Bad Boy Xavier: Part Two
Author
Jen Cooper
Reads
382K
Chapters
50
Katelynn knows pain better than freedom. Stuck with a father whose choices keep her trapped, she dreams of escape the moment she turns eighteen. But one reckless deal rips that chance away, trading her safety to a family far more dangerous than she imagined. Enter Xavier, heir to a brutal empire where fear is currency and violence is law. Cold, ruthless, and trained to never hesitate, he’s never met anyone bold enough to defy him—until her. Sparks fly where danger collides with defiance, pulling them into a twisted game of power, temptation, and control. Every glance is a dare, every word a weapon, and neither is willing to surrender first.
Chapter 1
KATIE
Katelyn’s jaw dropped and she shuffled back on her hands. “Mitch?”
Mitch loomed over her in black jeans, a black button-up with a black leather vest. He had black boots to match and black leather gloves.
He tugged them on his hands with a wide, creepy grin.
He wore dark eyeliner, and she didn’t even know he had tattoos, but they were there, stretching up his neck from under his collar. He had hidden those well at school.
She had never questioned his turtlenecks until that point.
“Katie, Katie, Katie,” he said wistfully, bending down to her. She slapped him across the face.
He gasped and held his cheek as she tried to scramble away, but was seized by his henchman, who gripped her throat and placed a gun to her head.
Surprise, surprise.
“What the fuck is going on? Why are you doing this? What do you want with me? And why the fuck is Frederick being controlled by psycho teenagers?!” she demanded, trying to kick off from the guard, but his grip was too tight.
Mitch stood slowly, walking over with calculated steps and narrowed eyes. It gave her a slight sense of happiness to see his pale cheek staining red with her handprint.
“It’s been a long time since the Clarkes have had a weakness, but now I have it—I’ll be damned if I’m going to let it go,” he said, ignoring her questions, running his finger down her cheek.
Katie nipped at it, and he snatched it back with a scowl.
“I forgot how angry you are.” He turned to one of the guards. “How much did he dose her with? She should be out by now,” he growled.
“Normal amount, boss. She’s fighting it,” he replied, and she was.
Whether it was fear or adrenaline, she didn’t know, but she did know the last thing she wanted to do was pass out in the room with them.
Mitch turned back to her. “Hmm. I should have accounted for your high tolerance. Well, since you’re awake, we should get this over with.” Mitch went to step forward.
Katie kicked away, screaming and fighting, startling everyone back. The guard dropped her and she scrambled away, her mind still foggy.
Mitch grabbed her by the arm and yanked it behind her back, making her cry out. It was her fucked shoulder, and she had a feeling he knew that. She had no idea how, though.
He leaned in by her ear and shoved her against the wall.
“The more you resist, the more I will hurt you.”
She struggled against him. “Whatever you’re planning won’t work. I may be important to Xavier, but he won’t risk his family’s empire for me. And the rest of them couldn’t give a shit if I died, so you might as well let me go.”
“Xavier will risk it all for you,” Mitch countered.
“Then why was he just kissing Kimberly Ackerman next door? We’re not even together anymore, and I’m just a number to him. Sorry, Mitch, next plan?” she taunted.
He growled, shoving her harder. She winced as a sharp ache tore through her shoulder.
She had gotten to Mitch, though. He turned to his guards. “Is it true? Was he kissing Ackerman?” he demanded.
The guard looked nervous before he nodded. “Yeah, boss. The footage has the Clarke boy and the Ackerman girl together,” he admitted.
Mitch roared, shoving away from Katelyn and pacing.
She turned to him and grinned. Seeing that she rattled him gave her an idea. It broke her heart to do, but it was probably going to save her life. At least she hoped it would.
“What? After all the big talk about the ‘other player’ and he doesn’t even know about the upcoming wedding to align the most powerful families of Colorado? The Clarkes and Ackermans are joining forces, Mitch, and I don’t think you’re invited.”
Mitch scowled at her and looked to his guard again, who shrugged. One of the others came forward after clicking on a tablet like a crazy person.
“It’s true. The Ackermans sold Kimberly to the Clarkes for marriage. The wedding license has been filed for,” the guard said, and Katie had to work to hide her shock.
Pain lacerated her heart, and she swallowed back tears to keep up the facade, but inside she was crumbling away.
“How the hell did we not know that?!” he demanded, screeching like a toddler.
Katie ignored his tantrum and went to leave the room, slowly gripping the door handle behind her and pulling it open. It slammed in her face when Mitch shoved his hand against it, glaring at her.
“That doesn’t mean you are getting away from me, Katelyn. You know who I am, and that is a problem. I’m not ready for the Clarkes to have that information,” he bit.
Katie’s stomach turned violently, and she staggered against the door. “Thought we were friends, Mitch,” she stammered, her words falling out loosely.
He shrugged. “And I thought over the years you might’ve questioned why I was the only one who talked to you or paid you any attention after the shit with your father, but that didn’t happen either.” He grinned maliciously.
Katie went to speak, but her mind darkened. She used the wall to hold herself up. “Whatever. I won’t tell the stupid Clarkes about you then,” she tried, but Mitch laughed.
“Sure you won’t. Have a good sleep, Katie. You’re going to need it.” He winked just as she collapsed, losing the fight with her consciousness.
