Fighting Fate

by Scarlett Finn

  The youngest Stark had never been particular about protecting his woman’s modesty. Tryst was more likely to boast about what he had by putting it on show, so she’d probably spend most of her married life topless at least. From what Dax had seen, it would make a good show, and it was technically his role to get her used to what she’d experience in her married life.

  ‘You’re a lucky fucker, Dax,’ Bruno said. ‘Give us a twirl.’

  She didn’t look like she was going to comply. ‘Do as he says,’ Dax said and though she growled at him, she did a three sixty.

  Bruno whistled with approval. ‘I’ve got a laundry list of ideas on what we can do with that. You got your hands on the cans yet?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘Mind if I do?’ Bruno asked him and Dax shook his head so he started towards the girl.

  She ran to the corner and grabbed Dax’s discarded tee-shirt to yank it on. ‘I won’t let you touch me!’

  ‘Oh now, that’s insubordination,’ Bruno said, not deterred in his journey. ‘You haven’t understood your job yet… I’m going to give you another chance to think about it.’

  When he got to the corner Bruno snatched a handful of the girl’s hair on the top of her head and toppled her off her feet to drag her, screaming and scrambling, away from Dax’s bedroom and back to the basement. The deeper into the bowels of the building that they got, the quieter the feminine cries became. Dax sat on his bed to unlace his boots thinking of how he’d spend the night alone… with that image of her enticing figure imprinted in his mind.

  Chapter Four

  After another four days of isolation, Ivy could barely open her eyes and by now it seemed there was no point in trying. Putting up a fight, resisting these men, was only going to end in her death. She had to get out of this room. As demoralising as it was to exist in this dark space she found the sapping of her energy through lack of food and water worse. If these men abandoned her here she would die and if they brought her upstairs and she found a chance of escape she would never be strong enough to make it.

  She had to get upstairs and live there, even if it meant being nude in the company of those thugs. Her survival instinct, the drive to see the sun and be free, was overwhelming. There was too much that she still wanted to do. Escape was necessary but it would take time, days or weeks, maybe months, but she would bide her time and take the first available opening she saw to get out of here.

  Letting them touch her, or have sex with her, might be needed to gain her strength and freedom. Tears would no longer come, she had spent the first week pitying herself and the three days after that angry, now she was weak and broken and alone. She needed to detach herself, to build a shell around the truth of who she was and for now she’d be what they wanted while she gained her strength. When she was back to her full power she’d form a plan.

  She’d known hookers and roomed with them on and off for years. Throughout that time, Ivy had become close with some of them and they’d coached her on how to switch themselves off and give their body to even the most disgusting of men. Once or twice she’d come close to working the streets herself, luckily she’d never had to. It was bad enough that in her younger years she’d had to swing herself around a pole or two, but stripping was not the same as hooking, not even close.

  Despite her decision to play along with her captors, Ivy knew that telling herself not to be contrary was easy. In reality it would be a fight not to let the truth of her personality come out. If she wanted to survive she’d have to quash her usual rebellious nature. She would become a robot, go through the motions and comply until the moment was right.

  After her decision was made all she could do was wait to put her plan into action. She knew that someone came down once a day to the gym, which occupied the space beyond her cage that Bruno had frequently dragged her through. With nothing better to do she had tried to time how long the person exercised for. Sometimes it seemed to be an hour and other times for much longer.

  It had to be Dax, he had to be the one next door working up a sweat. She’d suspected as much, but now that she’d seen his torso she was sure. She had touched his solid six pack and seen his defined pecs, yes he worked out.

  His thick arms were tattooed; the left arm had a tribal pattern with Celtic elements that covered his shoulder to his elbow. On the other arm was a dragon emerging from tangling vines. Both were done in black ink and made his already foreboding form all the more menacing.

