Savages

by Natalie Bennett

  “Because you’re at strike two,” I added behind her.

  She sighed and raised the drill again, pulling back with a shake of her head.

  “Why are we even wasting our time on this sicko when he keeps a ledger of addresses in his office? He’s not gonna talk. They never talk. We might as well just make him scream, make him bleed, and then kill as many of them as possible. David will show himself if you start killing off his most important members. With the ledger, we’ll know exactly where to find them.”

  “She has an excellent point,” Cobra agreed, smacking a hand over Azel’s mouth to muffle his screams.

  “What do you think?” I asked Grimm.

  “I think it’s rhetorical. And why did it take her so long to get lost in the woods?”

  “Do your thing.” I gave her the green-light, curiously watching for what she would do now.

  I fucking loved watching her mind work, figuring out exactly how badly she wanted to make a motherfucker scream. That pretty little head of hers was full of a festering sickness. When she finally broke free of her chrysalis, she would be fucking incredible.

  She smiled at me and grabbed for Azel’s flaccid cock. The tip was still wet from his piss.

  With no forewarning, she jammed the drill bit into his urethra. He was screaming before she even held the button down. My own cock couldn’t decide if it wanted to shrivel itself inside out in fear or stay rock solid while Cali drilled a hole into another man’s dick.

  Cobra looked at me and I nodded.

  Within a second, he had his own cock out and was spreading Azel’s ass cheeks apart, lining himself up.

  “Let’s see how you like being on the receiving end for once.” He shoved himself in dry—just like they used to.

  Cali immediately stopped and dropped his bloody member, peering around with large eyes as Cobra pounded into Azel’s ass.

  “Holy shit,” Arlen sputtered.

  “Don’t think his shit is gonna be too holy anymore,” Grimm joked.

  Azel twisted in his restraints, crying out for mercy and not receiving any. Cobra’s dick became tinged with blood as he drove in and out of his ass.

  Cali’s mouth opened and shut. She licked her lips and stepped back. Feeling my stare, she wiped her bloody hand on her habit and set the drill down.

  “I’m going to get the ledger.” She excused herself and took off quicker than a mouse.

  I watched Cobra for a few minutes but quickly grew bored. Azel had turned into a whimpering broken record. “Let’s wrap this up.”

  “Thank fuck, finally. My dick was getting chaffed.” Cobra pulled out and jumped back as Azel defecated all over the floor.

  “God, that is disgusting,” Arlen shrilled, darting towards the back hall, shielding her eyes.

  I yanked the cross amulet from around his neck and stood in front of him. Grimm placed one hand on the top and the other on bottom, pulling his mouth wide open, breaking his jaw apart.

  I shoved the amulet in Azel’s mouth and Grimm slammed it back together, pushing the cross straight through the roof of his gums, blood dripped down onto the silver pendant and leaked over his lips.

  Glancing down, I laughed at the sight of his bloody dick. We’d done this same routine so many times it was nice to have it shaken up a little bit.

  “Bleed him out and then find Arlen.”

  I left them to it and walked off in the direction Cali had gone.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  If I was his, did that mean he was mine?

  Why was I even asking myself that when I couldn’t get a firm grasp on my emotions?

  I’d just brutalized someone’s genitals and all I could think about was sex. Something was wrong with me—outside of me already knowing I was a tad fucked up.

  My sigh skirted over the church’s vaulted ceiling. Clutching the black ledger in my hands, I bypassed the wooden confessional booths, noting that Azel wasn’t crying so loudly anymore. Maybe Cobra was done—and good for him.

  I could see myself befriending him, and maybe even Grimm one day, if it wasn’t for the fact that Tito was still out and about somewhere and I just couldn’t bring myself to snub him.

  “What the hell am I even doing this for?” I mumbled to myself, turning the corner and running right into Romero.

  “What are you doing what for?” He grabbed my upper arm and turned me around, all but dragging me into one of the dark, dusty confessional booths.

  “What are you doing?” I whispered.

