The guy beside me didn't reply as we all watched the big dude draw closer to the girl's hiding place. He clearly hadn't seen her and for some reason, I found myself rooting for her, even though I doubted her opponent was any more deserving of death. Ninety percent of the contestants in the games were proxies plucked off of the street and offered money to take part in a contest without ever being given the full details until they were here with no other choice but to fight for their lives. And even the winners didn't have much prospect of a better life beyond that cage.
I was one of a very few members here who had refused the offer of taking on a proxy and had chosen to fight my own battle for my membership to this fucked up club. If I'd had any real choice, I would have told them to stick their membership up their gold coated assholes and cut their shrivelled ball sacks off for good measure. But of course I hadn't been offered that luxury. Once I was here, someone had to go into that game one way or another so I’d chosen to play with my own life rather than a stranger’s. And like most people in this sorry world when faced with the option to fight or die, I'd chosen to bloody my hands and taint my soul in favour of my own survival.
The guy strode straight past the girl's hiding place and she crept out behind him, leaping up onto his back and swiping her blade across his throat before he had the chance to fight her off.
Tatum sucked in a sharp breath beside me as his blood sprayed out and I clenched my teeth as I drew her closer to me, my arm tight around her waist.
"Oh yes. I just placed a bet for fifty grand on her, and you wanna know the best bit?" the man beside me asked, leaning in so the acrid stench of stale sweat and brandy sailed beneath my nose.
"What’s that?" I asked, my muscles tightening with the desire to shove him back a fucking step.
"I told them I don't even want any money for a prize. If she wins, I get her, for the whole night," he laughed throatily and my spine straightened as I felt a shudder run through Tatum at my side.
"What do you mean you get her?" Tatum asked, her voice hard but void of emotion so it wasn't totally clear how disgusted she was to someone who didn't know her.
"I mean, I get her to myself in one of the private rooms to do as I please until dawn," the guy chuckled. "And with only two contestants left in the game, I'm pretty sure I'm in for a good night."
"I thought the winners got membership?" Tatum asked, leaning forward to see him better.
The guy's gaze was fixed on the fighting beneath us so he didn't return her look, but he did laugh loudly at her words.
"I can tell you're new," he said, slapping me on the back like we were sharing a joke and a fierce kind of anger coursed down my spine at the contact. "Maybe next time leave your wife at home, eh? Then you could get in on some of this action too? Or do you like to play with them together?"
"Naw, that's not the kind of monster I am," I said in a low tone which would have been warning enough to most people but not this drunk, entitled son of a bitch.
"Well, I'll happily enlighten you then, my dear," he chuckled, seemingly oblivious to the danger lurking right beside him. "Every person in this fine establishment who is not wearing one of these masks is up for sale. That means that for the right price you can do anything you want to them. Think of them like sex toys or slabs of meat, mice in a trap, whatever you want. Point is, they're nothing. Not unless we decide they are. That girl is just fighting as a proxy and the man whose membership she's playing for has happily agreed to my terms of the bet because once she wins for him, she will have served his purpose."
"So her prize for winning is serving your purpose?" Tatum asked and that time the disgust was more than clear in her voice, but our revolting companion only seemed egged on by that.
"Yeah. And she looks like the kind of girl who wants to be fucked in the ass, don't you think?"
The asshole didn't even get the chance to fight as I grabbed him by the back of his cloak and launched him over the railing. But his scream as he fell drew the attention of every screwed up motherfucker in the area.
He fell on top of the cage where the death match was taking place with a sickening crack that said he'd most definitely broken something and chaos broke out around the walkways as he shrieked and screamed for help.
"Holy fuck, Kyan," Tatum gasped but as she looked up at me, I found her blue eyes alight with excitement and I grinned even though she couldn't see it beneath the mask. "Do we need to run?"
"Naw, baby, everything here has a price. I'm sure my trust fund can take the hit for that little misunderstanding," I assured her.
