Dark Desires by Candace Wondrak

Chapter Eight – Markus

For once, I did something I did not normally do: I paced. I paced my office. The space, as it turned out, was not nearly big enough to actually pace, but did that stop me from doing it? Of course not.

We were getting close to having a full house. Not above ground, but rather, below. We were due for another wave of marks. I had a few more proposed contracts to look over, and then I’d have to send out my brothers to attain those marks and drag them back here, all while the world outside looked on. The process of getting everyone here might take a little while, but you could never rush these things.

But, that said, the prospect of another wave in the basement was not what caused me to pace. No, that honor belonged to Juliet. No matter what I did or how hard I tried, it seemed I simply could not get the girl out of my mind. Seeing her in the pool, with Tori, having fun and laughing… she’d been a whole different person then. Not the scared little girl she usually was when she was with me.

I’d realized then I rather liked her smile. When she smiled, it looked so easy and effortless, which I found surprising, given the fact she’d been locked up in that house with her father for all these years.

I know, I know. It was fucking stupid. I was fucking stupid for feeling what I felt, for wanting the things I did, for being drawn to her fucking smile. It certainly was a damned good thing my father wasn’t here, otherwise he’d scold me and teach me another lesson.

And that lesson would be had only in Juliet’s blood.

Alas, that’s what this whole thing was about. Her blood. Keeping it bottled up in that young, tempting body of hers, behind that smile.

A knock on my door brought me out of my thoughts, and I went to answer it, since I was already on my feet. As I opened it, I frowned, and that frown only deepened when I saw who stood on the other side.

Doc.

What the fuck did he want?

I let him in, saying not a word as I moved to sit behind my desk. I would not let Theo Ward see me pace my office. I tried to keep a cool mask on when anyone else was near. When I was alone, now, only then could I lose that mask to the complicated truth and reluctant desire inside.

Doc did not sit down; he never did, not when he was in my office. Perhaps it made him feel too much like a Scott or a victim. Whatever. I didn’t rightly care.

“What do you want?” I spoke slowly, drawing out the question, wishing I could be left alone. I was so not in the mood to deal with anything today, but then again, I supposed that was my attitude more days than not.

“I was with Juliet, earlier, when Will slept.”

“Are you going to tell me something I don’t know?”

“She told me something, something she didn’t tell me when I went through the questions with her, when she first got here.” Doc adjusted his glasses, then rubbed the back of his neck. He seemed quite uneasy, which I found odd. “Her father kept her locked up.”

“Yes, I am already aware he kept her in the house her whole life.”

“No, I mean… I mean he literally locked her up. In her room. She said she tried to go out into the world once, when she was younger, and when he caught her, he locked her in her room, didn’t let her use the restroom, and didn’t feed her.”

I listened to him. I listened to him, all while feeling my fingers start to clench into a fist. That fucking man was fortunate he wasn’t here right now, otherwise I think I’d drag him to the basement myself. Killing was a job, but this particular man… I believed I’d quite enjoy tearing into him.

“It sounded like he locked her up often,” Doc went on. “But he usually let her use the restroom, and he’d bring up food for her, or so she said. I think Juliet honestly believes he was only trying to protect her.”

Yes, sometimes victims were brainwashed, having lived a lie for so long. It’s what happened with cults and the like, but to hear this… not only had I not expected something like this, but I also felt the twinge of regret inside me. Small—don’t get me wrong, it was very small, but it was still there.

I’d locked her up, just like her father, only I’d done it with a lot more blood.

“What you did—” Doc started.

My gaze rested on my desk as I muttered, “I know.” Of course I knew. I wasn’t fucking stupid. I could put two and two together and get four. To insinuate otherwise was insulting as all hell.

Doc took a step closer to my desk, and I was slow in rising my stare to meet his. “I don’t know what your endgame is with her, but she doesn’t deserve to be treated like a prisoner. If you let her live, I don’t think she’ll try to run again.”

“Ah, you know her that well, do you?” If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I sounded almost bitter. Jealous Doc got to spend time with her. No, I didn’t think I liked that at all. Perhaps he was simply being a good doctor and trying to look out for his patient, or maybe there was more to it. Maybe Juliet was like a fucking beacon in the dark, drawing everything and everyone nearby to her.

