The Sacrifice: A Dark Revenge Romance

I sit tucked back in the corner when my cell vibrates in my suit jacket. I pull it out to see it’s a text from my wife.

Little Darling: Don’t forget we have dinner tonight with our friends.

She thinks I’m at Blackout overseeing the progress of the new building. I’m not, but that’s what I told her. The club is coming along quicker than I expected. The grand opening is in just a couple of weeks.

The Lords offered me my life back. The one I traded in for my wife. Truth is, I love my life the way it is. Does that mean I’ll run Blackout until I die? No. But for now, it’s what I want to do.

We made a public announcement and informed the world that my wife was alive and well, while carrying our children. We told them that she was recovering and we wanted privacy at this time.

I wanted the world to see that she is loved. That means everything to me. She deserves to be seen and heard. Her family had silenced her for so long, and I won’t do that to my wife. She may be my whore in private, but she is my equal in every aspect of our lives.

As it turns out, more died in the fire than we were aware of. That’s what we made the world to believe after Gavin helped me out with the men I killed while trying to track down my wife. The Lords didn’t give a fuck who I killed, but when the body count grows as high as mine did, you have to give a reason for why they disappeared.

ME: I’ll be home soon.

I pocket my phone when I hear an elevator ding, signaling the arrival of my guest. I stay seated, hands steepled and waiting. I’ve been here for over an hour. It took a little longer than expected but I knew it would happen nonetheless.

Laughter fills the room before a woman enters with a man. “I want a drink,” she tells him.

He goes over to the bucket that holds a bottle of Louis Roederer Cristal Brut Champagne that he already had waiting for them. Handing her a flute, he then fills his own and throws it back, ready to get this party started.

Setting his glass down, he stumbles, and she reaches out to grab his arm, her drink untouched. “Are you okay?”

“Ye-ah.” He blinks rapidly, his eyes darting around the room aimlessly, trying to focus on anything. After a few minutes, he falls to the floor and he doesn’t move.

I stand from my chair and make my way over to the light switch, flipping it on. She takes a step back, almost tripping in her heels she’s so nervous.

Reaching into my suit pocket, I hold out the envelope to her. “Get the fuck out of here,” I tell her, and she turns, running to the elevator, wanting to get as far away from me as possible.

Once I’m met with silence, I get to work.

Senior year at Barrington University

I sit in the passenger seat of Hansen’s car as he pulls up to the Cathedral. It’s three in the morning, and he just busted me out of jail.

After I yelled at the Lord to let the police book me or get me out, I was released and was told that I needed to see them immediately. So here we are.

I enter the Cathedral and walk down the aisle to see two Lords standing at the altar, masks and cloaks on. I fall down into the front pew, placing my arms across the back, still dressed in my bloody clothes. “You wanted to see me.” My eyes look up to the loft and see the baptism pool is empty. “No water this time?” I snort. “Don’t feel like drowning me today.”

One steps forward. “Tyson—”

“Get to the point as to why I’m here.”

“We failed you,” the Lord on the left says, and my stomach drops at the words. The Lords never admit when they are wrong because, in their eyes, they never are.

“I … I don’t understand,” I stammer, rubbing my hands on my bloody jeans.

“Son, we did not give you the assignment to take Whitney Minson on as your chosen. Or to dig into Frank.”

I stand, running a hand down my face. “You did.”

“No. You were tricked.”

The wind is knocked out of me, and I fall into the pew. Bowing my head, I reach up and grip my hair.

“You’re all over the news…” He trails off.

My father told me, but I haven’t seen it.

“The State Senator’s son arrested for pregnant woman’s murder…” He trails off, and I get to my feet and start to pace as he goes on. “They said you stalked her…”

“Because I was told to make it look public,” I shout. “You told me to make sure everyone knew she was mine.” It was stupid, but you don’t question the Lords. You do whatever they want, no matter how big or small.

“That you raped her.” He goes on. “That you robbed that poor, innocent girl of her life. We can make it go away. And once we do, it’ll be as if this never happened, but it’ll cost you.”

“How much?” I swallow the lump in my throat, knowing it won’t be money.

“Your title,” he answers.

I come to a stop and glare at their fucking masks. “You’re telling me I’ve given you three years of my life for you to take it away?”

“Tyson—”

“Three fucking years and all you can do is fucking nothing?” My body is vibrating with the anger bubbling in me. “How did this fucking happen?”

One of them sighs. “The best we can come up with is that Frank set you up.”

My legs give out, and I fall into the pew once again.

“He wanted you to go to prison for killing his daughter. She either went along with it, or he had her killed.”

