a/n:

Thank you Doctorwho9, Chndoll, queen of sass, Dorksoul, babyshan211, and Guests for your reviews! Chapter 3 is now up!

She woke up with a headache that felt like an entire construction site had planted itself into her skull. Groggily she began waking up, blinking slowly.

There was a blurry white ceiling that came into focus. Her body felt wrong and she tried to pull her hands towards her but found they were stuck somewhere. With a small sound of confusion she tried to twist upwards, but found her movement was limited. Looking above she saw red. She blinked again. Fuzzy red.

"Like the handcuffs? Thought they were better than the real ones - they bite." He sank into the mattress next to her. "They look good on you."

She blinked harshly and then everything came into focus. A king sized bed with dark covers was what she was lying on, and her hands were tied together above her head with handcuffs that should've only been used for pleasure, and her each ankle was bounded to the end of the bed. There was no windows in this room. In fact there was barely anything other than the bed, a small wardrobe and a TV.

Everything came back with the strength of a tsunami.

Billy swam into her vision as she turned to look at him. He had changed clothes, back to his usual tailored suits. The blazer hung over one of the bed posts, but he had left the silver vest on. His head had been careful slicked back.

"I'll scream." She whispered.

"No one can hear you here. There's only you and me." He gestured to the walls.

"I won't let you."

Chloe fought against the rope around her ankles that held her down on the bed.

It took him a moment. Then realisation dawned on his face before morphing into a look somewhere between disgust and anger. His mouth grew into a tight smile, the one he used when he wasn't happy at all and she shrank into the covers. "Is that what you think this is?"

Billy stood up and shook his head. He seemed to want to say something, but instead rubbed at his jaw. "Babygirl, if I want it, you'll be begging me for it first."

She yanked at the cuffs. They rattled against each other. She was no further to escaping.

Billy strode over to the TV and turned it on, jamming his phone into the plug.

The TV flickered to life and after a moment a video came on. There was no audio, and the clip was grainy, taken from a security camera.

The clubs lights were flashing on both floors. It was a newer venue in Upper Manhattan previously an old church. Under the booming music she celebrated her twentieth birthday on the first floor surrounded by champagne and dancing, writhing bodies. The girls from the office who had dragged her here had long disappeared.

She couldn't remember when the first man she had been dancing with disappeared as she moved seamlessly in and out of the crowd and when the next one pulling her closely began. Everything had become a blur of bubbly alcohol and colours.

Billy sat at the edge of the short wardrobe below the TV. That was when Chloe leaned closer in an attempt to see the screen better. No, it couldn't be.

But it was.

There he was.

On the second floor in the V.I.P. section. There were several women, all legs and beauty who were trying to wrangle their way onto one of those empty seats. But as he spoke to them absent-mindedly his eyes never straight from the first floor. His eyes stared at his tow haired employee.

An older man, twice her age was talking with her now, handing her a glass of red wine. Her dainty hand reached out to slip around the soft glass and take it off the business man. Billy leaned forwards now, clasping his hands together.

The business man was going in for the kill, hand sliding onto her hip and pulling her in close, lips in her hair as he spoke to her, probably about going someplace more quiet away from this club. She lost her balance and fell into him, handing going onto his chest to balance herself.

Her boss stood up sharply with a tight jaw. He threw a hundred dollar bill on the table before making his way down the spiralling stairs. With an agileness few possessed he weaved his way in and out of a drunken sea of bodies without touching one of them. As Chloe and the man were making their way out he stopped them like a blockade.

It was only a second and then the business man and Billy had taken a step closer to each other. There didn't need to be any audio to know the conversation was heated, and as the business man reached out to Chloe, Billy took his arm and then did something to his fingers. He stepped closer, and whatever he said to the business man, he nodded hastily in agreement right after. As soon as he had his appendage back he was gripping his own fingers and massaging them, looking shocked he still had all five on one hand.

In the meantime Billy had slid past him. Chloe looked up in surprise, but before she could get out a word he had placed her hand possession on her waist, forcing her out of the club.

Billy turned the TV off.

She remember that night now. There was a giant block of nothingness. But she remembered going there with some of the other Anvil girls, and she remembered waking up in Billy's bed. He hadn't done anything to her, just settled her into his bed. After her face had been red with embarrassment for well over an hour of profusely apologising to him as he told the story of how she ended up there in the place she left thinking she was going to be fired. But that firing never came.

"There's been too many times, Chloe, where you didn't stand a chance at even defending yourself. I didn't do it then and I'm not doing it now."

"Then what is this, what do you want?" She yanked at the fluffy cuffs again. "This whole time. I thought ending up at your place that night was my fault."

