The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone

by D H Sidebottom

  No!

  “Yes, damn you!”

  “Shut the fuck up, you freak!” Hugh barked as his fingers curled around the edge of my knickers and started to yank at them.

  Ava!

  It was the combination of the two sounds that did it, the harsh rip of fabric and Mason’s firm growl. My heart rate peaked with my intense rage and slammed my brain with so much adrenaline I had to scream to release the surge of emotion. Hugh stared at me in horror as I launched my fist into the side of his face. He shot sideways but was quick to get back to me, his hands curling around my throat but I was too far gone to care. Mason’s wrath had always astounded me; its force was both manic and malevolent and I had often wondered how he thrived on it but now, in the moment between death and existence, when I had no more to lose, when my mind and my soul had accepted mortality and my spirit had given up, natural instincts of survival swelled within me and produced a storm of hysteria and passion.

  I penetrated his stare as my throat burnt against his fingers and my lungs squealed in torturous misery. Slowly and agonizingly I raised my hands, placing one arm around the back of his neck and the other on his jaw as my vision faded to a tunnel, a taunting light at the end which called to me with so much power my ears started to hum at my reluctance to cave.

  You know what to do, baby. Finish him.

  I closed my eyes, summoning the small bubble deep within me. The spark fused and ignited, its energy giving me the last threads of vitality I needed. My breathing steadied as my panic calmed and my strength built, my arms locked tight as my body reinforced its genetic shield. The scream caught him off guard first but his eyes widened as I rammed upwards with my knee in a quick harsh movement and butted his balls as I jerked and snapped my arms, breaking his neck cleanly and efficiently. He flopped against me instantly, his dead weight heavy as any remaining strength evaporated and I relished the oblivion of unconsciousness.

  * * *

  “Ava . . .”

  I smiled faintly as I heard his frantic voice, the feverish tone of him nectar to my senses as I tried to call out but darkness surrounded me once more and I fell down deep into the pit.

  I felt lighter as the weight lifted and hands and fingers probed at me. I winced as a sharp prick twinged the back of my hand and a warm sensation curled up my arm and tickled my veins.

  “Baby . . . please . . .”

  Everything was surreal and far away, too far away. I needed to touch him but I was too exhausted to reach for him. The light was still shimmering in the background, beckoning me into its breach but I dug my heels in each time Mason’s voice would penetrate my mind.

  “You’re a warrior baby, battle it. Don’t let it win.”

  I was tired of fighting though. The temptation to give in and rest was too intense. The promise of freedom and tranquillity too enticing as the light guaranteed serenity.

  “AVA!”

  This time the scream jolted me and my eyes snapped open. I couldn’t focus and I blinked rapidly to clear my vision. I heard a strangled choke beside me and slowly turned my head. Mason’s wild eyes looked straight at me; the deep hazel now blurred with bloody veins and yellowed sclera, his skin nearly translucent and pale.

  “Mason?”

  He closed his eyes for a second and exhaled heavily. “Listen to me, baby,” he whispered as he took my hand in his and ran his thumb softly over the back of it. “I’ve got to leave you for a moment but Nate is here. Okay?”

  I nodded slowly, the effort of it aching the back of my skull. “Okay” I managed to reply. He smiled with so much sadness I actually wondered if I had died, “I’m okay, go.”

  He struggled with himself as he turned his head to look across the room then back to me. “Mason, I’m fine. Go.” He nodded resolutely, kissed my forehead then stood and moved away.

  Nate appeared beside me and shook his head in mock disgust, “Don’t you ever get tired of causing trouble, sweetheart.”

  I scoffed at him but moaned as fatigue once more took over, “All the time, Nate. All the fucking time.”

  Chapter 12

  Mason

  SHE GROWLED AT me, literally growled at me with a curled lip and spit as Greg and Sam held her firm. Three men were bleeding out beneath her feet, their eyes open and staring at me as they watched their employer struggle to keep her shit together.

  I rubbed at the back of my neck, my relief in finding Ava alive, albeit it in a mess but still alive, draining the last of my resources.

