneath him. I heard you cried sometimes after he came, no matter how easy he tried to go. Do you think you could do that little trick for me? Unlike some men, I don't mind a woman's tears. As you might have guessed, I find inflicting pain somewhat exciting." Victor laughed aloud as though he'd just heard a very funny joke.