by K. B. Saint
I got her into this just like I did with him and now I’ll have to carry the weight of both her and Messiah’s pain until I die. The least I can do is help her navigate out of the mindset she’s now in.
I get to Ruby’s door and look to my left and eye Preston’s bedroom door. I know he’s not here and won’t be for a while, but his room…
I push Ruby’s door open and she immediately looks up at me from the floor where she’s sitting. I look in front of her and I can’t help the grin tugging at my lips. She has nail polish laid out in front of her and she’s painting her nails.
She stares at me, her breathing even and nothing like it was the last time I saw her. She looks exhausted.
“I came to see how you’re doing,” I tell her. “The maids have said you won’t talk to them and won’t eat the food they prepare for you.”
She just gives me a hard stare which is not as intimidating as she means for it to be, and I sigh. She’s so fucking stubborn. Her eyes follow me as I walk around her and lean against the bottom of her bed. I look over her color selection and keep trying to get her to talk.
“Why choose so many colors at once?” I ask and she pulls her eyes from me and eyes the bottles of paint lined up in front of her. She still doesn’t say anything, so I keep pushing. “You look like you’d prefer just black polish.”
I get a response, but not the one I want. She glares at me for a few seconds like what I’m saying is far-fetched or something. It’s not.
“Black wasn’t an option.”
There’s what I want. “Ah, she talks.”
“When does he get back?” she asks, ignoring my comment.
“Thursday.”
“I don’t know the day, Hollis, how long do I have until I have to see him again?” she asks, her attitude still thick in her voice.
“Three days.”
She looks back to the nail polish in front of her but doesn’t say anything else as she closes all of the colors, her fingers only half covered. Her whole left hand doesn’t have any polish at all.
“Why didn’t you do your other hand,” I ask her. She sighs.
“Lucky always does it for me. I am not right-handed and I always get it all over my hand,” she tells me, putting the last of the polish back into the small bag it came from.
“I’ll do it,” I tell her. She looks up at me with suspicion in her eyes. I chuckle. “I have a little sister. She’s a brat and a half and she wasn’t right-handed either. I used to help her.”
“You don’t have to do this, Hollis,” she says shaking her head.
“It’s just like painting …” I start but she interrupts me.
“I don’t mean the nail polish … I mean, baby me because you feel bad,” she tells me, standing to her feet. She’s wearing a pair of black cotton pants hanging from her and bunch at her feet and a tight tank top leaving very little for the imagination. “I made the decision to stay.”
“It’s what he tells us all, Ruby,” I tell her, seeing through her already.
“It’s what I told myself when I decided. I caught his drift of having things I wouldn’t like to do,” she says walking towards the bathroom after picking up the nail polish bag from the floor. I push off her bed and follow. “He hadn’t said the words yet, then, but I knew so this isn’t your fault. Don’t let me add to the sad look in your eyes.”
“What sadlook in my eyes?” I ask, amused.
“All your pain,” she answers, meeting my eyes again.
I don’t say anything, but I know my silence only fuels her thoughts more. I have nothing to say about the pain in my eyes and most of the time I hope no one sees it all. Ruby just so happens to be one of those people who cares too much for her own damn good.
“Where are Lucky and Tasha?” she asks, changing the subject.
“We took them to Juice,” I tell her and watch her as she puts the nail polish back under the sink.
“When?”
“Before Preston left.”
She nods and stands up and faces me, seeming to be thinking about something as she presses her hands into the sink and leans her ass against it slightly only to hiss and push off quickly. “I keep forgetting the mother fucker branded me,” she gripes out. “Did he brand all of you?”
“Not on our asses,” I assure her. “But yes, we all bear the mark.”
“Even Salem?”
I nod. “Even Salem. She was the youngest to get hers so it's a little lighter than the rest of ours but it’s there.”
“I can’t even sit down properly,” she tells me, pulling her loose pajama pants down her ass and turning around to look at her skin in the mirror. She peels the white gauze back and it sticks slightly but she rips it off anyway. Blood springs to the surface right away and she just shakes her head as she looks at it.
“You should probably just walk around without pants,” I suggest. “The air will allow it to heal faster than having the gauze on it and making it bleed every time you check it.”
She turns around and looks at me with a smirk. “You’d like if I had no pants on wouldn’t you?”
“I wouldn’t complain,” I tell her with a straight face and a shrug.
She shakes her head again but listens. She pushes her pants to her ankles and steps out of them before walking right past me. I shamelessly watch her walk by me and I want nothing more than to lick the blood dripping from her brand right off her ass.
I walk back into her bedroom and she lays across her bed on her stomach in nothing but the tiny tank top and I walk to the bottom of the bed and ask, “Do you regret your decision?”
“No,” she says quickly. “This is the nicest house I’ve ever lived in and yeah, it might hurt to sit down right now, but I’ve been through worse than this. Whatever Preston has for me I can guarantee I’ve already drug myself through it in my twenty-five years here, and I’ve had to do it alone. I don’t know what’s to come, but I don’t care because I at least have people on my side now.”