"Wasn't it? You couldn't even remember the night."

"So, so what then, I make my own decisions but if you don't agree with then then you'll just come in and decide everything anyway!"

"You're getting hysterical." He observed.

"I woke up in your bed. You told me I had called you at the club. I went years thinking I had made an absolute fool of myself in front of my boss, drunkenly blabbing on about how great you were."

The corner of his lips tugged upwards and he gave a small nod. "It's just a twisting of facts. You were very charming in the limo, even if you couldn't remember it."

She yanked on the handcuffs again and kicked her legs out. They rattled against the bedpost.

"Why were you there?"

"To watch over you." He said.

"I can take care of myself."

"And you had no idea what kind of man he was." He said. Like he knew. Did he know that business man? Was there a sordid reputation that was well preceding him?

"Then that's my decision and I'll have dealt with the consequences." She said.

Billy let loose a small smile and shook his head. "No, it's not. Not if you don't make the right choices."

"Those consequences are still mine to deal with, Bill. And why, why do you care so much all of a sudden?"

"Because you only have me." He snapped. He gave her a look like she was an ungrateful brat.

"So what do you think you are Billy, a guardian angel?"

He answered her with a sly smile. She was sure he hadn't thought of it like that before. She wondered if he liked the title now though.

"And do guardian angels kidnap their charges?"

Billy didn't answer the rhetorical question. Standing up he made his way over to her at a leisure pace. Slowly he sank into the bed next to her, sitting to look at the door. Twisting his body he reached out to her, and she shrank into the bed to get away from his touch. Billy tucked a strand of white hair behind her small ear. She was unmarred. Unmarred by tattoos, unmarred by piercings, unmarred by scars and bullet holes.

"I tried for years. Gave you everything. And then you decided to go runnin' into that CIA agents arms, ready for him to tell every bad thing about me - things you can't understand."

All she could do was stare at him, eyes flickering between his own obsidian ones, waiting to see the telltale sign of a joke. But all she found was grim acceptance.

The sickness feeling returned, roiling in her stomach like waves in a storm. He really thought that didn't he? That he had tried everything, been watching over, and now she had wronged him some way. Her eyes squeezed shut for a second. But when she opened them everything was still as it was. Still reality.

Billy was like a god, but not the one he thought he was. He was like Janus, the god of two faces.

His eyes became distant for a moment as if he had suddenly transported to another world. Then they snapped back to her. "You can't ignore the headache can you? Chloroform has some nasty side-effects."

On the bedside table was already painkillers and water poured into a clean crystal whisky glass. She wasn't surprised he didn't have normal glasses here.

As he took the painkillers she thought about struggling against him, biting his hand. But she was cuffed. Her eyes flickered around for a moment.

No, he had taught her that sometimes patience got the upper-hand.

Chloe looked at him warily as she parted her lips. He placed the painkillers on her tongue and gave her such an intense look she tried to move away from him without thinking. But there was nowhere to go. With a nod of approval at her acceptance he loosed the rope on the cuffs, enough so that she could support herself onto her arms.

He tilted the glass upwards and the water trickled in. She gulped down the pills. Water spilled down her neck. He gave her a fond look, dabbing away at the excess liquid with his shirt. "There you go."

Chloe stared at him. Her heart was hammering against her chest, just like it had done when she had run away from him the first time.

"Can I go to the bathroom please?"

It didn't take him long to accept her request. He released her from the cuffs and immediately she sat up. He loosened the binding around her feet and she swung out of her bed. Her upper back protested from the position she had been in.

Billy sat on the edge of the bed, long legs resting on the beige carpet floor as he watched her go into the bathroom. She shut the door.

Her head snapped around as she tried to find an escape. The bathroom was small, only a rain shower, toilet, and sink in there. It didn't look like the construction was complete, with one wall still made of concrete.

As she looked around tears of despair and frustration threatened to leak between lashes. There were no windows here, just like there were no windows in the bedroom. She couldn't escape. Not this way.

The only place was the door. He hadn't shifted from his position. In fact, he had gotten more comfortable, leaning back on his arms as he observed her with a slight tilt of his head, analysing her.

She walked slowly towards him, and then past him in a gesture of going back to the bed. And then she leapt for the door. Before her hand could brush the door handle he already had a grasp on her, pushing her against the wall next to the door.

He forced his knee between her legs. "Did you know how closely the pleasure stimulus is linked to your survival instincts?" He jerked his knee upwards, hitting her right between the apex of her thighs and forcing her onto tiptoes as his leg became her only balance.

Heat coiled in her lower body and she inhaled sharply.

Placing his hands on either side of the wall he leaned in. "It's distracting at first."

