Lords of Pain

by Angel Lawson

  I have no idea how the professor determined groups, but it’s almost like he was trying to stir up shit. A Lord, a Count, and a Prince locked in the same room is a powder keg.

  Again, I look down at my phone. It’s almost one and Story should be checking in before going to her afternoon class. She’s very good at checking in now. Almost depressingly so. Her compliance doesn’t give me many opportunities to come up with fun, sexy, ways to correct her behavior anymore. That’s the difference between me and Killer. My corrections are all in good, sexy fun. His punishments are always more about his ego than his dick.

  The numbers on my phone cross from 1:59 to 2:00 and I open the tracking app. Her little blue dot hovers over the campus. I enlarge the screen, zeroing in on her location. The GPS scales down, pulling the campus into view. She’s not in the Student Center, nor en route to her classroom. Her dot is just blinking passively in the parking lot. What the hell is she doing out there?

  “What do you think, Mercer?”

  “I think I don’t give a fuck,” I say, standing up, eyes glued to the phone. “You guys figure it out and email me my part.”

  “No way,” Jason says, acting all affronted, although I don’t know why. There’s no way this wasn’t going to happen. I should get a medal for having stayed this long. “We have to turn in the project outline today by five.”

  “Then turn it in.” I sling my backpack over my shoulder. The dot hasn’t moved at all. I click on it, pulling up the details.

  11:00 Story left the social sciences building

  11:02-11:08 Story made a short trip to Forsyth Quad (6 min)

  11:17 Story made a short trip to Arthur Grant Drive (5 min)

  11:17am -2:01pm Near Arthur Grant Drive (1 hr, 46 min)

  I blink. According to the tracker Story has been in the parking lot since 11:17 am. Something isn’t right. I stalk toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” Mark asks, his chair sliding on the floor. “We need to finish this up.”

  I look back over my shoulder, smirking. “Do what you need to do. If I get an ‘F’, I’ll just have my dad donate a new wing.” I turn and bump straight into Jason, who is now blocking the door, his arms crossed over his chest. “Are you fucking serious right now? Get the hell out of my way.”

  Jason’s jaw tics and he glances over my shoulder, like he’s considering if Mark will help him if he starts a fight. “I really didn’t expect much more out of a Lord, seeing as how you’re all lazy, cheating shits. But you’re not sticking us with all the work.”

  I step closer, letting my mouth stretch into a grin. “Move, or I’ll make you move.” I know he won’t call my bluff, but I see his eyes move down to my split lip, narrowing. As much as I’d love to bash this fucker’s smug face in, I definitely don’t want to waste the time.

  “Let him go,” Mark says, sounding a little too casual about it. “We’re good here.”

  Jason unfolds his arms and slowly steps out of my way, extending an arm. “Kumbaya, my Lord.” I don’t like the smarmy grin plastered on his face. They’re probably going to fail me.

  Oh well.

  I push past him out into the hallway, phone already to my ear. Story’s cell goes straight to voicemail. “Sweet Cherry,” I say, keeping my voice as calm as possible, “you missed your check in. Call me right away.”

  Next, I dial Rath, whose phone goes straight to his ‘Do Not Disturb’ response. Fuck! Whenever he goes into a session like this, the room basically gets locked down until he’s finished, which won’t be for another fifteen minutes. No phones. No interruptions.

  I stop outside the building and check the tracker again. No change. Something is definitely up. This isn’t like her.

  My thoughts go straight to Killian. It may not be very charitable of me, but he hasn’t earned much of my charity these days. If he made an order to her, she’d follow it. Because it doesn’t matter what he thinks—she’s loyal like that.

  Something is wrong. Moving on instinct now, I jog down the sidewalk, toward the athletic dorms. I push through the door and skip the elevator, rushing up to the third floor. Killian’s got a suite of his own, paid for personally by my Dear Old Dad. We spent a lot of time up here last year, partying and plotting South Side jobs. It’d be the only place he’d go to.

  I knock twice before opening the door, barging inside.

  “Killer!” I stop, gaping at the state of the room. It’s an absolute fucking pigsty. Pizza boxes, dirty boxers, sport drink and beer bottles all over the place. There are two game controllers sitting on the laundry-covered couch, while intro music and the glow of the TV screen fill the room.

