by Anna Zaires, Pepper Winters, Skye Warren, Lynda Chance, Pam Godwin, Amber Lin
What could he do? He didn’t have his arms, but if he stood, kicked high and hard in that vile face, he might—Might what? Buy them time to run? That wouldn’t save her family.
Her trembling fingers clutched at his waist, and he was thankful for the cage of chains and the command that held his eyes hostage. One downward look at the savage motion of hips, or worse, if he found a haunted expression on her face while she sucked him, his obedient slave routine would shatter.
“Come now.” Traquero’s voice was an abrasive rasp, bred by a hundred stolen thrusts.
She responded by accelerating the speed and intensity of her sucking, pumping her fist in sync with her mouth, urging him to comply. And he would. He would end this for her.
He kept his eyes on Traquero but didn’t see him, his mind chasing every beautiful and painful thing he loved about this girl. Her guarded brown eyes, her rare smile, the purity of her voice, the cut of her whip, her lips sliding over his length. The grip she held on his heart and her control over his body made him ache, sped his pulse, tightened his groin, gathering, reaching.
Traquero grunted. “Come.”
Only for her. He held it, let it coil, until she pinched his backside. His climax barreled through him, strangled his breath. He gave it to her, all of him, raw and willing, his release in her mouth so intimate, the room melted away. He was on her tongue, dripping down her throat, fusing with her body. Just the two of them. He was hers.
The horrors around him snapped back with Traquero’s gasp. “Unnngh.” The bastard’s body doubled over her arched spine, trapping her chest against Josh’s thigh. The wife wailed a pitiful moan, and he laughed. Then he stood, stuffed the used condom in his pocket, and tucked himself into his slacks. “Get up.” He jerked his bald head at Liv.
She replaced the scarf over her nose and mouth. Josh ached for her, and that ache erupted into a burning rage. He wanted her to remind Traquero she wasn’t a slave, even as he knew she wouldn’t be able to reason with a man whose evil bled from his skin to his bones.
She adjusted her skirt and rose with shoulders stiff, hands fisted, and eyes smoldering like embers of a dying fire. “Boy, go stand by the door.”
Dammit, Liv. He knew she was sending him out of harm’s way, but what about her safety? If he disobeyed, the deal would fall through and her family would suffer.
He fixed his gaze on the floor and crossed the room, sweat dripping down his back in his effort to obey. Every step away from her killed him.
“Give me the referral, and we have a deal.” She wielded her voice like a blade slashing the air, but there was a slight hitch in the inhale that followed. Pain from the brutality she’d endured? Fear of what might happen next?
Traquero paced a circuit around the room, gathering his suit jacket and straightening his tie. “I don’t like what I see.”
Her laugh was a cold shiver. “What, his cock’s too big for you? His face is too pretty? What the fuck do you not like?”
“He comes for you, not me.”
The man just did unspeakable things to her and had the balls to sound petulant. Josh was a hairsbreadth from body slamming him. He locked his legs. To stand there and do absolutely nothing flung his nervous system into a havoc of messed-up signals. His muscles pumped to use physical force while his brain bellowed the consequences.
Despite what just happened, she’d dealt with predators like Traquero before. She was their best shot at getting out of this. So he kept his eyes down, his periphery rising no further than their waists.
“You wanted a straight boy. Of course, he’s going to come for me.” She leaned a shoulder against the wife’s suspended body as if she were a lamp post. Her fingers rested on her thigh, just inside the top of her boot.
Traquero’s pacing stopped behind a narrow counter. “Get away from her.”
Liv straightened but didn’t step away. “After ten weeks of training, he will crawl to you on his belly, lick the cheese from your nut sac, and plead for your cock in his ass, all while quivering with anticipation to come on your command.”
The god-awful image boiled bile into Josh’s throat. He stood by the door, his distance from her a heavy frustration, his chains equally so. At least, the width of the room separated her from Traquero.
“There’s something else going on.” Traquero buttoned his jacket. “You’re protecting him.”