Her chest was moving up and down rapidly as he caged her in. Maybe she could fight him, get out and leave him here. She had taken him by surprise once. Maybe she could do it again.

Billy leaned in, murmuring into her soft hair. "It's only instinct and impulse you're feeling now. Let it, Chloe."

She felt him manoeuvre himself, gently moving her around for a moment before he placed his hand back on the wall. A clean knife with an edge so sharp she could almost feel it gazed right back at her.

She recoiled so fast she hit him in the chest. "You could kill me, if I gave you this knife. But then, you'd also have to lift me up, get the system to read my finger print as well as a retinal scan at the same time. I don't think you had the strength for that. And then we'd both be stuck in here for a long time, Chloe."

She shook her head. "You're lying."

"This thing, there's no point in lying about it. You get out, it's because you've been a good girl and I've let you."

Her hand curled into a fist. She could be here for years. For decades. Think, think. It's not over yet. Keep it going until you think of something.

"I could be at work today."

Billy breathed a gust of amusement through his nose. "Always thinking about work. Yeah, you could've been."

"But you took me instead and now I'm here."

"Now you're here." He repeated.

"I don't get. Why not just hire someone to do the dirty work for you? It's not as if you don't have an entire firm at your disposable - unless you were afraid they'd be too close to me to go through with it."

He leaned forwards, a razor sharp smile twisting his face. "I could've paid them to do it and they would walk right into work the morning after the job and look at you like they were never even there."

The blood in her veins froze. He wasn't lying. They both knew it.

"There only loyalty any of them ever knows is for money."

"Yeah well you've taught them well then."

She could feel his grin. "Hoping to distract me with conversation, Pritcher? I think we both know I'm trained better than that."

His breath was hot against her neck and instantly she squirmed against him. She teetered on her tiptoes, struggling to regain her balance as she moved against him.

It sent a zing of electricity through her.

His voice dropped to a husky whisper, "But that right there, that's distracting."

Instantly she froze.

Billy chuckled, affection seeping into his voice. "I'll let you go, under one condition."

"What condition?"

She was bracing herself for the worst.

"You get back into that bed. You don't try to escape because you know that's not possible." His voice had dropped low, and each word came out sharp as the knives edge. The hair rose on the end of her neck.

All she could do was nod.

"Good girl."

He eased his leg down, and she found the pads of her feet on the carpet again. He pushed away from the wall, releasing her from the cage he had created.

Chloe walked in front of him like a prisoner, and there was a pang of resentment in her stomach coupled with the fear as she lay back down.

He worked his way slowly and gently as he tied her up again.

He kneeled down by the bed, next to her head.

"You don't understand it yet, but you will." Billy grasped her hand in his, squeezing tightly as she tried to pull out of his grasp. He brushed her hand with his thumb that she supposed to supposed to be an affectionate gesture.

"I don't want to do this, these games you play." Her voice was hoarse again, like she had been screaming. Except all she had been was quiet the whole time. The prey to his predator.

"You and I aren't as different as you think."

"I don't, I don't understand what you mean." She said slowly. It was like trying to put together a puzzle piece, but all the pieces weren't quite fitting right.

"You can't keep secrets from me, Phoebe. I know you. I know everything."

Her headed snapped up to look at him. He knew her real name.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Listen," he said as he opened the bedroom drawer and pulled out a syringe, "I don't want you to be frightened now. But I'm going to have to leave you for a while and I don't want you to get bored. But I can't entrust you to be by yourself, not tonight. So I'm going to help you sleep."

The thin chains above her rattled again. "What the hell is that?!"

"Just a sedative." He murmured.

"Billy I'm fine. I won't be bored. Don't do this." Chloe pleaded with him.

His eyes sparkled in amusement. "I know you've always been scared of needles. It won't hurt if you relax, and I know what I'm doing. I've had a lot of practice over the years."

She looked at him in alarm. On who?

Flipping her hand he placed his knee on her wrist as he placed her other on the crook of her elbow, keeping her arm in place. She kicked her leg, but it was a futile gesture.

"This would be easier if you didn't throw a tantrum."

Some of the liquid sprayed out of the syringe as he removed the air bubbles, and then he angled the needle downwards. She whimpered as she felt the cold metal pressed into her arm and his dark eyes flickered up to look at her before focusing back on her arm.

The porcelain skin broke as he pushed the needle in and the liquid left the syringe. After a minute it had already taken affect and she relaxed automatically. He stood up and bent down, lips brushing against her forehead.

"I'll be back soon. Sweet dreams, Phoebe."

No, that's not my name, not anymore. She wanted to say, but her eyes slid shut as the sedative dragged her under.