Savages Boxed Set

by Gadziala, Jessica

  But it was also partly entertaining because they were so busy shooting the shit that I could have gotten away at least a dozen times if I wanted to.

  Not that I didn't want to.

  I was just trying to play it smart.

  I didn't know what kind of deal Breaker had going on.

  Or his chick for that matter.

  And, make no mistake, that was his chick.

  I saw them the day after he took her and I could already see something there. They were both oblivious to it aside from maybe some sexual tension. But it was there.

  Not just because Break didn't want to hit her. That he was willing to sacrifice me for her. It wasn't that. We both knew that drill. We didn't raise our fucking hands to women.

  No. It was the way he was looking at her. And also the way he was pointedly not looking at her.

  She was more than a client.

  And she was damn sure more than some random one night stand.

  The second she opened her mouth and started hollerin'... yeah I got the appeal. Not that she wasn't great to look at to begin with. Tall and thin with that shoulder-length dark hair and big dark eyes, the perfect bone structure. I mean, I generally preferred my women thick, with some curves to sink my fingers into. But she was still a stunner. But, fuck me, when she started going pure rage monster at Lex?

  Yeah, she had something going for her.

  And she, whether either of them knew it or not, was just the kind of woman he needed in his life.

  I mean after taking one of Breaker's fists to the jaw (which I had been on the receiving end of before and, let me tell ya', it hurt like a mother), she still managed to have the wits about her to hand me off a knife. That was what Break needed. A chick who could think on her feet, who took the hit, who did what needed to be done.

  With nothing to do but sit around and think, I gave their sure-to-be budding romance some thought. Wondering if Break would keep her at a distance, if she would let him in. If she could take away the guilt and shame he would have felt after putting his hands on her.

  Breaker was never the type of man to be seen with a woman on his arm. Sure him and me and sometimes Paine, we would go out, we would pick up women. But Break's were smoke by the next morning. In all the years I knew him, I was pretty sure I had never seen him with a woman in the daylight.

  A part of me really wished I could have been around to watch him fumble through that first-time experience.

  But, no, I was in a basement. And not the nice side. With the bar and the TV. No I was in the cold, damp, windowless side with a bathroom and a folding chair.

  If there was one thing I learned I had taken for granted most of my life, it was beds. A nice, thick, firm mattress. Preferably with a nice, thick, sweet woman beside me on it.

  But I digress.

  I knew shit was going down from what Limp Dick Rick and the new kid Chris were sayin'. About some chump named Glenn who got himself whacked. Then about some asshole named Joshua who had traced the leak in Lex's security to Alex.

  Yeah. Their little honeymoon period was coming to an end and fast.

  I also knew it meant my time on earth was coming to a close.

  Men like Limp Dick Rick and Chris might have been idiots, but they knew better than to talk shop in front of an outsider if they planned to let him live. There had never been any such plan for me.

  I was trying to play it by ear. See where things led before I made a decision or not.

  The choice was simple: fight my way out and possibly endanger the only person in the world who gave a fuck about me or take my death like a man and hope Breaker had his head in the game enough to get his chick and get away.

  Problem was, there was no way to guess the way that night went.

  Earlier, I had pissed off Limp Dick Rick (possibly simply because that was how I referred to him, but also possibly because I may or may not have told him that he was proof that evolution works in reverse. In my defense, I thought he was too stupid to understand the insult) but anyway... I pissed him off. He knocked me around a little bit. He took me up to Lex's study for reasons unknown to me until I was dragged back down to find that someone else was locked in the bathroom.

  It was then that I started genuinely worrying.

  It was one thing to know my life was almost over.

  Whatever. That was the life I lived. Every time I picked up a new job, met a new client, pointed my gun, pulled the trigger... there was always a chance of me not making it back.

  But the idea that it was someone else who might have to suffer because of me? Yeah that shit didn't sit right.