  “Is that the book?”

  He reached for it and I twisted away. “Why do you want David so badly?”

  “Cali, if I don’t tell you something, it’s because I don’t think you should know.”

  What could I say to that?

  I couldn’t demand he give me one hundred percent transparency when I wouldn’t do the same, and if we couldn’t trust one another, then where did that leave us?

  He reached for the book again, this time snatching it out of my hands.

  “Was that your pathetic attempt at blackmailing information out of me?”

  “I’m smarter than that.”

  “Are you?”

  “You’re such an asshole,” I breathed, squeezing past him to push the thin wooden door open.

  “Uhn-uh.” He pulled me away from the door and caged me between him and the wooden bench.

  “What do you want?” I growled. The box was stuffy and I could barely see his eyes from the lack of light.

  “What if I told you to confess your deepest, darkest sin?”

  “You are my deepest darkest sin.”

  “Maybe I should fuck you in here, then. I’ve never been given the honor of defiling a nun.”

  “I’m not a real nun.”

  “Don’t ruin the fantasy, baby. Just spread your legs for me.”

  He knelt to set the ledger down on the floor, lifting my habit when he stood back up.

  Gliding his fingers along the skin of my left thigh, he gripped it tightly and hitched it over his hip.

  I wound one arm around his neck and dropped the other to the zipper on his jeans, working it down until I could reach in enough to free his cock. He abruptly spun us so he was sitting down on the bench and I was straddling his lap.

  “Put my dick inside you and ride it. Hard.”

  “I don’t—”

  “Do it.”

  I hovered above him, my heart beating at an uneven tempo. Exhaling a shaky breath, I curled my fingers in the confessional’s divider and slowly sank down, easing him into me.

  “Like this.” He gripped my hips and thrust up, burying himself to the hilt, filling me with him entirely.

  I choked on a scream that quickly morphed into a moan as he controlled me below, setting a rapid pace for me to keep up with. “Goddamn, Cali, your pussy’s so fucking wet; so fucking tight. So fucking mine.” He slid his hands to my ass, grabbing a globe in each hand, and began drilling into me from underneath.

  When he urged me to take over, it took me a minute to find a rhythm. I kept my grip on the divider and rolled my hips, bouncing up and down on his cock. My uninhibited moans echoed inside the church and filled the small confessional booth.

  My leg muscles began to burn. Sweat beaded between my heaving breasts. My breaths started coming loud and ragged, intermingling with my pleasure-filled gasps.

  “I can’t do––’

  “Don’t tell me you can’t. Just fuck me,” he growled.

  Dropping my hands to his shoulders, I adjusted my position and began rocking into him, taking him deeper, harder.

  “Rome,” I whimpered, dropping my forehead to use.

  “That’s it, baby. Use me, make yourself come.” He pressed the pad of his thumb down on my clit and slowly massaged it in a circular motion.

  My lower stomach began to tighten and warmth rifled up my spine. He leaned in and swiped his tongue up the side of my neck and bit me. He pushed up into me with one solid thrust. I came so hard I forgot to breathe.r />
  “Fuck!” I could no longer move. My muscles tensed and I shut my eyes, reveling in the sensation only he could draw out of me. He pulled out a few pumps later, staining the center part of my habit with his come.

  “Now seems like a good time to discuss contraception,” I stated, smearing his semen into the black fabric.

  “You just fucked me raw inside a confessional. That’s what makes you think of birth control?”

  “Rome,” I stressed.

  “Why are you worrying about this when all our kids have either gone down your throat or landed somewhere on you? When I want to get you pregnant, I will.”

  “Ugh, you’re so poetic,” I deadpanned. I tried to stand up and his hands clamped down on my hips to hold me in place. The wooden bench creaked beneath our shifting weight.

  “I don’t need to see you clearly to know you’re pissed off. I can sense it. Don’t be a girl, Cali. Tell me what the problem is.”

