Chapter 10. #2
He snaps the man’s neck easily, his life stolen, and his empty body falls to the floor to join the others.
“Getting a little too close again, estrellito?” Reuben’s smile is easy even in this situation, and he looks completely at home, as though he's just stepped out of the kitchen in the Taiga mansion.
I ignore him, pursing my lips, “There's going to be more on the bridge.”
“And it seems they're hiding below as well.” His gaze flickers to the stairs below before coming up the stairs to me. “I'll take the bridge.”
“I’ll come with you.”
He reaches the top of the stairs. His frame isn’t any bigger than mine and he couldn’t be more than an inch taller than me, yet still the way he looks at me makes me feel small.
There’s a chaotic fire in his eyes as he presses his palm against my chest, pushing me back to step further in and his smile widens into something… carnal.
“You worried for me, estrellito?” His voice is suddenly like warm chocolate in my ears, and a frown touches my lips. His messy updo has become even more unruly, with more strands escaping to fall at the sides of his face, yet I can’t deny how alluring it is.
“Aren’t we supposed to protect you?” I ignore his strange charm for now.
“Do I look like a man that needs protecting, Christian?”
It doesn’t sound like he’s berating me. Instead, there’s an amusement in his eyes that makes my glare sharpen.
Fair point.
I huff, brushing past him, “Fine.” I can feel his eyes on my back even as I walk back down the stairs, heading for the lowest levels. Still, I don’t spare him another glance.
“Don’t die, Taiga.”
“Wouldn’t think of it.”
I only find two other men as I scout through the lower levels, but it could only be about thirty minutes when Gabriel finally speaks through the comms.
“All lower decks, right side clear. Five men.”
“Left side clear. Six men,” I report.
“Does that count the one that nearly got you?” The smirk in Reuben’s voice is an irritating thing that makes my nose flare.
“It does.” I hate that I can see his grin in my mind’s eye.
“Bridge clear,” he reports. “Four men. All good for movement, Xavier?”
“No more hostile fire,” Xavier confirms. “All good for movement.”
“Let’s wrap up the shitshow,” Reuben’s order is final.
A sound on the lowest level of the deck makes me pause. Muffled voices. Male.
I ready my gun, raising my knife as I follow the sounds down the hall with narrowed eyes.
I’d passed some of the guests on my way through the levels.
Ordered them all to stay out of sight and not to open their doors until the all-clear was given, but the lowest levels of the cruise ship were so empty, I was convinced there was no one here.
Room 206. The door is slightly ajar, but the voices are louder now. Discernible. Two males.
And a third voice—the muffled one.
I’m not sure why the sound of it makes my heartbeat seem so loud.
I step into the room slowly, silently. Into a short hall with a small bathroom to my left—the usual layout for the cheapest rooms.
“Fuck, you feel amazing,” a man’s voice groans.
There are sharp, thrusting sounds. The creaking of a bed. A woman’s muffled cries.
And an unpleasant feeling is pooling in the pits of my stomach.
“Her cunt is so fucking tight,” another voice with a lower tenor speaks. An adult. Male.
The woman’s cries become worse. They become whimpers.
And I think I’m shaking but I’m not sure.
“Playing hard to get when you take it. So. Good.” The first voice is strained. Breathy. Followed by sharp thrusts.
I step out of the hall, deep enough to see the whole scene, and I swear the shaking gets worse but my hands are steady.
Two men.
I recognize them from the party. The shadows who lurked in the dark.
Whom I’d considered throwing overboard but didn’t follow through.
One of them is pounding deeply into a half-nude body. Spreading her legs wide on the bed as he spears her with his cock, while the other pins her to the head of the bed, thrusting in and out of her mouth.
I can’t hear myself think when I meet Lucia’s tearstained eyes.
“What the fuck is going on?” I think I ask. I must have because both men turn to me, startled, before scowling.
“Get the fuck out of here,” the man with his cock in Lucia’s mouth snaps at me.
And my rage spikes. My pulse is a rush of blood in my ears.
“I asked what the fuck is going on?!” I snarl, firing two shots so they know I’m not playing around.
They immediately jump off the bed with wide eyes, the shots having woken them up and realized who’s in control.
But I can only see Lucia.
“Christian,” her voice is a hoarse whisper, a croak. Her dress is torn in places, exposing her breasts, and the skirt of it is hiked above her hips.
The scene is unfamiliar. And wet. And messy.
