by Dani René
When my lids finally crack, I find green eyes piercing me with concern written on his beautiful face.
He reaches for me, cupping my cheek in his smooth hand. His touch is tender, affectionate, and I allow myself a moment to lean into it. I shouldn’t do this. But I can’t stop the need to feel something other than the pain burning through my lower half.
“What did they do?”
“Help me,” I rasp, tugging on the rope that’s secured to the legs of the bench.
He nods. His fingers move swiftly, and it doesn’t take him long to free me. River helps me dress in a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. His arms wrap around me, offering me the love I can never return.
We’ve known each other for seven years. We’re both reaching the age where most kids are graduating from high school, but we’re held in here like prisoners. He leads me up to my bedroom. Once I’m lying on the soft mattress, he curls up beside me and questions once more.
“What happened?”
“They made me watch the videos again.” I shudder as I quietly recall the moment the television screen lit up with images I can never expunge from my mind.
“And the blood?”
Another shudder of revulsion races through me when I open my mouth to speak. But the words I want to say don’t come. I can’t tell my best friend what happened. Even if he knows, he’s been through it as well, I’m ashamed of myself for surviving and for the pleasure I found as they forced me to endure it.
“Drake, it’s not your fault,” River insists as he reaches for me once more, but this time I don’t allow him to touch me. I don’t let him get too close because he’s already far too attached to me.
He needs to be free. He needs to have a normal life. And that doesn’t include me.
Somehow, I need to free him, and that means I have to stop this . . . thing . . . between us. He needs to hate me. I’ll make sure he does. It’s easy because I’m not worthy of the love he so clearly holds for me.
“Get out of my room,” I bite out, shoving myself off the bed.
He doesn’t say anything. There’s no response as I stalk into my bathroom and push the sweatpants down my thighs. As soon as the material falls to the floor, I see it. The blood he asked about.
Swallowing past the lump in my throat, I focus on the shower as I step into it. Opening the tap, I let the water prick my skin violently as it heats up.
My eyes are closed when I hear the door slide open.
“You can push all you want, Drake,” River tells me with sadness lacing his tone. “But one day, you’ll have to learn to accept that I’ll never leave you.”
And then I’m alone.
Like I should be.
That’s when I allow the tears to fall.
Growing up the way I did, I was fucked-up beyond my years by the time I was sixteen. My attachment to both men and women drove me to make stupid choices, and in those moments, I ensured my best friend would never leave me. He fell in love with me long before I even knew what that word meant. At times, I still don’t. I’m nearing thirty, and I have no idea what love is. And I know it’s not something I’ll ever want. Even if it hits me right in the face.
I push River away.
I push everyone away.
I don’t deserve any affection, but there are times I crave a touch. I glance at River who’s watching me intently as we head to my wing of the mansion. As soon as we’re in the bedroom, I shove him against the door, my cock throbbing when he reaches for it, squeezing it painfully.
“This is what you wanted?” I bite out, anger suddenly running rife through my veins. As much as I would love the taste and feel of a slick, tight hole right now, I’m going to take my best friend and fuck away the agony gripping my chest.
Over the years, we’ve shared women. I’ve watched him fuck guys and women, but he’s never spent more than one or two nights with someone, and deep down, I know it’s due to his feelings for me. River has loved me for most of our lives together.
“You want to take out your anger on me?” he rumbles, causing me to snap my gaze to him. “Do it.” It’s a challenge. It burns in his eyes, and I want to extinguish the flame with fire of my own. I crash my mouth to his, our lips molding to each other's.
My hands are on his belt, tugging it from the loops. Freeing his zipper, I shove his slacks down and find his bulge throbbing beneath my hand.
Tears sting my eyes. I can’t let them fall. My emotions are all over the place. It’s the first time I’ve killed a woman, and the darkness seems to be dragging me under. River’s tongue licks into my mouth, tasting of smoke and whiskey. Spicy and sweet mingled together to create a fucking intoxicating mix of want and need.
