by Gemma James
Alex returned my gaze from beneath hooded eyes. Her lips parted, breaths escaping in shallow puffs. She clawed at her arms, nails digging into the jagged scars left behind from when she’d sliced herself up.
“Put the gun down,” I said, keeping my voice even, much calmer than the boiling rage rioting through me.
“Let him go!”
Cursing under my breath, I removed my arm, and the guy slumped to the ground like deadweight.
Jax let out a breath. He took a step backward, pulling her with him, and kicked the door to the office shut. “I don’t wanna do this. If you’d just stayed put…fuck, Rafe! What part of ‘trust me’ did you not get?”
I gestured toward his weapon. “Why don’t you put the gun down so we can talk all about it?” I lifted both hands, a show of surrender, and hoped to keep him talking.
“We were like brothers.” He removed the gun from her chin and dropped his arm. “I consider you family more than my own fucking blood.”
“Then why are you going along with this?” I asked, watching him carefully. His gaze kept straying to the wall behind me. I cranked my neck and studied the photos on display. I hadn’t paid them much attention before, as I’d been too focused on finding a way through the door that led to escape, but now the crude nature of the poses stormed through my veins.
“She was my mother,” Jax said quietly, face pinching in remembered sorrow. “My sister looked just like her.” He raised the gun toward the photos, hand trembling. “She was the old man’s favorite.”
Was.
Memory or not, I doubted I’d known any of this.
“Jax…” I drew in a deep, calming breath because despite the pain in his expression, what I really wanted to do was yank that fucking gun from his fingers and turn it on him. Talking was my only option though. “Why are we here?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Why don’t you uncomplicate it for me?”
“Wish I could, man.” He swerved the gun in my direction. “There’s no way out of this, so why don’t I take you guys back before someone a lot meaner than me finds out you’re gone?”
“How about you punch in that code and let us go?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Can’t do that. If you escape, they’ll know it was me, and I can’t afford to get kicked out now.” Jax pressed his fingers into Alex’s arm and shuffled toward the door leading to the tunnel.
“Someone got something on you? Is that why you’re going along with this?”
“Something like that. Let’s go.” He gestured toward the guy at my feet. “I still have to deal with him, not to mention the stupid idiot that let you out in the first place.” He pressed the barrel of the gun to Alex’s head again. “So get the door. I’m right behind you.”
Alex and I traded an ominous glance. I wanted to wrap her in my arms and hide her from all of this, but we both knew she’d end up paying the price for our botched escape attempt.
I kept failing her. I’d dropped the ball when I’d left her in that damn hospital after she’d broken free of her brother, and I’d ignored the fact that we’d been sitting ducks on that island. We’d thought Zach was our biggest threat, but an evil more potent than her brother had lurked from the shore, just waiting for the perfect unguarded moment to strike. Jax had known they were going to attack. Was that why he’d gotten me the gun?
But they’d unarmed me too easily…as if they’d known exactly how to rip apart any defense system I might have in place. They’d drugged me, taken my own fucking weapon, and had used it against me.
Yet here was Jax, acting like he fucking gave a shit about what happened to us.
I reached for the handle, my hand shaking, and turned the knob. The door creaked open, and the breath I’d been holding exhaled in a resigned sigh. Cleft stood on the other side, mouth curved in a wide smirk, body blocking the exit. Before I could make a move, he sprang forward and jabbed a needle into my neck.
The ground rushed up to meet me, but my blurry gaze never left his face. He bent over my useless heap of bones, his features pinched in rage.
“She didn’t…didn’t…” I licked my lips, blinked, and tried to force the words out. “My fault. Don’t…” Fuck, my tongue was little more than a dead slug in my mouth. I couldn’t even plead on her behalf.
Cleft narrowed his dark eyes, and the intent in them made me want to scream. “Everything you do goes back to her.” His words hollowed through my ears, then a black void sucked me in and swallowed me whole.
11. WITHOUT CONSENT
Rafe
“This is a bad idea.”
“If Cleft says get the guy, we get the guy.”