But it’s the bruises. Along her porcelain skin, in bright red, turning purple. Along her thighs, her throat, her arms.
And she whimpers as she turns away from me.
Because I’m looking.
Because my eyes hurt her.
I turn to the men, prepping the trigger with a click that makes them both flinch. The sight of the gun makes them both retreat even further and raise their hands in the air with new surrender, but their sex is still semi-hard and exposed.
They’re guests—
“We just ran from the chaos,” the first man says, trying to placate me.
“Yes, we figured we’d be safe here,” the other nods his head in agreement.
They’re guests, they’re not attackers—
Still, I’m having difficulty hearing my own thoughts through the roar of sound in my ears.
I don’t hear when the gun goes off twice, shooting them both in the thigh and making them fall to the floor.
“You fucking shot me!” The first man raves as he screams, clinging to his leg on the floor.
His true nature leaks out, sneering maliciously, “Do you know who the fuck I am?! You’ll rot in hell for this!”
I drop the gun because I can’t think.
Because I don’t care if they’re guests.
“We—we were just having fun,” the second man crawls backwards. I step forward to grab him by the hair and pull his head up.
“The slut fucking liked it—!” His words die with my knife in his throat. Two stabs in his neck as I force him to look me in the eyes, making sure I’m the last thing he sees as he chokes on his blood. I remove the weapon from his skin only when he’s dead.
“You’re fucking crazy!” The first man crawls back as well, finally realizing that there’s no way I’m letting him escape from here. “You have no idea what you’re getting into you dumb fuck—”
I grab him by the hair to pull his head back like I did the other one, and he seethes at me, baring his teeth and going red in the face with his rage, “He’ll have your fucking head. You’ll die for this, you stupid piece of—”
My knife sinks into his throat.
“I’m already dead, you disgusting son of a bitch,” I seethe in his ears as I stab him again, pulling the knife from his skin to sink it firmly into his throat again.
I was right when I told Lucia the first time.
These aren’t people. They’re monsters.
And it takes monsters to kill monsters.
In my periphery, Lucia doesn’t move, but I can feel her eyes on me.
I’d forgotten this world was full of monsters just like Everett.
We watch each other quietly, unable to speak, or ask what the other needs, so I move around the bed to scoop her up in my arms. I am surprised that she allows it, but after a moment of tension, her shoulders relax.
“I won't hurt you,” I promise softly.
I'm unsure what to do with her from there but when I look at the state of her...
It’s a bath that comes to mind.
Maybe I'm too simple... but I find the bathtub anyway and place her inside gently, “Let’s get them off you first, okay?”
Her lip wobbles and new tears form in her hazel eyes, but she doesn't allow them to fall, and instead, nods her head bravely.
I'm careful not to touch her as I run hot water over her with the shower head, but a new resentment is burning in my chest for being so completely lost.
Because Christian would’ve known what to do.
“What... what do you need?” I ask her.
Maybe it's because she sees how lost I am, how much I want to help—but she's throwing her arms around my neck, finally allowing herself to cry.
And I give her that.
I know the rest of the team must be livid about my silence and how long I've been gone, but I can give her that.
But strangely, she only cries for a few minutes before the shock takes over. Before she knows it, she's falling into a deep sleep.
I adjust her dress, wrap her sleeping body in a towel from nearby and pick her up in my arms once more before beginning the journey back to the top deck.
She clings to me even in her sleep, her grip slackening only barely. And I feel heavier with her every breath and with each step up the stairs. As though the weight on her shoulders is pushing me down with her, threatening to pull me into the floor and swallow me into her darkness.
All I can do for now is share that weight with her.
When I reach the top, Reuben is pacing and he’s exchanging sharp words with Gabriel.
It’s Xavier who sees me first, “What the fuck.”
Everyone’s eyes snap to me.
And it feels like I'm an ocean separated from my own team as I stop some distance away—
Holding a broken Lucia.
Reuben’s eyes lock with mine. He looks furious but when he sees Lucia, the chaotic energy in him subsides like a receding wave. And I know he's doing it again. Know he's reading the story on my face, like he always does. Our gaze is broken when Tobias takes a step forward, “What happened?”
My hold tightens around Lucia. The air around me becomes so charged, it stops him in his tracks before his brows tighten, “What did you do?”
I know he doesn't mean what I think he does, but if I didn't have Lucia in my hands I’d hit him with everything I have.