Most people would never fuck, get down on their knees, and suck dick or eat a woman out in front of someone else. After witnessing these sex-starved people through the glass separating me from them, I see the life I used to lead in a whole new light.
It’s sickening.
I used to love watching other people fuck. Loved walking into a room and deciding what woman or two I wanted for the night. Wasn’t hard to choose when a few of my usuals were hanging on my arm, and Whitney was God knows where on another floor doing her prowling.
I’d grab my usual, and together we’d pick out someone, or we’d decide to go solo. Didn’t matter to me who saw or how many wanted me, I just wanted to get off and forget that when I walked out the door, I was going home to suffer in hell.
I hate working in that place anymore. Can’t stand walking inside those doors, and the smell of sex hits my nose.
I’ve lived in that place for the past fourteen days. I am spending my nights wandering around and listening to flesh smacking against flesh. Both women and men on their knees, giving head to someone they don’t know outside of those walls.
I’ve done gone bat shit crazy over it, and even though I’d much rather be anywhere but the place I’m at now, I’m sure as hell happy to be out of there. Although, if I have to sit here any longer, I might be spending life behind bars for killing someone in this shithole.
Patience.
It is not a virtue like people say. It’s a form of suffering in the brutalist kind of way.
Patience can indeed pay off if you’re the type to wait shit out. I’m not, not anymore, and not when it comes to making my intentions known. I want this over so I can move on with my life.
A decade of my life wasted.
Most people interpret the ‘patience is a virtue’ to good things will come to those who wait. But waiting doesn’t get a job done. It doesn’t make sure you look a rapist in the eye and fuck his head up more than it is.
And, it sure doesn’t bring the woman you love back into your life.
So fuck patience and whoever the hell thinks you’ll get what you want if you wait shit out.
Rocco not being able to find out jack shit is why I’ve lost some of my patience. There’s something substantial about to go down and fuck all if shit isn’t sealed so tight that no one is talking. Makes a man wonder who holds power. My guess, it’s someone out for vengeance, and they are hiding inside a tight corruptive circle.
Scrubbing a palm over my face to ease the tension twitching in my jaw. The whiffs of sewer, stale cigarettes, and sweat are all I smell as I wait for the steel door to buzz and open. My guess, the stench in this place is enough to make a sane man wish he was locked up in a six by six room with white padded walls instead of a cement cube in this prison.
I didn’t bother telling anyone except my tight circle where I was going. Not that there’s anyone else to tell. I left the club in the hands of my managers and borrowed Lazaro’s private jet to fly me to New York.
I’m here for one reason only, and that’s to get a little bit farther under Shadow’s skin.
Tapping my fingers on the table, I can’t help it when my thoughts drift to Ellie.
I miss her. The softness of her skin, her smile, and her infectious laughter I want to see on that beautiful face. The way she curls up into my side when she sleeps and how she was enjoying decorating my house, and her pussy. Not going to lie, I’m obsessed with it: the smell, the tightness, the taste.
I want her so fucking bad; I can’t relieve the ache in my dick no matter how many times I release the pressure. All I have to do is think of those sky-blue eyes turning dark when she explodes around me, and I’m hard again.
The familiar buzzer goes off, and I look toward the door as it slowly slides open. The grating noise of steel against steel wrenches on my last fraying nerve as the door comes to a stop. Two heavily armed guards step forward, followed by a chain gang of prisoners shackled together.
I smirk. This was always my favorite part when I come here. To watch Shadow shackled to another. Knowing he was unable to barely move. His feet shuffling along the floor, his hands unable to reach out and touch his sister.
Wonder what he’d do if I told him he wouldn’t be hugging her when he gets out.
Leaning back in my chair, I wait as the guards unlock each prisoner and take them to their waiting visitors. I smell Shadow before our eyes connect, and that wicked grin I’ve seen plenty of times crosses his overly grown beard and lifts to his bald head.
