All Hail - J. Bree Page 0,23

I’m also very aware that he’s an unstable psychopath and this all could be for nothing.

Just hold out for my family to come for me.

“I’ll fuck Aodhan. If you need someone to be unwilling here then it’s not going to be me.”

He leans forward and his lips touch mine as he slices the ropes binding my hands together. I stop breathing altogether while I run through every option I have to fight him off if he’s the one who’s actually bluffing here.

Aodhan grunts as he struggles but I keep my eyes on the Jackal, not once wavering away from the challenge there.

A slow smirk stretches across his lips and his hand snaps out to grab my jaw in a bruising grip. “Maybe you’re more my type than I thought, Beaumont. Maybe I’ll fuck you raw after you’re done with O’Cronin.”

My heart clenches in my chest.

There’s a loud bang and then the ground rumbles underneath us, rubble and sand falling from the ceiling like it’s about to cave in on us. I stumble a little and fight to hold back the wince at the pain shooting up my legs from my feet but it’s a relief to get some distance from my captor.

The Jackal curses viciously under his breath and then stalks over to open the door. There’re guards waiting there and both of them smirk at the sight of me but I shift my eyes over to look back at Aodhan. I’d almost forgotten that I’m naked from the waist up but I don’t move to cover myself, no matter how badly I want to.

I can’t show weakness right now.

“Get me the collar.”

My eyes snap back over to the Jackal.

There is absolutely no fucking way I’m letting that man put a collar on me.

Relief floods through my veins when the Jackal’s man walks over to Aodhan, a thick black strap of leather dangling from his hands, and I take a deep breath. I feel just a little guilty for being glad it’s not me being collared but I’m sure I’m the only one with a history that makes it abhorrent.

My father collars women.

Aodhan sneers at the guy and the Jackal chuckles at him. “Wanna know what it does, Stag?”

His words drip with sarcasm and I swear I could choke on the male bullshit in the room. Then there’s the crackling sound of an electric current and the man holding the collar lets out a yell, his body jerking and falling to the ground. He jerks there for a few seconds and then stops.

He doesn’t move again.

Aodhan meets my eye from across the room, my heart in my throat. There’s no way out of this.

The Jackal smirks as he stoops down to grab the strap, buckling it around Aodhan’s throat and pulling it tight so that it’s pressing into his skin firmly. We’ll be lucky if he doesn’t pass out before our little show is over.

The Jackal flicks open his cupboard of horrors and pulls out a camera, setting it up and I try to discreetly shake out my hands where he can’t see to stop them from trembling.

“I’ll be watching. If you don’t fuck him, I’ll kill him. If you try to escape or take the collar off, I’ll kill him. And Beaumont if you enjoy it too much, I’ll fucking kill him.”

I refuse to acknowledge him or the snickering men still standing with him. I can’t look at the dead guy either because my mind will just break and I need to be strong right now to get through this. The door swings shut behind him and I take a deep breath.

I can do this, right?

Of course, I can.

If Lips can run through a forest with a bullet wound in her shoulder and a crazed Irish shooter chasing her, I can fuck Aodhan to save his life.

I’ll just repeat that mantra in my head until I get through this because when I finally glance over at Aodhan the Jackal is right, he doesn’t look at all willing and that means that technically I’ll be the predator here.

“Don’t even think about it, Beaumont. The explosion means the cavalry's here so just sit down and wait it out.”

I might not be able to look at it but I can gesture down to the dead body. “I know you’re not blind but are you suicidal? I think we both know that the Jackal won’t hesitate in killing you here and I don’t like to lose.”

My voice sounds far more confident than I