  The kicker of this situation was that what he’d said upstairs in his bedroom was true. In Vegas, before the incident with Trystan, she had noticed Dax. She’d looked at him and she had thought, sex. Now that she knew the truth of who he associated with his sex appeal plummeted, but she still had to acknowledge that in purely physical terms he had a fine form. Certainly if she was going to be forced into someone’s bed she would rather it was his than Bruno’s.

  Bruno was rough, he liked to manhandle her and had doled out a few slaps. Ivy got the sense that he enjoyed exerting that power over her. Four days ago, when Bruno had last brought her down, he’d smacked her around a bit and the tender bruises she winced against had helped her to come to the conclusion that, enough was enough. If she ever wanted to be free again then she had to play along. Letting them win in the short term was the only way to guarantee she could have any kind of long term herself.

  Eager to get away from here, out of this space, she was piqued by every creak and squeak that she heard. Anticipating Dax’s arrival in the gym was excruciating. Relief pounded through her ringing inner ear that only subsided when she identified the unmistakable reverberation of footsteps coming down the stairs. Licking her lips, she prayed that he hadn’t put earbuds in to accompany his workout because she needed to be heard. Doing her best to sit up, she coughed to clear her throat before she spoke.

  ‘Dax,’ she said, trying to get strength in her voice so she could get volume. ‘Dax.’ It wasn’t enough. ‘Dax!’

  A tense score of seconds passed and she wasn’t sure she’d been heard until she heard the click of the lock. The door took its time to open, then eventually a topless Dax came in wrapping his hand with a long strip of narrow fabric. He took his time observing the bars caging her, the bare concrete floor, the single foam mattress and her bucket also known as her toilet. After he took in the details, he examined the chain on her ankle and the one on her wrist.

  ‘I didn’t say it before, but it’s quite the place you have,’ he said.

  ‘Minus the chains I’ve actually lived in worse,’ she said and his expression flickered like he hadn’t expected a response.

  ‘What do you want?’

  ‘I’ll do what I’m told.’

  ‘You will?’ he asked, leaning against the doorframe, crossing his arms and ankles now that both hands were wrapped.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You’ve got another day of this to think about whether or not you’re sure.’

  He began to head out and her panic forced her forward onto her knees, jangling the chains in the process. ‘No Dax, please, don’t leave me here.’

  ‘Not so easy is it,’ he said, peering over his shoulder. ‘To admit when you’re wrong.’

  ‘Me staying down here isn’t getting any of us anywhere… I know now that…’

  ‘You know now, what?’ he said, and the sinister curl of his lip made her want to lash out.

  Only that would get her nowhere. If he left her here again, it could be days before he was back. The basement was making her ill, just being here was a symbol of her fragility and Ivy resented that humiliation. Fighting for her freedom would mean making sacrifices, like letting this depraved duo believe that they’d broken her, but it would be worth it if it got her away from here.

  Good sense didn’t trounce years of conditioning, she bit back her impulse to curse at him. It took her some time to garner the will to respond, and in that time his focus switched back to the exit.

  ‘I know now that I was wrong,’ she made herself say.
‘You have the power here. You have power over me and I’m asking you to please let me out of this room.’

  ‘What do I get?’ he asked, without turning to look at her. ‘You get free and what do I get?’

  ‘Anything,’ she said. ‘Everything you want.’

  When he turned, his new victorious smile said it all. ‘Now you’ve got it.’

  Dax gave her a bottle of water to drink on their ascent of the basement stairs and then she was allowed to eat at the table in the kitchen while the men lurked in the sliding glass doorway that led out to a covered deck. When they decided that she had eaten enough, she was commanded to clean up in the kitchen. From the looks of things, neither had washed a dish or clean a surface since they arrived, but they’d somehow managed to ensure that every knife and sharp utensil was locked away in a corner drawer of the kitchen.

  Her movements were sluggish, but she was in no hurry to get to the next directive, so she took her time. Throughout her stint doing the chores, she was supervised by one or both of her captors, though neither of them spoke to her. At least not until they were making her go back over work she had already done under the guise that it hadn’t been completed to their satisfaction.