His hands grip my crisp white shirt, and he rips it harshly. Buttons pop against every surface within reach. The sound pinging like a warning siren in the darkness of the room.
“Don’t let them win,” he tells me when I suck on the flesh of his neck. His skin is soft, pliable, and my teeth sink in, causing him to groan. He rolls his hips against me, and it’s my turn to grunt in pleasure. Our cocks rubbing against each other, we’re dry humping like fucking teenagers, and I’m so close to blowing my load in my boxers.
“They’ll lose. Every one of them,” I inform him. Practically tearing at his underwear, I drop to my knees and take his cock in my mouth. River’s fingers tangle in my hair, pulling me closer, causing me to choke on his thickness as I swallow my best friend. His eyes glower down at me, watching me like he would anyone else, but the smirk on his lips tells me this is what he’s always wanted. Me, Drake Savage, on my knees for him.
It’s the first time I’ve ever tasted him, and I revel in it. Licking slowly, dragging my teeth over the shaft, eliciting groans from deep in his throat.
“Fuck, Drake,” he hisses, his head dropping back against the door as he plunges himself into my throat. His hips move in unison with his hands, and I allow him control. Suddenly, he pulls me off him. “Time to go to bed.”
I rise, following him, watching as he perches on the edge of the mattress. His beautiful, naked body is sculpted to perfection, and in the dim light, the scars on his back are only just visible.
“Are you just going to stand there?” he questions, a smirk playing on his lips, the same lips I want to devour. Offering him a smile, I shove my boxers down and join him. Kneeling behind him, I grip his shoulders, feeling the tight muscles beneath my fingers.
Leaning in closer, I trail my lips along his neck. “I don’t know how you do it, River,” I whisper. “But each time you touch me, kiss me, I feel almost normal.”
He turns in my grip, my hands falling away when he gets up onto the mattress in front of me. We’re both naked. Our scars clear, matching. The pain we’ve both endured has been something we haven’t spoken about, but we both understand it’s there.
“You’re not almost normal, Drake,” he says, reaching for my neck, gripping it tightly as he presses his mouth to mine. “You’re fucked up. So am I.” I hear the click of the door, and I know who’s entered. I don’t look at him, but I feel him. The electricity in the room is at an all-time high.
Two bodies move in my peripheral, and I cast a quick glance their way. The girl is blindfolded. My brother leads her to the chaise near the window, making her kneel on the velvet material. Her body is covered in black lace. River’s hand finds my cock, stroking it slowly as I watch Dante undress slowly.
“Where am I?” The girl giggles, but he doesn’t respond. Once he’s naked, I take note of his eyes boring into mine. He guides himself into her, causing a soft gasp to fall from her lips. His hips slam against her ass as she grips onto the back of the seat.
River’s hand moves faster on my dick, and I know I won’t last long watching the scene. Four of us in the room is more than I can handle. Watching my brother, having my best friend jerking me off, I’ll soon be lost to it. To the darkness.
“Listen to her moans,” River whispers in my ear, careful not to disturb the bodies bef
ore us. I reach for him, his hardness in my fist, throbbing, pulsing.
“Get on all fours,” I bite out, and he obeys. This is what he lives for. To be mine. To be owned by me and my dick. Opening the drawer beside the bed, I pull out the lube. Snapping the cap open, I drench River in the cold liquid along with my cock. The slippery lube glistens on my shaft. Gripping myself, I guide the tip to River’s ass, and as I slowly penetrate his tight ring of muscle, we all groan in unison. Sounds of sex echo through my bedroom.
River’s hands grip the sheets, and inch by inch, I sink into him, taking him like he wants me to. Dante looks over at me as he pulls himself from the girl’s sloppy cunt and positions his cock at her ass.
“You ever do this, baby?” He chuckles, dark and menacing, and I know he doesn’t care if she hurts. My brother is cold, heartless, just like me. She whimpers a tentative yes, but I have a feeling she’s lying. Dante spits down on her hole, circling it with his thumb before he thrusts balls-deep inside her, eliciting a screech so loud it bounces off the walls, and I’m almost certain it would’ve cracked the windows if we didn’t have bulletproof glass in place.
