by Jayne Rylon
“Mmphf.” Ellie tried to talk. The guy behind her had his hand over her mouth. She bit him lightly, not enough to hurt through the leather of his gloves. Enough to signal that she was trying to communicate.
“Back off,” he instructed his crony who’d pawed at the bag in her clutches. “Let’s see what she has to say first. Wouldn’t mind a better look at her. She’s pretty fine.”
Ellie accepted the twisted compliment. At least knowing he found her attractive put another tool in her belt.
When he suddenly released her, she stumbled. Still, she remained on her feet through a display of sheer willpower.
They’d dragged her to the rear of the house, her kitchen, where they weren’t visible in any of the windows facing the road. From here, a back door led to her yard, which butted up to a forested state preserve. A small guest room opened off to the side. If she could lock herself in there, even for a minute, she could go out the window somehow. Maybe.
It was a shitty plan. The only ray of hope she could generate at this point.
“Please.” She didn’t have to fake the tremble in her voice, though she didn’t plan to buckle under the terror swirling around her. Living in fear for so many months had taught her to function despite debilitating panic. “I don’t have anything you want.”
“Oh, come on. You can do better than that, honey.” The man laughed. “We know what you walked out of that casino with.”
“I—I need that money.” She formulated a strategy as best she could, given the circumstances. It was risky. Her time in the Scientist’s laboratory had taught her the lengths some men would go to in order to violate someone. It was the only thing she could think to bank on in that moment. “I’ve been out of work for a while. I’m begging you, don’t do this.”
She didn’t expect them to walk away without the sack in their hands.
However, Ellie did plan to distract them as long as possible, until she could come up with a way to escape. Because she didn’t believe for one second they’d be satisfied with taking her cash and leaving her here to identify them to the cops. Although they were wearing ski masks, she’d already heard and seen enough to be a risk. No, the instant she surrendered her loot, she was in trouble.
So she stalled while working up the courage to make them a deal they couldn’t refuse. She’d go through with it if she had to. It wouldn’t be the worst thing she’d done to survive.
“Everyone’s got problems. Do you know how big ours would be if we left here empty-handed?” a third man, whom she hadn’t see while pinned to her captor’s chest, asked. “What do you think you have that could make us cross our boss?”
The way he licked his lips made her sure they were thinking along the same lines. Nasty ones.
“No way, Dino,” another of the burglars, apparently the dumbest one in the bunch, objected. She couldn’t believe he’d used the other guy’s name. “I’m not trading nothing for that cash. Are you fucking nuts?”
Ellie tried not to grin. They were playing a game she couldn’t afford to lose. The other two men would never let the loser in the bunch tell them what to do. Of that she was sure. She shivered as she realized she might get what she was hinting at.
Turning back now would be impossible. So she forged ahead, doing her best to make them as vulnerable as possible, though it was nowhere near as exposed as she was about to be.
“I’ve been told my blow jobs are worth a lot of trouble.” She shrugged one shoulder, drawing the three attackers’ gazes to her chest, which looked pretty spectacular in the dress her friends had urged her to haul out of the way, way back of her closet for their special occasion. “I just need enough of the stash to pay off some bills. I’ll take care of you. You tell your boss I blew some dough on the way home. Don’t hurt me and I’ll pretend like I never saw you. Deal?”
One of the guys was practically stripping her with their stares. The third, the one who’d grabbed her, didn’t seem convinced.
She forced a giggle. “It will sort of be true. Except it’ll be you I blow. What do you say?”
Please let this work! What was she getting herself into? Was she digging this hole deeper?
Would they use her body then kill her anyway?
No. She would find a way out of this. The first rule was stay alive. Her time in Morselli’s dungeon was proof of that.
“Why not have some fun with her first?” The guy nearest her thrust his hips toward her, grinding against her hip so that she could feel his puny boner stabbing her. Either the power he wielded over her, their mission to steal her winnings, or both, did it for him. She’d bet he was one of those guys who liked to hurt women while they fucked. And she didn’t mean the consensual kind of pain her friends in the BDSM lifestyle enjoyed, either.
Immediately, she quit wriggling as a flash of memory surfaced.
Ellie saw herself buried under a pile of stoned victims who pawed at her, practically tearing her apart in their urgent need to fuck. Then the vision shifted and she recalled blurred snippets of herself doing the same to a man who’d paid to sleep with a drugged aggressor instead.
She shuddered.
Fortunately, her revulsion only seemed to enhance her captors’ interest.
“Fine, fuck. But don’t take all damn night when it’s your turn,” the tall guy snarled at his companions. “And I’m going first.”
Ellie shrieked when he lunged for her, wrapping his hand around her upper arm like a vise. The bruising force of his grip nearly made her drop her bag.
“Change your mind?” He laughed at her fleeting display of fear. “Too bad. No taking it back now.”
“No, no. I’m game if you are. I just… Can we go in there? For privacy?” She jerked her chin toward the spare bedroom.
“Good idea.” He stared at her boobs while he talked. “I don’t need these two jacking off while they watch you suck my cock.”