  I tried, like Breaker, to keep my contacts to a minimum. To keep the possibility of collateral damage a small risk. That being said, I wasn't like Break. I made some friends. I visited some women more than a few times. There were people that someone could hurt to get to me.

  I had a sinking feeling one of those people were in that bathroom.

  Then fast forward to Break charging in. No Alex. No plans, it seemed, to produce Alex. Looking like he hadn't slept in days.

  It didn't take much for me to guess she was gone.

  And that it wasn't him who got her gone.

  The second that kid went into the bathroom and dragged out a kicking, swinging, spittin' mad Alex... yeah, fuck. I don't think I have the words to describe the look that came over Break's face.

  Just utter... devastation. Hopelessness.

  Followed quickly by determination.

  He was going to get her out no matter what.

  And then that hacker Josh showed up and gave me the whole, gory picture of what had gone down since I got locked up.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Breaker make his move. I pivoted, ramming hard into an unsuspecting Rick, deciding it was time I threw my weight around as well.

  But almost as soon as it started, I was restrained by an even more pissed off Rick (worth it for the bloody nose he had), and Break was being pulled away. He at least got a fair bit of damage in first.

  Then I didn't get to see the rest.

  A pit was in my stomach as I was shoved through the basement, up the stairs, into the kitchen, then out through the backdoor. Not because of my own fate. I had resigned myself to that the moment I walked out of the coffee shop and had a hood over my head and burns from my spilled coffee down my arm. Before I was even aware of who took me. In that second, my fate was sealed.

  But what was unclear was what was going to go down in the basement between Lex, Breaker, and Alex.

  I knew Lex. I knew the twisted shit he did. Especially to women. And I knew how much more he would get out of it if he could force a man who loved that woman to watch.

  That was all I could think about as I was led into a white wooden shed, set off into the trees quite a ways from the main house, the windows blacked out from the inside, the door with multiple locks and bars.

  "I finally get to have some fun with you," Limp Dick Rick said, opening the door and shoving me inside. "Had it up to fucking here with the sarcasm shit," he informed me, slamming the door behind him and reaching for the pull tab on the light hanging from the ceiling.

  There wasn't much inside. Penny brick floor and reinforced walls. A chair with chains. Three five gallon buckets in a corner. It seemed more like it was used for gardening than torture.

  "What? You haven't enjoyed our time together?" I asked, putting a hand to my chest. "That hurts, Rick. I thought you and me really had something special."

  "On your knees," he growled out, moving into the small space.

  "What is with you guys and the kneeling shit? Is that why you're all so grouchy? You like dick? You know... it's the twenty-first century. Even big bad criminals can be gay, Rick. If you need some cock to feel like a man..."

  I didn't get the rest of the dig out.

  Mainly because his fist found its way to my face.

  Maybe I was going to die. But fuck if I went out like a sniveling pussy about it. Besides, seeing that look of ut
ter mortification cross his features, yeah, it was worth the extra fucking pain.

  And I needed a good fight. I was due. I had been letting these cocksuckers (maybe quite literally cocksuckers), get the better of me for days. It was time to knock them off their game.

  Because they didn't think I could handle myself.

  But, boy, was Rick in for a nasty surprise.

  I took three hits to the face and two to the center before I used my wiry sort of grace against him, slipping away, then coming back swinging. A strong uppercut under the chin had him on his ass before he finished cursing. Which gave me just enough time to bend into my boot (where the idiots never thought to look for weapons) and drag out the knife.

  I wasn't a knife person.

  My weapon of choice would always be a gun. It was impersonal. A scope and a trigger. A target whose blood you never had to touch or smell.

  But that didn't mean I didn't know how to use one.

  Thanks to Breaker who was a bit more... hands-on in his forms of punishment or justice.

  I had just aimed and stabbed the blade into Rick's thigh, turning the knife brutally, wincing at the sound of his scream (I didn't get off on the pain. That was never my thing. It was a job. Or self-defense. Nothing more), when the grounds outside sounded like they were blowing up.