  “Hello, Vickie.”

  She scoffed and glared at me, “Find your bitch? Is she still in one piece or has Hugh fucked her in two.”

  The bile threatened to erupt with her words. I had pushed that part aside for now; I couldn’t deal with it yet. The thought that someone had . . . touched Ava, never mind hurt her that way again was too much for me to take right then.

  I smiled widely, “Oh you know Ava, Vickie, the cold dead stare of Hugh’s was quite satisfying. You underestimate my wife and her capabilities.”

  I relished in the furious expression that swept across her face and tilted my head, regarding the bitch with an icy calmness, “In fact, I think we’ll save you for Ava. It may take her a while to be up to the job but I’m sure we can accommodate you somewhere.”

  Her chest heaved angrily as she glared at me. “Why, Mason. Why do this to us? Frank was your friend.”

  My mouth dropped open and I shook my head with incredulity, “You really have a problem finding what is wrong in this, don’t you?” I took a step into her and grasped her chin harshly, tilting her head back until she looked me in the eye. “I want you to picture Etta, cold and shivering, naked and hurt in the corner of a cold damp room while men take her harshly and cruelly. While animals train her to become a slave to some evil bastard that wants to constantly tear her in two with his brutal and merciless sick sexual tendencies.”

  She stared at me and lifted a brow, “Most of these girls were living on the streets with no food or care, and they were filthy and starving. What Frank and I did for them should be respected and admired.”

  “Jesus Christ!” Greg rumbled and I glanced at him. He shook his head in despair but I just shrugged. There was obviously no guilt or remorse in this woman.

  “Get her out of here!”

  I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. What the hell was wrong with people? I knew I wasn’t innocent in all this, my illegal activities were somehow connected to these atrocities, not directly but someone I had once sold a weapon to or been hired to maim or kill their enemy, one of those thought they were above the laws of the land and presumed they were entitled to have a slave to either train to use said weapon or to use as payment for something else they desired that was out of reach on this planet or just to fuck sadistically when a deal they had been working on went wrong.

  “It’s not your fault.” I turned and stared at Ava as she leant worryingly against Nate; her beautiful face still stunning against the dirt and pallor of her skin, her striking green eyes still gorgeous and enthralling even though dullness and fatigue dampened their intensity and her now covered body still alluring and perfect as her dress hung limply and raggedly around her.

  The seven strides it took to reach her took far too long. I scooped her up and held her against my body, the frantic beat of her heart jumping against my hand as I rested it under her breast. She hissed in pain and I cursed under my breath when I felt the protrusion of a couple of ribs poking through her soft skin.

  “We need to get you to hospital, baby.”

  She shook her head and gazed up at me with her eyes drooping, “No, just call your Mom . . . and Paola.” She lifted an eyebrow when I frowned in argument, “Mason, please. I just wanna go home. I want my own bath and my own bed; I want you next to me, holding me and loving me. I want to hear Katie’s laughter through the walls and George’s terrible singing through the house. I want to go home.”

  Nate passed me the bag of saline that fed the line Sam had inserted int
o one of Ava’s veins as soon as we had found her. I looked at him for support but he smiled softly and nodded, “Take her home. I’ll stay and help the rest, we’ll sort this shit out. Go.”

  “Okay, call me if you need anything.”

  He nodded and pushed me gently, “Go.”

  So I did, once again carrying my broken and equally strong wife home.

  * * *

  “You’re so beautiful, Ava, not just your beauty but your strength,” I breathed in her ear as I gently ran the wet sponge over her bruised abdomen. Her body was wrecked, the beating she had taken had been severe and ruthless, the evidence of it breaking my heart.

  She pulled my legs further around her as if using them for support as well as protection. “You made me strong and resilient, Mason. Your love fuels my courage.”

  I sighed and she turned her head until her eyes were looking up at me. The bath water rippled around us, its faint slosh calming my pain, “No baby, all I seem to do is put you in danger.”