“I protect my assets, you delusional fuck. Until you pay, he’s mine to keep undamaged and unused. If you’re not man enough to want him, another Master will be. Do we have a deal?”
Her voice was ice, but beneath her taunting, Josh could hear a crack. If Traquero were listening past her words, he would’ve heard it, too.
“No,” Traquero said. “No deal.”
Silence, so stagnant it clotted Josh’s inhales and clung to his skin. His muscles contracted, preparing. What was she thinking? What would she do? Her temerity scared the ever-loving crap out of him.
“Go to the car, boy.”
She was out of her mind. He rooted his feet to the floor.
“You go.” Traquero shifted against the counter. “He stays.”
Josh snapped his head up as Traquero pulled a snubnosed revolver from beneath the counter and trained it on Liv. Blood thundered in his ears. He jerked forward and crashed to a halt when he saw the gun in her hand.
She shoved the barrel through the ring that held the wife’s mouth open. “Are you a good shot, Traquero? Maybe you’ll hit me at that distance. Maybe you won’t.” Her dark eyes blazed with ruthlessness, but flickering in the depths was a hint of desperation. “We both know I won’t miss.”
Josh’s heart died in his throat. Liv was gambling on Traquero’s caliber of bullet, his accuracy from thirty feet, and his level of duress. If he didn’t hit her with the first shot, chances were he’d kill her with the second.
The room stood still, waiting for Traquero’s response.
Chapter Thirty-One
Josh’s breathing shallowed. His heart knocked against his ribs. Every frenzied thought concentrated on the aim of Traquero’s gun.
The glow from the filmy bulb gilded Traquero’s distorted face in a putrid yellow. “Don’t shoot her.” The revolver’s nose tipped down, just an inch. “Please.”
There was nothing shocking about a man begging for his wife’s life unless that man was Traquero. But Liv didn’t seem shocked. Somehow, she’d figured him out.
“Empty the gun. Toss it.”
She spoke as a Deliverer, a Mistress, a cold criminal. But that wasn’t who she was. No matter the mask, Josh had never wanted anything more than the courageous, reckless woman trapped beneath it.
Falling bullets plinked on the floor. Traquero chucked the revolver, and it clambered somewhere beyond the reach of light.
Holding her gun in the woman’s mouth, she removed her phone from her boot. Probably the same place she’d concealed her gun. “The referral.”
As he rattled off a phone number, she typed with her thumb and, given her subtle exhale, sent off the text. “Don’t fucking move.” She stared at the screen, her gun hand unwavering. A moment later, she said, “Confirmed.”
Thus, securing the lives of her family. Her drive to protect was fierce. He wanted that same kind of protection for her. He wanted to be that for her.
She returned her phone to her boot and kept the gun aimed on the woman as she backed toward the door, her feet gliding smoothly and confidently. “I need a phone number for the delivery.”
Traquero stared at his wife like he wanted to run to her. “Maybe I want a different boy. One who doesn’t look at you like that.”
She stumbled and resumed her backward walk. “They all look at me like that. You’ll change your mind when the training is done.” She held the door for Josh and followed him out.
For five minutes, she drove, silent, eyes darting to the side mirror. He wanted her to fall apart the moment she hit the gas. He needed to see her, not the damned Deliverer. The stink of fear and sw
eat oscillated through the dark interior, but somehow she held it together.
His nerves stretched, and his pulse refused to slow down. He tried not think about the battered wife, the botched deal, or Traquero raping her from behind, but his thoughts surpassed turbulent. His hands ached in the wires. He wanted out of his chains. He needed to hold her. He felt so damned useless. “Liv? Talk to me.”
She turned off the road and followed a long dirt path through a thick cluster of trees. Deep within the grove, she stopped and turned off the engine, her eyes hidden by the moonless night.
Wrestling with the scarf, she untangled it from her hair and tossed it to the side. The screen on the phone in her hand awoke, casting a soft light over the dash as she knelt in the space between their seats. A flash of pain sparked in her eyes. “I have to call Van.”