Ellie tried not to roll her eyes. Under different circumstances she’d like the idea of men secure enough to masturbate together, maybe give each other a hand. Not today. Not like this.
So she played into her assailant’s phobias and his immoral streak, which was wider than the enormous gap she’d had between her front teeth in the BB—before braces—years. Alluding to any number of dirty deeds, she steeled herself and leaned into his harsh hold before whispering, “That way they won’t know if I let you do…more…with me.”
She yelped as he dragged her into the spare bedroom then kicked the door closed behind them. He flung her to the floor where she skidded on the hardwood, banging her knees hard enough to make lights flash behind her scrunched lids.
Nothing she hadn’t endured before.
He’d have to do far worse than that to break her.
Ellie tuned her mind to the sound of imaginary ocean waves. She loved the sea and had used its lulling rhythms to help her endure the horrible realities she’d survived in the past. In her vision, she was swimming in warm, salty surf instead of kneeling at the boots of a disgusting pig who planned to violate her.
His fingers wrapped around her neck and yanked her closer so that her face mashed against his musty crotch. Reflexes took over and she gagged.
“We haven’t even gotten to the fun part yet.” He chuckled at her discomfort. “Don’t you dare wimp out on me now.”
Ellie mumbled, “Sorry.”
In her heart, she’d come to associate the word with “fuck you”. Even if it was only in her mind, she’d conditioned herself to say one thing and mean another entirely. Tricks like those had preserved her sanity—at least the portion she’d managed to salvage—when she was an unwilling sex slave.
The guy didn’t waste time. He jammed his hand in her bodice and popped her tits out of the top so that they sat on her strapless bra and the crumpled fabric of her dress like it was a ruby shelf. He pinched her nipples. Hard.
Elli
e reared back then tried to make her roar of outrage sound more like a groan.
The glint in his obsidian eyes made it clear he wasn’t fooled and didn’t care.
Hell, he might have enjoyed it more that way.
Committed to distracting him, Ellie reached up and slid his zipper open. She held her breath then nuzzled his hard-on as he shoved his briefs down low enough to reveal his bare cock and shriveled balls hanging below.
Swallowing hard, she parted her lips then grazed them along his length.
With a groan, he shut his eyes.
Perfect.
Ellie continued to distract him as she started to slide the zipper of her sack open.
Suddenly she wished she’d grabbed the pistol stashed a little deeper in her flowerbed, instead of this lame pepper spray and stun gun. It would have been more effective, but completely irreversible. Deep down she knew she’d have trouble pulling the trigger, even in these circumstances. Killing someone wasn’t something she was sure she could live with.
Memories of the men and women as blameless as she was, who’d died around her that day the Men in Blue rescued her, still haunted Ellie. In fact, she saw their faces flashing in front of her as she made the man she was servicing grunt and groan, not so different than the sounds she’d heard that day.
From the other room the burglars jeered, mimicking their partner and making crude jokes.
As if they’d be any different when it got to their turns. Not that it ever would.
Snapping out of her dazed recollections, Ellie shook her head, opening her eyes only for a moment. Something glinted in the light streaming from the window. She caught the shimmer in her peripheral vision—the barrel of a gun and righteous fury beaming from warm eyes she would recognize anywhere.
Lucas! Holy shit, had it really been him? She didn’t dare risk another glance.
“No time for second thoughts, bitch.” The guy grunted and reached for her hair, wrapping it around his fist. “Ignore those assholes out there and really get to work here. Quit stalling.”
Then Ellie didn’t have to wonder about the insanity developing around her anymore. That rich, smoky voice she’d heard endlessly in her dreams lately commanded, “Get down!”
So she hit the floor. Immediately. She dropped, ignoring the wrench of her neck as her hair slithered from her confused attacker’s grip. Ellie covered her head with her arms, acting on blind faith.
Lucas had been her savior once, and here he was again precisely when she needed him most. She couldn’t help but wonder how much he’d seen and what he would think of her for the acts she’d been about to perform to stay alive.
Especially considering it wasn’t the first time either.
While the guy beside her scrambled to pull up his jeans, several things happened at once. Ellie snagged the bag she’d dropped, finished unzipping it and withdrew the stun gun inside. She flicked the power switch and Tased the fucker who’d planned to violate her, zapping him right in his sweaty balls.
His scream was lost in the chaos as another one of the robbers barged into the room—gun drawn, pointed directly at her heart—and shouted, “What the fuck was that?”
Lucas blew him away before she could even flinch from the guy’s reappearance.
Next he used the butt of his gun to smash out the remaining glass from her window. Then he shouted at her, waking her from her slow-motion daze. “Come on, Ellie! Run! Now!”
Heart racing, she abandoned the pouch she’d clung to like a lifeline and launched to her feet. Her heels slipped in the splatter of blood, which pooled around the man who gurgled behind her. The third man stood in the doorway, nearly as shocked as she was, as she dove toward Lucas and the darkness that surrounded him.
Quick to avert his gun, he let her pass through the opening—less than gracefully, her belly sliding across the jagged glass—before whipping his weapon toward the last of their intruders still standing.