“Yeah, but Jax will be pissed if—”
“Will you chill out, bro?”
“He’s the boss’s kid. I’m just sayin’.”
A bright light seared my eyelids, but I didn’t know where I was, couldn’t immediately recall what had happened—I only knew that I felt like roadkill, and at least two men were standing over me.
Rough hands yanked me upright from the thin mattress. “Time to wake up and play.” They held me up by the arms, and I forced my eyes open as they herded me out the room. It was the same rancid shithole they’d held us prisoner in. Like a pipe bursting, memories flooded me—using the chain to take down the guy Alex had lured inside, and the subsequent confrontation with Jax. Then the fuckers had drugged me again.
“Fuckin’ cowards,” I slurred. “Need to drug me ‘cause you’re all pussies.”
A weak blow glanced off my jaw. “I’ll lick your girl’s pussy. Bitch would probably like it.”
“Calm your ass down, Vinnie. Don’t let him get to ya.”
I squinted, but the lights in the tunnel made my vision spotty. “Where is she?” I swallowed hard, and my head lolled on my shoulders, jostled by the jaunt down the hall. Nausea rose and burned in my throat.
“She’s waiting for you, lover boy.” The one on my right snickered. I recognized that laughter and the cruel grip of his hands. Brock wasn’t someone easily forgotten. “We’re gonna make a fucking kick-ass film. You guys will be super stars.”
We shuffled down the tunnel, stirring up dust, and they ushered me back into their torture room with the concrete floor. Alex hung by her wrists from the rafters, her skin darkened from dirt and bruises. She was entirely helpless with her head drooping toward her tits. The men shoved me to where those damn chains waited, so fucking close yet too far away to touch her. I slammed to my knees and swayed for a few precarious seconds, then I lifted my chin and peered up at her.
“Now that’s a fine piece of ass.”
Snickering.
Laughter.
Words blending together in a long string of threats and taunts I couldn’t understand because everything from my sight to my hearing was garbled.
Except for Alex. Her presence came through achingly clear, and my apprehension choked me. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t plead. So long as they kept pumping my system full of drugs, I was fucking nothing.
How much pain would she suffer because I couldn’t fight for her?
“Fuck me…just leave her alone.” I tried rising to my feet, but the floor swerved, and I fell sideways. The contact bolted through my brain, throbbing with an incessant pound. Blood pooled on my tongue from where I’d bit down hard.
More laughter.
“I’m not into dudes, sorry.” Brock bent and yanked my head up. Vinnie disappeared from view. “I’d rather watch the two of you get it on.”
“Fuck you.” I spit in his face. He snapped back and planted his fist into my jaw, and fuck, he had a better arm on him than his scrawny brother.
I glared at him, ignoring the deep ache that radiated to my teeth, and a sense of satisfaction spread through me as he wiped my saliva from his cheek. “Fuck you,” I said. “Go ahead, hit me again.”
Better me than her. The longer I kept the focus on me, the longer he’d leave her alone.
He pulled his arm back, preparing
to strike, but a single demand from Cleft, who appeared in the doorway behind him, made him freeze.
“Save it for the camera.” Cleft sauntered into the room. “Getting started without me, I see.”
“Nope, just warming up.” Brock retreated, and I pushed to my knees as the room spun around me for a few seconds.
Cleft assessed the situation with a nonchalant glance. “Let her down. But him…” He jabbed a finger in my direction. “I want him on his toes. Don’t rely on dosing him. He’s a mean sonofabitch. Gave me hell on the inside, even while I had my cock shoved up his ass.”
A chill penetrated my bones, and I lowered my gaze as his boots came into view.
“What I wouldn’t give to have a piece of your ass again, Mason.”
“Fuck me all you want. Just leave her alone.”
“That’s a tempting proposition. I might take you up on it later.”
Cleft released her, and she slumped to the floor with a whimper. He stepped down on her face, pressing her cheek to the rough cement, and threatened to add more pressure.
She cried out, her eyes popping open.
