Dark (Beautiful Ashes #1)(2)

Get your head in the game, McNeal.

The night vision binoculars aided his ability to identify his target. Definitely the woman in question entered a sex club. Acknowledgement that she would let some disgusting prick have sex with her did not bode well for whoever the man was when Tar got his hands on him. Unbidden, the visual of pure violence came to him.

Yeah, this was a no go.

In his frame of mind, he would kill, at the very least, maim. Now that he found her, though, he wasn’t walking away. Decision made, he strode with purpose. Heaven help whoever had his woman in the throes of passion, or most likely pain.

With the stealth of all his training, he entered unnoticed. What met his eyes threw him for a loop momentarily. Accustomed to Even Strand’s establishments, he was by no means prepared to step back in time. Staring him head-on was the Spanish Inquisition. Unlike the dungeons he’d grown fond of hanging around at E’s clubs, this was a full-blown torture chamber. His mind instantly brought up pictures of Senator Caleb Reynolds’ “play areas” front and center. Sick fuck got exactly what he deserved. In his opinion, it was poetic justice at its finest. Regret began to fill Tar as he tamped it back. There was no way to raise the dead so Tar could kill him for the hell he’d put Keeley and the Strand women through.

Futile to even go there.

He scanned the area with hawk-like precision, quickly concluding she was not in there. “Thank God,” he spoke under his breath and continued on the mission.

Determined to ignore the shrieks and cries, reminding himself they were consenting adults choosing to be tortured for pleasure. Thought made his skin crawl, not out of judgement but concern that Keeley was slipping deeper into an addiction he wasn’t sure he could pull her out of. He’d known she was fighting it. The fact she was in a place like this, told him—she’d long lost the battle. First, he got her the hell out of there. Then, he needed to do his homework. There had to be a way to balance her. Help her find the healthy medium between pain and pleasure.

The blood-curdling scream froze him momentarily. His body went into action long before his brain connected the dots. Keeley. She didn’t sound like a woman who accepted whatever was being done to her. Confirmation came on a, “NOOO!”







This was not what she wanted. Accustomed to all sorts of devices designed to bring glorious pain, that deadly hunter’s blade in his hand was for one thing and one thing only—death. If she had a smidge of hope that wasn’t the hooded figure’s intention, it was dashed when the barest of light caught his eyes. They were saturated in bloodlust. Crazed beyond reason. She fought harder but was locked down tight to the table most would see in a medical examiner’s office. Keeley found that fitting in an ironic turn of events.

Already dead in so many ways, might as well let the sick fuck deliver the final blow, or slice as it were.

Making peace with all that she knew or would ever know again as a living, breathing human being, she gave into the inevitable. The sharp blade went deep along the inside of her upper thigh. Blood rushed out like a drinking fountain stuck in the on position. Keeley’s eyes rolled back into her head. The demon, her lover, stood nodding his approval. But when the monster before her shoved that horrific killing tool into her fully wide-open sex, Keeley found her voice and screamed with all that she had left.

“NOOOOO! I don’t…w-want to…die,” she gasped. That realization came too late as the madman fucked her vengefully with the knife. Her breath became more and more shallow, and tears leaked as her vision went fuzzy. Keeley could’ve sworn her father stood there, watching, as she reached for him and begged silently that he would save her somehow, someway. But the apparition burned her with his scornful gaze, ensuring she knew he would never approve of her.

A decayed hand clutched hers as fear crept along her skin, reminding her of a sack of baby spiders when they scurry along their way after hatching. The horror show continued as the corpse held onto her and directed the killer between her legs. A cock replaced the knife. She watched him in a detached sort of way. Her blood poured out over him as he pulled out of her body then violently thrust back in. Lost in his own pleasure, he’d conveniently forgotten about the edge of the blade against her throat. With each powerful push inside her, a slice was made. The more gore she was covered in, the more he craved, roaring his release. Unexpectedly, he was gone. Keeley heard a snap as if someone stepped on a fallen branch in the forest. Peaceful and yet terrifying such a sound was. An odd silence followed as she strained to stay conscience. If this was her end, she would face it eye to eye.