The Dark Star - Lockdown Vol. 04

Chapter Eleven; Therapeutic

"No stop .... fuck please stop"

Siena's face contorted in the pain of the unnatural sensations she would be feeling, her predicament, her latest test contributing enormously to the overbearing discomfort she conveyed.

From her the contorted grimace she sucked in quick shallow breaths as she attempted to muster the inner resolve to compose and control herself.

"Oh god no please.... please .... it's too .... it's too..."

"Painful?" Logan completed her sentence for her as he looked up at her.

Her head held up by the posture collar, she had no other choice than to face forward. He figured she'd be unable to even see him at the height in which her restraint held her, the collar preventing any movement to her neck all her sight therefore limited to the radial vision of her eyes.

"Please..." she begged once more, but he held off offering her any reprieve.

Beneath the black silk Cami top her chest rose and fell, sweat beading on her exposed skin as she continued to take only repeatedly short sharp breaths.

Both her fists balled, as her arms were held outstretched at right angles to her body. Three-inch-thick black leather straps wrapped her upper arms in two places as well as her forearms, near the elbow and finally her wrists. Her body and legs fell straight beneath her a further black leather strap wrapped her ankles as she hung there begging for mercy. Logan watched mesmerised as she hung there from the thick black wooden crucifix over the bed.

The cruel object Logan had set eyes on the moment he'd entered the room for the first time when he brought Siena Mancini to this room with Ari.

It's macabre positioning above the double bed could suggest heavily towards its dark purpose, Logan took a deep breath on a vision of a fantasy that ran through his mind's eye.

His head turning to his left towards the bed on the fantasy of a second female stretched out across the bed, held down by her wrists, looking up at Siena while he...

"Relax," he broke his own concentration stating the words coldly watching her.

Siena once shown now, darkly fixating on her turmoil. Something inside him burning that little stronger than when he'd previously, harshly restrained her. She never reacted like this before, in truth her emotions had barely flickered until this moment. Her mind slowly breaking.

"I can't ..." she stated through gritted teeth, "I can't it hurts...oh fucking hell it hurts."

"Think of your sins Siena," Logan verbally goaded her being in no mind to end her latest punishment. "Think about what you've done ...why you're here"

"I'm sorry..." Siena sobbed, her voice croakily breaking. "You know I'm fucking sorry... oh fucking hell you know I regret what I've done."

Her voice wavered at first but grew in resolve towards the end of her sentence. Nevertheless, a single tear trickled down her right cheek as against physical gravity she tried to adjust her body position rather than accept the situation in which she found herself.

"There's a gravity to your gravity" Logan darkly chuckled at his own dark humour taking off the protective face mask he wore. "No one's gonna save you but me Siena... nobody can save you because nobody knows your here except for me."

"I know..." Siena whimpered, "I know ...Please just..."

"What the fuck are you looking to achieve here a Logan?" Chloe asked from over his right shoulder.

He ignored the blonde he'd sensed approach through the shadows just before Siena had spoken, she was dressed rather fittingly in a black leather dress and a pair of over the knee black leather boots.

Despite his ignoring her Chloe continued to speak his unspoken thoughts for him.

"She's sorry Logan....sorry for what she's done... definitely sorry she ever met you... I mean just look at the fear... look at those tears... are they not real enough for you?"

"She can cope," Logan stated under his breath as the young Italian continued to snivel and whimper within the barbaric restraint.

"You think," Chloe chuckled "See that's you .... you don't realise when you've gone too far.... your self-indulgence outweighs your conscience... like the time you nearly killed me while fucking me."

Her words didn't register as he looked towards the frail body of the olive-skinned young girl trapped at his mercy.

As Logan watched her his mind wasn't on Siena, it wasn't Chloe that his thoughts dwelt on, suddenly he thought only of Ari. Ari as she stood practically naked upon a stool in the basement of the Dark Star, trembling, frail, petrified eyes looking into his as she stood there with her hands cuffed behind her back, a course rope noose pulled tight around her slender neck.

