Her movements were sluggish, but she was in no hurry to get to the next directive, so she took her time. Throughout her stint doing the chores, she was supervised by one or both of her captors, though neither of them spoke to her. At least not until they were making her go back over work she had already done under the guise that it hadn’t been completed to their satisfaction.

Her dreaded fear became reality when Bruno led her upstairs and told her to wash herself in Dax’s bathroom. This time the man remained there with her, leering through the clear glass screen to scrutinise her naked form in the shower.

Being observed in such a vulnerable position made Ivy speed through her grooming, but when she emerged from the steam, she wished that she hadn’t. Bruno produced a string bikini and told her to put it on.

‘You’ve got a killer body,’ Bruno said while she tied on the scrap of material which made a pathetic attempt to cover her modesty. ‘You keep in shape like that to make men want you.’

‘I don’t,’ she said.

‘Are you arguing with me?’

‘No.’

‘You want men to want you and you can’t blame a guy for looking at you and thinking about sex, can you?’ The intent glare he burned into her expected only one response.

‘No.’

‘So if a guy wants it, you’re going to give it to him, aren’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘You’ll fuck any guy who asks for it, you get me?’

‘Yes,’ she said, knowing she had to verbally respond because he wouldn’t accept non-verbal acknowledgement.

Dax came into the bathroom just then, poised to say something to Bruno. On catching sight of her, he stopped to absorb the view. ‘What’s he thinking about?’ Bruno asked her.

‘Sex,’ she responded, lowering her gaze to the floor.

‘And whose fault is that?’ Bruno asked.

‘Mine.’

‘Apologise for distracting Dax. And look at him while you do it.’

Bringing her eyes up to his, she was actually overwhelmed by shame. ‘I’m sorry for distracting you, Dax.’

‘You should refer to him as Master,’ Bruno said.

‘I apologise, Master.’

‘I need to talk to you,’ Dax said to Bruno, apparently over the visceral response his body had had to hers.

Bruno went toward the door after Dax used it to exit. ‘Turn that shower on as cold as it goes and get back in. You need to cool off,’ Bruno said to her and went outside.

Any concept of not complying with what he said went out the window when she thought of that dark basement. So she went straight back into the shower and turned on the icy spray.

‘Master?’ Dax said when Bruno closed the bathroom door on the sound of the shower being turned on again.

Bruno grinned and came to him, rubbing his hands together. ‘You are welcome, buddy. She’s gonna be begging to swallow your cock by the end of the week.’

Dax did love sex but he’d never had another guy so geared up to provide it for him. ‘I’ve got to head into town, have you got this?’

‘Yeah, yeah, but do me a favour. Pick me up some, eh?’

Bruno was already wide-eyed and hyped up, Dax thought it was the situation that had him amped but maybe it was chemically enhanced. ‘Since when are you using again?’

‘I’m not. I’m not. I just think we might have a party with this girl.’

He’d speculate that maybe Bruno had a few dozen strong blue pills he wanted to get through, but from what Dax had heard of Bruno’s ability to get a hard-on it would take more than that. Dax had become close with a few of Bruno’s exes, long after they split of course. Many women did the circuit of Maurice’s henchmen and often they went around for another shot.

Once a woman chose to ally herself with a specific syndicate, the others were suspicious of her, so she was stuck moving in the same social circle. If she was cast out of it she was vengeful, dangerous, and often recruited by enemies for the secrets she held.

‘Ok, you want roofies?’ he asked, heading for the bedroom door.

‘E, coke, whatever you can get your hands on,’ Bruno said. ‘Let’s just get her high first and see how she parties.’

‘Got it.’

He left knowing that Bruno would no doubt go back into the bathroom to torment their captive some more, which would include leaving her under the cold spray Dax had overheard Bruno command that she use.

Bruno’s experience meant that he deserved respect, he had done time for the Starks and never once ratted out a fellow comrade. But as he drove away from the beach house Dax had to admit to himself that there were times Bruno grated on him, but everyone grated on him.

Dax could sit in the company of any number of different people and even if he disliked them he’d just remain quiet. He’d made seething in silence into an art form, which was why he pounded the punching bag at least once a day, it released some of that built up rage.

He himself was no rookie in the trade though. In his life, Dax had been witness to all sorts of cruelty and depravity. Switching off and going through the motions was a way of life, it was how he survived. Empathy was for the weak and showing it to those who would stab you in the back was immature and stupid, and likely to get you killed.

He’d beaten up his own share of miscreants and had learned to shut off emotion while he did it and ignore their cries for mercy. That being said he took no pleasure in others misfortune and he didn’t have the sadistic tendencies Bruno displayed, to Dax this was just a job that needed to be done. Bruno relished the suffering he caused.

Having Bruno here served Dax well, and although Bruno said his role was to school Dax, Dax would guess that Maurice wanted to know if his unofficially adopted son had the stomach to perform even the most depraved of duties.

Dax did what had to be done and he’d never said no to Maurice Stark. He owed the family a lot, and he wasn’t going to start disappointing them now. Certainly not for the sake of a gorgeous brunette with tapered Bambi eyes and full pouting lips that he wanted to hear whimper. No, this was Trystan’s girl and in order to prepare her for what her life with Trystan would hold, Dax would have to go to the extreme.

When Dax got back to the beach house it was dark. He grabbed one bag out of the backseat and headed inside. Bruno was on the couch with a beer watching sports on TV.

The girl was kneeling in front of Bruno, still in her bikini, but now she had plastic stripper heels on, the spike of the heels on show under her neat little ass. Her hair was up in high bunches and Dax almost wanted to laugh at the cliché.

‘Hey, get everything?’ Bruno asked.

Dax came further into the room to see that the girl was giving Bruno a foot massage. ‘Yeah, I did,’ Dax said, tossing the bag to the floor. ‘I’ll get the rest of the shit out of the car in the morning.’

‘No need, our little slave here will do it for us,’ Bruno said. ‘It’s the least she could do what with flaunting those boobs at us all the time. We never get a break.’

Dax knew about breaking a person, about how important it was to contradict them and to constantly make them believe that everything was their fault. It was how cult leaders recruited and got otherwise same human beings to do their bidding. Guilt and shame were a brainwasher’s best friend.

‘Whatever,’ Dax said.

‘You’ll do that for us, won’t you?’ Bruno said to her.

‘Yes. Would you like me to do it now?’

‘You’re busy now,’ Bruno said, pushing his toes into one of her breasts and rubbing them in circles. He fondled like that for a while and she said nothing, just carried on with her work as if the violation wasn’t happening.

Watching the pair of them made Dax wonder what it would be like to touch such luxury and have no reaction in his dick. Bruno exhaled and his head sank back in bliss against the back of the couch with his eyes closed.

Her head turned and their eyes met, she kept on massaging Bruno’s foot while Bruno’s other massaged her breast but the eyes that she locked on his were removed from the rest of her form. Her body did what Bruno wanted it to, but there was blank determination in those chocolate eyes. She was doing what he did, a job, what needed to be done and for the first time he wondered about who this stranger actually was before she met Trystan Stark.