Corrupt

by Penelope Douglas

  Damon fisted my collar, bringing my face up to his, and I could hear his heavy breathing behind his white mask that was identical to Will’s. “I served the most time. She should get to feel me first,” he told Will, and then looked to his right, speaking to someone else. “What do you think?”

  Who—?

  But before I had a chance to turn my head to see who he was talking to now, he threw me over to another white-masked man, and I gasped, instantly pushing against his chest as my bare foot got caught under his boot. I hadn’t realized I’d lost a sandal.

  “Stop it,” I breathed out, shaking my head.

  But the third man simply wrapped an arm around me and fisted the back of my hair with the other. I cried out, my scalp burning.

  “Boys,” he called out, “she won’t even be able to tell us apart after a while.”

  And then he shoved me back to another one, my feet stumbling across the floor as I fought not to fall.

  Kai. How could he do this?

  “Hold her,” he commanded as Will caught my upper arms and held my back to his front.

  My arms and legs felt heavy, and my head was swimming. I couldn’t get enough air.

  “Stop it,” I begged, fighting against Will’s hold.

  Kai knelt down in front of me and looked up as he began running his hands slowly up my legs, going around my calves and up my thighs.

  “No!” I lashed out, kicking my legs with the small bit of energy I had left.

  But he caught my ankles and squeezed them so hard the bones ached. “Got to make sure you’re clean,” he explained in a too calm voice.

  “Get away from me!” I bellowed. “Where’s Michael?”

  I jerked my head left and right, looking up the stairs and everywhere, but I couldn’t see him.

  He was here. He had to be here.

  Damon leered behind Kai, watching me with his head cocked as if I were an animal being dissected in front of him. Will kept me flush with his body, his masked-face nuzzling my neck.

  “Got anything hidden here?” Kai asked, running his hand up the inside of my thigh.

  But I lurched forward, growling, “Fuck you!”

  Will laughed, tightening his fingers around my arms and yanking me back into him again.

  “Why don’t you just take off her clothes?” Damon suggested. “That way we’ll know for sure.”

  “Hell, yeah,” came Will’s voice behind me.

  I instantly recoiled, seeing Kai stand up, his dark eyes like deep black pools behind his mask.

  “Let’s set the mood first.” And then he took out a remote from his sweatshirt and held it up, clicking a button.

  I jerked as a motor-like sound started, and then I twisted my head, my stomach shaking with silent sobs as I watched the steel shutters descend over all the windows.

  I shook my head, not knowing how to stop this. Any moonlight that had been streaming into the house slowly got smaller and smaller, the floor growing darker and darker. The house turned pitch black, and I watched as Kai and Damon disappeared in front of me, the room becoming as dark as oil. My legs started to shake.

  “Why are you doing this?” I demanded. “What do you want?”

  “Why are we doing this?” Will mocked in my voice.

  And then they all joined in.

  “Why are we doing this?”

  “Why are we doing this?”

  “I don’t know. Why are we doing this?” Damon laughed.

  And then I screamed as Will launched me forward into his arms. At least, I think they were his.

  Damon caught me and pressed his body into mine, pawing my ass with his hands.

  I planted my hands on his chest and tried to straighten my arms, grunting and choking on my breaths as I tried to push myself away from him.

  “Get off me!” I shouted, my face burning with rage.

  But he spun me around and shoved me into another set of arms. I stumbled in the darkness, lightheaded and losing my balance.

  The new guy wrapped his arms around me, and I clutched his sweatshirt to stabilize myself. Acid bile rising in my throat.

  “What?!” I choked out, trying to keep the fucking tears at bay. “What do you want from me?”

  “What do you want from me?” Kai mocked, followed by the others.

  “What do you want from me?”

  “What do you want from me?”

  And then I was shoved away again, another set of arms catching me.

  “Stop it!” I yelled, and I raised my arm, coming down and catching him on the side of his mask.