“You seemed to care about Tasha and Lucky,” I say to her and she rolls to her side to look up at me and shrugs.
“You know those people you care more about than they care about you?” she asks. “It’s how it is with Tasha. I love her like a sister, don’t get me wrong, but she’s always been on some slick shit and I’ve always had to watch my back with her around.”
“You fought Benzo over her,” I note.
“And I’d do it again, all the bruises included. I’ve hated him and his whole crew for as long as I can remember.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Because Benzo was the one who sold to my parents the day they died.”
“How do you know it wasn’t Elijah?” I ask bluntly.
“I was there when they bought it and I didn’t know anyone's name back then to put a name to a face but when Tasha started dating him the first time it all clicked for me. When I tried to tell her she just called me crazy and told me my parents bought from all kinds of people and if I was going to be mad at him I’d have to be mad at everyone who ever sold to them. It was Benzo that day, but I remember Elijah,” she tells me and my eyebrows shoot up.
“You knew him?” I ask. “Before coming here?”
“No,” she says shaking her head. “I used to see him when I was with Messiah. He’d just be around and then Messiah would disappear. I kind of started associating seeing him with Messiah being gone.”
“You knew Messiah when he was in training?”
“I didn’t know he was in training, but I guess if training him is what Elijah was doing,” she says, shrugging as a knock on the door sounds.
We both look over at the door and then to each other. I know neither of us are expecting anyone, but I have a feeling I know who it is. I get up from the bed and go to the door and when I open it I find Salem shifting from foot to foot. She starts in on me immediately.
“I know you said not to, but I’m bored Hollis. Preston won’t be back for days and Nic is being an asshole,” she hurr
ies out.
“Nicholai is always an asshole,” I tell her.
She lets her shoulders sag in protest.
“Hollis,” she whines, trying to get past me into the room. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”
I look down at her and shake my head at her big blue manipulative sad eyes and step aside. She’s barefoot and as she runs to Ruby’s bed her feet slap loudly against the wood. She gets to the bed and dives onto the bed next to a still half naked Ruby.
“Were y’all about to fuck?” Salem asks with a smirk, looking from her to me. Ruby laughs. “I mean, don’t let me stop you.”
“Right, you wouldn’t want us to stop, how would you join in if we stopped,” I tell her and her smile grows.
“You’re right.” She says, laughing before looking over at Ruby. “Don’t tell Nic, he’s a dick about this kind of stuff.”
“I thought he’s a dick about everything,” Ruby says laughing and looking over at me.
“Yeah, but about sex involving me it’s even worse,” she laughs.
“Got it,” Ruby says with a nod.
“But why are you naked?” Salem asks, not knowing about and not seeing Ruby’s brand still as fresh as the day she got it. She’s turned on her side some, hiding it, but at Salem’s question she rolls to her stomach and sticks her butt up some.
“My ass is just a little sore,” she chuckles under her breath, looking back at her ass just like Salem and I are. “He said it would heal faster if I let the air hit it.”
Salem shrugs with a laugh, “He probably just wanted to see your ass naked again.”
“I said the same thing,” Ruby laughs.
“I didn’t rip the pants off of her, Say. I just know how to heal shit faster, covering it makes it soggy and unable to heal. Ripping the bandage off and braving the elements is when real healing can start,” I explain and they both look at me for a few seconds before they both burst into laughter.
“Ole Confucius sounding ass.” Salem laughs, making Ruby laugh harder.
I laugh.
“Shut up, Salem, I’m right,” I say, but they just laugh and all I can do is shake my head. Once they calm down Salem nods.
“He is right, though. You’ll heal a lot faster and once it’s scabbed it won’t be so bad. Shitty he got you on the ass. Must suck to sit down,” she tells Ruby.
“It does, I’ve done a lot of laying on my stomach lately,” Ruby admits. “Where did he brand you?”
Salem looks up at me for approval but she already knows I don’t even agree with her being up here. I told her so before I came up here and it was an order straight from Preston. He had to know Salem wouldn’t listen though, she’s always been like this. She knows Preston will probably even punish her for coming up here, but she never gets it bad from him. He has a soft spot for her, just like the rest of us.
When she realizes I’m not going to okay it or deny it she rolls her eyes and looks back to Ruby. “I was only eleven and I’ve obviously grown since then, so mine doesn’t look cool like the guys does because it kind of grew with me, but it’s on my back. Wanna see?”
Ruby nods and Salem lifts her shirt and the way her brand sticks out against her pale skin, puts me right back where I was the day it happened. She was so little, even though they’d been here with us two years, and I was sure it seared her thin skin all the way to the bone. It didn’t, of course, but she still had a hell of a time healing and her screams echoing throughout the compound still haunt me to this day.
Chapter Thirty-Two
RUBY—PRESENT
“Salem,” I call out as I walk into the big theater room. It’s dark and quiet in here, but when she woke me up this morning she told me she’d meet me here after I ate breakfast. I’ve only had a few days to explore this place, but I know I’m in the right place because there’s only one room set up like a movie theater with a screen the size of a whole high wall.