I’m guessing the latter. She had been trying to set me up to get her pregnant. I highly doubt he killed his daughter just to put me away. No, instead, he’ll make her live the rest of her life in hiding. I rub my hands on my jeans. “So … I lose my title. Then what? You guys kick me out?”

“We are willing to give you Blackout. Free and clear. The land, the building. You remain a Lord, but you don’t have to answer to anyone.”

They might as well just cut my brand off. I snort. “A Lord is never free.” Sitting back, I look up at them. “And Frank? What about him?”

“We can’t prove—”

“I was fucking here,” I grind out. “There were at least three…four, Lords here.” I try and rack my brain to remember. There were three. Two that helped me up the stairs and another one at the top of the loft. My mind isn’t clear right now.

They remain silent.

“I’ve got text messages…”

“From an untraceable number,” the one on the right states.

“Unbelievable.” I give a rough laugh. I’ve got to give it to Frank. He fucked me over good. “And Whitney? You don’t think she’s dead?” If she’s willing to go as far as getting me to knock her up, she’s more than capable of faking her death. Especially if her father is helping her.

“If she’s not, the world won’t think any different.”

My head snaps up to look at them, and they were serious. “You really think she’s alive?” I question, and again, they say nothing.

Pacing, I stare at my bloody shoes as I walk back and forth. “I’ll do it.” What else is there for me to do? Prison for murder of a woman and an unborn child, or take what the Lords are offering me? Even if she wasn’t, her medical records will show that she is. Word is already out that I did it. Even if they remove every video or news article from the internet, the Lords still know what happened tonight. If Frank did set me up, he’ll make sure everyone knows what he wants them to think. “Under one condition.”

“Son, you’re in no position to negotiate.” One of them laughs.

The other one holds up his hand and steps forward. “What is it?”

I come to a stop and look at his mask. “I get to marry whoever I want when the time comes.”

Their masks look at one another.

“Free and clear. No initiations. No stipulations. Nothing. Who I want. When I want.” If Frank wants to fuck me, I’ll fuck him right back. Big, blue eyes and long dark hair is exactly what I want to take from him, and I’ll remind him who the fuck I am as I parade her around this town like an obedient slave with a collar and leash. I’ll make his last daughter my wife, and she’ll choke on the words that bind her to me.

“Done.”

“You set me up,” I say, more to myself than anyone. “I can’t prove it, but you had Luke, Miller, and Jackson pretend to call me for an assignment my senior year to make Whitney my chosen. You wanted me to come off to the public as an obsessed, stalker boyfriend. So when she came up dead, her phone pointed the cops directly to me.” That’s why I didn’t find Whitney’s phone on that day she had called me crying and lost. One of them had already handed it over to the cops, leading them right to me. It wasn’t a hard sell really. I had a tracker on her cell. I had been texting and calling her for days. I said some really shitty things to her during the days she would go MIA. A few of my condoms with holes poked in them were found in her purse—it too, was conveniently not at the house where I found her. They were to be used against me as I was trying to knock her up so she couldn’t leave me. I set myself up as the perfect suspect, playing right into their hands. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ Find ɴøᴠel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

I stand next to the bed, arms crossed over my chest, and watch the man come to. I didn’t give him much. Just needed a little time to get him where I wanted him—stripped down and naked. He was planning on getting fucked, but I have different plans for him.

He’s on his back, spread-eagled with a gag in his mouth—he’s here to listen, not speak. His eyes open, and he looks around aimlessly for a few seconds. They meet mine, and he begins to yank on the ropes, mumbling nonsense.

“We’ve been here before,” I tell him, getting to the point. I’ve got somewhere to be. “Years ago. This all started because I filmed you with a woman in this very room. But you have to understand it wasn’t my doing.” I snort. “Like I care who you decide to fuck, but the Lords did care that you were pushing for more. Getting greedy.” I remove the lighter from my pocket, and he begins to yank harder, screaming louder. “You wanted to be State Senator, and they wanted my father to have that position. So they had me set you up with a woman and film it.”

I just recently found out that she was one of those women who went missing. “Miller and Luke killed her, didn’t they?” I found out later that she was last seen exiting this hotel with a smile on her face. I sigh, hating the fact that what I asked her to do got her killed.

The best I can come up with is that Miller followed his dad. Saw him enter the Minson Hotel with her and then watched her leave alone. He followed her to the bar down the street, made his move, and she left with him, never to be seen again. She was among one of the many women whose bodies were never found.

“It’s brilliant, really, that you use Minson Hotels for a front.” Frank wasn’t innocent. He may not have killed and sold women for money, but he knew what his son was doing, and he allowed it. “Your son and his best friend kidnapped women, brought them here, and put them in a room, and then they come and go as they please. They’re registered under Minson or Cabot, and no one was the wiser. They’ve just vanished.” They knew every camera angle, where to take them, what to avoid.