  “Oh, she’s got some spit and fire,” Will teased and pushed me to someone else.

  My legs went limp, and I broke. Sobbing, I buried my hands in my hair on the side of my head and curled my fingers, my nails scraping against my scalp so hard my skin stung.

  I threw my head back. “Michael!”

  “Michael?” someone called after me.

  And then someone else sing-songed, “Michael, where are youuuu?”

  “Mi-chael!” the third one rang out, their voice echoing up the stairs and down the hall.

  “I don’t think he’s coming!”

  “Or he’s already here!” Will taunted.

  “Stop it!” I raged. “Why are you doing this?”

  A head nudged my ear, making me jerk. “Payback,” he said in a hard whisper.

  “A little revenge,” Will added.

  “And restitution for time served,” Kai finished.

  Tears streamed down my face. What were they talking about?

  Where was Michael?

  But then someone grabbed my hips from behind and pulled me into him, his arms circling my waist.

  “You belong to us, Rika,” he breathed out in my ear. “That’s what’s happening.”

  My eyes widened, and fire spread through my stomach as despair set in.

  It was Michael’s voice. No.

  “You’re Horsemen property now,” I heard Kai say, “and if you want to have money to eat, you’ll be just as nice to us as you were to Michael last weekend.”

  “He said you were a halfway decent fuck,” Damon chimed in, “but we’ll get you up to par.”

  “With some training!” Will boasted, sick amusement in his voice.

  “But you won’t like it,” Kai growled next to me. “I promise you that.”

  “And if you want college money—or rent money—” Damon threatened, “well then, you better be especially pleasing.”

  I hunched forward, feeling sick. I wanted to drop.

  What the fuck?

  “Hey, what are we supposed to do when we get tired of her?” Will asked somewhere to my right. “We can’t pay her for nothing, can we?”

  “Of course not.”

  “I guess we can just pass her around,” Will suggested. “We’ve got friends.”

  “Yeah, shit,” Damon interjected. “My father loves the young ones.”

  “He used to give you his sloppy seconds,” Kai joked. “Now you can return the favor.”

  Michael’s arms tightened around me, and I heaved, trying to clench my stomach to push back down the vomit.

  I raised my forearm, clutching the handle of the dagger.

  “Come on, Rika,” someone growled, grabbing me by the arms.

  And I cried out as I was thrown across the floor, my shoulder hitting the hard marble and the wind knocked out of me.

  “Damon!” I heard a deep voice growl.

  My face was wet, both of my shoes were gone, and I coughed and sputtered as I struggled to turn over and see what was happening.

  But a large body came down on top of me, and I fumbled, trying to push him away and crawl backward.

  But he had me. His mouth was in my neck, and his hand was under my ass as he grinded into me.

  “You knew this was going to happen between us,” Damon breathed out, biting my ear as he tried to pry open my legs with his other hand. “Open up, baby.”

  I screamed, my throat aching raw as I b
ellowed with everything I had.

  I shot my arms up over us, went straight for my dagger, and ripped it off my arm. Bringing it down to my side, I lurched it forward and dug it into his body, on the side of his torso.

  “Oh, shit!” he howled, pulling his hands immediately off me and launching backward. “Shit! Fuck! She stabbed me!”

  I scurried away, my legs and hands going as fast as they could to get away from them. The blade fell out of my fingers, and my shirt was hanging down my arms, leaving me in my tank top. I spun around and got to my feet.

  And ran.

  I didn’t look back, and I didn’t hesitate. I raced through the house, entered the solarium, and threw open the doors, diving out into the night. My heart hammered in my chest so hard it hurt, and I felt eyes on me as I hit the grass and bolted across the vast backyard and through the trees.

  Something wet coated my shirt, but I didn’t have to look down to know it was blood.

  Droplets of rain hit my skin, my feet slid on the wet grass, and I fell to my knees a couple of times as I bolted. I had no idea where the hell I was going.