  Her dreaded fear became reality when Bruno led her upstairs and told her to wash herself in Dax’s bathroom. This time the man remained there with her, leering through the clear glass screen to scrutinise her naked form in the shower.

  Being observed in such a vulnerable position made Ivy speed through her grooming, but when she emerged from the steam, she wished that she hadn’t. Bruno produced a string bikini and told her to put it on.

  ‘You’ve got a killer body,’ Bruno said while she tied on the scrap of material which made a pathetic attempt to cover her modesty. ‘You keep in shape like that to make men want you.’

  ‘I don’t,’ she said.

  ‘Are you arguing with me?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You want men to want you and you can’t blame a guy for looking at you and thinking about sex, can you?’ The intent glare he burned into her expected only one response.

  ‘No.’

  ‘So if a guy wants it, you’re going to give it to him, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You’ll fuck any guy who asks for it, you get me?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said, knowing she had to verbally respond because he wouldn’t accept non-verbal acknowledgement.

  Dax came into the bathroom just then, poised to say something to Bruno. On catching sight of her, he stopped to absorb the view. ‘What’s he thinking about?’ Bruno asked her.

  ‘Sex,’ she responded, lowering her gaze to the floor.

  ‘And whose fault is that?’ Bruno asked.

  ‘Mine.’

  ‘Apologise for distracting Dax. And look at him while you do it.’

  Bringing her eyes up to his, she was actually overwhelmed by shame. ‘I’m sorry for distracting you, Dax.’

  ‘You should refer to him as Master,’ Bruno said.

  ‘I apologise, Master.’

  ‘I need to talk to you,’ Dax said to Bruno, apparently over the visceral response his body had had to hers.

  Bruno went toward the door after Dax used it to exit. ‘Turn that shower on as cold as it goes and get back in. You need to cool off,’ Bruno said to her and went outside.

  Any concept of not complying with what he said went out the window when she thought of that dark basement. So she went straight back into the shower and turned on the icy spray.

  ‘Master?’ Dax said when Bruno closed the bathroom door on the sound of the shower being turned on again.

  Bruno grinned and came to him, rubbing his hands together. ‘You are welcome, buddy. She’s gonna be begging to swallow your cock by the end of the week.’

  Dax did love sex but he’d never had another guy so geared up to provide it for him. ‘I’ve got to head into town, have you got this?’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, but do me a favour. Pick me up some, eh?’

  Bruno was already wide-eyed and hyped up, Dax thought it was the situation that had him amped but maybe it was chemically enhanced. ‘Since when are you using again?’

  ‘I’m not. I’m not. I just think we might have a party with this girl.’

  He’d speculate that maybe Bruno had a few dozen strong blue pills he wanted to get through, but from what Dax had heard of Bruno’s ability to get a hard-on it would take more than that. Dax had become close with a few of Bruno’s exes, long after they split of course. Many women did the circuit of Maurice’s henchmen and often they went around for another shot.

  Once a woman chose to ally herself with a specific syndicate, the others were suspicious of her, so she was stuck moving in the same social circle. If she was cast out of it she was vengeful, dangerous, and often recruited by enemies for the secrets she held.

  ‘Ok, you want roofies?’ he asked, heading for the bedroom door.

  ‘E, coke, whatever you can get your hands on,’ Bruno said. ‘Let’s just get her high first and see how she parties.’

  ‘Got it.’

  He left knowing that Bruno would no doubt go back into the bathroom to torment their captive some more, which would include leaving her under the cold spray Dax had overheard Bruno command that she use.

  Bruno’s experience meant that he deserved respect, he had done time for the Starks and never once ratted out a fellow comrade. But as he drove away from the beach house Dax had to admit to himself that there were times Bruno grated on him, but everyone grated on him.