When she finished tumbling to the bushes below then bouncing to her feet, the man held his hands up though his eyes darted to the bag she’d abandoned. Of course, all he really cared about was the money.
Except it wasn’t in there. The only thing left in it was her pepper spray and the case for the Taser. It wouldn’t take him long to figure that out.
They needed to get the hell out of there before he realized she’d deceived them.
Lucas began to walk backward, talking to the burglar as calmly as if they were watching this nightmare transpire on TV instead of right before them. Though his gait was slightly uneven, it was steady. “We’re leaving now. Keep the light on so I can see you standing right fucking there. Wait ten minutes. Then take what you came for. Make up some lie. Tell your boss there was an accident and she didn’t make it. Whatever you need to do. Figure it out. Or you’ll end up just like your friend there. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Who the fuck are you?” the man asked, though he had to know Lucas wasn’t about to answer.
This side of him—cold, calculating, utterly capable—would make any sane person crap their pants.
Thankfully, she was a tad bit nuts.
Ellie could have kissed him for saving her ass. Again.
“Lucas…” she whispered so the intruder wouldn’t pick up on her white knight’s name. Should she tell him the money wasn’t really there?
“Not now, E.”
His pet name for her had Ellie ready to burst into tears when everything that came before hadn’t so much as dampened her eyes. Relief, longing and lingering terror mixed into a potent cocktail, making her drunk on him.
Here he was, every bit as wounded as she was, and not letting it stop him from being a complete badass.
Hell, he’d shot someone for her. Killed for her.
There was no way that guy was getting up after being hit so accurately in his chest.
Oh yeah, Lucas had also lost a limb for her.
She owed him her life, twice over.
When they’d retreated far enough that the grass of her lawn transitioned to the moss of the forest floor, Lucas began to relax. He also glanced down to make sure his footing was secure. Shit, this had to be difficult for him.
Before she could worry too much about it, a stream of curses came from within her house. “Where’d it go? Fuck!”
At nearly the same time, an engine gunned down her street at a roar that spoke of reinforcements instead of the sedate grannies who were her neighbors. They didn’t stick around to see whose side the newcomers were coming to aid.
“I’m not expecting help. Let’s get out of here.” Lucas grabbed her hand, spared half a glance at her bared breasts then clenched his jaw. Neither of them was willing to risk delaying to protect her modesty. At least not until they put some distance between themselves and danger.
He took off at an uneven jog, his foot catching awkwardly on a tangle of roots. She held his hand—the one without the gun—tight and helped lever him back to balance. Together, they scrambled over some logs.
“How’d you know—?”
“Later.” He grimaced. “If I slow you down, I want you to go on ahead of me. I may not win any races like this, but I can still hide if I have to. Especially at night. They’ll never find me.”
Lucas shook his fingers free of hers for a moment. Her vision had adjusted enough that she could make out him fishing in his jeans before he drew out a wicked-looking pocketknife. One of those utility kinds that had about a thousand attachments and could probably launch a rocket to the moon in the right hands. Hands like his.
In the wrong hands…she shivered.
“What’s this for?” Stabbing someone seemed extreme. She’d like to think she could if her life depended on it, but she didn’t want to have to test that theory. Besides, she was no match for a muscled man with experience and her free-blow-job shtick was only going to work so many times befo
re word got around.
“There’s a compass in the handle.” He glanced at her as he guided them deeper into the woods. “If we get separated, head northeast. If you walk as fast as you can in those shoes, you should come out somewhere near my house in about…two to three hours, maybe.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you.” She tried to take stock of everything that was happening. At lightning speed. Where the hell had her simple girls’ night out gone? And how could he assume she’d be selfish enough to leave him to fend for himself when he was in this mess because of her?
“It’d be harder to conceal us both. You have to trust me, E.”
“I do.” It was the honest truth.
“Good. It’s not what I want, either. You will if you have to.” He cursed as he stumbled again, his prosthesis throwing him off-balance on the rocky terrain. “No matter what, don’t use your phone. Remember what happened last year when Jambi called the guys from that hotel room?”
How could she forget?
Ellie and Lucas had been helping Matt, Clint and Jambrea out. But Jambrea had gotten a glimpse of necrotizing flesh on Lucas’s foot and reached out to experts at the hospital for assistance. The lunatics chasing Jambrea had tracked them within minutes of that call, making them all scatter and run. It had been the day Lucas had finally quit fighting and allowed the doctors to amputate his leg. The day he had stopped talking to her.
“In fact, go ahead and take the battery out now.” Lucas cleared his throat before pausing their flight. Ducking into the branches of a particularly thick pine tree, he shoved her behind him as he scanned the area around them and cocked his head, listening intently.
When Lucas spoke next, it was quieter and more strained. “Then pull your dress up. Please.”
She couldn’t help her cringe, though not because she’d forgotten her body was on display. That hardly fazed her anymore.
While she did as he asked, she wondered, “Why? Are you disgusted by what I did to survive?”
They both knew she wasn’t only talking about tonight. It’d been something she wondered for months now. Was her time in Morselli’s dungeon contributing to why he didn’t want her around?
