by Loki Renard
“We passed it on to the parties who should have had it in the first place,” Rex growled. “There are checks and balances for corrupt and criminal senators. There’s real recourse. But you wanted your moment in the spotlight, so instead of funneling it to the right channels in the first place, you sat on it and turned yourself into a sitting duck.”
“You could have just said that in the first place,” Lacey whined. “You didn’t have to lie to me!”
Rex shot a vicious glance at her. “Lying to you is easier, because we know what you do with the truth.”
“What?”
“You sell it for your own personal glory.”
“Fuck you,” Lacey snarled, her face contorted. “You have your job, I have mine. I fucking do it. People deserve to know what’s going on. They deserve to know who is doing what to who. They deserve…”
“Enough!” Rex thundered. “Don’t worry about what the rest of the world deserves. Worry about what you deserve for this stupid stunt. If not for Col, you’d be dead right now.”
“Oh, bullshit.”
Chase walked up and slapped a picture down the coffee table in front of them. Col didn’t need to look at it. He knew what it was of. Chase explained for Lacey’s benefit though. “This is a sniper, located outside the studio on the building across the street. They were everywhere. Col had to go past a team on standby just to get to you. He’s just lucky they mistook him for one of theirs.”
“What, they have snipers sitting outside every studio now?”
“Senator Fishland’s office has phone taps on every media outlet in the city. When you call, they know. It doesn’t take much to mobilize men to the right spots. You were seconds away from a head shot. Frankly, I don’t know how you managed to get in there without your brains being painted across the wall,” Rex growled. “You should be dead a dozen times over, Lacey.”
She finally fell silent, petulant.
“As for you, Col.” Rex turned his attention back to Col. “I don’t like how you did what you did, I don’t like this fallout, but I give you credit. If you hadn’t done it, we’d be watching execution style footage right now.”
“Yeah,” Col agreed. “They’d have blown her brains out on live television just to prove a point. I think they were waiting for the feed to go nationwide.”
“That would hardly make Fishland look innocent,” Lacey grumbled.
“It wouldn’t have to make him look innocent. It would send a message to anyone thinking about speaking up that they’d end up dead. This isn’t about you, Lacey. It’s not even about this senator, or this story. It’s about what happens to little girls who don’t know when to shut the hell up,” Col growled.
Lacey shrank down next to him, scowling to herself. She didn’t get it. No matter how much danger she put herself in, she never seemed to get the potential outcome of it. It was like there was a part of her damn brain missing where consequences should be.
“So what now?” she muttered. “Everyone is looking for me.”
“We are going to keep our heads down. We are going to lay low, and we are going to wait until the official channels deal with this properly.”
“So that’s your big plan?” Her eyes went wide as she started up again with the drama. “Hand all our evidence over and just wait? How do you know the people you gave it to aren’t part of this? You don’t know how deep the rot goes.”
“I know we have money in our accounts. And I know you are not going to go out of our sight for the rest of your damn life!” Rex growled furiously. “You’re going to pay for this, Lacey. Every single one of us is going to punish you for this until you learn that there’s more than your life on the line. Your principles don’t mean shit when they get other people dead.”
“I’m sorry!”
“You’re not,” Rex growled. “But you will be. Col, you start.”
Chapter Nineteen
Lacey
Fear zipped through her belly. She’d known she was in serious trouble long before getting back to the cabin and seeing the satellite news feed. The moment Col grabbed her off that stool, she knew she was fucked. She’d been relieved when he duct-taped her hands and feet together, gagged her, and put her in the back of the van in the cage she usually so loathed. At least then she didn’t have to talk or explain herself to the five very angry mercenaries who had come for her.
They didn’t care why she’d done what she’d done. They cared that she’d put herself in danger. They didn’t understand about the ethics of journalism, or the importance of a story being told. They cared about money. Getting it, keeping it, and—she had to admit—using it to keep her safe.
Now there would be no arguing her way out of punishments. There wasn’t a single sympathetic face in the room. Least of all Col. Rex had just thrown her to the wolf.
She risked a glance sideways and saw his dark glower. It made her want to curl up on herself and whimper for mercy. Col was dangerously hot but he also had the least affection for her and the most anger. She was scared of what he would do in the name of punishment.
Col stood up and crooked a finger at her. “Come outside.”
She followed him meekly, knowing she didn’t really have a choice.
It was cold outside. The chill in the air made her nipples hard and would have caused her to shiver if it weren’t for the fear having that effect already. The rest of them stayed indoors. They were leaving her alone with Col. Even Chase wasn’t coming out to defend her. She had to face Col’s wrath alone.
As she stood and looked at him, she knew this had been a very long time coming. This wasn’t just about the events of the last day. This was three years of rage about to be unleashed on her. She didn’t know what he had in mind, but she knew it wasn’t going to be good.
“You’re smart, but you don’t know fucking anything,” Col began harshly. “I would have thought after getting worked over in Venezuela, you’d be more careful, but you’re not. You’re careless and you’re reckless and it’s like you want to die.”
“I wasn’t in that much danger! I can defend myself.”
