CHAPTER 17
Louisa
I stared at the ruined collar in my hands, my throat suddenly feeling naked and vulnerable without its weight. No time to dwell on these strange feelings—I had to move. Now. I dropped the collar and went to the door.
I checked the hallway carefully before slipping out of the apartment. The elevator stood at the end of the corridor, its polished doors gleaming under the recessed lighting. I tried to walk normally, as if I belonged here in these ridiculous borrowed clothes with foil between my legs. Each step made a subtle crinkling sound that seemed deafening in the quiet hallway.
My heart hammered against my ribs as I pressed the call button. What if Rudy was already in the elevator? What if the doors opened to reveal his massive frame, his expression dark with anger at my disobedience?
The elevator dinged, doors sliding open to reveal an empty car. I stepped inside, pressing the button for the lobby with trembling fingers. As the doors closed, I caught a glimpse of myself in themirrored wall—wild-eyed, disheveled, wearing clothes that hung from my frame like a child playing dress-up. The skin around my neck where the collar had been looked a little red, as if Jax had marked me in a way that would last, maybe even after the redness, too, had gone away.
The elevator descended smoothly, floor numbers illuminating one after another. My palms grew slick with sweat as I watched the numbers tick down toward the lobby. I rehearsed what I would do when the doors opened—walk confidently, head down but not suspiciously so, straight toward the exit. Find a police officer. Or a phone. Call… who? My parents? The police?
The elevator slowed, then stopped. The lobby. This was it.
I took a deep breath as the doors slid open, then stepped out as casually as I could manage. The grand lobby stretched before me—marble floors, designer furniture, a massive floral arrangement on a central table. My eyes darted around, quickly scanning for threats.
And there they were—Rudy and Mateo, standing at the security desk, their backs to me as they spoke with the uniformed guard. My blood froze in my veins at the sight of them, but they hadn’t noticed me yet. I turned away immediately, walking in the opposite direction, trying to control my breathing.
To my immense relief, I spotted an emergency exit at the far end of the lobby. A glowing sign promised escape just a few yards away. I quickened my pace, struggling to appear normal while every instinct screamed at me to run.
I reached the door, pushed the handle down, and slipped through into blessed daylight. Cool morning air hit my face as I found myself in a narrow alley behind the building. Dumpsterslined one wall, and a chain-link fence separated this service area from the street beyond.
Outside. I’d done it.
I sprinted down the alley, the borrowed sweatpants slipping down my hips with each stride. The fence at the end looked climbable—I just needed to reach it and get over it before anyone realized I had gotten out of the building.
I had scrambled halfway up when I heard Jax’s voice behind me.
“Where do you think you’re going, baby girl?”
I climbed faster. If I could do one of those flip things I’d seen people do in the movies…
Mateo stepped into vision in front of me. He crossed his arms as he looked into my eyes. I froze, and then I felt Jax’s huge hands on me pulling me off the fence.
“Help!” I shouted, but I could hear in my own voice that my heart wasn’t in it. I couldn’t even see anyone on the street who might have heard me.
“You gave us a little scare, Little Lulu,” Jax growled as he gathered me into his chest and started to carry me toward the door I’d come out of, which Rudy currently held open. His hand went between my legs, and the foil crinkled. Jax chuckled.
“Did you make yourself an aluminum diaper, baby girl?” he asked. To my astonishment, I heard in my daddy’s voice a note of appreciation.
“Yes, Daddy,” I whispered. “Please… I’m… I’m scared. That’s why I ran away.”
“Of course you were scared,” Jax said, his voice a low rumble against my ear. “And Daddy understands. But running away from her daddies is not how a good girl deals with her fear.”
He carried me through the emergency exit, back into the luxurious lobby. Rudy closed the door behind us, his expression unreadable. Mateo fell into step beside Jax, his gaze sweeping the lobby, ever watchful. The security guard at the desk stared, wide-eyed, but said nothing as Jax strode past him, me still cradled in his arms like a misbehaving toddler.
I buried my face in Jax’s shoulder, overwhelmed by shame and the crushing weight of my failed escape. The foil diaper crinkled with every movement, a humiliating reminder of my desperate, futile attempt to regain control. What had I been thinking? That I could outsmart these men? That I could break free from a system so well designed to keep me captive?
Jax didn’t speak again until we were back in the penthouse, the elevator doors sliding shut behind us with a soft thud that sounded like the closing of a coffin lid. He carried me straight to his enormous bedroom and stood me on my feet next to the bed, then sat down on it himself. Rudy and Mateo stood silently near the door, watching closely.
I gave a little cry as Jax reached out almost casually with his enormous right hand to take hold of my hip and pull me toward him. He maneuvered me between his massive thighs to stand in front of him, and he held me in place there, with his hands firmly on my waist as he looked at me, his eyes still a little above mine even with him sitting down. I had the feeling that those steel-gray eyes saw straight through my defenses, and my sheer ambivalence about it, the conflict between the part of me that couldn’t help wanting him to see and the part that felt desperately afraid of what it meant, made me feel faint.
“Let’s get you out of these stolen clothes,” he said quietly, his fingers finding the hem of the t-shirt I’d taken from the apartment downstairs. He pulled it slowly over my head, his movements unhurried, as if we had all the time in the world. “Do you understand what you did wrong today, Little Lulu?”
“I… I ran away,” I whispered, my voice sounding small and childish even to my own ears.
“Yes,” he agreed, folding the shirt neatly and setting it aside. I trembled as he drew the pink sports bra over my head, too, and laid it atop the t-shirt. “You ran away from your daddies who take care of you. You stole from innocent people. You cut off the collar I gave you to keep you safe.” His fingers traced the sensitive skin where my collar had been. “That was very, very naughty of you.”
