Tender Mercies - By Kitty Thomas Page 0,58

this is your floor, Lucas.”

“My floor is twelve.”

Asher moved into the other man’s personal space, shoving him against the elevator wall. “Take. The. Stairs. I don’t want you near Grace. Ever. Again. I bought her to rescue her from you. You shouldn’t be allowed to own so much as a potted plant.” He held the door open while the other man stumbled off.

Grace huddled in the corner, her eyes closed, the tears inching down her cheeks. She opened them a fraction of a second too soon and caught Lucas’s dark stare as the doors slid shut.

Asher held her against his chest the rest of the way up, and the brief pause on twelve where no one got on and no one got off.

The doors opened on fifteen, and Asher led her down the dark green hallway to the last door on the right. Inside, they were greeted by a good-looking blond man with tattoos that banded around his throat and up and down his arms. He looked like a cross between a surfer and a biker, but it was obvious he was better off financially than the average member of either group.

The man took one look at Grace, then at Asher. “She looks terrified.”

Asher shook his head. “It’s not all about the branding. We ran into someone.”

The brander looked at her again, and she had to turn her gaze away from that assessing stare that seemed able to divine too much about her life from her eyes.

Asher directed her to a pillow on the floor, and she obediently went to it and dropped to her knees, glancing around the room to take in her surroundings. She hadn’t expected the environment in the brander’s office to be so soothing. It was as if they were there to get her hair styled instead of put a permanent scar on her. Everything was just so . . . clean.

The men spoke in hushed tones a few feet away. Every now and then she heard her name. It occurred to her that Asher knew this man, that they were perhaps friends. The blond had a kindness to his eyes, much like her master, and Grace felt calmer.

“Are you ready, kitten?” Asher stood over her, pulling her out of her thoughts.

“Yes, Master.”

“It’ll be five seconds of pain, then it’s over except for the soreness. You can handle that. And I’ll hold you while John does it.”

She nodded, not trusting her voice. Five seconds could be a very long time when the time was filled with pain.

They led her into another brightly lit room, and Asher handed a metal disk to the blond.

“This is nice,” John remarked, admiring the estate symbol. “It’ll make a clean design.”

She watched as the branding iron was heated, everything matching the pamphlets she’d been given to study. As the iron grew hotter, so grew her trepidation over her choice.

“Normally, we chain them down for this, but I know you can hold her still.”

Those words lodged in her stomach like a stone, making it impossible for her to move without her master’s assistance.

“Put your arms around my waist, kitten, and hang on tight.” When she’d obeyed, Asher wrapped one of his arms around her back, holding her steady against his body, and with the other he cradled the back of her head. “Just breathe, baby. It won’t be as bad as you think, I promise.”

John moved behind her with the heated metal. A moment later, the searing heat was in her skin, melding with her and sucking the breath from her lungs. She let out a wail and almost vomited at the smell of her own burning flesh. The smell triggered her self-preservation instincts, and if her master hadn’t been holding her so tightly, she would have struggled. Why did I say yes to this? She squeezed her eyes tight, trying to breathe through the pain.

As if reading her mind, the blond said, “It won’t get any worse, and in a few seconds it’ll get better.”

“Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one . . .” Asher said, steady and strong. He held her tight while she cried. The blond took the metal away, and unbelievably the burning sensation was gone. The skin around the mark felt tight and sore. But it was a kind of pain she could handle. Asher released her and brushed the tears off her face. “You were a very good girl. Come to the mirror and see my