“You can’t defend yourself against a fart,” he sneered, his lip curling as he folded his strong arms over his chest. “You’re a weak little girl who has to depend on men to defend her, but you don’t like the reality of that, so you run around like an idiot screaming how liberated and equal you are. Well, you know what, girl? You’re not equal. Not to me. Not to any of us. There’s only one way a woman matches a man in combat, and that’s if she has a gun. I’ll be damned if I trust you with one of those.”
“Why? You think I’d use it on you?”
“Wouldn’t put it past you,” he growled. “You like to turn on people who help you.”
Now he was just plain pissing her off. “Fuck you, Col. I could kick your ass if I wanted to,” she snarled.
Col rolled his eyes. “Delusional.”
“I could! I’ve been doing self-defense!”
“Oh, self-defense. Well then, I didn’t know you’d learned self-defense,” Col guffawed. “I’m sure that totally changes the laws of physics and makes a tiny woman somehow able to fight a man. Come on then, show me how you’re going kick my ass before I tear yours up.”
After Venezuela, Lacey really had put some serious time into martial arts. Enough time to know that Col was basically right: a woman of her size was not going to fare well against a man like him in a straight-up knock-down fight, no matter how good she was. There were only two ways to succeed: run or fight dirty.
The first one wasn’t really an option, seeing as she’d just told him she could defend herself, so she went with the second. It gave her no small measure of pleasure to feint toward his balls, then draw back and slam her fist as hard as she could at his jaw.
The blow never made contact. He turned to the side to parry her feint then grabbed her wrist as it shot forward. The second she felt him capture her arm, she panicked. She tried to pull herself free, but his hand was like iron around her
smaller arm. Lacey lashed out with her other fist, but he caught that one too, staring down at her with a dark frown.
It was over in a matter of seconds. Her best shot had been absolutely nothing to him. It had been a lame attempt and she wished she hadn’t made it.
“Now what?” Col asked.
“Fuck you,” she swore, embarrassed. Truth was, all the self-defense classes in the world weren’t going to make her a match for Col. He was built for combat, and she wasn’t. She could still kick him in the balls if she wanted to, but they both knew that wouldn’t end well.
“You’re a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet,” he growled down at her. “I’m two forty. Do you know what I could do to you?”
“Yes!” she screamed. “Yes, I fucking know!”
He jerked her forward against his hard body and snarled down at her. “Do you know what I’m going to do to you?”
“Hurt me.”
“Yes.”
Nose to nose, eye to eye, heat sparked between them, a raw mutual hate that transformed into a brutal kiss. Col grabbed her ass and pulled her hard against him, his other hand in her hair as his tongue lashed inside her mouth, demanding everything she had to give and more. This was not a lover’s kiss. This was the kiss of a man who was going to ravage her. Lacey’s heart hammered in her chest as Col ripped her clothes off her, tearing the only attire she had into shreds.
His hand squeezed her breast and pushed her back up against a tree. She let out a squeal as his teeth found the nipple and clamped down, holding that sensitive bud in place as his tongue punished it with lashing strokes that made her cry out in pleasure pain.
“They’ve all had you,” Col growled. “But not one of them has fucked you like you deserve to be fucked.”
He pulled her legs wide, holding her up off the ground. He yanked her panties to the side, baring her pussy so the hard scimitar of his cock could find her slit. He pushed back and forth, the head of his cock crudely sliding along her slit, gathering her juices.
“You’re a little slut,” he said as the hot head of his cock found her cold little clit hiding between her outer lips.
When she’d thought Chase thought she was a slut, it had been devastating, but hearing the word out of Col’s mouth in those heated, hateful tones made her body run hot with erotic fire. She was a slut. She didn’t care. As much as he hated her, he needed her pussy just like the rest of them. He wasn’t immune.
“You’re wet,” he growled, propping her up with one hand and slapping the head of his cock against her pussy with the other. “Why are you so fucking wet?”
“Because I’m a slut,” she said, owning the word. “You might be two forty, but I don’t need to be. You want me. You’re so fucking angry because you don’t want to want me.”
“Shut up,” he growled, covering her mouth with another rough kiss.
She felt his palm slide between her legs, his foot kicking them wider. He gathered her wrists in one hand and pinned her up against the tree, his fingers running along her spread slit. He spanked her pussy over and over again, making her arch and cry out in pain. It hurt. Her sensitive lower lips were swelling under his punishment, but he didn’t care. He wanted this to hurt, and maybe she needed it to hurt as well.
“I’m going to fuck you,” he growled against her mouth. “I’m going to tear your pussy up, girl.”
He thrust roughly up inside her and she screamed out as his cock drove into her, her hair swishing wildly back and forth as he pounded her with remorseless, relentless strokes from the get go.
“Asshole,” she hissed as her pussy clamped down around his cock.
“Little bitch,” he growled back, kissing her furiously.
She gave him as good as he got, her darkest, wildest animal impulses free as they fucked viciously, her nails raking down his back, her legs wrapped around his hips. She wanted him as much as she hated him. She needed him. She needed this. None of the others would give her this release. Only Col could, because Col didn’t care about anything other than ravaging her utterly and completely. He tore into her pussy as his eyes raked into her soul, his cock thrusting so deep she felt him hit her cervix stroke after stroke, punishing her to the core. This was the absolution she had been waiting for, the punishment only he could give.