  “How many girls have you said that to? Are you even––”

  “Clean?” he interjected. “If this is you being jealous, you can shut that shit down now. I don’t just stick my dick in anything with a hole. I’m actually pretty picky. And I don’t make a habit of going in raw.

  “You’re mine, I want nothing between us. I’d never let any dirty shit touch you. And there is only you, Cali.”

  His words were the balm to my irritation. I swallowed and nodded. “Okay,” I whispered in case he couldn’t see my head moving.

  He gripped the sides of my face and placed his forehead against mine. “The shit you do to me makes no fucking sense.”

  The strain in his voice wasn’t surprising enough to catch me off guard. I felt the same way. Maybe that was the way relationships were meant to be, indefinable with unbreakable bonds. No words were needed to convey what our warped hearts already knew.

  I was his, and he was mine.

  I was curled up in a corner of the sectional when he handed me the mason jar.

  “What exactly are we celebrating?”

  “The ledger you gave us, and Romero not being such a dickhead,” Cobra said.

  I laughed and brought the jar to my mouth, regretting the decision to partake in this activity as soon as the moonshine hit my tongue.

  “This is disgusting,” I sputtered, pushing the jar at Romero. “It burns.” I wiggled my tongue around, tasting nothing but rubbing alcohol.

  “You can do better than that,” Romero challenged, nudging the jar back in my direction.

  “Hold it for three seconds,” Grimm looked up from the ledger and advised.

  “Ugh, fine.” I took the glass jar back and held my breath as I titled it back and counted to three. “Ah, how do you drink this?” I coughed, shaking my head and squeezing my eyes shut.

  “You get used to it,” Romero said, taking the jar from me and passing it to Arlen.

  “You didn’t drink any.”

  “I don’t drink.”

  “Then why did you tell me to?” I glared, wiping my mouth with the back of my arm.

  “Maybe I want to see what drunken truths you’ll tell.”

  Arlen snorted. “Not everyone has something to hide.”

  “Everyone in this room does,” Grimm countered.

  That was a sad goddamn truth and nothing good would come of it. Everyone knew that lies hurt, but secrets killed.

  Sighing, I snuggled deeper into the leather couch cushion. Romero shifted beside me and lifted me onto his lap, placing my head on his shoulder.

  “I can’t believe ya’ll left that man strung up,” Arlen mused from the opposite end of the couch, knocking her sip back like a seasoned pro. “What?” She shrugged when she realized everyone was staring at her.

  “What else can you do?” Cobra inquired, leaning towards her.

  “I’ll share mine if you share yours,” she teased.

  “I’m almost positive you’re not old enough to drink,” Grimm scolded.

  “I’m old enough to watch ya’ll turn the holy house into a snuff film but not take a drink of alcohol?

  “And what happens after ya’ll take out David, anyway? Is this a revolution or somethin?”

  “Don’t you have to give a shit about the people to start a revolution?” Cobra retaliated, stretching himself out and placing his sock-clad feet on her lap, taking the moonshine back.

  “It’s the beginning of paradise.” Romero responded in his usual way of deflecting a question with an answer that wasn’t really an answer.

  I frowned and stared down at the pentacle on the floor, asking myself once more what I was doing this for. I wanted Romero. I wanted to know him but he didn’t seem inclined to let me in, and if Tito ever popped up on his radar, I was certain he would kill him.

  Everything was such a jumbled mess inside my head. When I got the jar back, I didn’t hesitate to drink that time. It tasted horrible, but misery loved drunken company.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  I carried her upstairs and laid her on the bed.

  I thought she was asleep until she reached for my hand.

  “I was trying to get away.” The fuck?

  “In the woods, I was trying to get away,” she whispered.

  “Away from what?” When she didn’t say anything or open her eyes, I realized how fucking dumb it was to converse with a woman drunk off her ass.

  “The man who looks like her, my past, myself.”

  “Go to bed.” I walked to the door and got as far as one step into the hallway.

  “Don’t leave me in here alone.”