He looks like a wolf among sheep.
Heartless. Manipulative. Sadistic sociopath.
A human disorder who won’t have that grin on his face when I’m through with him.
The truth shines in his eyes that he knows about Ellie and me as he approaches. Can’t seem to help it makes my smirk grow wider. The guard stands next to Shadow until he takes his seat across from me and stares me down while the guard secures the cuffs around his hands and ankles to hooks under the table and the floor.
Bastard can’t even move to scratch his ass.
Time to play motherfucker, I want you so pissed off that you come at me with all you think you got. I’d imagine he has a lot more than I suspect. Which, fears me because he’s at the top of the corrupted chain.
At least in here, he is.
“You let someone in here fuck you in the ass, perhaps sucked someone’s dick to get away with murder? That’s impressive even for a piece of lying, raping shit like yourself. Too bad I’m fucking the woman you really want.”
My heart beats rapidly in my chest, fingers twitching to wrap around his scrawny throat and choke him to death.
Shadow isn’t a big guy. Not muscular like most men in this place. He never was into building muscle. He’s a runner, a thinker, always on the move and two steps ahead of most.
His mind and the crazy things he can come up with are what make him fearful, even to a man like me.
He’s smart as fuck for a psycho. A lot more intelligent than his sister ever was.
There was only one time when he bested me, and that was when he raped Ellie.
The air shifts, the black energy we both possess is bouncing between us like two men in a cage scoping one another out, waiting to snap the other in two.
A bloody fight to the death.
Shadow’s nostrils flare while on the outside I stay set to calm, while my insides, they are on the highest heat.
An inferno.
“Come on, brother, you know me better than that. Would I let someone fuck me and get away with it if I didn’t want them to? I rule this place by using this.” He dips his head until it meets his raised fingers and taps his temple. The chains around his wrists going taut and clanking against the white plastic chair when he sits up straight.
How I’d love to take those chains and wrap them around his neck while I yank his tongue out with a pair of pliers. Then turn around and shove it down his throat.
I’m not biting his little innuendo about getting away with what he did to Ellie. His brutal punishment is about to begin while he whittles away in here, stewing in his anger until he’s foaming at the mouth.
A rabid animal who can’t escape the enclosure he’s confined in.
I study him briefly. He’s working with someone in here. Who? I’m not sure, but I’ll find out before he’s released. He can count on it.
“You’d let anyone do anything to you as long as it helps you get further along. That’s how warped your mind is. You don’t give a flying fuck about anyone but yourself. Well, and maybe Whitney and Ellie. Although the way your mind will be spinning by the time I leave, you won’t care about your sister.”
Revenge seeps out of the dark pit of my soul as he lifts his brows, expecting more.
It’s coming, asshole.
“Where is my sister?”
In Hell.
A spasm of excitement strikes my skull as I smile. Bastard doesn’t have a clue Whitney’s dead, same as he doesn’t know about the money.
It makes toying with him much more enticing. Brings out the evil in me, the kind that doesn’t deserve a woman as pure as Ellie.
“I should ask you. I haven’t seen her in months. She fucked me over the same as she did you.”
The crooked smirk on his face weakens to a feigning worrisome expression.
“The fuck you going on about?”
“Come on, Shadow. For a smart man, you should have figured it out by now. It wasn’t me who put you in here; it was Whitney.”
“Bullshit. She’s as loyal to me as you are to your brothers.”
“Really? Then answer this. Why was it easy for me to convince her to turn you in? She’s more loyal to me than to you. You don’t have to believe me; I could give a shit. If you find her, tell her I no longer need her loyalty.”
Turning his head, he directs it out the window. His eyes narrowing, and for the first time in all the years I’ve known Shadow, a glimpse of pain streaks across his eyes. Just as quickly, it shrouds over with anger.
“Bet you wish you had someone who cared enough to suck you off in front of strangers, don’t you?”