  Killian must be losing it, just like I said. The guy isn’t just infamous for being tidy. It’s like his whole life hinges on some nebulous concept of order and cleanliness. ‘Anal’ isn’t a strong enough word. I’ve seen him throw an absolute conniption just because a few binders fell over on his desk. If this is the state of his room, then I don’t even want to know where his head’s at.

  I curse, kicking an empty energy drink bottle out of my way as I exit the suite.

  Since it’s between here and the parking lot, I double-time it to the music building, eyes only half fixed on where I’m walking. I keep looking at my phone, but that fucking dot never moves.

  As expected, Rath is locked in the studio. Looking through the window, I can see him in there, face tense and annoyed as he ignores whoever’s speaking. He looks wound up, and I know that look on his face—the way he pinches the bridge of nose, feet shifting restlessly, eyes darkening. He’s about to lose his shit. Distantly, I remember him mentioning that he’s having a peer review today. They’ve never gone past noon, though. Rath has his weak points, but music has never been one of them.

  “Fuck this,” I mutter, grabbing the knob and yanking it open. Maybe dad can buy him a wing, too. Everyone’s gaze lurches up to me as I enter, including Rath’s.

  His surprised expression morphs to displeasure, and then confusion. I don’t know what he sees on my face, but it makes him immediately spring to his feet, rattling off a quick, “Lewis can’t reach the pedals, Willis has shitty timing, and Gregory can suck my big fat balls if he thinks I’m sitting through another twenty-minute Russian piece.” He throws them a peace sign. “I’m out, fuckers.”

  Their angry protests nip at his heels, but Rath strides right up to me. “What now?”

  Leading him out of the studio, I explain, “Story isn’t checking in.”

  The look he gives me could peel paint. “That’s what this is about? Jesus Christ, you had me thinking one of the Petes showed up on our doorstep. You know, something actually fucking important.”

  Teeth grinding, I insist, “This is important!”

  “I don’t get you,” he says, gait unhurried at my side. “The whole tracking thing, needing to know her every goddamn move. It’s too much work. I don’t know why you bother. If the girl wants to blow off for a few hours, I say—”

  Grabbing his arm, I yank him to a stop. “Listen to me, Dimitri.” His mouth presses into a tense line at my use of his name. I only whip that out when shit is serious. “Her tracker has been in the same spot—the wrong spot—for two fucking hours. Killian’s suite in the athletic dorms is trashed, and I can’t find him, either.”

  At least that gets some urgency into his expression. He shifts his eyes around, brow knitting together. “You think he did something?”

  Shrugging, I admit, “I don’t know, man. But Killer’s been on a short fuse lately.”

  “Fuck.” Rath drags in a hard breath, raking his fingers through his hair. The look he gives me is uneasy. “This morning, when I was tracking down everyone who hadn’t checked their texts yet, I found out he’s been interrogating the frat.”

  “About what?” I ask, although I instantly realize the answer. “About Story fucking around.”

  Rath nods, eyes shifty. “He was smashing phones, too. I think maybe a few of the guys were taking video of what happened last ni
ght.”

  Eyes widening, I shove his shoulder. “You didn’t take their fucking phones at the door?!”

  He swats my hand away, eyes flashing angrily. “How the fuck was I supposed to know he was going to make her suck his cock in front of forty-five pussy-hungry degenerates?”

  “Goddamn it.” I press my fingertips into my eyes, trying to ease the ache forming behind them. “God-fucking-damn it, Rath.”

  “He destroyed their phones,” he repeats, palms out, hapless. “You know Killian. He’s thorough.”

  I snort bitterly. “Yeah, and he’s tearing a warpath through the campus to do it. Meanwhile,” I hold up my phone, showing the unmoving dot on the screen, “our Lady is MIA. This doesn’t fill me with comfort.”

  “I’m sure she’s just…” He shrugs at the phone, momentarily at a loss for words. He voices another possibility I don’t want to hear. “Maybe she bolted. I mean, come on. Could you blame her?”