  I frowned when she rolled her lips with amusement. She paused as if working out how to say what she wanted to say, “It’s our wedding anniversary tomorrow, fourteen years.” I nodded and remained quiet. “Do you not think that maybe by now, if danger and exposure worried me, I would be long gone?”

  I slipped the sponge down beside her thigh, letting it float to the bottom of the bath as my hands took over the duty of washing her. “Yes, but maybe by now I’m getting tired of putting you in that danger and exposure.”

  Her face tightened as she pondered my statement but then she shrugged and turned so her back was once again moulded against my chest, “Well then you’re in the wrong job, baby, cos’ if you aren’t aware by now that this is our life, this is what we do and what we were made to do, then I think you need to find a nice quiet monastery on a secluded hill and hide away in the corner with a bowl cut and a lovely brown tunic whilst you make straw baskets and feed mountain goats.”

  I laughed and growled playfully in her ear, “Are you telling me you think I would look handsome with a bowl cut.”

  “Baby, you’d look handsome with facial herpes and buck teeth. You’re you Mason, fuck I have to fight damn Angel’s every morning to keep you mine.”

  Her hands settled over mine against her stomach and I smirked when she pressed against me and manoeuvred them under the water until they slid between her thighs, “I need you, Mason.”

  “Ava?”

  “No,” she answered without the question. “He didn’t touch me, not for want of trying. I told you once that I would never let anyone violate me that way again, and I meant it.”

  The lump that had been resident in my throat slipped away yet did nothing for the cold chill in my bones, “But the . . . the way I found you. He was on top of you, Ava; your clothes were . . . please don’t lie just to save me from the hurt.”

  She slid around, her face grimacing with the pain to her body and I reached out to hold her steady when her knees trembled. She looked at me for an age and I had the overwhelming sensation she was trying to bury into my head and plant the evidence of her case. “Listen to me. All he managed was a quick grope of my chest and the removal of my knickers; he didn’t even get a hand near my bush.” She narrowed her eyes on me and tilted her chin in defiance, “My bush has a preference to which type of dick grooms it.”

  “Baby,” I whispered as I leaned forward and brushed my lips over hers. “You’re doing nothing for my hard on here. Call it a pussy, a cunt, fuck you can even call it a flue but for fuck’s sake, a bush it isn’t, you wax regularly.”

  She shrugged and smirked, “But I think bush is a rather nice term for my lady garden.”

  “Jesus woman, STOP!”

  She giggled, the delicious sound curling through my body and soothing my frazzled emotions. Her face lit with her amusement but suddenly it dropped and she gulped as a muffled sob clawed itself from her. “I thought I was gonna die.”

  A single tear tracked her face as we gazed at each other. “I’d never allow that, Ava. I need you too much; I’d never survive without you.”

  She nodded frantically and leaned into me, resting her forehead against mine. “I was angry at you. That’s what got me through, your refusal to help me.”

  I reared back and gawked at her, “What? I would never refuse to help you.”

  She shook her head slightly, waving off my declaration. “No, I don’t mean your actual refusal.” She sighed and ran the tip of her nose along the length of mine, “I was slightly delirious as Shithouse was trying to climb inside me and I asked you for help but you stood there and said no.” She smiled softly as her eyes finally glimmered brightly, “I was so angry at you, leaving me there with the fat fucker on top of me, but the anger you caused brought me round and I broke his neck with your face bobbing about at the front of my mind.”

  I stared at her mutely as my vocal chords refused to work yet managed to kick out a tight wheeze. She smiled, and then grinned, then her head tipped back and she laughed loudly. Tears streamed down her face as she cackled and guffawed. Her exhilaration was contagious and I was soon laughing with her, both of us struggling to breathe at the intensity of it, “Fuck baby, am I gonna be safe sleeping next to you tonight?”

  She hiccupped and placed her hand on her ribs as she groaned with the pain, “I didn’t actually mean it to sound like that. I meant it was you that got me through again.” She kissed me lightly on the lips, the softness that once used to drive me wild was now replaced with a dryness that scraped harshly but it didn’t stop the magnitude of love that surged through me. There was only my woman that could laugh after such an ordeal. “God I love you.”

