I kicked and punched, hitting one asshole hard enough to knock a tooth out before one of my hands was locked into a leather cuff by the foot of the bed.
"What the fuck is this?" I roared, fighting savagely as two of them threw their weight on top of me and managed to pin me down on my back.
I bucked and kicked, my teeth sinking into a neck and ripping a chunk of flesh away, but it wasn't enough. Another cuff locked tight around my other wrist and my ankles were locked into the restraints on a spreader bar a moment later.
The guards scrambled away from me as I cursed and fought against the cuffs, tipping my head back to glare at my father as he narrowed his eyes at me, assessing me like I was a problem he needed to solve.
"Perhaps I should have taken a firmer hand with you before now," Father said, moving closer to me as the other men left the room.
I barked a humourless laugh because if he seriously thought he'd gone easy on me then he really was a fucking psychopath.
"Tell me what you did with the vaccines you stole from me," he said, his tone flat and icily cold. "Aside from the ones you wasted on those men out there."
I gave him my hardest, deadest look, not even bothering to reply. If he seriously thought I'd tell him that then he was insane. I would take the answer to that question to the grave. But of course he was going to try and force it from my lips anyway.
Father sighed as he turned away from me and for a few endless moments, I was left alone in the silence, straining my ears for some clue as to what was happening with Tatum and my brothers right now. Not that I heard anything, no matter how much I ached for some reassurance that they were close by. The stone walls didn't let any sound reach me before my father returned with a white dishcloth in hand.
Five men hurried in behind him, four of them placing metal buckets filled with cold water on the floor to the right of me. The last man placed a large copper trough at the foot of the bed behind my head.
Father calmly walked around the bed and tugged on something so that my legs were elevated, putting me on a slope and I slid down until I was hanging from the restraints by my ankles. My head hung over the end of the PVC mattress and I looked down at the copper trough as the guards left the room again.
"Last chance to make this easy," Father offered like he didn't have his only son strapped to a fucking BDSM bed in preparation for waterboarding him.
There was no way in fuck I was going to be giving him that answer, no matter what he did to me, so I offered him something else instead. Something which I knew would shatter all the illusions he'd ever had about me and the man he'd tried to carve me into with every single merciless act of fatherhood he'd bestowed upon me.
I spat at him, saliva landing on his perfectly polished loafer and actually making him flinch. For the first time ever, I saw his composure slip as his face crumpled with rage and disgust, but the vision was stolen from me as he dropped the washcloth over my face.
I barely had a moment to suck in a breath before the ice cold water crashed down over it and I fought against the urge to buck and flail as I held my breath and just tried to wait it out.
My lungs burned, my eyes scrunched shut and the cuffs on my wrists and ankles bit into my skin mercilessly. The sensation of drowning was almost overwhelming and when I had no choice but to try and suck in a breath, the feeling of it sent panic crashing through my chest.
But I didn't flinch. I didn't thrash or scream or beg. I didn't fucking break. And I wouldn't. No matter what he did to try and make me.
I was Saint-motherfucking-Memphis. I was born of the Devil and cast in the shape of hell. I'd never learned to bow, and I refused to bend. The only thing that would carve through my will was death itself. And if that came for me, I'd welcome it. Because my lips would never part on this secret and I would never cave to this beast who held me.
There was a time when Troy Memphis had ruled me with fear and the pathetic need to please him. But now the only one who held dominion over me was a girl with a heart too pure and a soul too good for me. Nothing else in this world could touch me now I was her creature. And I'd endure each and every ring of hell if that was what it took to return me to her side.
T he asshole guard who’d hit me dragged me along behind Karen and pushed me into a room with a symbol on the door that looked like some sort of wheel. Grief slashed through my chest over Kyan and I was starting to spiral as I tried not to fall apart completely. I’d seen that bullet rip into him, seen him fall and heard the crack as his head collided with the ground, seen the way he’d gone so still. Too still. It was the exact way my dad had looked when he’d died. I was in shock, unable to fully process what had happened as I fought not to lose control. Because if I did, I’d never get back to my boys.
Silent tears tracked down my cheeks as my heart was carved up over Kyan, leaving it bloody and raw, the pain too blinding to bear. I had to fight for him. Because he would have brought heaven and hell to ruin if it had been me laying in his place. So I would do that for him. I’d find some lasting shard of strength in my soul to hold onto and I’d finish this war for my inked god. And when it was over, I’d let myself break and suffer in the wake of his absence until there was nothing left of me.
There were raised seats facing a red curtain inside the room and I was shoved down into one while Karen stayed on her feet.
“Thank you, Raul, you can go and dispose of the dead body now,” she said curtly and a noise of utter grief left me before I lost it, lunging at her, wanting to tear her apart with my bare hands in the name of Kyan.
She grabbed a gun from inside her robes and shifted her finger onto the trigger as she aimed it at me, making me pause. “You may be important, girl, but if you fight me, I assure you I will shoot. So sit down.”