He was not taken aback by my attitude; Doc rarely was. “She’s lived her whole life as one. Do you really want to be just like her father?”

“And what would you know about what I want?”

“I know you, Markus. I know you don’t take disloyalty well. I know those people usually end up dead. If her father went against the Scotts, he should be dead, and I can’t help but think the only reason he’s not is because you want a bargaining chip when it comes to Juliet. She loves him in spite of what he did to her. If you kill him, why would she ever want to look at you again?”

Doc spoke with an authority he should not have, and yet, as I listened to him, I knew he was right. Too right. Too right and too insightful for his own good. I could not stop the rage from growing inside me, could not stop to temper the heat and anger building at this man and his words.

Just because he wasn’t wrong did not mean I had to sit there and listen to him.

“Get the fuck out of my office,” I growled out. If he didn’t, I would not be liable for how I reacted. Say, if I got up and strangled the fuck out of him. How dare he be so… so fucking right about it all. He had no right to be so correct in his assumptions.

“Okay.” Doc held his hands up in mock surrender, moving towards the door. Just before he left, however, he tossed a look over his shoulder at me. Maybe it was because he was so far away from me he felt safe enough to speak again. Who knew? “If you prove to her you are willing to compromise on things, she’ll want to stay. She has nowhere else to go. Prove to her you’re not just another warden to her prison.”

My jaw ground as Doc finally left, leaving me with those last parting words. I did not need his advice. This was my fucking house now, and everyone in it was under my authority, not fucking Theo Ward’s, and that included dear, sweet Juliet.

However… Doc wasn’t wrong. There was more than one reason I’d brought her here, yes. He was right about that. Juliet’s father had been employed with my family for years now. He owed us a great debt, but even before then, he’d been one of our contacts. Sometimes you had to cut ties with those contacts, but usually, you cut the tie by killing the contact. That’s just how it was when they weren’t blood. Scotts who wanted nothing to do with the family business were dealt with in other ways.

I should’ve had Juliet’s father killed long ago, when I first suspected his proclivities. I’d known it from the very beginning, from the first time I saw the body and the first time I saw her. My father had written it off, telling me it was just another way we owned him and everything he was.

But I knew.

Doc was right in that I could not kill her father, not yet. She still believed in him too much while too little in me. Perhaps I’d been wrong in what I’d done, in showing her what we did, but she could not live here forever in ignorance. She had to know, but she had to see the truth when she was ready.

Hmm.

Fuck.

Doc was right about that, too. I needed to be a little nicer to her, needed to give a little, even if it wasn’t in my nature. I had to show Juliet that this house was indeed a house of horrors, but it did not have to be another prison. If she continued to be a good girl for me, perhaps I’d let her experience some of the things she wanted.

Going to the movie theater. College. Whatever she wanted—but she would still be on my leash. I wasn’t going to let her go, not now, not now that I had her.

I had her, yes, but I didn’t quite have her where I wanted her. It could be rectified, but it would take some work on my part, which I was glad to do. In fact, we’d start today.

It took me until the next day, but in the early afternoon, everything was ready. It was set. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a trap, but I supposed that’s exactly what it was, for I didn’t think Fred would do it.

Oh, he would do what I told him to, I knew, but he also wouldn’t hold back from doing the other thing he’d been doing on the side.

It brought unnecessary attention to us and what we did, and if he was caught by someone other than me or my family, he could spill far too much information. Frankly, it’s partially why I wanted to do away with outside work. The family, if anything, grew smaller as the years went by, but we made more than enough money to keep us going. As far as I was concerned, we could focus on work in the basement and be just fine.

But, anyway, I sent for Will to bring Juliet to me. I had the phone I used to contact the outsiders sitting on my desk, charged and ready to be used. I’d texted him and told him to be ready at three. He didn’t respond, not that I assumed he would, but I knew the moment I called him, he’d answer.

He had no choice. After all, I had his beloved daughter in my grasp, the only thing that man cared about.