***
Katie woke up to a burning pain on her thigh. She screamed out, her eyes flinging open as she surged forward to escape the pain. She couldn’t.
Her feet were shackled to a chair, her arms bound behind her back. Mitch held a hot poker against her thigh.
He pulled it back as tears rolled down her cheeks at the burning flesh it left behind. She had been stripped down to her underwear and shivered against the brisk wind that hit her from the empty warehouse door opening and shutting.
A guard was bringing in a camera.
“What the fuck?!” she screamed.
Mitch grinned. “You don’t really think I’d give up that easily, do you?” He grabbed the tripod and aimed the camera at her. “I believe your story about the wedding, but that won’t matter in a few minutes when Xavier sees what I am doing to the girl he really loves.” Mitch turned the camera on, and the light clicked green.
She turned away from it.
“He and I are nothing. He doesn’t care about me, and he won’t come after me. You’re fucking delusional!” she screamed, but Mitch shook his head, indicating for one of his guards to step into the screen view.
Mitch paused the video.
“Pick up the poker. It’ll have more of an effect,” he said, and the henchman did as he was told.
Katie flinched as Mitch came over to her, pinching her mouth together. “Say my name, or who I am, or give him any clues as to my identity and I will cut your fucking tongue out,” he warned, then patted her cheek and walked back to the camera.
“Okay, action,” Mitch called, and the henchman shoved the poker against her thigh again. She screamed out as the pain seared her.
“We’re coming for you, Clarke,” the henchman said, his voice staunch and raspy like he smoked a pack a day.
More tears rolled, and she knew she had to get out. They had to know it was Mitchell.
She struggled against her bindings, and the cable ties cut farther into her wrists.
Mitch clapped and turned the camera off, rewatching the clip before nodding. “Beautiful. Okay, now for the fun part. We’re gonna make sure he’s under pressure.” Mitch grinned and put the camera back, facing it away, but left it on.
“Can’t you just let me go?” she asked, tired, cold, and aching. Not to mention her burning thigh.
“No. Now, tell me where the Clarkes do business,” he ordered.
Katie’s mind went to the hub and all the families there. She wasn’t snitching. “How would I know?” she snapped, and he grinned wider.
“Otis, pass me the pliers. Seems Katie wants to have some fun,” Mitch said, and took the pliers from Otis. He placed them next to her fingernail, and she flinched.
“Tell me,” he warned, but she shook her head, tensing for the consequence. He ripped her nail from her finger, and she cried out.
The next few days were hell. Or what she imagined hell to be like.
So much pain.
She had two missing molars at the back and three missing nails. Her left foot had crushed toes, and the tip of her pinky was gone.
Mitch was a sadist. He got off on every bit of pain he inflicted. He recorded it all.
He was editing right in front of her, letting her hear the screams over and over again, her body aching, her head throbbing.
She was so weak, tired, and hungry, but most of all she was desperate to get out.
The good thing about being in so much pain was her ability to compartmentalize and find her happy place.
Not so much happy, but in the back of her mind she had been planning, and she was pretty sure she could escape.
Like seventy percent. Or fifty. It was worth it anyway.
“I need the bathroom,” she breathed, her ribs aching where she had been sucker-punched.
It was harder to talk than she thought; her voice barely carried through her crushed windpipe. He had choked her so many times. She no longer found it attractive.
“I need the bathroom,” she said louder, and Mitch spun to her.
“No,” he said, and went back to editing the video.
The escape plan was dependent on a bathroom break, so despite being terrified of retaliation, she kept pushing. “Please,” she begged.
Mitch rolled his eyes and looked her over. He was analyzing her, probably trying to see if she was escape-worthy, so she tried extra hard to seem weak and defeated.
She was so close; it wasn’t that hard to do.
Mitch waved her off and turned to one of his people.
“Take her to the bathroom, then dose her again, and put her upstairs. I won’t need her again until later,” Mitch said, and went back to editing as she looked up to the loft in the warehouse where he had been keeping her.
His minion undid her feet, then her hands, and yanked her up from the chair. Katie bit her tongue to hold in the scream as pain exploded through her.
He tried to make her walk on her own, but it was excruciating to put pressure on her feet. She collapsed in front of him, her cry escaping.
He pulled her up again and dragged her through the half-built rooms of the warehouse to the bathroom.
Katie mustered as much strength as she could, and the second he opened the door to pull her through, she ripped away from him.
She shoved him into the bathroom and yanked the door shut. She locked it from the outside, then hobbled back down the wooden framing that made up the hallway.
She winced with every step, her body begging her to stop, but she ignored it, limping toward the door. Her bloodstained hand left prints on the hanging drop sheets as she did.
She moved as fast as she could with her broken toes and crushed body, her hand on the door handle when Mitchell called to her from over at the makeshift editing station in the middle of the warehouse.
“Careful, Katie. I got you once; I can do it again, and if you make me chase you, I’ll make it so much worse when I finally get you,” he warned.
Katie scowled at him. “I don’t know the answers to your questions. Thanks to Kim, I’m done with the Clarkes. You have no reason to hold me,” she argued, and it had him considering her.
“And then the Clarkes know who I am,” he stated.
She scoffed. “So what? Stop playing games and face them head-on. All you’re doing is making yourself look like a coward, barely on their radar. Make your damn move already and leave me out of it.”
She left the warehouse as if she had the confidence of a queen when really her body was giving out on her.