  My eyes sought Rick's and found a similar shock there. So whatever was happening was not part of some grander plan of Lex's.

  Fuck.

  Not good.

  I grappled with the idea of killing him versus getting the hell out of there before anything even crazier went down.

  "Every man for himself," I said down at Rick, getting onto my feet. He nodded and I offered him my hand. Which he took and got onto his feet, ripping the blade out of his leg and moving toward the window, breaking it in the corner to look out.

  "The fuck?"

  That was my cue. I ripped the locks off the door and flew out into the complete fucking chaos.

  I wasn't wrong about it sounded like it was blowing up. There had to have been explosions. Bombs or what-the-fuck-ever because there were fires all around the grounds.

  People were everywhere, running, looking shocked and unsure what to do.

  I didn't think. I didn't even pretend I had any plans of getting away. I made a b-line right for the house.

  Break and Alex were still inside.

  I needed to get them then get the hell out of there before anyone got any kind of control of the headless-chicken men and made them drag us back.

  I flew across the field, shoving into the shoulder of some random lackey as I rounded on the house, taking off toward the back doors that led into the kitchen.

  I had just reached for the handle when the doors were flung open from the inside, sending me off balance and falling backward onto my ass. Hard enough to knock the wind out of me.

  Then I was looking up and there was Breaker. And Alex.

  "They didn't kill you yet?" he asked, giving me an odd smile and reaching an arm down to haul me back onto my feet.

  "How'd you get out?" I asked, following as Break moved toward the corner of the house, looking out.

  "Lex has a panic room for this kinda thing," Alex answered at Breaker's silence.

  "Heya sweetheart. You alright?" I asked, grabbing her pinkie with mine.

  "Yep. Things went boom before Lex could get really twisted."

  There was a strange edge to her words that made them ring untrue, but it wasn't my place to push.

  "Right, let's go," Breaker said, looking back. "Head for the tree line and follow it to the front fence. My truck is still parked outside the gates," he said, reaching into his pocket and producing a key.

  A second later, Alex's pinkie was pulled from mine as Breaker grabbed her hand and pulled her along beside him, her body blocked from the yard by his. I followed behind, similarly blocking her from behind and really wishing I had taken a moment to find a gun somewhere.

  But then we were at the front gates, kicking our legs out faster as eyes started to fall on us.

  Breaker beeped the locks on the truck as we rounded to it.

  "Get in," Breaker said, moving around the hood, then stopping, tilting his head at Alex who had frozen on the spot. "Doll, get in the fuckin' truck."

  But Alex wasn't paying attention.

  Her gaze was focused just beside the empty security booth where, when I squinted against the darkness, I saw a shadow move.

  "Break," my voice called a warning as the shadowed figure came closer. Whoever they were, they were all in black. Tall. Thin. Wearing a hood that was so big it covered their face.

  "Who the fuck..." Breaker started, moving toward the figure.

  But somehow, Alex was suddenly right by his side, grabbing his arm. "Stop," she said, her voice quiet but firm as she stared at the figure.

  And then a hand snaked out of one of the long dark sleeves, moving upward, and pushing the hood off her head.

  Yes. Her.

  And she was a fucking knockout. Not in my way. But regardless. Small. But fierce. Delicate face, long straight black hair, dark brows, big blue eyes, and what looked like tats snaking up the side of her neck.

  "The fuck..." Breaker said, something like recognition in his voice though her face was new to me.

  "You guys need to move. Now," she said, reaching into her pocket and pulling a small remote out.

  Alex nodded, pulling Breaker back.

  "Now," she said again, a little more urgently.

  "In the truck," Breaker said, moving backward toward the driver's door.

  Alex paused, reaching an arm out like she wanted to grab the woman's hand though they were far apart. "Thank you," she said with feeling then ran to her side of the car and threw herself into the passenger.