“Fuck you. My money? Where is it, and I swear to the Devil himself, if I find out you’ve hurt Whitney in any way, you’ll pay double. Say what you have to say and get gone.”
Steam. It’s scalding him.
The money is being anonymously spread out amongst a half-dozen women’s rape crisis centers in New Orleans, New York, and the YMCA where Ellie goes swimming. Not about to tell him that, though. He’d burn the buildings down to seek revenge.
Minutes tick off in silence. I can see his mind whirling. The color is draining from his face, leaving a pale shade of worry.
“I’ll answer the question that matters to you most. Whitney? Money?” I weigh my hands up and down like a scale before folding and resting them on the table.
Hands shaking, he squeezes the arms of the chair. Knuckles are turning as white as his face.
“What the fuck have you done?”
I can see the fear of the unknown slither into his veins, waiting to filter through his bloodstream. I want it simmering by the time he’s out of here.
“The same thing you would have done if you were me.” Doubt it. He would have made people suffer by holding them hostage until he decided to slice their bodies into tiny little pieces.
I’m not much better, but those I’ve killed had it coming.
“You think you’ve outsmarted me, don’t you? I’ve known all along you didn’t give a fuck about Whitney. Quit fucking around with my head and tell me where they both are. If you fucked me over any more than you have, you’ll be sorry.”
Deep dark laughter frees from my chest. I lay out a warning. One he’d better clean out his ears real good and listen to.
“I challenge you to come after me. I welcome it, Shadow. I can’t wait until you get out of here. I’ve been waiting for years to kill you. You might have connections in here, you might rule this prison, but you don’t have shit when you get out. I have connections which as we speak are finding out who you have in your back pocket and if you think I won’t have them in mine soon enough, then you are more fucked in the head than I thought. The money is gone. Your sister is God knows where, and you have nothing. I have everything. I have the one thing you don’t. Ellie.”
I can’t help but notice how he’s ignoring my digs about Ellie. Makes a man wonder how much of that steam he’s holding in.
I’m not about to tell him Whitney is dead, even though I want to. Knowing Shadow and whoever he’s working with, those cameras in every corner are directed our way. I’d be setting myself up for an investigation. Fuck that, he can wonder for the rest of his pathetic time in here.
Leaning back in my chair, I catch sight of Shadow’s jaw twitching, his fury seeping out of every pore, indicating he’s growing more and more on edge with each staggering breath.
“You want to kill me right now, don’t you? That need for revenge is like an inflammation under your skin. It’s festering like an infected wound. By the time you get out of here, it will be poison in your veins. The only cure is to kill. Trust me; I’ve been living with it under my veins since you committed a crime and went unpunished. Must be disturbing for a crazy man like you to be locked in a place like this: no windows, only walls, and your goddamn hands instead of the scent of a woman. Not just any woman either. Tell me how much you hate me, Shadow. Tell me how much you wish you could leap over this table and kill me. Can you smell Ellie on me? Fucking delicious.”
I growl under my breath, anxiety and anger circulating hot in my blood as Shadow sits staring at me. Those goddamn eyes are so full of hate.
Fiery red. The Devil.
I love it.
Clearing his throat, he shifts in his seat.
“Do you have any idea how long I waited to take yours and Whitney’s money? It’s gone — every last dime. You getting tossed in here was the best thing to happen. I wiped you and Whitney clean. I kicked her out after I spent the last penny. There’s no sense in beating around the bush anymore. I mean, you think, and I stress that word highly, Shadow. You think you own a certain woman who happens to be mine. Let’s get down to the reason why I married Whitney in the first place. Revenge for Ellie. She’s mine, and you will not touch her.”
Nearly bordering savage, I smile as his trigger flares inside of him.
I want to snuff it out as much as I do his life. I’d be a fool to think it’ll be easy to kill Shadow. I’d be a bigger one not to realize he’s already strummed up a plan to get to Ellie. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if he tried snatching her and left me without hearing from him again. Only to live in agony the same as I’m doing him.