"You've outperformed all my expectations... I don't know why I'm surprised because I should've known you would," he heard his own words on the echo of his own memory.

"This is a fun one..." Chloe stated coldly, "...I do like this one."

Ari stood there, eyes closed as nervously she swallowed hard, she doesn't open her eyes as she continued to stand there balancing on the heels of thigh high black leather boots as the low stool on which she balances creaks under her fragile weight; she's almost serenely at peace with her fate.

"Trust me," Logan hears his own words once more. "I won't let you come to any harm."

"But you will..." Chloe interjected. "Do it Logan... fucking do it... you've got her trust... kill her... hang her... choke the life out of her just like Gemma had her life choked from her."

"No," Logan whispered but not without seeing the illusion shatter on the image of Ari wide eyes, not without hearing the harsh primal sound of her fighting for her very breath as the slipknot caught tighter and tighter around her slender neck.

"No... that wasn't me... that wasn't fucking me," he stated aloud.

As the nightmarish vision that had been a reality dissipated, he grabbed the low stool on which Siena had stood while she'd allowed him to restrain her.

A restraint she'd seemed compliant with before he'd removed the stool, her bare feet settling on the smooth black wood of the still immediately, as she supported her weight. She immediately found solace against the predicament in which he had held her. He heard her speak, heard a relief in her voice but her words did not register.

She could have said anything, but he would not have heard her from the blood rushing in his own ears. His own breath trapped in his lungs as the vision of Ari scarred his memory, interspersed with glimpses of Chloe struggling for breath through a clear plastic bag. Then Gemma's limp body placed in a shallow grave. Her face morphing to that of Kimberley Adams. As tears burned in his eyes, he stumbled across the room leaving Siena in her restraint. His hand snatched at the door handle twice, but it would not open.

Confused he suddenly remembered the need for the four-digit security code. His lungs burning with the need for fresh clean air his head swimming with anxiety.

Flames licked around him flames that crept along the walls, crackling flames he could feel the heat of, looking back into the room consumed by the raging fire he saw her, heard the snap of Hetti's neck as she fell lifeless to the floor.

Eventually he heard the click of the door lock as his hands near ripped the handle from the door with the downward pressure he applied.

In the bright hallway he found the sanctuary he sought, his breathing hitched he pirouetted as his back hit the wall on the opposite side of the corridor as he slumped, all energy seeming to drain from his boy as he slid down the cream-coloured wall. The door to Siena's room latching slowly closed, extinguishing the sights and sounds of his own horrors as it did.

Chloe sat beside him casually pulling at a thread of denim from the frayed edge of little black denim shorts that she now wore with a sleeveless black t-shirt.

She placed a finger softly under his stubbled jaw, lifting his head turning him to face her sweet smile on lips painted cherry red.

"Fuck me Logan... you need therapy."

**********

He sat alone at the kitchen breakfast bar; his head held low not even caring to look out across the vista the garden offered him on another bright sunny day. Turning in his hand the business card for the psychologist he knew, who he believed he could trust in.

The visions and the voices tormenting him still, he couldn't see the beauty he could only see the darkness that surrounded him, the shadows that crept ever intrusively forward as if their silhouette threatened to strangle the very life from around him. Chloe sat behind him perched on the kitchen counter her boot clad feet kicking against the side of the kitchen units beneath her.

He ignored her, he knew she wasn't there, he knew she wasn't real but if he ignored her, didn't face her she couldn't taunt him, he couldn't be goaded by her. Even though he knew full well she wasn't there, but if she wasn't there why couldn't he escape her.

He clawed at his scalp taking a sharp inhale, with his hair freshly shaved to a low one millimetre buzzcut, he couldn't grasp hair to even pull from his scalp, his fingers seem to plough crevices from his forehead to his crown as he drew them away to take a swig from the coffee that sat before him, coffee heavily laced by the bottle of Brandy sat inches to his left.

He fought to clear his mind, he fought hard, but he constantly failed.

He heard the front door of the property open but barely looked up, even with the stir of a surprisingly chill breeze that blew through the hallway and into the kitchen area. He drained the remainder of the coffee in response to the flicker of emotion elicited. Setting the mug down he stuffed the business card hurriedly into his back pocket.