  “No,” I admit, looking in the direction of the parking lot “But if she didn’t—if Killian’s fucking with her somehow, then...”

  I have a lot of ground to cover when it comes to making shit right with Story. I apologized this morning, and it doesn’t matter that I saw the shocked tears shining in her eyes. It doesn’t matter that she let me put that daisy behind her ear before breakfast. It doesn’t even really matter that, after breakfast, she let me bend down to kiss her lips, or that she kissed me back, slow and sweet.

  Words don’t matter here.

  The real ground starts with this—keeping a promise. Keeping her safe.

  “Rath.” I look into his eyes, willing him to understand. “I told her I wouldn’t let him hurt her again.”

  From the set of his shoulders, the way he straightens, I think he gets it. “Okay,” he says, jerking his head in the direction of the parking lot. “Let’s go find our Lady, then.”

  29

  Story

  * * *

  There’s a dream at the frayed edge of my mind. It’s fuzzy and indistinct, but I can feel the softness of Dimitri’s bed, remember the sleepy morning kisses, the way his arm had felt around my middle. Safe. Warm.

  But there’s another dream that keeps tainting it. It’s filled with flashes of Jack, my old roommate. I’ve trained myself to skirt away from the memory, flinching somewhere deep in my mind. I’ve tried not to ask questions. What are his parents like? Did he have siblings? Is he being missed? Was I responsible for ripping a hole in their lives?

  I haven’t let myself think of Jack in a long time. As I slowly rouse to consciousness, he’s all I can think about it. I wonder if it hurt. Did Ted make it quick? Did Jack struggle? Did he understand why it was happening?

  It’s dark when I try to open my eyes. At first, I think I can’t raise my lids, but then I realize it’s a blindfold. All of waking up is like that; thinking there’s something wrong with my body only to find otherwise. I can’t move my arms and legs. They’re extended, but tied down to something. I can’t open my mouth. It’s covered with tape.

  The panic comes gradually, in waves. I try to pull against the restraints, but it’s feeble. The drugs are still fogging up my mind. My throat still burns with the chemicals and everything feels muddled. Only one thing shines through loud and clear, like a beacon of light cutting through the clouds.

  Fight.

  The binds are tight on my wrists—less so on my ankles—and they’re cutting into the skin, making my tendons ache. It’s cold here, where I’m lying on something pliable and soft. When I make a futile attempt at turning, jostling, the squeak of springs gives it away as an old mattress.

  Suddenly the mattress dips with a heavy weight at my side. I freeze, heart hammering in terror. Ted, I remember, stomach plummeting as my lungs constrict. I try to scramble away from the dip, but the binds are too tight.

  I scream behind the tape when I feel fingertips on my cheek, tossing my head to the side. The fingers follow, however. I tremble, but refuse to cry, curling my hands into fists around the ropes.

  “Sorry about this,” the man beside me says, caressing a sore spot on my cheekbone. “Hitting girls isn’t our style. It’s just that we weren’t expecting so much of a fight. You broke a guy’s nose, sprained a wrist, and gave one a pretty good headache. Got a little messy in the van.” His finger runs down my neck. Across my collarbone. “Wouldn’t know it by looking at you. You’re such a sad-looking, tiny little wisp of a thing. But you’re a fighter.” His voice sounds pensive and excited. “I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  I shiver at the cold in the room—the terror coursing through my veins—and it makes my nipples peak. The response has nothing to do with his touch on me, but he chuckles into my ear anyway.

  “You like that?” he says, trailing his finger around a nipple. “You like it when I touch you like that?” Drawing in the breath, I mumble under the tape. “What’s that, darling’?”

  “Mwuf Mmew!”

  His fingers dig into my cheek before ripping the adhesive off my skin. I yelp in pain and he shushes me. “Tell me what you wanted to say.”

  “I said,” I lick my lips, tasting blood from where the tape pulled the skin off, “fuck you.”

  He gives a loud, barking laugh, but that’s not what sends a chill up my spine. It’s the sudden presence of other, distant voices, perhaps in the next room. We’re not alone. My head whips back and forth, chasing the sounds, trying to count.