“It hurts,” she mutters, attempting to get away from him, but Dante doesn’t care. His pleasure is all he cares about. His hips pull away from her, then drive back in. I match his thrusts, fucking River harder and faster. Moans and whimpers, squeals and grunts.
“Take it,” Dante groans. “Take my fucking dick.” He continues fucking her wildly, and soon, she’s bucking into him. Her tits bounce with every thrust, and I shut my eyes, picturing Caia. How much I wanted to use her body, to feel her cunt, to have her choke on my dick.
Darkness swirls through me. Desire so potent I can’t help groaning as it heats my blood and burns through my veins. River moans, low and gravelly, and I know he’s found his release. Moments later, as the pretty whore my brother is fucking cries out, I join him in euphoria and empty myself inside my best friend.
In the moments of my coming down from the high, I know I can’t keep doing this, but there’s no way out for me. Tomorrow, I’ll tell River to leave. I’ll give Dante his way out. And I’ll finish this alone.
4
Drake
“Drake.” My brother saunters into the office where I’m sitting behind our father’s desk. “I found something.” It’s been years since he’s come to me with a job, or with news, but when I meet his gaze, there’s emotion flickering in his expression.
“What?”
He throws the file on the desk, causing it to slide through the documents I’ve been working on. The yellow manila file has the words SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT emblazoned in black ink on the front. I lift my eyes, meeting his arching eyebrow in question.
“Just open the fucking thing,” he bites out. I watch Dante settle in the chair near the desk, crossing one ankle on the opposite leg. He pulls out a cigarette, lighting it and inhaling a long draw before looking at me again. “If you don’t want to find her, I’ll go.”
“Find who?” I chuckle, flipping the cover open to find a photo that grips my lungs, forcing all the air from them. Big eyes meet mine from the image of a girl, a ghost. Her hair is matted to her forehead. She’s older. About twenty-two or so, I’m not sure. Her lips are still as pouty as I remember, but the dark circle under her left eye is new. It’s purple-blue, darkened by someone’s fist, or foot. A small scar along her cheek reminds me of the moments I held her trembling body against mine as she bled out.
Her neck is covered in ink, a tattoo which makes me wonder if she has any others on her porcelain skin. She’s still as beautiful as I recall in my mind. Even though I haven’t seen her in so long, it’s as if I’m back in that room, holding her, bathing her.
“Is this some kind of joke?” My voice is raspy when I finally look at Dante again.
He shakes his head. “She’s been bought. According to the research Hunter found, when they removed her from our compound, Thanos bought her from Malcolm.” He spits our father’s name, and I don’t fucking blame him. I’ve hated the man all my life. The only good thing he ever did was bring River into my life.
“So, you mean to tell me she’s alive?”
“Indeed, dear brother, and tonight we’re heading to the club to find out where Thanos is,” Dante smirks. “And once we get the location, we can find your girl.”
“She’s not mine.” It’s a lie. Dante knows it; I know it. I claimed her without a second thought, and I’d do it again and again if it meant I get to hear her voice one more time.
“Look, Drake, you’ve beat yourself up about this for far too long,” my brother sighs. “It’s time we finish this once and for all. We all have our lives to live. We’re not even thirty yet. We have our lives ahead of us. We can move on.”
Sighing, I run my fingers through my hair. Dante is adamant. His expression tells me that much. I lift the photo, my eyes glued to the girl staring back at me. If she’s still alive, I can finally save her. I can do the one thing I promised before I lose who I am.
The club where we’re meeting Thanos is well guarded, and I know this because I’ve scoped it out each time I’ve been here. There’s no way to take the fucker down on his home turf. If he really has Caia, I’ll get her back. One way or another.
River is beside me as always, but he hasn’t said a word since we left home. Dante opted to come alone, and I know it’s because he’s planning on taking one of the girl’s home tonight. We’re the only clients of Thanos's allowed to do so.