  My mother was in danger, and I had no money. Who did I have to turn to?

  The garden shed appeared ahead, and I slowed, suddenly feeling despair take everything I had left.

  My mother.

  They had an endless amount of money and power to hide this. There were no videos of their deeds this time to get them arrested.

  I’d never find my mom, and I’d never get everything my dad left me back. Michael didn’t care about his father or Trevor. He wouldn’t listen to them when they eventually came back, and by that time, it might be too late for my mom.

  I had nowhere to go. There was no one to help me.

  Running my hands up and down my face, I wiped away the tears, wanting to scream in anger.

  What was I supposed to do? Find a phone and call Noah? The only person I could probably reach?

  And then what? Where would I go? How would I find my mom?

  There was no one to help me.

  There was no one to help me but me. You’re not a victim, his words came back, and I’m not your savior.

  I turned around, looking back at the house and seeing the lights inside slowly come on. They were in there.

  And once…I was one of them. Once, I ran with them, kept up with them, and stood next to them. I wasn’t their victim, and I had their attention. I’d learned how to fight.

  This was on me, and while I wouldn’t make it easy for them, I wouldn’t run.

  I would never run.

  I was built for this.

  Present

  “FUCK!” DAMON GROWLED. “I thought you checked her, man!”

  “Just get in the kitchen!” Kai barked. “Goddamn it.”

  I stood on the upstairs landing, my arms crossed over my chest and my white mask sitting on the small table next me. I looked out the window over the large lawn, watching the small wooden building buried in the trees.

  She was there.

  I knew she wouldn’t go far. Rika was a smart girl. She was scared and in survival mode, but she wasn’t stupid.

  After she’d fled, we’d grabbed Damon off the floor and sat him on a chair. I’d raised the shutters to let in the moonlight again, and then I’d gone upstairs to watch her run.

  She’d scurried and fled, disappearing into the trees, but she didn’t leave. There was nothing but cliffs back there and then a huge drop to a beach on the Atlantic Fucking Ocean. She was barefoot, cold, alone, and without a cell phone.

  What was she going to do?

  And right about now, she was just realizing that.

  “I’m going to go get her.” Kai came up to my side, breathing hard.

  But I shook my head. “Just leave her. She has nowhere to go.”

  “She’d be crazy to come back here!” he burst out. “After we just terrorized her like that?”

  “Calm down,” I bit out. “I know her better than you do.”

  I could see him shaking his head out of the corner of my eye.

  He lowered his voice, but it was still thick with anger. “Michael, she could make it to a phone,” he pointed out, “She could call a friend and eventually get a hold of your mother or father for all we know. The money isn’t a big enough incentive for her to be pliant. We underestimated her.”

  I inhaled an aggravated breath and reached behind my head, pulling off my sweatshirt and T-shirt and dropping them to the floor. A layer of sweat covered my back.

  “If she doesn’t come back,” I replied, “then keeping the money will have to be big enough incentive for you and the others to accept that we’ve lost. We agreed that she had to agree to this.”

  I stared out the window, my heart creeping into my throat and my body growing hotter.

  Don’t come back, Rika. I knew she wouldn’t run far, but I wanted her to. I’d fucked up. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

  We were going to make her ours. That was the plan. We’d make her feel what they felt when she destroyed their lives and tore us all apart. She’d be alone and have no control. We’d make her suffer.

  But as soon as Damon jumped on her, I was on his back, prying him off.

  I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let them have her.

  And then when she stabbed him and ran, I let her go, even knowing she wouldn’t really have any place to go. I knew she would realize there was no other way out of this and that was simply the end of round one.

  But I held out a small hope that she’d evade us. She’d make it off the property or hide or something until I figured shit out. There was no way I was going to be able to go through with this. She was mine.

  “She’ll be back,” I told him.

  “How can you be so sure?”