  “So fucking feisty,” he says, giving my nipple a sharp pinch. “I have no idea how those bastards held off on you. Lords aren’t really known for their self-restraint. They have more willpower than I thought. I admit, I’m impressed. No wonder they kept that little detail about you a secret.”

  My mind spins, brow crushing in confusion. The more he talks, the less convinced I am this is Ted. It doesn’t make sense, though. Who else would take me like this? Who would want to hurt me?

  “That isn’t a surprise though. The Lords keep their shit locked up tight. Do you have any idea the coordination that went into this?” Laughing, he adds, “You made it a lot easier though, trusting the wrong person.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I gasp, twisting away. “I don’t trust anyone!”

  His fingers trail over the tops of my breasts, then down the sides, before coming back up to flick at my nipple. “Ironic, right? All it takes is one slip. One little detail and the power structure of this whole little system is turned on its head.” His breath is hot on my ear. “We never would have known about their prized possession if you hadn’t told our Countess.”

  Sutton.

  I think about her earlier that day, asking me to lunch, the look on her face when she told me to turn around, to walk another direction. But I know that’s not when it happened. It was that night after dinner with our family, when Killian stopped at the bar. When Sutton approached me in the bathroom. Eased me into gossiping. She found out about my virginity. I told her why the guys picked me as Lady, and she went behind my back and…

  His hand remains on my breast, but another digs beneath my head, untying the blindfold. My vision is blurry at the edges as I blink to adjust, chest heaving from the panic.

  I don’t realize how intensely I’m expecting to see Saul Cartwright’s handsome features until I don’t. “I remember you.” It’s Perez, the guy Dimitri had gotten into that argument with. The one who wanted Ms. Crane. Next to Saul Cartwright, this guy looks like…no one. A nobody. A wimpy college guy, nothing more. Stunned, I ask, “Are you kidding me? This is just about some dumb frat rivalry crap?”

  “Dumb?” he asks, eyes flashing angrily. “The only dumb thing about this is you. Do you have any idea how high the stakes are here?” He grabs my breast, squeezing it painfully. “We’re all sick of LDZ’s bullshit. They control the game, the faculty, the scouts, even fucking South Side. This year is going to be different.”

  “What do you want from me?” I ask, stomach flinching as his fingers explore my flesh.

  S
mirking, he says, “You know what we want, Story. It’s the same thing they want. We just want it for different reasons. Although…” His eyes sweep down my body, two broad hands grabbing the collar of my shirt and ripping it down the middle. I make a startled sound, momentarily so distressed by the loss of the shirt—Tristian had given it to me as an apology—that I don’t even think to worry about being exposed. Perez licks his lips at what he sees. “Taking your virginity won’t exactly be a burden, if you catch my drift.”

  My heart stops, catching in my throat. “What?” I worry about being exposed now, twisting futilely.

  “I’m just saying, I’ve had worse jobs,” he says, watching his hand massage my bare flesh. “In fact, it’s the second biggest reason we even decided to team up with the Princes and Barons to begin with. They’re beneath us, honestly. Even the prospect of taking down the Lords wasn’t quite enough to convince me an alliance was worth it. But you…” He leans down, licking a path between my breasts and emerging with a devious grin. “Popping your cherry really sweetened the pot, Lady.” He wedges his fingers under my waistband, working the buttons to my jeans open.

  My scream is deafening even to my own ears.

  That’s how I know this is real. In my dreams, my screams are such feeble, tenuous things. Here, now, they’re full of anger and alarm, so loud that it makes my ears ring and my throat ache.

  Even though I see his jaw tense, Perez says, “Scream all you want. No one can hear you except the guys in the next room. They’re waiting their turn.”

  I do exactly that, howling as loudly as I can, thrashing against the mattress. Despite his insistence that no one will hear me, he spits a curse and starts fishing around on the bed, producing the strip of tape he’d taken from my mouth. He looks annoyed as he tries to replace it, but my mouth is open too wide, my screams tearing from my throat like a banshee.

  He clamps a hand over it instead, ripping my pants open. “I wanted to do this nice and gentle,” he hisses into my face, “but now you’re really starting to piss me off.”