"What the hell is going on?" Saint demanded angrily in my ear, but he didn't need to know that right now, so I ignored him. Tatum took pity on him though and muttered an explanation.
“Kyan just tossed that piece of shit over the balcony and now he’s crying like the little bitch he is,” she said proudly.
“For the love of Christ, just get the hell out of there before you get yourselves into the kind of trouble you can’t get out of,” Saint demanded and I could just about hear Monroe saying something too, but I couldn’t catch it over the shouts in the room.
Niall's raucous laughter drew my attention and he slapped me on the back as he reappeared, leaning over the railing to watch as the asshole tried to crawl off the top of the cage.
"This is fucking perfect, lad," he howled as he leaned forward to get a better look.
The guy kept trying to crawl along while cradling his arm and whimpering and I couldn't help but laugh too.
Movement from the cage beneath us drew my attention and Tatum caught my hand, squeezing my fingers as we watched the girl who was taking part in the fights below running towards the masked man through the maze.
My eyes were glued to her as she ran with determined strides, leapt up, grabbed the wire at the top of the cage and thrust her knife through the gaps in the metal, sinking it deep into the bastard's gut.
He shrieked in pain as the game organisers raced around the edge of the cage, yelling at the girl to back off but she just kept stabbing and stabbing, the masked man's blood spilling down on her as he collapsed above her and his screams cut out.
"Ho-ly fuck, I think I'm in love," Niall announced, cackling like a hyena as the guards finally made it to the side of the cage where the girl was contained and shot her with stun guns.
She fell to the ground, twitching and convulsing beneath the jolts of electricity and I cursed beneath my breath as the final contestant in the game rounded the corner and spotted her incapacitated on the ground.
The guy ran forward as she scrambled to her knees, her hands sweeping the ground around her as she hunted for the knife she'd dropped.
"No," Tatum gasped as the guy swung a length of rusty metal at her head but the girl somehow managed to roll beneath the blow, grabbing her knife and sweeping it up at him as she stabbed him in the groin.
He fell back with a scream of agony, dropping the rusty pole he'd been using for a weapon and she grabbed it swiftly, finishing him off with a savage blow to the head.
"We have a winner!" someone yelled on the far side of the viewing area and I watched as the girl stood, coated in blood and panting heavily as she tossed the length of metal aside and looked around with a hopeless kind of victory. Yes she'd survived, but she knew she hadn't even come close to winning her freedom from this hell. At least when I won my round, I’d known that I could leave this slice of hell and never come back.
"Well lad, that's my cue," Niall said happily, clapping a hand to my shoulder and drawing my attention to the group of robed men approaching from the other end of the walkway. Their attention was clearly locked on the three of us and I had no doubt they were coming to deal with the fact that a member of the club had just been murdered right before their eyes.
"Shit," I muttered, my grip tightening on Tatum's fingers.
"What do we do now?" she asked.
"What the fuck is going on?" Saint demanded over the earpiece.
"Just leave this to m
e," Niall said firmly, leaving no room for arguments. "I haven't spent nearly enough of Pa's money recently and I think that beautiful little specimen down there is worth the gold."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tatum demanded.
"Just get out of here, lad, and take your sweet girl with you. Let's hope neither of you ever have to come back,” Niall said authoritatively.
I opened my mouth to protest, but he strode away from us, his arms wide as if offering up an embrace to the men who were clearly looking to make someone pay for this mess as he called out to them.
"Sorry lads! But that asshole had it coming, he was refusing to pay up on a debt he owed me. And I couldn't have known the lass would stick him full of holes now, could I? What say we get together over a whiskey and discuss what reparations you need me to pay to make this right again. And while we're in discussions, I'll be wanting a price for ownership of that girl down there."
I couldn't hear what the men had to say in response to that, but some of the tension seemed to leak from their posture as they accepted Niall into their group and the whole lot of them turned away.
"What does he mean he wants to buy that girl?" Tatum demanded like she thought I may have been wrong about Niall being one of the good ones - at least by my fucked up sense of reasoning.