I sat in my high-backed leather chair, checking my watch every few moments, waiting. It seemed I did an awful lot of waiting lately, but sometimes lying in wait was necessary. You could not rush these things, something I’d learned a long time ago. More often than not, it was the slow game that made it to the end, not the quick one.

A knock reverberated off my office door, and I said, “Come in.”

Will appeared, Juliet right behind him. Instantly, I took her in, the way she walked, almost trying to seem smaller behind Will. How her eyes were turned down, almost like she refused to meet my stare, like she didn’t want to. She wore a long-sleeved shirt, and she tugged at the sleeves absentmindedly as Will stepped aside and let her sit down across from me.

So meek. So quiet. So unlike how she usually was. The words Doc had told me yesterday flashed in my head, but I pushed them aside. Now was not the time to rile myself up. Now was the time for action.

“Thank you, Will, now go,” I instructed. I watched Will toss a glimpse toward her, waited for him to leave. He didn’t want to. I could see it in his eyes, but he did.

Oh, I wasn’t stupid when it came to William Briggs. I knew very much what he was capable of… but the thought of leaving Juliet in the care of Jaxon, who had already proven he had a thing for her, was too much for me. As long as Will kept himself steady and held himself back, we wouldn’t have problems.

Once Will was gone, it was just Juliet and me. I studied her, though I did check my watch for the time yet again with a quick flick of my wrist. Juliet bit her bottom lip, her hands folded on her lap. Her blonde hair fell over her shoulders in uneven waves, its lengths kinky and irregular. She appeared almost shy.

“How long do you plan on trying to ignore me?” I asked pointblank, leaning back in my chair. We had a few minutes still; I saw no reason to sit there in silence with her, not when I could listen to that soft, feminine voice.

“As long as I can, really,” Juliet mumbled, slow to lift her blue eyes to me. Her gaze was such an innocent one, wide-eyed and naive to its core. I hated it. I hated it and yet I couldn’t get enough.

Yes, I knew that didn’t make sense, but nothing about this made sense.

“You’ve been good these past few days,” I told her, watching her cheeks blush at that. “Because of that, I’m going to let you speak to your father. Assuming you want to, that is.” Simply knowing he worked for me, even while simultaneously knowing what we did, was not enough to sway her.

Her expression brightened. “Yes, please.”

“Now, let me ask you this: after you speak with him, do you plan on trying to run away to him again?” I wordlessly reminded her of what I’d said before. If she tried to run away from me again, things wouldn’t be pretty. They’d be even less pretty than they already were. I could be a gentle master, I supposed, but I needed her to listen to me, first.

It took her a moment, but eventually Juliet said, “No. I won’t.”

“And I’m supposed to take you at your word? You haven’t exactly proven to me you’re trustworthy.”

“I apologized—”

“Yes,” I admitted. “You did, but only after you failed in your escape attempt. I’m sure you can understand why I’m hesitant to believe you.” I mused to myself, letting out a low hum of my chest as I ran my fingers along the phone on my desk. “Perhaps speaking to your father is the last thing you should do.”

“No,” Juliet cried out, leaning forward so much she practically fell out of the chair she sat in. “Please, just let me talk to him. I swear, I’ll be good.” She sounded so desperate, it was almost laughable, but then again, considering she was only desperate for her father, it did nothing but tick me off.

That man didn’t deserve her love or her adoration. That man deserved nothing from her. She was far too good for him.

And to know he locked her in her bedroom… Fred might’ve held himself back from his more baser urges, but I had the feeling he was not so much protecting her from the world as he was protecting her from himself. Monsters like us tended to hurt those we cared about. It was the way of things.

“I’ll do you one better than a call,” I said, picking up the phone and flicking the screen on. “I’ll let you see him, but it should be said that I will be right here, watching, and should you say anything I don’t particularly like…” I let the threat trail off, leaving it open-ended for her wild imagination.

I dialed Fred’s number in a videocall, and then I slid the phone across my desk to her. She had to get up to reach for it, and when she did, I caught her hand before she could pick it up. Her blue gaze widened as she looked at me.

“Do not take advantage of my kindness, for it is in short supply. I’d keep the call short and simple, if I were you.” With that said, I released her hand and let her pick up the phone. Not too soon, as it was, for it was at that moment when her father picked up the call, his face popping up on the screen.