Each girl who works for the asshole can do what they want onsite, but going home with a customer is forbidden. Since Malcolm was good friends with Thanos, we’re always allowed special privileges in his clubs. They’re dotted across the country, and what goes on inside is nothing short of a porn set.
“What’s wrong with you tonight?” River final questions.
“Nothing.” My response is clipped, signaling end of the story. Pulling into the parking lot, I turn off the engine and exit the car before he can get into the emotional shit I don’t want. I didn’t tell him Caia could still be alive. I also didn’t tell him I think she’s working for Thanos. From the photo, I picked up tattoos all over her porcelain skin. Her hair is a deep red, clearly different from what I recall. And she’s grown up. Older. More beautiful than before.
As we near the door, I notice the entrance is guarded by two bouncers dressed like CIA agents. When we reach them, I offer a nod, and one of them opens the metal door, allowing us entrance. I’ve been here a few times before. Even helped them stop fights, so when I walk into the VIP area, I’m welcomed.
“Drake Savage.” The sultry tone of Alysia comes from behind me. When I turn to find the beautiful brunette, her big blue eyes take note of the shirt I’m wearing, trailing down to my crotch, then snapping back to my cobalt gaze. “How are you, handsome?”
“Good.” I smile, lifting the bottle one of the barmen sets on the counter. Taking a long gulp, I watch her sidle over to River. His blond hair and tanned skin always have the ladies fawning over his surfer looks. When they hear his British accent, I’ve all but lost their interest to my best friend.
Then they find out we fuck together, or not at all, and it’s as if we’ve won the jackpot. I watch Alysia and River while I down my drink in a few gulps. My gaze rakes over the club, taking in everyone within.
“Hello.” A gentle tone comes from beside me. The large brown eyes I find remind me of a girl I lost a long while ago peer up at me with an innocent smile.
“Darling,” I respond. Setting the bottle on the bar, I signal for another drink. “Are you old enough to be here?”
She blushes, dropping her gaze to the floor, then she drags her huge eyes to mine. “You’re Drake Savage,” she tells me earnestly, and I’m immediately on edge.
“And you are?” Arching an eyebrow, I watch her for a moment before leaning in closer. “I don’t fuck unless I know your name.” My whisper elicits a shiver from her slim frame, and I smile.
“Malcolm Savage
was the one who got me this job, before he died.” Her words send ice trickling through my veins. Mentioning my father’s name is what catches my attention though, and I know that’s what she’s looking for.
“Who the fuck are you?” I hiss, gripping her bicep, dragging her up the steps that take us to the private VIP booths. Shoving her into one, I tug the curtain closed and pin her with a glare. “I asked you a fucking question, little girl.”
“I’m Harper,” she murmurs, a blush still evident on her face. The name she offers means nothing to me. Fuck all. I don’t know how she knows me or my father, but I’ll soon find out, even if I have to get violent.
“And your name should mean something to me?” Crossing my arms in front of my chest, I watch her flinch at my harsh tone. Perhaps I’m being too hard on her, but I have to be wary. Especially if I’m taking out my father’s partners in the organization. It’s not easy, and it’s far from safe.
“My sister . . . She was taken four years ago,” the girl tells me. “She had just turned eighteen, so she’d gone out with some friends to a party. I couldn’t go with her because I was only sixteen at the time. I told her to stay home, that our father would be furious if he found out she wasn’t at home. I waited up until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. I wasn’t sure what had happened, but my father came home and told me my sister had to go away for a while. She . . .” Her words fall silent, and I realize I know exactly what she’s trying to tell me.
“She didn’t come home. Did she?” My question causes her to shake her head no. I already knew the answer, but I wanted confirmation.
So much for a good fuck tonight.
“What’s your sister’s name?” I ask, hoping I’ve at least heard of the girl. I can find out if Thanos has her working one of his clubs. But I’m not prepared for her answer. Not at all.