  I gave the girl a wink, getting into the minuscule backseat of the truck, watching out the window as the girl slowly moved down the driveway, away from the house. She watched us for a moment as we drove away before moving herself into the center of the street, turning toward the house, and lifting her remote-laden hand.

  "How the fuck do you know Janie from Hailstorm?" Breaker asked the exact second the blast made the truck jolt, our ears pop, and Lex's house fucking... explode.

  TWENTY-ONE

  Alex

  In the end, the glass bottle trick did work. I just wasn't prepared for the show of force. I had been half-expecting Bob to come in the middle of the night horny with a handful of date rape drugs. I was prepared for that. I had Breaker's gun sitting beside my hand on the surface of the table with Jstorm's burner phone as well. Right before I drifted off, I found Breaker's burner in my pocket, staring at it for a long, long time, fighting the urge to open it and call him. Then, wiping my arm across my cheeks to rub the tears away, I removed the SIM card and banged at it and the phone itself with the butt of the gun until there was no temptation left.

  Then I went to sleep.

  Prepared for Creepy Bob.

  Not, however, prepared to hear the bottle drop and crack apart with the other bottles just seconds... seconds before three huge men stormed into the room, hauling me out of my chair before my hand could even reach for the gun.

  And that was how Lex got his slimy hands on me again.

  I was dragged to a car, one hand like a vice around my center, one pressing hard against my mouth, then hauled into the backseat and on the lap of the man who was holding me. A man who was hard doing so. So I didn't struggle.

  Then we were driving.

  After that, I was being hauled up a driveway into Lex's ridiculous estate. I was dragged through the kitchen, down the stairs, into a finished basement, then into an unfinished portion of the basement. The hand moved from my mouth, but only to be replaced with a gag. The arm moved from my waist to cuff my hands behind my back, the bracelets too tight, biting into my skin.

  And then I was left in that bathroom. For the better part of a day.

  Only to be un-cuffed and un-gagged and hauled out to see Shooter
sitting in the chair looking very much like he had been there a while and I felt the bolt of realization that he had been there all along. If only I had gotten to the door. Gotten his attention...

  But it was too late for that.

  And Breaker was there.

  Alright. So maybe I told myself that I was taking my feelings for him and putting them in a chest deep inside to be opened never. But all it took was one look at him and the chest burst open and all the feelings slipped out raw and wet and painful.

  Then his words smarted across my face like a slap.

  He was going to leave me there. I was pretty sure I was a little bit in love with the man and he was going to... leave me to the man I hated the most in the whole world. A man who completely destroyed my life in more ways than one.

  I shared my body with Breaker. I'd bared my soul.

  And he was going to turn his back on me?

  But then Joshua walked into the room and shock replaced the betrayal.

  Joshua Kaidisen. Glenn knew him way back when they were pre-pubescent boys playing video games and sneaking around the internet looking for dirty pictures. Back when Joshua wasn't the looker he turned out to be. Glenn had showed me pictures once of the two of them. Glenn pudgy as a kid, bespectacled, a shorter version of his adult self. But Joshua had been the quintessential ugly duckling. He was thin to the point of gaunt, all arms and legs, making him resemble a skeleton more than a flesh and blood person. His skin had been ravaged by the kind of acne that garnered the moniker 'pizza face' for years. And from what Glenn said, he had been awkward and bumbling with a slight speech impediment that made him painfully insecure.

  See. He was the kind of guy you were supposed to feel sorry for.

  And I had.

  Until I met adult Joshua.

  Because adult Joshua finally grew into his arms and legs. His thinness became a lithe swimmer's body that he dressed well. His skin got slathered in creams then lasered to even it out. He saw a professional speech therapist who ironed out his impediment and taught him perfect elocution.

  All good things.

  Except with those things came the most arrogant, intolerable, jackass womanizer I had every crossed paths with. Which, given my line of work dealing with cheating bastards, was really saying something.