They were connected. Fully. He was the dark. She was the light. He wanted to overcome her and she wanted him to draw her down into the night she deserved.
“Faithless little slut,” he growled. “Lying little bitch.”
Every word was accompanied with a devastating thrust that made her pussy ache. Her clit was grinding against his hard pubic bone and she was trapped between his demanding body and the tree behind her, rough bark scratching her back as the mercenary took his pleasure in her soft body, his mouth finding her breasts and her nipples, licking, biting, making her scream out.
“Sadistic fucking asshole!” She threw words back at him even as her pussy clenched and spasmed around his cock, milking him with desperate contractions that demanded he give her everything he had.
Col could not resist. He kissed her roughly, his body slamming into hers as he came inside her, his seed flooding her pussy in thick loads as she wrapped her legs around him, holding him deep inside her.
And then the orgasm faded and they were left standing there, devoid of arousal. He slid from her pussy and let her stand, her aching sex throbbing between her thighs. She could still feel him inside her. She probably would for a long time. He had been rough and merciless, and she had deserved every bit of it.
“Lacey…”
“Yes?”
“I don’t hate you,” Col said, running his fingers through her hair.
“I know.”
He gave her a quizzical look and drew her close, letting her rest her tired body against his. “You do, huh? Cocky little thing.”
“You knew where to find me. You’ve been keeping a closer eye on me than anyone else all this time. You knew where I was going and why, when everyone else thought I was just running away like a crazy woman. You caught me because you get me.”
“The best predators know their prey,” Col said with a dark smirk. “You bet your ass I knew what you were up to. Someone had to keep an eye on you all this time. The rest of them were so damn distracted by your body. You could have killed them in their sleep if you wanted.”
“I’m not a murderer.”
“No. You’re a tattle-tale. You can’t help but run and tell,” he said, rubbing her ass. “And I know you’re going to try to tell this story one day too, aren’t you? You’ve probably already started writing it in your head.”
“I don’t have to tell everything,” she said. “I’ve learned my lesson.”
“We’ll see.”
She felt her stomach clench. She wanted him to believe her. Suddenly, it mattered a lot what he thought.
“Col, really, I won’t tell. I know you were so angry with me, but so were the others. It was different for you though, and I don’t know why, but I know it was, and I’m sorry.”
He gave her a long, considering look. ”Do you really want to know why I couldn’t forgive you like the others did?”
“Yes, please.” Her eyes were misty with tears. “Whatever it is, I’m so sorry.”
He pulled out his wallet, and then plucked a picture from it and held it out to Lacey. She saw Col, and another younger man who looked a lot like him, but was in a wheelchair.
“This is my brother. He’s special needs. I pay for his facility. When we were discharged, I couldn’t keep up the payments. He had to move out of the home he liked and into one where they were less careful about his meds and his supervision. Long story short, he overdosed on his medication because he forgot he’d already taken it twice that day. He almost died.”
Lacey’s stomach clenched with guilt.
“Col… I am so sorry. If I could take it back, I would. I really would. Is he okay now?”
“I got him back into his previous home once we got
our first paycheck. He’s doing okay.”
“The others… Rex and…”
“They don’t know.”
“They don’t know about your brother?”
“Nope,” Col said. “I don’t talk about family.”
“Then I won’t say a word about your brother,” she promised earnestly. “Not ever. I know you don’t think I can keep a secret, but I’ll keep this one.”
Col gave a little shrug. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I just figured you deserved to know why you had to suffer.”
A dark little tingle ran through her body. Yes. He’d made her suffer, and she’d loved every minute of it. Suffering for Col was beautiful and intense. It ached, but it filled a part of her she hadn’t known was empty.
Pressing herself to his chest, she looked up into his eyes. “Will I have to suffer again?”
He looked down at her with a dark gaze, his hand cupping her ass roughly. “Oh, god, yes,” he promised. “I’m going to take this ass.”
“Wha…”
“I want to fuck your asshole,” Col repeated. “Hard.”
“Oh. Uhm.”
“Yeah, not so easy when it’s not your pussy in play, is it,” Col snorted. “I want to take a part of you that you won’t enjoy. I want to whip your ass red and then fuck it until you cry.”
He was saying terrible things to her. Terrible, mean things. He wanted to hurt her. He wanted her to cry. He wanted to push his cock inside her dirtiest hole and punish her there too. She was frightened, but she couldn’t help pressing against him, smearing his leg with her naughty clit and the mixture of her juices and his cum.
“I just got started with you, girl,” Col promised darkly, patting her ass. “Get down on your hands and knees.”
She sank down next to him, going to her hands and knees in the dirt. This was filthy and depraved. This was wrong. Col kneeled behind her and she felt him pulling up what remained of the skirt she’d gotten from wardrobe.
“You’re covered in cum and dirt,” he said, slapping her bare ass hard enough to make her squeal. “You’re a filthy little slut, aren’t you.”