  She stilled and swallowed harshly then lifted her hand and slid her palm over my cheek as her face softened and her heart bumped against my chest with her closeness. “And me, you.”

  Chapter 13

  Ava

  THE SUN STREAKED through the blinds as I continued to stare blindly at the window. I was cold and nauseous but the strength of Mason’s hold on me offered me comfort, his firm strong chest pressing securely against my back.

  I knew today was going to be a hard one; the first obstacle would be facing George. Mason had told me about Etta’s involvement and I couldn’t love him any harder for how he had abstained from telling her the awful things her parents did. I would rather have died than broken a child that way.

  “Hey,” Mason whispered in my ear as he stroked his thumb sightlessly across my jaw. “How you feeling?”

  Tilting my head I kissed his thumb and dragged it into my mouth, flicking my tongue over the tip as I wrapped my lips around the knuckle and sucked it gently, “Horny.”

  He had refused me any loving last night; his concerns over my injuries were far more substantial than his hard on apparently.

  “Mmmm” he moaned as his lips enveloped the lobe of my ear, “me too.”

  “Good, I thought you’d gone soft on me,” I winked as I shuffled round and faced him, sliding my arms around his neck and pulling him close so I could press my lips against his. He moaned again when I slid my tongue across his lower lip then tugged gently on it with my teeth. “Let me in” I demanded when he clamped his lips together teasingly.

  His hands followed the path of my spine until he reached my bum and cupped it firmly, “Err, who’s in charge here?”

  “You are, baby.” I breathed as I nudged him again with my tongue, “Most of the time anyway.”

  His eyes twinkled with amusement as he gave me a contradictory firm nod of his head, “Damn right, my little warrior. I’m in command.”

  I brought two fingers to my temple and saluted him, “Sir, yes Sir!”

  He shifted suddenly and jumped from the bed, standing rigidly with his shoulders straight and his eyes narrow, “Attention!” he barked with authority, dragging the word out with long syllables.

  I tried to stop the giggle from escaping as I climbed painfully off the bed and stood to attention before him. His eyes narrowed on me
as he inspected my pj’s, the deep hazel turning grey as he detected my peaked and rigid nipples straining against the thin cotton of my vest. “Are you horny, soldier?”

  I nodded firmly, “Sir, yes Sir!”

  He circled around me, the very tip of his finger dancing along the length of my bare arm, generating a passage of raised goose bumps. “You’re a slight little thing for one of my soldiers; you need some meat on your bones.”

  “I need some meat in my pussy,” I mumbled under my breath.

  “What was that, private?”

  “Nothing, Sir.”

  “Are you mocking me?”

  “No Sir, never Sir.”

  He stood before me now, his gaze intense and slightly furious, “I don’t think you’re in a position to mock, soldier. Strip and drop to your knees.”

  My heart galloped with excitement as I eagerly pulled off my nightclothes, slinging them across the room with a carefree attitude. This was what drove me, what forced the liquid in my veins to heat and surge, what moistened my pussy and swelled my sex to the point of throbbing and what sent me crazy with desire; my glorious bastard in his element, the alpha dominance of him causing a buzz through my depleted body.

  He rapidly fired the keys on his phone as I fell awkwardly to my knees before him and awaited further instructions. It beeped in reply then he smiled with mischievousness, more to himself than me as he yet again typed in some secret message.

  “I need to test your loyalty to your commanding officers, private. Are you loyal?”

  “Of course, sir.” I frowned at him, wondering where this was going but he remained firm faced and tight lipped yet gave me a simple nod in acknowledgment to my answer.

  He stood as I knelt in front of him for what seemed an age, his silence both exciting me further but elevating my apprehension.

  I blinked as the bedroom door opened and Greg entered, closely followed by Courtney. The thud in my chest and throb in my belly was now quite overwhelming as I shivered with excitement.