“Juliet?” Fred spoke, sounding worried.

She fumbled with the phone, standing before me, forgetting all about the chair behind her and me in front of her as she smiled and said, “Daddy.”

“Thank God,” Fred huffed on the other line, and though I could not see him, though I could only see Juliet’s face and how her entire demeanor had brightened when she saw him, I could picture what he looked like well enough. “Are you all right? Has anyone hurt you?”

Juliet’s eyes, for the briefest of moments, flicked toward me. “I’m okay,” she eventually spoke, though she didn’t sound too believable in her answer.

“Is Markus with you right now? Is he making you say that?”

“Yes, he’s here,” she said. “But he’s not making me say anything. Daddy…” Juliet shook her head somewhat. “What did you do? Why do you work for a man like him? Do you—” It was evident where her line of questioning would lead, and Fred knew it.

“What has he told you?”

Juliet looked down, away from the phone, at her own feet. It was a moment before she looked back up, at her father. “Is it true?”

“Markus,” Fred’s voice changed, becoming more serious, less loving, the facade he wore around his daughter wavering somewhat. “I don’t know what kind of sick game you’re playing at here, but you’re lucky I haven’t called the police.”

I felt the corners of my lips smirk, and I stood, moving around my desk, stopping only when I stood behind Juliet, shadowing her to address him, “I think we both know why you haven’t done that. Care to tell your daughter why that is?”

Fred was silent, like I knew he would be.

“And this isn’t a game. As it always is, it’s life or death.” As I went on, I set a hand on Juliet’s shoulder. She tensed under my touch, but the small gesture was enough to harden Fred’s look even more. “I let her speak to you because she’s been dying to. She loves you a lot, for some reason. Thinks the world of you. Do you want to tell her why you and I know each other so well, or should I?”

“Enough of this,” Fred muttered. “What do I have to do to get her back?”

I took the phone out of Juliet’s hand, though I did not let go of her shoulder. I held the phone in front of my face. “I have a job for you, but I’m going to have to call you back. I can imagine you don’t want dear Juliet to hear the details.”

“You—” Fred was seconds from cussing me out, probably, but it didn’t matter, for I hung up the video call, moving around Juliet to set it on my desk, finally letting go of her thin shoulder.

“You didn’t even let me talk to him that much,” Juliet’s voice made me turn around. Her eyes shook with emotion. “You didn’t give him a chance to come clean to me—”

“What?” I said, taking a step closer to her, watching as she stumbled back, falling into the chair. “Did you want to hear your father admit he kills people for a living, then?” I set both hands on the armrests of the chair, looming over her.

So small. So out of her element here, with me. So upset with me for cutting her call short, a slight frown on those pink lips.

“You think you know it all,” I went on, pulling a single hand off the armrest, fingers curling around her jaw, forcing her to hold my gaze. “You think you have all the pieces to this puzzle. When you know—and you will, mark my words—you’ll wish you didn’t. You’ll wish I’d never told you.”

God, her skin was so soft. So fucking soft I could hardly think straight while touching her.

“Why don’t you tell me, then, and I’ll decide how I feel after?” Juliet suggested. She wanted to say more, but I silenced her by moving the hand on her jaw down to her neck, picking her up off her feet, off the chair. I spun her around so her backside leaned against my desk.

“Still so brave in the face of danger,” I whispered, the hand that wasn’t touching her gripping the desk’s edge just beside her hip. “You should count yourself lucky I took an interest in you.” I could feel her breathing against the palm of my hand; I did not choke her, but I wasn’t exactly gentle, either.

Gentle and me did not mix. Like oil and water, it simply didn’t happen.

So then why did I want this girl so much? Why did I feel as drawn to her as I did? If oil and water didn’t mix, we certainly wouldn’t, either. Maybe for a short time—maybe just for a split-second—but even so, we could paint such a pretty picture together.

“Do you know where you’d be if I hadn’t?” I questioned, a long, even breath flowing from my lungs. I’d never felt like I wanted to throw all caution to the wind as badly as I did now. I never wanted to lay someone down on my desk and rattle the wood as I fucked them until now.