I struggled to my feet, but his words halted me. “Don’t make me hurt her,” he said, withdrawing a gun from the waistband of his jeans. He cocked the weapon, making his point. “Give Brock your hands.”
Seeing Alex’s head sandwiched between his boot and the concrete, her parted lips sucking in air, green eyes huge and full of horror—the decision was a no-brainer. There were three of them and one drugged-up me.
I held my wrists out, allowing Brock to shackle them. The third goon pulled on the chains and hoisted me to my toes, arms straight above my head. I had enough trouble balancing, considering my doped-up state, and the position put me at a disadvantage. I couldn’t even kick without losing balance.
Passing the gun to Vinnie, Cleft lifted his foot, then he forced Alex to her knees in front of me, his grip tight in her hair. Brock moved the cameras and lighting equipment to where we were grouped together, and the spotlight he flipped on blared in my eyes. I glanced down at the crown of her dark curls, blinking the spots from my sight. Brock switched on the camera.
“Sugar,” Cleft said. “You’ve sucked off your boyfriend before, right? Good sluts know how to give great head.”
She lifted her sad gaze, and somehow, I knew what she was thinking. She’d pleasured me with her mouth, maybe she’d even enjoyed it, but I didn’t remember. These bastards were taking our second chance from us, under the glare of lights and rolling cameras.
Under the threat of violence.
She was right. We should have taken our chance while we had it. At least that was something they couldn’t take away.
“Don’t just look at him. Get his limp dick up.” Cleft smirked in my direction. “Aren’t you man enough to get hard for your girl?”
“You’re a sick fuck.”
“You’re the one about to get sucked off, and something tells me you’re gonna like it, so who’s the sick fuck now?”
At the thought of her lips wrapping around me, my traitorous dick stirred.
He jolted her head violently. “C’mon, bitch. Get your man up.”
“Okay,” she cried. “I’ll do it.” She took my cock in her warm palm, and at the first touch of her hand to my shaft, my own fucking sickness rose, tearing through me with the devastation of a torpedo. I closed my eyes, drew deep breaths through my nose, but her dainty fingers pulled me under. It was the first time she’d touched me—that I could remember anyway—and my cock grew into a rock hard piston of shame.
“Eyes open, Mason. It’s only respectful to watch your slut suck you off.” Cleft wrenched her hands behind her. “Hand me a pair of cuffs, Vinnie.”
Bulky leather restraints exchanged hands, and Cleft fastened her wrists at her back. “You wanna mouth-fuck him, right sugar?”
She didn’t answer, and his expression darkened. He smacked her on the cheek. “Answer me!”
“Yes!”
“That’s what I thought.” He brushed a thumb over her trembling lips before wedging his fingers inside, stretching her wide open. He slid her mouth onto my dick, and fuck…it was like coming home. My cock nestled in her wet heat, and the suction of her mouth, the sensual whirl of her tongue, the wide-eyed way she gazed at me—each were lethal on their own, but the combination of sensory overload ignited a war in my veins.
I was scum. Worse than scum.
She’d been shoved to her knees, her mouth forced to fuck me, and I wanted nothing more than to explode down her throat, camera, assholes, and spotlights be damned.
“Sweetie, let’s hear some moaning.” Cleft pushed her further onto my dick. “Make it good for the audience.”
Brock snickered. What I wouldn’t give to send my fist into his face again. I yanked at the chains, and the clink of metal on metal echoed through the room.
Alex moaned, and my whole body twitched at the vibration of her tongue. Pressure built in my balls. I clenched my hands into fists. “Don’t make her do this.”
“Unless you want Brock to bloody her ass again, you’ll keep your fucking swimmers inside your balls until I give you permission.” Cleft’s lips curved into a ruthless smile. He pressed against her skull and shoved her flush with my groin. Her throat had no choice but to suck down my cock.
She gagged, but her eyes…fuck, those eyes never wavered from mine for a moment. Smudges of dirt sullied her forehead and cheeks, and her curls surrounded her face in a riot of tangles, but she’d never looked so gorgeous.
Or tempting.