The guard left and I gritted my teeth, staring at the gun and calculating the risk of attacking her, trying to pry it from her hand and turning it on her. If she got close enough, careless enough, I might just have a chance. But I couldn’t give away that that was my intention, so I looked her in the eye and dropped back into my chair like I was admitting defeat. But hell if I was. I struggled to calm the shaking of my hands as I thought of Kyan and ached over his loss. I’ll burn the world down for you, my dark sinner, the fire will blaze so bright you’ll see it wherever you are.
“I know this is a lot to take in,” she started.
“I can handle it,” I said bitterly. “You’re my mother? Sure, maybe you are. Do you think that earns you something with me? Because it doesn’t. As far as I’m concerned, I have no mother.”
“I did not abandon you, Adriana,” she snipped, and I grimaced at that name. “But if you think I care what you think of me, you’re mistaken. I gave you a chance a long time ago, both you and your sister. But I saw what you’d become.”
“A chance?” I scoffed. “When was that then?”
“I found you eventually. It took years of searching, but I tracked your father down and followed you all to a mall in Atlanta. When he left you in a clothes store, I came to speak with you both. To see if you remembered me, to see what kind of people he’d raised you to be. You were ten and Josie was thirteen.”
“That’s not her name,” I snarled, hating that her story sounded vaguely familiar. I remembered my dad making us leave that town when I’d really wanted to stay. Having to leave my friend Elle behind without any notice. Had he known Karen had tracked us down? “Her name was Jessica.”
She waved a hand dismissively, irritation flashing in her eyes. “The two of you were riddled with your father’s influence. He hadn’t brought you up how I’d hoped. You were just pawns of society, just like every other child in the United States.” She sneered in disgust, raising the gun a little and making me shift in my seat. “I knew then it was too late to save you from him, that you’d always see me as the big bad wolf. Your father ruined you both and then he went and killed one of you.” She shook her head in irritation.
“Don’t you speak about him like that,” I sna
pped, my blood heating. “He was trying to protect us. That was all he ever did.”
“Oh yes,” she said mockingly. “I saw how frightened he was. I had my people watch him for a while, teaching you all of that prepper nonsense. And do you know why he did that?” She stepped closer, gazing down her nose at me. “Because he was afraid of me. Of what I was capable of. Of my power.” She said the final word with reverence in her tone and it made me hate her with a fierce passion. “He had seen behind the curtain. He knew that the world could fall at any moment because of my inventions and those of my friends. So he tried to prepare you and your sister for the end of days. He made you afraid. He made you weak. He vaccinated you against any virus he could just in case that was the one that ended up out in the world. If you’d been at my side, on the side of the real power, you would never have been afraid a day in your life.”
“My dad did not make me weak,” I hissed. “He made me strong. Far stronger than you.”
She tsked. “You know nothing of real strength. I have the whole country on puppet strings. I can make the great fall and the small rise. I am a goddess, Adriana. And you could have been one too.”
I stood from my seat with my teeth bared and Karen raised the gun to aim it between my eyes. “I told you not to use that name,” I warned. “I’m Tatum Rivers. The daughter of Donovan Rivers. I’m not yours, I’m his.”
“Sit down and listen to me,” she barked. I hesitated before complying, the darkness in her eyes telling me she really would pull that trigger if she had to. And I was no good to my boys dead. “That wasn’t even his real name you sad fool. So if you’re his then you belong to a dead man with a fake identity,” she laughed coldly and my breaths came frantically, though I was too proud to demand to know his real name. Because it didn’t matter. He was my dad. He was Donovan just like I was Tatum and Jess was Jess. We were the Rivers family, and this bitch was not a part of it.
“He’s dead because of me, you know?” she went on with a triumphant smile on her face and pain and rage spilled through my chest. I said nothing, containing my emotions as Dad would have instructed, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. I’d let her talk until I had that gun and was planting six bullets in her skull. “I set him up, I had the Apollo Company send him a letter to offer him a job there – a company that I own. I’d been working on a virus which would make an exceptional bioweapon. One that would wipe out the weak and allow the strong to rise. But when your father moved close to the California lab, I saw an opportunity for revenge against him. He accepted of course, considering the high salary included in the package, but then the dumb schmuck went and gave you a half-cocked vaccine for the damn Hades Virus years later.”
Her whole face screwed up like she gave a damn about Jess and bile rose in my throat.
“Don’t stand there and pretend she meant something to you,” I growled, grief welling up in me over this bitch being responsible for the very virus which had killed my sister. “I’ve seen what people like you do at Royaume D’élite. I know the pain you cause, the blood you spill. You’re not capable of loving someone other than yourself.”
“You’re wrong,” she said with emotion in her eyes. “I loved you and Josie more than anything in the world. But you’ve been poisoned by society. It’s too late for you to be like me now.”
“I would rather die than be like you,” I spat, disgusted at the mere prospect.
Her eyes darkened and she shifted the gun in her grip like she wanted to fire it. But she didn’t. “I suppose I punished you all in the end. Perhaps you deserve the fate awaiting you, Tatum. Perhaps it will teach you the value of power. Because you hold all of it in your veins now.”
“The vaccine you mean?” I growled.