  Dax could sit in the company of any number of different people and even if he disliked them he’d just remain quiet. He’d made seething in silence into an art form, which was why he pounded the punching bag at least once a day, it released some of that built up rage.

  He himself was no rookie in the trade though. In his life, Dax had been witness to all sorts of cruelty and depravity. Switching off and going through the motions was a way of life, it was how he survived. Empathy was for the weak and showing it to those who would stab you in the back was immature and stupid, and likely to get you killed.

  He’d beaten up his own share of miscreants and had learned to shut off emotion while he did it and ignore their cries for mercy. That being said he took no pleasure in others misfortune and he didn’t have the sadistic tendencies Bruno displayed, to Dax this was just a job that needed to be done. Bruno relished the suffering he caused.

  Having Bruno here served Dax well, and although Bruno said his role was to school Dax, Dax would guess that Maurice wanted to know if his unofficially adopted son had the stomach to perform even the most depraved of duties.

  Dax did what had to be done and he’d never said no to Maurice Stark. He owed the family a lot, and he wasn’t going to start disappointing them now. Certainly not for the sake of a gorgeous brunette with tapered Bambi eyes and full pouting lips that he wanted to hear whimper. No, this was Trystan’s girl and in order to prepare her for what her life with Trystan would hold, Dax would have to go to the extreme.

  When Dax got back to the beach house it was dark. He grabbed one bag out of the backseat and headed inside. Bruno was on the couch with a beer watching sports on TV.

  The girl was kneeling in front of Bruno, still in her bikini, but now she had plastic stripper heels on, the spike of the heels on show under her neat little ass. Her hair was up in high bunches and Dax almost wanted to laugh at the cliché.

  ‘Hey, get everything?’ Bruno asked.

  Dax came further into the room to see that the girl was giving Bruno a foot massage. ‘Yeah, I did,’ Dax said, tossing the bag to the floor. ‘I’ll get the rest of the shit out of the car in the morning.’

  ‘No need, our little slave here will do it for us,’ Bruno said. ‘It’s the least she could do what with flaunting those boobs at us all the time. We never get a break.’

  Dax knew about breaking a person, about how important it was to contradict them and to constantly make them believe that everythi
ng was their fault. It was how cult leaders recruited and got otherwise same human beings to do their bidding. Guilt and shame were a brainwasher’s best friend.

  ‘Whatever,’ Dax said.

  ‘You’ll do that for us, won’t you?’ Bruno said to her.

  ‘Yes. Would you like me to do it now?’

  ‘You’re busy now,’ Bruno said, pushing his toes into one of her breasts and rubbing them in circles. He fondled like that for a while and she said nothing, just carried on with her work as if the violation wasn’t happening.

  Watching the pair of them made Dax wonder what it would be like to touch such luxury and have no reaction in his dick. Bruno exhaled and his head sank back in bliss against the back of the couch with his eyes closed.

  Her head turned and their eyes met, she kept on massaging Bruno’s foot while Bruno’s other massaged her breast but the eyes that she locked on his were removed from the rest of her form. Her body did what Bruno wanted it to, but there was blank determination in those chocolate eyes. She was doing what he did, a job, what needed to be done and for the first time he wondered about who this stranger actually was before she met Trystan Stark.

  Bruno’s toes hooked the edge of her bikini top and peeled it back to expose one of her nipples which he tried to pinch by curling his toes.

  ‘Upstairs.’

  Everyone in the room was startled by this bellowed word including Dax and the word had come out of his own mouth. The girl scrabbled to her feet and walking on those heels at an impressive pace she did exactly as he’d commanded. Trying to decipher why he’d ordered her upstairs and away from her task, Dax’s thoughts were interrupted by Bruno’s laugh.

  ‘No need for a party tonight, you gonna put her through her paces already?’

  He and Bruno had agreed to take their time in breaking the woman so that full compliance was assured. Knowing that had been their plan made his outburst all the more inscrutable, but he wasn’t about to show his indecision to Bruno.