There aren't any seats like in a regular movie theater and in the dim light of the lights hung high on the walls I search around the room for her. The black couches don’t give much away in the dark and I go to turn and leave but then I hear her. It’s not a response to me, but it’s definitely a response to someone. I call out to her again, thinking she didn’t hear me the first time.
“Salem?”
I see her blonde hair pop up from one of the couches I couldn’t fully see when I first walked in and in the low light I can already see her bright white teeth as she smiles at me. She looks back down at the couch and then I hear Elijah’s voice.
“Come here, Ruby.”
Salem laughs and goes back to whatever she was doing before I called out to her and when I round the couch I see why responding to me was a little difficult for her. Elijah has the back of Salem’s head in his hand and I can see he’s pressing her down hard, shoving his dick deep into her throat.
His eyes are on me as I stare at what they’re doing together, aching to join them, but knowing I’ll be denied. Preston has made good on the promise he made me saying I wouldn’t cum again until I lost my attitude. I’m not desperate yet, but Elijah isn’t making anything easier and from the look in his eyes I could easily assume Preston arranged this all, just for me to see. They’re always doing things to make me squirm and over the last two weeks I’ve only barely managed to follow Preston’s orders.
Me not following them doesn’t make the orders stop. Or even slow down.
As I watch Elijah force Salem to suck his dick I keep my breathing steady and once I get the will power, I drag my eyes from Salem and meet Elijah’s stare silently telling him I’m at least getting better at controlling myself more. He stares at me for a while and then his eyes press closed and I can see him grinding his teeth before pulling Salem off his dick and coming all over her face.
I have no time to even process the fact he just did what he did before Preston’s in my ear. “How does seeing her suck his like that make you feel?” he asks.
“A little pissy,” I tell him, turning to look up at him with a grin. He’s glaring at me in the low light and I know why. He wants so badly to break me, but it’s going to take a lot more than this to get behind my armor.
When my smile doesn’t waver at the sight of his deep frown lines he cuts the act and blows a minty breath out as he laughs. “You’re infuriating.”
“So I’ve heard,” I say, turning back to where Salem and Elijah were before but find them already leaving the room through the door on the opposite side of the room. “You traitor!”
I hear Salem laugh as Elijah pulls her around the wall. “Sorry, Ruby.”
“You two are going to be the end of me, I swear,” he says from behind me and I slowly turn back to him. “I was hoping it might break this hard ass act you have going on, but I know my efforts here will do you no good. Not with everyone around because they won’t let you stew long enough.”
“You’re making them leave again?” I ask and he shakes his head.
“No, you’re coming away with me,” he tells me bluntly. “We leave in fifteen minutes so hurry to your room and pack anything you think you’ll need and meet me in the front of the house.”
“How long will we be gone?” I ask.
“Well the time we spend there is all up to you and how fast you learn,” he says before turning around and walking out of the theater.
I stand there for a few seconds, frustrated and doing my best to remain calm. Life hasn’t been completely horrible here at the compound, but dealing with Preston is one of my favorite and most hated ways to spend my time. He’s the most infuriating man but one touch from him sets my skin on fire and always leaves me craving more.
On purpose.
The lack of control I have over my life currently is my biggest frustration, though. Salem says the freedom comes with time but I’ve never had anyone telling me what to do in my life and I’m about ready to tear my skin off just to get out of this invisible bondage Preston and the rest of the guys have around me.
I’m sure they’re just going off his orders at this point, but what he said before he left has me thinking they have a lot more freedom than they admit to. Freedoms to do as they please and even to question Preston. I asked Salem about it yesterday when we were in the garden and she told me they don’t question him often, but it’s been happening a lot more since I got here. Which is probably another reason Preston’s always so grouchy with me.
The biggest reasons being my attitude and smart ass mouth.
I gather myself again and make my way to the bedroom I’ve been staying in. I find Salem waiting for me and when she looks up from the bed she gives me a sympathetic look as I frown at her.
“You bitch.” I laugh, not being able to hold my face anymore.
“You know I can’t say no,” she whines.
“Yeah, I know, but you could have enjoyed it less,” I gripe, walking into my bathroom and to the closet in the back to grab clothes.
Salem follows with a laughs and leans up against the door frame as I grab one of the three black backpacks I’ve had hung on the inside of this closet since the day I got to this room. I start grabbing the clothes I think I’ll want but I realize quickly I have no idea where we’re going.
“Do you know where I’m going with Preston?” I ask, turning just my head to look up at her.
She nods but doesn’t offer anything else.
“Are you not allowed to tell me?”
She shakes her head, still not saying anything else about it.
“Can you at least tell me if I’ll need a fucking jacket,” I ask, my frown deepening.
“You’ll need a jacket, and pack all kinds of clothes. You never know with Preston. Sometimes I wonder if he even knows, but it would be stupid of me to think he’s less than ten steps ahead of everyone else at all times,” she admits with a smirk. She admires him too. Just like me.
“Why did he only give me fifteen minutes to pack,” I say, turning back to the clothes and moving faster. “Does he breed this much anxiety on purpose?”