"Hey, you," Ari cheerfully stated as she stepped into the kitchen setting down a handful of designer label shopping bags to his left.

The platinum blonde did not even notice the bottle of open Brandy he'd not had time to address. He turned silently as she walked behind him to wash her hands in the stainless-steel sink, he was somewhat surprised not to see Chloe still sat upon the worktop to Ari's right as he looked over to her.

"How's your morning been?" Ari stated without looking back at him, a tan handbag still slung diagonally from her right shoulder to her left hip over a long white cotton summer dress and flat open toe white sandals, he hated seeing her in flats. He hated seeing any woman in flats.

Ari scrubbed and washed her hands vigorously, diligently, as the water cascaded over her slender hands in to the sink it was as if she washed away his every trouble.

"So so" Logan eventually responded to her mustering a little enthusiasm in his response "How was the big wide world ...still there?"

"Still there..." Ari responded still without looking back as she reached for a hand towel run through a drawer handle, "...And surprisingly quiet."

"Not everyone's as fucking stupid keen as you." Logan meant it as a quip, but the comment came across far to bluntly, even he realised.

He hadn't seen her fascination though, hadn't shared her eagerness to a return to normal, well the 'new normal' as it was being unofficially branded. Near three and a half long months since the darkness that coincided with the country being placed into lockdown conditions it had been deemed safe to reopen non-essential shops and services. He'd convinced her to avoid the likely chaos that Saturday, the first day of the easing of measures would likely have instigated. It had been all he could do to stop her. He knew and could see how Ari had grown frustrated, not at her direct experience within lockdown, but how she yearned for the life that she missed.

Logan smirked, inwardly, she would deny it, but she was a typical girly girl at heart. She appreciated the simple pleasures to her of burning through an inordinate amount of cash purchasing must have fashion accessories that would likely only see the exterior of the huge walk-in wardrobes that already burst at the seams with all manner of outfits for all manner of occasions. She hadn't complained but to have been denied such liberty's she would possibly view as an affront; he knew this because he knew her.

The loss of business through the club for three months would not have impacted her bank balance as badly as such loss of revenue would for so many others. While she held a passion for the venue, she had no need for the additional revenue it brought to the already swollen Mancini family inheritance, that she was still able to access. In truth Logan had no idea what the true bank balance was, but he would hazard a guess that even with the way that Ari could spend money she'd barely dent the interest accruing on the fortune.

"You sure you're alright Lo?" Ari's brow knitted a little on his acerbic response as she stepped towards him trailing fingers delicately over tense shoulders.

"I'm fine," his solemn response. He knew she would not understand him even were he to say he's not, even we're he to spill his heart, and other vital organs across the breakfast bar on recounting his troubles.

He couldn't give her the truth he buried deep, because to do so would be to provide her with the truth that would overwhelm her. The truth of the pain he felt for every damaged life before her time, during the time they'd first known one another and then the hideous darkness that had followed. In his aching heart he knew she was aware of a dark unspoken past, but she chose never to address matters with him, just as he never addressed matters with her.

Very few people knew the horrors that are in his sole, that defined the man who even by his own admission had once been the very epitome of a quiet family man. He'd hated the person he'd been back then, detested the festering ruined marriage he'd lived out for as long as he could only for the sake of a Son who he had now severed all ties with, a Son he'd betrayed in the cruellest of fashions. He felt his right-hand clench almost simultaneously with Ari's fingers leaving his right shoulder. She moved away with apparent ignorance of his brooding sullen mood.

"I've been thinking...." Ari offered stood now beside him. "Looking at all the bars... cafes and restaurants that are open ...I'm just wondering if there's anything we can do to reopen the club."

"The what now?" Logan stated hearing what she'd said but not understanding her. "You're aware there's still caveats to these restrictions .... I'm pretty sure night life venues are definitely still behind lock and key."

"I know... I know... just wondered if there was any way we could diversify."

"You could diversify." Logan stated shaking his head incredulously. "I'm happy where I am ...you do what you want."