  The needy tone in her voice had me glancing over my shoulder. Her blue eyes were wide open, staring at my back.

  “It’s lonely in here. Stay with me.”

  I was almost one hundred percent fucking positive this was her crazy ass mind talking for her, but she patted the empty space bed beside her and that was that.

  I kicked the door back shut with my boot, pulled my shirt off, and stretched out beside her. She immediately rolled over and threw her leg over mine.

  I waited until I was certain she was asleep before climbing back off the bed, pausing at the door to double check. I scanned over her tiny body and was struck with how surreal it was that she was materialized in the flesh—the ghost I’d thought about off and on over the years.

  Slipping out of the room, I made my way downstairs and found Cobra and Grimm at the table.

  “She’s down for the count.” Grimm answered my silent question about Arlen, who was no longer sleeping on the couch.

  “So, are we on for tomorrow night?” Cobra asked me.

  Thinking it over, I nodded my head. “Yeah, that gives us an extra day to set up for everything else.”

  “Okay, now that all that’s out the way, does anyone wanna discuss the elephant in the room?” He looked between us and waited, but neither of us spoke.

  “You haven’t seen your sister since you two were kids, and you don’t have anything to say?” Cobra questioned him.

  “My sister,” Grimm repeated, adding extra enunciation. “You two are more my family than she is. I don’t know her and she doesn’t even know I exist. She has zero recollection of me and I don’t feel the need to let her know because I don’t know if I can trust her.”

  He gave him a flat look, which was him saying he no longer wanted to discuss it.

  “And what about you?” he asked me next.

  “I agree with him. I don’t know if I can trust her, but she’s mine regardless.”

  “Yeah, I know what that means. Means you two fucksticks have your heads up your asses,” he grumbled.

  “Maybe you should go take a shower.” I was more telling than suggesting. He was half drunk so I was going to give him a small pass instead of wiping the floor with his ass.

  “Don’t fuck shit up.” He stood up and fixed us with a pubescent glare before stumbling off.

  “That shit is exactly why we don’t let him drink,” Grimm said as he stood up. “I’m going to shower and pretend
to sleep.” He clasped my shoulder on his way past.

  I knew he was irritated because Grimm was like me, whereas Cobra still had a bit of good left in him.

  If someone were on fire, he’d be more inclined to put it out while we would use their burning body to light up a smoke.

  This was the unplanned part of bullshit I didn’t have the patience to deal with. I didn’t need the two of them at odds over something we had no control over.

  Cali was the last thing I needed to deal with right now. She was an unstable hurricane threatening to destroy everything in her path. Any sane man would have run for cover, but I had never fucking been sane and I’d always had a thing for storms.

  I sat at the table half-assed, reading the ledger, thinking about how many things had changed so drastically and how fast they were going to continue changing in the extremely near future.

  Shit was about to hit the fan.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  I woke up with a raging headache and Romero in my face.

  “Do you always fucking sleep this heavy? I was about to drown your ass in the shower.”

  “Stop yelling at me. Jesus.” I threw an arm over my eyes in hopes he’d go away.

  “Babe, I don’t think Jesus would appreciate being confused with me. I dragged his sister with my Jeep for about ten miles last summer.”

  I peered at him through one eye from beneath my arm. “You have severe psychological issues.”

  “I also have an extremely hard dick so unless you want a headache and a sore pussy I suggest you get the fuck up.”

  I definitely wasn’t up for getting destroyed. With a groan, I rolled across the mattress and reluctantly got up. When I couldn’t sleep, I was stuck awake; when I could sleep, I was stuck awake. A girl just couldn’t win.

  Smothering a yawn, I began combing my fingers through my hair. “How late is it?”

  “Super late. It’s almost six.”

  I gave him a dirty look. Six in the morning was not my definition of late. “Is there a particular reason you’re waking me?”

  “There is. You’re gonna help me with the body pit, and like I said, my dick’s hard and there was this sexy fucking blonde lying in my bed, begging to be violated.”