That’s how the mind of a psycho works. They like to dictate others with feeling no remorse or guilt for the crimes they’ve done. The only way to tame the beast inside is by killing them.
Putting them out of their misery.
“You have no idea what the consequences for your actions mean, do you? You killed my sister, you fucking gutless prick, didn’t you? You stole my money. Stole a woman that belonged to me. Ellie’s death will be on your hands. I’ve spent years in this place with nothing to do but think and hating your goddamn guts. I never trusted you, not after you fucked me over with my business. I didn’t catch on at first. Figured my good buddy who let me dip my dick into his club for free was helping me out. That’s the kind of thinking this place does to you because that’s all you have to do in here. You think, you learn, and you listen to the voices in your head, the ones giving you the signs and the sources, and then you stew on it until revenge is all you have left.”
I grind my teeth through a clenched jaw, trying not to flip the fuck out on him. That’s what he wants from me. He wants me scared.
Lord knows I am. Not for me, though. I could go round and round with this fuck and enjoy draining every ounce of blood from Shadow and still want more. What frightens me is how he works people. How he comes off as a charmer and not the deceiver he is.
“I agree. Revenge is a mind suck. It’s relentless. It’s endless. It festers like a wound until it distributes the toxins into your system. I’ve waited years to extract it on you. We used to swim in the same murky waters, Shadow; now mine are clean and pure. I told you I have no clue where Whitney is. I don’t care if she never returns. She failed to tell you I convinced her to sign divorce papers, I’m free of her. Free to marry the woman I want. The woman you want and will never have.”
I smile as his eyes turn an angry black.
“You do that, and I’ll be sure to kill you and her the minute I’m out of sight of this place. Don’t underestimate my power in here for weakness once I get out. I’m a clever man; you know this.”
“I have connections, which is something you don’t. I will use them. I will find someone who knows someone in here to kill you before you step foot out of this shithole. In the meantime, I’m going to go home to listen to more of those sweet sounds coming out of Ellie’s mouth.”
If only what I’m saying was the truth.
“Tell them to come at me. Killing someone else before I kill you, motherfucker, only makes me crave more. I will ruin Ellie more than I have, Logan. She was mine. I don’t take kindly to betrayal.”
“No, you might believe in your twisted up mind she’s yours, Shadow. Awful hard to betray someone when they were never yours, and that’s one reason that pulled you toward her. That’s what made you follow her around. Ellie wanted nothing to do with you, and you hated that. She was sweet when you were raised by bitter. That’s one of the things about her, she lures you in without even trying, and once you have a taste of her sweet, that’s the craving you can’t live without. So you keep on dreaming while you’re in here, because my reality, my fantasy, my woman is out there waiting for me. I’ll see you in four and a half months, brother. If you see your sister, tell her I said good fucking riddance.”
He’ll see her alright when he takes the red-hot train to Hell.
“Shut your fucking mouth and don’t play games with me. If my sister doesn’t visit when she said she would, I’ll know you did something to her.”
I shrug. Shove my chair out and stand. My work is done here. He’ll be stewing in his piss with wonder while it eats him from the inside out.
“You know, I think we can agree on how much of a worthless cunt my mother was. The only thing she did right was gave me a name that fits. A shadow always follows. It doesn’t ever go away. I’m Ellie’s worst fear, Logan. I’m her worst goddamn nightmare, and I’m about to make them become a reality.”
I place my hands in the middle of the table, lean forward and stare him dead in the eye.
“You forget, a shadow is a mere image. It isn’t real. To get rid of them, all you have to do is kill the light.”
Chapter 13
Ellie
The door swings open as my feet hit the bottom of the stairs.
Logan’s chest heaves, his eyes wild as they move up my bare legs, pausing briefly at the hem of my sleep shirt before they take hold of mine in a fiery blaze.
Undone (Unbound Trilogy Book 2) Page 12