  I peered over at him. “Because she can’t say no to a challenge.” And I turned back, looking out the window. “Just go see how bad Damon is hurt.”

  He hesitated a moment as if weighing his options and then walked off.

  “Son of a bitch!” Damon howled from downstairs, and I heard a crash of dishes.

  I didn’t bother holding back my small grin. I couldn’t believe she’d hidden a weapon on us. I was glad we’d given her the dagger, after all.

  I closed my eyes and ran my hand over the top of my head. What the hell was I going to do?

  How was I going to stop them?

  Twisting around, I jogged down the stairs, spotting drops of Damon’s blood on the floor as I walked past, heading toward the kitchen.

  “Nothing you take from me will come easily!” a high-pitch shout raged through the

  house, and I stopped, recognizing Rika’s voice.

  It sounded staticky and distant.

  “I won’t come all the way out there to get you,” I heard Will growl as I stood just outside the kitchen.

  I clenched my fists. The intercom. He’d found her.

  Every room in the house, including the garden shed, had an intercom. He must’ve figured out the same as me. She didn’t have anywhere else to run.

  “Oh, yes, you will!” she snarled back, challenging him. “You’re the pack’s dog. Come fetch, little dog!”

  I couldn’t help the curl of my lips. Good girl.

  “You stupid fucking bitch!” Will barked. It was clear he was frustrated. Will never got mean.

  Until he did.

  But then another voice came in, smooth and threatening. “I’ll come to get you,” Damon chimed in. “And I’ll want my blood back.”

  I ground my teeth together.

  Stepping into the kitchen, I saw Kai opening and closing cabinets, probably looking for First-Aid supplies, while Damon held a towel to the lower left side of his torso and leaned into the intercom on the wall.

  “I will take it out of your ass before we leave that shed, Rika,” he warned. “Don’t run.”

  And then he stepped away and threw down the towel as Will began taping a huge patch of gauze over his wound.

  It wasn�
��t vicious—the blood seeping through the gauze was slow—but it was big. She’d slashed him good.

  Will’s bloodstained hands worked as Damon winced and picked up a cigarette he’d lit, taking a long drag.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” I told him, walking in and diving down into one of the drawers on the island, pulling out the peroxide.

  “Fuck you,” Damon threw back.

  He shoved Will away and flicked his cigarette in the sink, turning and charging out of the kitchen and into the solarium.

  I shot out from behind the counter and caught his arm, slamming him into the wall. He struggled, and I immediately wrapped my hand around his neck, pinning him to the wall. My other hand pressed into the gauze over his fresh wound.

  “Fuck!” he shouted, knocking my hands away, but I just came back in again. “Get off me!”

  “We agreed.”

  “You agreed!” he argued. “I’m going to rip her in two!”

  I twisted up my lips, having had enough. No one would touch her unless she agreed to our terms. That was the deal we’d made, but now the deal was off. I wasn’t on board with this anymore.

  “I don’t even know why you’re here,” he sneered, knocking my hand off his wound but making no move to get away. He turned his head, speaking to the other guys. “He got off scot-free—didn’t serve a day—so why are we even involving him?”

  I narrowed my eyes on him. “You think the past three years have been easy?” I charged. “I was the one to piss her off. She was mad at me that night, and you all paid the price. I had to look at her day after day…that lying, manipulative, vindictive bitch sitting two feet across the dinner table, and knowing it was all my fault.” I turned my head, looking between Kai, Will, and then back at Damon. “You’re my brothers, more than family. You guys served the time, and I have the guilt for it. We all paid.”

  I let him go and backed away, watching him scowl at the air between us.

  I’d felt like I’d owed them. I’d hurt her that night, pushing her away and being cruel, and it was my fault she lashed out. She had the phone. She posted the videos.

  “Will, go get her,” I ordered.

  There was no way I’d trust Damon to be alone with her in that shed.

  Will walked around me and stepped up to the solarium door, but then he stopped, looking out the glass.