He clamped his teeth together. He knew she’d need to check in. The nightmare was never-ending.
She connected the call, her gaze watery and heartbreaking. She squinted at the screen, at Josh, then switched it to speaker and set it on the dash.
“Already talked with the referral.” Van’s voice prickled across his skin. “He wants a girl. The usual requirements.”
Kate was still at the house, waiting for her delivery day. So another girl would be ripped from her life. Dread clamped his stomach.
“I’ll leave in the morning,” Van said, blandly.
Leaving? A rush of possibilities jump-started Josh’s brain.
She touched his fists with trembling fingers and untwisted the wires. “I didn’t secure the deal.”
“What do you mean?” The question dripped from the phone, a slow ominous reverberation.
Her face paled in the screen’s dim light, her expression tight. “He wants a heterosexual boy to come for him on demand. It didn’t happen the way he wanted.”
“What the fuck did happen, Liv?”
She sucked in a sharp inhale. The wires loosened between their hands. Circulation rushed to Josh’s fingers in biting stings, but the sensation dulled with the rush of her next words.
“He fucked my ass, Van. Then he fucked me again by rejecting the deal.” She pulled the wire free and flung it at the back of the van, her teeth grinding so violently he could hear the enamel scraping.
The line went quiet for a heartbeat, two… The sound of shattered glass crashed through the speaker. “Goddammit, Liv. God fucking dammit.” Heavy exhales. “Get home. Now.”
She winced then recovered with squared shoulders. She unscrewed the quick links connecting Josh’s chains and paused on the last one. “The videos.”
“There won’t be any fucking videos.” The line went dead.
She ducked her chin, hiding her face. A surge of anger rocked Josh backward. He knew Van didn’t have any control over the videos or what would happen to their daughter, but he sure as hell wasn’t putting his ass on the line to fight for her. Josh suspected he was more afraid of losing Liv and this fragile arrangement than anything else.
The chains fell off his chest and arms and pooled around his waist. His freedom swept through him in ragged breaths.
She gazed at him with stiff lines of determination on her face, an expression he’d seen a hundred times, the unwavering glare that tortured him, aroused him, conjured his nightmares, and filled his dreams.
He memorized each twitch of her lashes, the delicate point of her raised chin, every faltered breath. He was consumed with having her and terrified to lose her. “Tell me what you’re thinking.” He reached up to brush his fingers through her thick dark hair.
She recoiled before his hand made contact. A blank mask fell over her face, a wall of ice slamming between them. She moved to the driver seat and faced forward.
His momentary calm burst into a roaring fire. Hands fisting, heart pounding, he didn’t know what do with the fury burning through his veins. He tagged his jeans and boots from the floorboard and jumped out.
He dressed as he walked, jerking on his boots, kicking branches out of his path. His muscles heated, and sweat slicked his bare chest, chilling in the night air. He wasn’t angry at her. He was angry for her. The abuse done to her body. The helplessness of her situation. His inability to free her.
He slammed a fist into the nearest tree trunk. Again. Again. Pain ricocheted through his hand, down his arm, and fed his breaking heart.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught her silhouette standing a few yards away. A slender shadow, shrouded by darkness. And in her raised arms, she held a gun, trained on him.
He threw another fist. Absorbed the burn. Expelled the rancor. He knew she was holding a gun on him to prevent him from running and putting her family at further risk. Regardless, she wouldn’t shoot him. Not because she needed a slave, but because she loved what was hers with a self-destructing passion. He faced her and held out his arms. “I’m yours.”
The girl and the gun didn’t move.
“Lose the damned mask and stop hiding from me.” He raked his throbbing hands through his hair. “Scream, cry, hit something. Hit me. But for God’s sake, let it out.”
The shadowy lines of her body wavered. The gun lowered, returned to her boot.
He stretched out his arms, savoring the cool breeze brushing over his unrestrained skin. “I stand here without rope or chains, Liv, tethered to you by my own will.” His blood beat with the ferocity of his words. “I won’t be free until you are.”