Pushing off the dresser, I light up the lighter and hold it over his skin, smiling as she thrashes on the bed. “I consider myself a reasonable man. A patient man. I waited three years to marry Lake.” I can’t figure out why he made her wait until she was twenty-one to marry Luke, but it doesn’t matter. Not anymore.

“You’re as fucked as they come, watching me fuck your daughter.” I flip the lighter shut, and he sags into the mattress. I pull out a knife, and his body goes rigid. “You will bleed on this very bed for me just like Lake did.” I stab him in the hip and pull out, smiling as the blood starts to pour out of the wound. His mumbled scream makes my smile widen and his body shakes.

“It took me a while to figure out why it was so important that she remained a virgin before marriage.” I stab him again in his upper arm, and he sobs. “Virgins are worth a lot when being sold.” I run the tip of the bloody knife down his chest, and he tries to hold his breath to not move and cut himself. “Luke was going to drug her and sell her off to the highest bidder. But then I interrupted his wedding, and he knew I’d fuck her on our wedding night. Whitney informed my wife that it was her idea to knock her up. I didn’t believe it when Lake told me.” I roll my eyes. “Why would Luke and Miller go along with what she wanted.” I frown. “But then I did some research and found out that pregnant women are worth as much, if not more.” I push the tip into his stomach, and he sucks it in the best he can. “Breeding kink is big in the industry.” I nod to myself. “I get it. No kink shame here.” I hold my hands up, shaking my head, and he lets out a deep breath through his nose. “I love fucking my pregnant wife. But…” I push the tip back to his skin, right next to his flaccid dick. “Let’s just say that I give you the benefit of the doubt, and you weren’t aware of what Luke and your son had planned.” I remove the knife and place it under his neck. His narrowed eyes meet mine. “And let’s say that I don’t even care that you tried to put me away for murder because I’ve moved on from that. Without you, I would have never ended up with the life I have now. That I love. All of that is excusable. What’s not is that you still came into my club and threatened my wife. And that is unforgivable.” I slam the knife into his stomach. His back bows, the rope pulled tight, and he screams into the gag.

It took Lake quite some time to tell me everything—from her father threatening her before our wedding, to slapping her—but one night she broke down and told me she didn’t want us to have any secrets. She wants our family to be different than the ones we were raised in.

I agreed. I want to share everything with my wife, the good and the bad. I mean, she fell in love with me even when she thought I killed her sister, and she knows that I’ll kill enough people to form an army if it meant keeping her safe.

My wife could tell me that she wanted to burn the world, and I’d be proud to watch her burn it down to nothing but ashes. In my eyes, she could do no wrong.

I stand, leaving the knife inside Frank. “With you dead, your wife will be handed down to another Lord. Your son is dead.” I killed him off the other night. It wasn’t worth keeping him alive. I was getting bored with him and his pathetic attempt to beg for his life. “Whitney… Well, she’s been dead for years, right?” I laugh.

To the world she died, and soon, her body will be placed in the ground. That’s if the Spade brothers leave any of it to be buried.

“So Lake will be left with your empire. Now, I’m not sure she wants it, but I’ve got our family to think about. Our twins—a boy and a girl. She’s giving me the best of both worlds,” I say with a smile. “Well, like I was saying, Blackout isn’t what I want to leave them. I’ve got plenty of years to get Minson Hotels & Resorts how I want it to be before I hand it over to our children.” Wrapping my hand around the handle of the knife, I yank it out, and his body shakes uncontrollably. Spit and blood flying out from around his gagged mouth onto his chest.

“But I’ve got to make a point.” I pull the Zippo out of my pocket once again. “So I’m going to burn this one down and call it a loss.” He shakes his head, as if I wasn’t going to kill him. Leaning down, I place my face right in front of his as I speak, making sure he can hear me over his pathetic sobs. “It’s the last warning I’m going to give the world that if you fuck with my wife, you’ll burn in hell.”

Using my thigh, I light it on my jeans and then toss it onto the bed, watching it catch fire.

RYAT

I enter her apartment, knowing that she’s home alone. I made sure of it. Pushing her bedroom door open, I find her lying on the bed. She’s on her back, her hands up by her head. Eyes closed and breathing deeply. Passed out.

She took the GHB.

I figured she would. People in our world are always looking for a way to escape reality. I needed another taste of her, and there are rules for a reason.

Walking over to the side of the bed, I pull the covers off her to find she had changed into an oversized T-shirt before it kicked in. I fist the material in my hands, thinking it belongs to her cheating ex. Yanking it up, I see she’s got on a pair of black lace underwear. Letting go of the shirt, I place my hand on her flat stomach and slide the tips of my fingers into the fabric. Teasing myself.