Oh, little Juliet. She had no idea how much she instigated the monster dwelling within, no clue how close she was to tasting true darkness. So tempting, so innocent… she really was infuriating in every way, and yet addicting all the same. I didn’t know why.

I pushed her back a bit more, causing her to sit on the edge of my desk. Her legs parted, and I responded by sliding a knee between them, then jerking her forward so she straddled my knee against the desk. So pliant, so weak. Why did I want her so fucking badly?

“You’d be dead,” I told her in a whisper, watching as her eyelids fell somewhat, half-lidden slits as she stared up at me, not bothering to fight the hand still curled around her neck.

Juliet Osborne was everything I wasn’t and nothing I should want. I found her perpetual innocence enraging and her doll-like eyes too luring. Even after everything I’d shown her, she was still the same girl she was before, before being dragged here, into this house.

“You know that for a fact, do you?” she huffed, her mouth open. She breathed through her lips, squirming on my leg. Not enough to slide off it, but enough to tell me she wasn’t exactly comfortable.

But that wasn’t the point.

The point was she was where I wanted her, nowhere else. I supposed that’s always been the point of this. All of it was for her, for dear, sweet, achingly naive Juliet. Rip her from her home before it killed her, bring her here, and make her so dependent on me she would never think of leaving. Make her mine for eternity.

My father had a harem of women, sons and daughters with most of them, but he didn’t particularly care for any of them. He could live just fine without them; it’s why I wasn’t close to my mother. His women didn’t live here, they never did, and when they bore children, they were brought to this house and taught what it meant to be a Scott.

But… but a harem of women did not interest me. It never had. Women hardly ever did, for I’d thought, until recently, I’d taken my father’s lessons to heart, that women were only good for a fuck. To make them get on their knees for you instead of the other way around.

Having Juliet’s throat in my hand, standing with her legs straddling mine, having her pinned between my body and my desk… why the fuck would I want more than this? Why would I want anything else? Perhaps the saying was true: opposites attract, and Juliet and I could not have been more opposite.

The light. The purity. The sun breaking through the clouds and reminding everyone below it there was still hope left in this world. Salvation made flesh, molded into a beautiful girl. Untouchable in every way… but at the same time, very touchable.

Thoughts of having her bent over my desk, my hands roaming her body, rubbing the space between her legs until she came coursed through my head. I could definitely go for watching Juliet lose herself in me, and judging by the expression she wore, she was already halfway there.

“I meant it, you know,” I spoke, my voice nothing but a possessive growl. I jerked her body closer, moving the hand that had, until now, gripped the desk to her lower back, holding her as tight as I could against me. “When I said you were mine. I meant it in every way.”

Mine to keep. Mine to punish. Mine to desire. All fucking mine. I didn’t care what she thought about it; soon enough she’d come around to my way of thinking. I didn’t want to let this girl go.

The job I’d claimed was the root of this was just an excuse. It always had been. I should’ve come down with an iron fist and killed both Fred and his daughter, but how could I kill the one thing I wanted most in this world?

“You are mine,” I told her. Her head bent back nearly all the way, my hand still around her slender neck, all so she could stare up at me. “Someday soon you’ll realize it.”

Another woman might’ve claimed she belonged to no man. Another woman might’ve tried to fight me or push me off. After showing what we did here, any sane person would’ve stared at me with hatred dwelling in their eyes, but Juliet did none of those things. She simply stared up at me, speechless, with a look in her eyes that said one thing.

Prove it.

And I would. I would, but not right now. Right now I had to call her dear father back and give him one last chance. He’d fail, as I knew he would, but it could not be said that I’d been unreasonable with him. Juliet would see I’d done all I could for her precious daddy, and he’d responded in the only way he could: failure. Bloody failure.

“Count yourself lucky I have other things to do right now,” I told her, loosening my hold on her neck. “Otherwise I would make you realize it right here.” Though it was damned near the hardest thing I’d ever had to do, I pulled myself away from her with a weight on my chest and an ache in my balls, not to mention a hard cock.