"It's just a thought.... on the royal we," Ari offered a little wounded. "Just from seeing what others are doing."

"Let them do it then... stick to what you know best... stick to what the Dark Star is known for ...the time to reopen the doors on the old girl will come."

"And you can help me throw the welcome back party," Ari injected a little too excitedly.

"Fuck that," the gruff response Logan offered to her enthusiasm as he pushed away from the counter and slipped from the stool on which he perched.

"Last time I ask .... You sure there's nothing bothering you?" Ari enquired again

This time her slender fingers came to rest on his left forearm, and a scowl of concern etched her face as gently she squeezed his before withdrawing her hand and stepping away. All the while her crystal blue eyes never left his

"I'm fine," he proffered.

"Well let's see that grin of yours," she playfully stated, immediately switching the subject as she made to pick through the bags, she dumped beside him.

Logan looked up at the platinum blonde but barely broke his sneer.

"Tut tut...Mister Hughes," Ari raised an eyebrow reaching into a cream bag with black trim, and black cotton handles. "Perhaps this'll get me a grin"

She pulled several bright purple garments of underwear from the tissue paper innards of the rigid cardboard bag, a devilish grin creeping across her own face as she narrowed her eyes on him and backed slowly away.

"I'm not sure...." Logan stated taking a pace towards her, "...maybe I need to see them on you."

"Soo demanding" Ari playfully stated softly.

Fifteen minutes later stretched out beneath him on their king size bed she felt him climax deep in her, the culmination of a raw passionate fuck in which he taken complete control of her in several positions; the new lingerie literally torn from her now exhausted aching body as she lay pinned by her wrists underneath him.

She finally got to see that grin.

**********

Despite the brightness that spilled through the windows Logan slept face down on the bed, as Ari slipped her naked body from under the white cotton sheets.

Grabbing her phone from the bedside table before padding gently across the room, she took her long black silk gown from a hanger on the back of the door, slipping the garment over and around her naked body as she gently eased the door to the master bedroom open and slipped her phone in to the gowns pocket.

Logan didn't stir as she crept out leaving him there face down as she silently made her way along the corridor to the top of the stairs.

Heading downstairs and into the living area she paused only to fetch a bottle of water from the refrigerator, before she sat herself down on one of the long brown leather sofas and opening the flip lid of the sliver laptop. Craning her head to make sure, to double check, that she was alone for sure, and that Logan was still upstairs if not still asleep.

Her fingers tapped deftly over the keyboard as she navigated now overly familiar screens of the property's home security system. Not for the first time she hated herself for having to do this, the pang in her stomach at the betrayal of the trust she had in him.

She didn't care, she'd reasoned with herself plenty of times, whatever he chose to get up to with their little captive so long as he never overstepped the boundary on what she deemed to be acceptable. His actions until now had been honourable towards the little brat they kept locked away. Siena suffering at his hand as a consequence was in many ways darkly satisfying to her. She had no guilt in their actions, in their incarceration of the youngest member of the headless Mancini family.

So far as she was concerned Logan's guilt was no worse than hers in allowing their plan to continue for the last three months. Over the last few weeks Siena's presence had become the great unspoken between them, Ari all but ignored her until her suspicion regularly got the better of her.

There had to be a reason why Logan had not wanted to join her in leaving the house this morning she was utterly convinced of that fact now, or so much as she'd convinced herself of that fact.

A niggle grew within her, like an itch that could not be sufficiently scratched. His foul mood on her return indicated something had gone on, such mood swings she was used to. While his demeanour had been more relaxed recently, she couldn't forget the almost permanent scowl that had adorned his face on the weeks after she'd let him in through the front doors. He was troubled, he was scarred mentally if not physically. Wounds and issues he would not discuss and which he had made patently clear he'd no wish to discuss even when she'd tried to subtly approach him. She knew he was complicated; she had no issue with that, but she was starting to care for him more than she had ever imagined, more than she would have thought she would have allowed herself too.

She couldn't allow him fully back into her life if she couldn't trust him.