My cock is hard, straining against my zipper. I want to fuck her so bad. Ever since I saw her sprawled out on the floor, I wanted to take her dark hair in my hands and shove my dick down her throat and make her pretty blue eyes cry.

The rules of the ritual are simple.

The chosen must offer herself. She has shown me interest by showing up at the party. If there was any doubt what she was doing there—my bedroom proved she wanted something. Even if it was just revenge on Matt. I’ll take that. That’s something I can use.

Typically, the chosen one and the Lord know each other. They’ve been friends, or they’ve dated. Few instances are like Blakely and me—when the Lord is forced to pick a certain chosen one. There are women at Barrington who would kill to be a chosen. Serving a Lord is an honor for them. Matt has kept her in the dark for a reason. He didn’t want her to know what was going on. He thought it didn’t matter, and she was a sure thing for him. Now that’s no longer a possibility. So, his reasons for keeping her in the dark have changed.

I wouldn’t say she would have been my first choice because I never thought of her like that. Is she hot? Yeah. But I knew she was off-limits. Even after I was given the order, I had reservations. That was until I started planting myself in her life. I’ve been following her for several weeks now. Then after the little taste she gave me—I’ve been salivating, wanting more. If I had revealed myself to her in my bedroom that night, she wouldn’t have allowed me to touch her.

If the chosen one accepts, she is yours until you no longer have use for her. She won’t remember that motherfucker’s name after I have my way with her.

Slowly, I hook my fingers into her underwear and pull them down her tan legs, letting my knuckles graze her smooth skin. Gripping her thighs, I push them apart and crawl onto the bed to kneel between them. I look over her shaved pussy, bringing the fabric to my face. I inhale, my cock jerking in my pants. Fuck, I need to be inside her, but that can’t happen tonight. Not yet.

The rules are clear, but they don’t say anything about playing with her. They allow us just enough to hang ourselves. The Lords are always testing us.

I throw the underwear to the floor and slide my hands up the inside of her thighs to her cunt. I bite my lip, spreading her lips open for me. “Goddamn,” I whisper, slipping a finger inside her.

She’s not wet, but I didn’t expect her to be. Bringing my finger to my mouth, I suck on it up to my knuckle and then slide it back in, gently testing the waters while my eyes go to her face.

Her head is tilted to the left, her dark hair covering her pillow, and her breathing remains unfazed. I reach up with my free hand and shove her shirt up farther to expose her chest to me. I smile at the fact she’s not wearing a bra. Her breasts are fucking amazing. Round and firm, they fit in my hand perfectly with pretty pink nipples and small areolas.

Looking back down at her pussy, it’s getting wetter. I remove my finger and add another one. She still doesn’t move.

My girl has proven that I own her, and I can’t wait to show her just what that means.

I start to get more and more aggressive. Her head moves to the other side, and a whimper escapes her lips. I didn’t give her very much GHB because of her small size. I didn’t want her to experience too many side effects. I just needed her to be drowsy and impaired to the point I could play with her. Plus, it can increase an urge for sex.

She arches her back for me, her lips parting, and I watch the way her nipples harden as her pussy tightens around my fingers.

I readjust myself on the bed, placing my left hand by her head. I lean all my weight on it while forcing a third finger into her tight cunt. My cock twitches with anticipation to be inside her. To be the first there. To own her.

Her breath catches, and I gently kiss the corner of her lips. “Beautiful.”

“Ryat.” She moans.

“Yeah, Blake. It’s me,” I tell her, and she whimpers. Even drugged and only half-conscious, she knows I’m the one touching her.

I begin to finger-fuck her roughly while my thumb plays with her clit. Her body rocks back and forth, making her tits bounce and the bed squeak. She lets out a cry when her pussy clamps down, and she comes all over my fingers.

Something about having her like this—having total control over her body—is very powerful. Knowing she willingly took something I gave her without any knowledge of what it was. She’s craving to be owned, to be dominated, to be mine.

I stop, and her eyes remain closed. Bringing my fingers to her mouth, I rub them over her parted lips, smearing her cum across them like icing. “Soon, little one,” I tell her before I stick them in my own mouth, licking them clean. Tasting that fucking honey that I’ve been craving after she gave herself to me in my bedroom.

Pushing off the bed, I move to a sitting position between her shaking legs. I reach down and grab the collar of the oversized shirt and rip it down the middle. “I’ll burn this,” I say to myself, pulling her arms out of it, knowing that I’m one step closer to owning her and erasing any trace of Matt.

Reaching into my back pocket, I pull out the card and lay it on her nightstand. Now I wait.