It was so very difficult to hold back when all I wanted to do was go wild. And I never wanted to go wild. But with her… it came almost too easily, effortlessly. A kind of dominance and need to possess I never knew I had before I saw her.

This had been years in the making. There was no rushing perfection.

I lumbered around my desk, sitting in my chair. I didn’t bother trying to adjust myself, because Juliet hadn’t moved a muscle. The girl still clung to my desk, her backside pressed against it, her legs spread just a bit in remembrance of how she’d straddled my leg.

“I’d leave, if I were you,” I warned her, watching her slowly turn to look at me. No more half-lidded looks, and yet, if I was not mistaken, her pupils practically shook, dilated in what I hoped was desire.

Well, desire or fear. I’d take either one, or both.

Juliet let out a trembling breath, and then she pushed away from my desk, turning her back to me as she left my office. She stopped near the door, one foot out and one foot still in, and tossed a glance over her shoulder at me. I wished I could peer inside that head and see what she thought, how close I was to having her.

I would not settle for her body. No, I wanted it all. Her body, her mind, her heart, her fucking soul. She belonged to me in every possible way, and I would not stop until the angel herself fell to her knees before me.

Saying not a word, she left, and I waited a few minutes, struggling to get my desire for her under control. A part of me wanted to rush out into that hall, grab her, throw her over my shoulder and bring her ass back in here, fuck her long and hard on my desk.

But, back to business.

I picked up the phone, dialing Fred’s number again, although this time, I didn’t videocall him. Just a regular call; no need to see his hideous face. It amazed me how his genetics had helped to create Juliet. I saw nothing of the man in his daughter, and, beyond that, she was worlds better than him. Where she was an angel, he was a monster.

Only he wasn’t a well-groomed monster like me or my brothers. He was the worst kind there was, even worse than Will, before we’d gotten our hands on him. Worse than that pathetic killer who’d been stalking Travis’s girl years back. So much worse, not because of what he did, but because of why he did it.

Why. It was always the reason that made things worse, and it was precisely why Juliet could not know the truth. Not yet.

Fred picked up, not sounding too happy as he said, “I’ve been waiting.”

“Yes, I imagine you have. I’d apologize for your wait, but… well, let’s just say your daughter needed some of my attention.” As I spoke, I could not help but smirk. Perhaps I enjoyed this little game too much, or perhaps just enough. It took a certain kind of man to be able to do what I did.

“You… if you hurt her, I’ll—”

“You’ll what? Go to the police, as you suggested earlier? Try it. See how it goes. If you think you’re the first person to threaten law enforcement on us, you’re more of an idiot than I thought you were. I have more money than you can dream of and the best lawyer in the States. What do you have, Fred?”

He was quiet, because the man knew I was right. Money bought a lot of things, and those things included silence and the ability to do damn near whatever you wanted.

“Now, I assume you want to try to get your daughter back from me,” I said, leaning to my left and reaching for a stack of manila folders. Files on possible jobs, all the research my brothers and sisters out in the field got for me. Pictures, liabilities… all that and more. I grabbed the top one, dropping it in front of me on the desk. “I have one last job for you, Fred. Do it, and I’ll give your daughter back.”

A lie. The biggest, boldest lie I’d ever spoken, for there was no way in fucking hell I’d ever let Juliet walk out of that door with Fred fucking Osborne.

“What is it?” he asked, though he was not overly eager to hear. I knew the man only wanted Juliet back in his arms and in his house, where he could keep her under near constant watch… other than when he was out on jobs for us. I’d paid him well enough, enabled him to act as her jailer all these years.

No more.

“I’ll send over the information shortly. And, Fred?”

Silence for a moment, until the man muttered, “What?”

“Don’t let the fact that I have your daughter render you useless. Do the job and do it well. Make it the cleanest job you’ve ever done for me, otherwise I may just keep her.” I pictured Juliet’s face, how she’d looked pinned to the desk, legs straddling my knee. Though there was more I could’ve said, I ended the call right there.

Fred was a fool for believing me, but I supposed the man had no idea how deep his daughter had gotten inside me, how Juliet had taken over damn near every waking thought. He was a fool, yes, but so was I.