"Exactly what he said, baby. She's about to get herself a crazy ass motherfucker of a fairy godmother," I explained as I turned her around and pulled the silver button to call for the car out of my pocket.
"You mean he's just going to buy her freedom?" she asked hopefully and I snorted a laugh.
"I seriously doubt that, baby. Nothing in this life is free. If Niall thinks she's worth buying then he has plans for her. All I can say is that it'll be better than being fucked in the ass by that disgusting excuse for a man." I tossed a final look at the corpse of the guy I'd had a hand in killing and smirked to myself as I led Tatum back through the veil and away from the death games.
"Please tell me you're leaving now?" Saint demanded and the pissy tone of his voice let me know that he was less than pleased about the fact that we'd been ignoring him so much.
"Your wish is my command, my lord," I taunted and I swear I could hear him grinding his teeth but he decided not to respond.
“Good. Then it’s time to activate the tracking device,” Saint growled and my heart leapt at that suggestion, knowing it was the most likely part of our plan to get us caught. “I need you to switch it on and allow it to ping your location. The moment I have it, destroy it before anyone has a chance to pick up on the signal,” he explained as if he hadn’t already told us how to do this fifty thousand times today.
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered, grasping Tatum by the waist and pushing her back into a darkened alcove.
“I’ve got it,” she murmured, glancing up at me as I slowly slid her zipper down with a smirk dancing around my lips.
“Naw, baby, that’s okay, I can grab it for you,” I assured her, tossing her a wink as I slid my hand inside her clothes and she bit her lip against a laugh as she coiled her arms around my neck.
“Are you ready?” Saint growled, clearly not appreciating the way I was taking my time to feel her up as I hunted down the little device she’d stored in her bra.
“Almost,” I replied, slipping my hand beneath the full weight of her breast and tugging the little black device free. Her rosy nipple taunted me as I dropped my gaze to it and I dipped my head, pushing my mask up a few inches so that I could suck it into my mouth, nipping down hard enough to elicit a surprised gasp from her sweet lips before dutifully releasing her again.
“He’s switching it on now,” Tatum said in a low voice as Saint began cursing me.
I gave her a dirty laugh as I did as she’d commanded and a little green light appeared on the tracker.
The seconds seemed to drag as we waited for Saint to get the signal and Tatum held her breath as my muscles tensed and I half expected some detector to be triggered.
“Got it,” Saint crowed triumphantly and Blake and Monroe whooped in the background. “Now destroy that thing before anyone else catches the signal.”
I didn’t need telling twice and I flicked the tracker back off before snapping it in two and then tucking it back into Tatum’s bra with a hungry growl that made her giggle like a blushing virgin. But my girl was no virgin, I’d made damn sure of that.
I helped her fix her clothes and lifted her mask so that I could steel a kiss because I was aching for one.
“So where is this place?” Tatum whispered to Saint.
“One moment,” Saint said, anticipation brimming in his tone. “You’re in the middle of fucking nowhere an hour north of Hemlock City.”
“Not exactly a revelation,” I murmured.
“It will be when I figure out how to get my hands on a military drone and drop a bomb on their heads,” Saint said manically like he was actually hopeful he could manage such a thing. And to be fair to the fucker, he probably could.
When it was clear that no one was about to sweep down and drag us away for activating the tracker, I grinned widely, fixed our masks and moved out of our hidden spot in search of an exit.
I kept Tatum close beneath my arm as we made our way back out of the horror house that was Royaume D’élite and as we stepped out into the cool air, we found our driver already waiting to take us back to my bike.
He opened the rear door and we wordlessly slipped inside, a breath of relief passing my lips as he closed the door behind us again and we found ourselves alone in the blacked out rear of the car.
Tatum tugged her mask off as the engine started up, tossing it into the footwell like she was more than glad to be rid of the damn thing before shoving her hood back to reveal her blonde waves.