My legs quaked from the effort of keeping myself upright on my toes, and each pump of blood in my body rushed straight to my dick.
Cleft yanked her off then impaled her on my shaft again.
She moaned. I moaned.
We were both fucked, because in that moment, I knew she was getting something out of this too.
“Make him beg to blow his load.” He tugged on her hair, and my cock sprang free, jutting straight out and leaking my shame all over her heaving tits. “If he ain’t begging, you ain’t doing it right. C’mon, slut. Give us a good show.”
She sucked and bobbed, letting out tiny whimpers and slurping noises, and I bit back a groan. My balls tightened, and my hips had a mind of their own. I thrust deeper. Fuck. I couldn’t get deep enough.
“Beg,” Cleft ordered. He pulled her back slightly and folded his fingers around the base of my dick, pumping while Alex’s lips slipped on and off my tip in quick, maddening slides.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I groaned. I wanted to turn it off—the need tearing through me, leaving me in shattered pieces, all of them hurtling toward her amazing mouth.
“Grab the whip, Brock.”
“No!” My eyes flew open, but Brock was already passing the camera off to Vinnie.
Cleft clamped her nose between thumb and forefinger, and he held her to me, her lips stretching wide around my base.
“Your man’s not begging. Guess he’s got balls of restraint. Tell me, sugar, can you take Brock’s lashes without chomping off your boyfriend’s junk?”
Alex fought his hold. “Never mind, don’t answer that, seeing as how you can’t talk or breathe right now.” He allowed her a few seconds to suck in air through her nose before he plugged it again.
“Don’t do this,” I said, my gaze glued to Brock as he grabbed a coiled whip down from the rack.
“Ah, now we’re gonna get to the begging part.” Cleft shifted to the side as Brock approached Alex. He stood several feet behind her, clenching the handle of the whip in his eager fist.
“I’ll give you one last breath.” Cleft released her nose, and she drew in air, her eyes huge and pleading with me as her lungs filled. “Try not to take off your man’s cock, okay?”
Something familiar tickled my mind, a flash of her hoarding air as if she were about to die, her naked body submerged in water between my legs. Before I could examine the memory further, the whip swooshed through the air and struck
her backside. Screeching around my shaft, she clamped down hard with her teeth.
I hissed in a breath, my muscles taut, and lost balance. Extending to my toes again, I tried not to cry out like a pussy. She loosened her jaw, and the pain echoed through me, a warning of the damage she might do if she lost total control under the next sharp bite of the whip.
Cleft allowed her a moment to breathe as his dark gaze pinned me. “Beg to blow your load.”
“Please,” I said.
“That didn’t sound convincing enough.”
“Fuck you!” I winced, immediately regretting my loss of temper because Brock struck her again. Her teeth came close to ripping into my cock, which would hurt like fuck, but I was more furious at myself.
I couldn’t stand her mouth around my dick, hot and tight and so fucking perfect, couldn’t stand the way her throat opened for me, sucking down my length until she made continuous gagging noises. Most of all, I couldn’t stand the spasm of pain that tightened her muscles, because while she was enduring the brutal lashings, I was getting off on it.
Her helplessness made me harder, desperate, and fuck, I wanted to explode down her throat, despite the scrape of her teeth.
Cleft grabbed my chin. “Fucking beg.”
Shame flared, searing my flesh and heating several layers below. “Please let me come.”
“Still not buying it. Hit the bitch again,” he told Brock.
Another bite of leather on flesh, and Alex’s muffled cries shuddered around my shaft, pulling at the beast in me. I groaned, heaving in air, my heart rate thundering in my chest. I had to stop this. If I came…
Fuck.
What would they do to her then?
“Make your stubborn piece of shit boyfriend beg like he means it!” Cleft shook her head, and she sucked harder.
“Don’t hurt her!”
“Make me believe it, Mason. Last chance.”
Alex and I exchanged a heavy glance, and she didn’t need words to plead. The way her eyes pummeled me said it all. She wanted me to give in and find pleasure in her mouth. Wanted me to end this already.