“Yes,” she sighed. “After I had your father tricked into stealing the virus and the new vaccine from his own lab and handing them over to one of Troy’s contacts, Mortez, it soon became clear the vaccine wasn’t entirely effective. But it wasn’t a total failure. The security cameras caught him and voila, the whole world had a new enemy. An enemy I made of him,” she purred. “In his final days, he was hated by everyone, he was shown for the weakling he was-”
“My father was not weak!” I roared and she stepped forward, pressing the gun to my thigh.
“We might need you, girl, but we don’t need all of you. Watch your tone or I’ll start your punishment now.”
“What punishment?” I hissed.
She started smiling and I took a deep breath to stop myself from lunging for her, keeping my head level, preparing for my next move. But it was nearly impossible to remain within that calm place inside me. Because this bitch had been the cause of all of this. She was responsible for my dad’s death, the reason he lay in ashes in a box, the reason he would never hold me again, the reason I’d never hear his voice or feel his touch. He was gone because of this atrocious woman. And I would make sure she bled out at my feet by the end of this night.
“We have until morning before my men arrive to take you to our new lab in the mountains so we can restart our work on creating a vaccine. I couldn’t believe it when Troy discovered you and the secret you hold. Fate led you to bump into his own son and give the game away. I find it rather amusing that the very place your father tried to hide you led to me finding you again. And what a delightful surprise your miracle blood was. I guess your father did something worthwhile after all.”
My breaths came heavily as my fingers bit into my palms. “I’m not going to some fucking lab again.”
“You will. And you’ll bleed for us in payment for your father’s arrogance,” she said, sounding disappointed. “Troy was in quite the rage when you were rescued from his lab the first time, so we’ll be taking measures to ensure that won’t be possible again.”
“What measures?” I spat.
She tugged on a rope beside the curtains and they drew back, revealing a balcony that looked down on large room with two huge wooden crosses set up beside one another. Nash and Blake were strapped to them, stripped down to their boxers, their arms and legs locked in place against the wooden X. Nash had a bright red cross painted across his chest and Blake had a blue one, marking them out like fucking cattle.
“No!” I gasped in horror, leaping out of my seat as the loud music blared from somewhere below.
Anger and fear swirled in their eyes as they fought against their restraints, but I didn’t think they could see me with the spotlights shining in their eyes, making my heart twist up into a knot of terror. “Blake – Nash!” I yelled and their eyes widened as they fought harder to get free, calling my name in reply.
“Let them go!” I screamed, rounding on Karen, about to lunge for that gun when the door opened and the other Grand Masters poured into the room, taking seats to watch the show though Troy wasn’t among them. A guard stepped up behind me with his hand rested on a machine gun at his hip and jerked his head at me in a command to sit down.
“It’s a dog-eat-dog world, Tatum,” Karen said icily, taking her seat just as I was shoved down beside her by the guard. “And I’d rather be a pitbull than a chihuahua.”
“If you hurt them, I will hurt you so bad that you’ll beg me for death,” I swore, fear sweeping through me in an overwhelming wave.
Karen smiled cruelly at me. “Or perhaps when they are dead and you accept that no one will come to save you ever again, you will realise that you never stood a chance of taking on a palace of gods.”
T he taste of blood flooded my mouth from my busted lip, and I spat a wad of it onto the floor as I squinted against the bright lights which were aimed right into my fucking face.
My muscles bunched as I tried to lift a hand to shield my eyes but the restraint on my wrist stopped me.
The giant cross I'd been strapped to was rough and hard against my spine and the metal cuffs that held my wrists cut into my skin painfully. My feet barely touched the floor and I muttered curses as I slipped an inch, making the cuffs bite into my wrists with a slice of agony.
"Nash?" Blake called from my right and I grunted, still squinting into the light as I tried to make out the figures in the room beyond it. Tatum was there somewhere, I’d heard her, I was certain of it.
But the figures were little more than indistinct silhouettes with the light shining so brightly, so it was impossible to put faces to the men I was vowing to kill.
"Where's Tatum?” I bellowed, my throat raw from the amount of times I'd screamed those words at the dark room in the past half hour while we'd been left strapped here like this. “Is she up there?” I squinted up at the balcony, but it was no good, the lights were too bright.
I still didn't get any answers. They hadn't spoken a single word to us since we'd been dragged away from Kyan's body and hauled in here, strapped up like a pair of pagan sacrifices and left to fucking wait until now. The pain of his loss was like a shard of ice being driven into my heart and I didn’t know how to handle it. He was my brother, my dearest friend, my family.
"Place your bets," a man called out as a door opened somewhere behind me and I cursed as my position made it impossible for me to turn and see him.
The most I could do was meet Blake's gaze as he strained against the restraints holding him to his own cross, his dark hair spilling into his eyes and sticking to his temple where blood trickled down his face from a wound in his hairline.
There was a big blue cross painted over his bare chest and I glanced down at the red cross they'd painted on mine, wondering what fucked up games they had planned for us.
Kyan had told us the stories about the things they did at Royaume D’élite and I had no doubt that this was likely to end really fucking badly for us if we didn't manage to escape.
"Red or Blue? Last bets now," the man called and the sound of something being wheeled across the wooden floor reached me just as he stepped into view, pushing what looked a bit like a roulette wheel into place between me and Blake on a large cart.
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