When I didn't move to do the same, she climbed into my lap and slowly tugged the mask from my face, throwing it down on the seat beside us and pushing my hood back too.
"We're going to destroy them all," she breathed so quietly that I could barely even hear the words as she traced the lines of my face with her fingertips.
I curled my hands around her waist, only noticing the slight tremble in them as I felt the warmth of her flesh beneath my palms.
Memories of fighting in that fucking cage were rising up in me, trying to conquer me and pull me into fear and despair, but instead an insatiable kind of rage was ripping through me, demanding payment in blood for what I'd been forced to do. What others were still being forced to do.
Tatum's mouth found mine in the dark and I kissed her with a powerful kind of need which felt strong enough to consume both of us and she kissed me with all the desire to set the world to rights and burn down anything that stood in our way.
I reached for the zip which secured her catsuit in place and tugged it down, not wanting any piece of that fucking place to be touching her perfect flesh.
She shrugged out of it without breaking our kiss, kicking it to the floor and leaving her in her underwear as she straddled me once more.
I groaned as she yanked my shirt off too, loving the way her soft skin felt beneath the callouses which lined my palms as I explored the curves of her body in the dark. Hardly any light found us in here and something about that just made it hotter as every touch of her flesh against mine took all of my attention and sent need flooding through my skin.
Her hands travelled down my chest and a shiver rode along my spine as I tried to fight against the urge to restrain her, wanting to enjoy the way she was touching me without letting my fucking demons get the better of me as always.
But as she reached between us and unbuckled my belt, my muscles tightened and flexed and a growl escaped my throat which was equal parts need and pain.
All of the fucked up shit that I'd endured in my lifetime seemed determined to push in on me tonight and as much as I cared about this girl in my lap, it was taking everything I had to let her take control of my body like this.
Ever since that bitch, Deepthroat, had drugged me and pawed at me
without my permission, I'd taken my pleasure from girls on my own terms and tying them up wasn't just some kink I was into. I needed to have all the power in this exchange or I would lose my fucking mind. But Tatum wasn't just any girl. She was my girl. My wife. I knew I could trust her even if my body was aching with the need to restrain her with every touch she gifted me and I fought the urge to rip my belt off and use it to bind her.
I groaned as she pushed her panties aside and lined herself up on top of me, the head of my cock pushing against the slick wetness between her thighs as she panted with need.
My gaze met her blue eyes in the dim light as she slowly pushed herself down on top of me and I watched her pupils dilate as she laid her hands on my shoulders and moaned as she took all of me in inch by inch.
“Fuck,” I groaned as I wound my hands around her hips, holding her down on me and a needy moan escaped her as my cock filled her. "You know I'll never let anyone hurt you, don't you, baby?" I murmured as she began to move her hips in a torturously slow rhythm and I watched her ride me like she had me under a damn spell.
"I'll never let anyone hurt you either," she swore and it was like those words had been loosed from a bow aimed directly at my dark heart as the truth of them pierced right through me and made me bleed for her.
I leaned forward and kissed her hard as I began to move my hips to meet with hers and she moaned as her hands shifted down my chest and she explored the hard ridges of my abs.
With a grunt of anger aimed entirely at myself, I snatched her wrists into my grasp and tugged them behind her back. Tatum moaned in encouragement as I was rough with her and I cursed myself for having more reason for it than just her pleasure. I shifted my grip so that I could hold both of her wrists in my left hand and thrust into her harder as I moved my right hand between us to tease her clit.
It was hot and fast and sweaty, this desperate claiming of each other in the dark which we both needed more than any words following that fucking night. I just needed to own her and let her own me.
As her body clamped tight around me and she cried out, with her back arching I came hard and deep inside her, biting down on her nipple through her bra and marking her body once again. I couldn't help it. Every time I had her, I was overwhelmed with the need to mark her flesh and paint her body with the evidence of my presence like a beast.
Kings of Anarchy Page 37