Her head jerked back, her body rigid. Then she walked straight to him and unleashed her fists on his chest. She clobbered him over and over, her gasps accelerating with each fall of her hand.
The lashing didn’t hurt. Not like the whimpers rising from her chest. She was hurting, lashing out for the wrongs that had been done to her. A sharp pain swelled in his throat. The only thing he could do was take it in, try to bear some of it for her.
He held his arms out and his body open. When her hits ebbed into weak slaps, she stumbled back, hugging herself and clutching her elbows.
His heartbeat slogged through the ache in his chest. He kept his arms outstretched and whispered, “I’m here.”
Disbelief widened the whites of her eyes, and her breath caught. He waited.
In two running steps, she launched at him, climbed up his chest, and curled her hands in his hair. He lifted her, pinning the curves of her thighs around his hips, and took her mouth. His knuckles burned with fever, but the heat from her lips was overriding. She whispered kisses over his jaw, around his mouth, caressing, assuring.
He angled his head, deepening the reach of his tongue and drinking her in lick by lick. Her hands in his hair, the sweetness of her breath filling his mouth, there will never be another kiss like hers. She knew how to suck his lips and trap his tongue in a way that stroked every nerve ending in his body. More than that, she knew how to reach inside him. She found him, her ferocity defying the odds and pivoting them into place, perfectly interlocked.
Her thighs squeezed around his waist, her breasts soft against his chest. He palmed her backside with a cautious gentleness, and chased her tongue, spiraling, stretching deeper, falling heart-first into an existence where only she mattered.
When their mouths separated, gasping for air, she cupped his cheeks and pressed their foreheads together. “I’m so sorry.”
He knew she was referring to the atrocities of the meeting, and she had nothing to be sorry about. “You should be sorry. Getting a blow job from you was a real hardship.”
She rested her lips on the corner of his mouth and sighed. “We need to go.”
“I’m driving.” He shifted her, hooking an arm beneath her knees, and carried her to the driver’s side door.
The way she curled against his chest and hugged his neck produced an obscene amount of pleasure for his emasculated ego. She was finally turning to him for comfort. Though, the fact that she didn’t protest him driving was a testament to her physical and mental state. She trusted him not to cause a wreck or drive to a police station. He kissed her he
ad, let his lips linger there, branding her peppermint scent in memory.
He scooted behind the wheel, sliding back the seat to accommodate his longer legs, and found the keys in the ignition. She snuggled into his chest, settling in, exactly where he wanted her. Her knees folded under his arm and allowed him plenty of room to see and steer. Holding her like this, her soft body half the size of his, she didn’t seem so tough and intimidating. In fact, the quiet tremor shaking her breaths made his muscles heat with the need to avenge her.
He veered onto the main road, the tires kicking gravel into vacant fields. No cars. No buildings. Only a black dome of sky and a thousand questions beating against his skull. He stretched his hands on the steering wheel, igniting a burn through the gashes. “What happens now?”
Her lips moved against his throat. “The intro meetings are always strained with tension, but I’ve never walked away from one without securing the delivery.” Her voice wavered. She cleared her throat. “Mr. E will try to sell you to another. Though, the next buyer wants a girl.”
“And Van captures the girls?”
She nodded, fingers curling against his chest. “He’ll be gone a few days. Maybe a week. Scouting only. Watching. We hunt as far from home as possible. You were an exception.”
She’d already explained her reason for choosing him, one he’d accepted with ease. Better him than someone else. He hated to ask, but they needed to talk about the ramifications of the meeting. “Does Traquero’s referral safeguard your family?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice was desolate, tearing the lining around his heart.
“We need to know.” He tried to choose his next words carefully, but there was no way to soften what she needed to hear. “If they’re dead, you will be, too.” Mr. E would no longer have a means to control her. “We can’t go back there.”
She stiffened. “I have to go back for Kate.”
Kate. She’d never used her name, and doing so now was monumental. And terrifying. Was she giving up? Or giving in? “Then we’ll go back, wait for Van to leave, and make our escape.”