41. Anastasia
The carnival grounds are packed with bodies, loud with music and game sounds, and bright with all the strobe lights. We have some of our people tracking the guys who are targeting women for Forthson tonight, we’re just waiting for their signal and I’m growing antsy.
“Would it be terribly cliché to want to ride the Ferris wheel?” I ask Rhett as a distraction, strolling hand in hand with him while I bite off pieces of my cotton candy.
“Probably.”
“Excellent.” I pull him along. “We’re fulfilling one full night of the most lovesick movie clichés.”
Every time I glance at him I grow embarrassingly wetter between my legs. I can’t explain how sexy he looks in his half-face skull makeup. I did a pretty great job, if I do say so myself.
“This line is terribly long,” Rhett says.
“Does Mr. Grumpy need a snack to pass the time?” I tease, breaking off a piece of candy floss and reaching up to his mouth.
He takes it from my fingers with his instead, and when he directs it back to my mouth, I open for him too eagerly.
“If we get on this thing, I can’t promise I won’t make a snack out of you.”
His thumb presses down on my lips, his head angled enough to partly shield our faces with his baseball cap. My tongue flicks out before I hollow my cheeks around his thumb. Rhett groans softly, daring to slip a hand over my ass.
“You’re being highly inappropriate,” he growls.
“You started it.”
It only takes thirty minutes for our turn, which is fine for me but absolutely torturous for someone like Rhett, apparently. We scoot into the little round carriage before it begins to rise.
He looks out over the grounds with an elbow hooked over the side. “What is the appeal in this thing?”
“It’s romantic!” Honestly, I think I’m trying to persuade myself there’s something magical in this painstakingly slow carousel.
Rhett shifts closer and lifts my leg over his thigh. “It could be,” he mutters huskily before cupping my pussy hard over my denim shorts. I gasp, darting my eyes around, because these carriages are open as fuck. I don’t see anyone noticing, and I don’t want him to stop.
“Do you think I could make you come before we get off?” he asks, undoing my button.
“It’s a very short ride,” I breathe.
“That sounds like a challenge.”
I’m deplorably turned on by the fact we’re in public. Rhett’s fingers massage my clit, and I suck my bottom lip under my teeth with the first sparks of pleasure.
“I want to fuck you right here and not care who we disgrace,” he says at my throat.
“Rhett, people might see,” I whisper. We’ve passed the top and are heading back down.
“That turns you on, doesn’t it? I can feel you growing wetter by the second.”
I try to shift, turning toward him in an attempt to look innocently enamored as we reach the bottom and go around again. Rhett’s fingers curve inside me as we do, and my nails scratch into his neck, which tenses.
“Come on, little bird. Give it to me.” My shorts restrict him being able to fuck me with his fingers the way I’m aching for, but his attention on my clit speeds my breaths, and I come so close ... so fucking close.
“I think I’m going to—oh fuck.” My arms clamp around his, my body tensing at the impending orgasm.
Then he stops.
His hand slips out of my shorts, and I’m delirious and panting, sinking at his refusal to let me finish. By the time I”ve pulled back, Rhett has buttoned my shorts, pulling his fingers, which were inside of me, out of his mouth with a wicked smile at my look of irritation.
“So inappropriate,” he tuts.
I’m speechless. And mad, wanting to get him back for that little stunt that has me riled up and needy.
“By the end of all this, you’ll be begging for my cock.”
We reach the bottom again and the worker swings open our gate. Rhett takes my hand, which is just as well, because my knees are wobblier than the carriage.
I’m walking around looking for a plan when my eyes light up on the fun house. As I drag him to it, Rhett smirks at me as if he knows what I’m thinking, but he has no idea.
Game on, Kaiser.
This line is only ten minutes—a lot quieter than the Ferris wheel. When we get to our turn, I plant a hand to his chest just past the entrance.
“Twenty-second head start,” I say.
His eyes darken in challenge. “Ten.”
“Fifteen.”
“Nine. Eight.”
This motherfucker.
I turn and jog down the hall and around the bend. Eerie clown music plays, and I navigate a spinning wheel, rope stairs, and through a room of wacky mirrors before I decide to hide in here. It only takes seconds for Rhett to catch up.
“If you come out, I’ll finish what I started,” he says.
My pussy is still hot, and my whole body feels like it’s hanging on the edge of a climax. When Rhett gets close enough I lunge out, catching him by surprise when I slam him to the wall. Keeping one hand pressed to his chest, I undo his belt buckle with the other.
“What are you—? Shit,” he hisses when I pull out his cock and drop down. My lips wrap around him with no teasing or finesse, just quick sucking that has him cupping the back of my neck to bury himself deeper.
“Dirty fucking girl,” he growls, beginning to thrust his hips to meet me.
I pull him out of my mouth and pump him hard and fast in my fist as I stand.
“You’re close, aren’t you?” I reach up on my toes to say it into his ear.
“If you keep—yes. Fuck yes.”
I stop pumping, starving him off at his base, and Rhett’s head tips back, his brow pinched in tortured pleasure.
“That’s too bad,” I say and let him go.
As I walk off, I hear his chuckles at my back. I get out of the fun house before he does.
I squeal when I’m lifted off my feet from behind. Rhett sets me down only to spin me around and lift again, my legs circling his waist.
“Is that how it is?” he says darkly.
He looks so menacing and daring and downright sexy it isn’t fair.
“I like to win too, Agent.”
His smile through the makeup is so sinister but alluring. “Oh, little bird, it’s far from over yet.”
Rhett’s hold tightens on me but his faraway look tells me someone is talking in his earpiece. He sets me down and suspense bubbles inside me. When his pained, concerned eyes fall down to me I know it’s time.
“They’re here?” I ask.
Rhett nods. “We don’t need you to do this. There are other ways to catch them.”
“I’m part of this network now, let me work too.”
He’s torn between admiration and fear, but I want to show him I can handle myself and prove useful even at the front lines of what he does. There are monsters lurking in the playground, and I’m going to take pleasure in watching them capture the prey that turns to the hunter.
Rhett sighs as he plucks out a second earpiece from his pocket and passes it to me. I focus on keeping my hands from trembling as I fit it in place.
“I’ll be with you the whole time,” he says, lips coming torturously close to mine I’m regretting painting his now. “You’re so fucking brave.”
He makes me feel like I can conquer the world so long as he’s right by my side.
“Let’s get this over with,” I murmur, running a hand down his chest. “We still have a game to play.”
He tenses when my palm drags over his cock. Then I step back, turning I squeal when he slaps my ass as I walk away.
I weave through the throng of people and decide to stop to buy a lollipop. The sugar keeps me calm and gives me something to fidget with.
“Coming up on your left, little bird,” Rhett says in my ear.
My tongue swirls around the lollipop while I casually glance around.
“Did you really need to buy that?” he asks thickly.
Okay, maybe I’m being subtly provocative with it because I know Rhett won’t take his eyes off me for a second, and he’d sparked a challenge between us since the carousel I’m determined to win.
I smile coyly, not knowing where he is exactly but he’ll see it.
To my left is a dark passage between two tall containers, and I only make out the figure against one because I was expecting him. Wandering over to the carnival game right in front of that ominous slither of darkness, I suck on the lollipop and pretend to engross myself in the spinning wheels some are throwing darts at.
It doesn’t take long before I’m approached.
“You don’t want to waste your money on rigged games with cheap prizes,” he says smoothly. I glance at him, keeping my repulsion down even though he’s fairly young and quite handsome.
“Are you saying you have a fairer game with better prizes?” I play along.
He grins with such a gleam in his eye that believes he’s won me far too easily.
“You could say I’m known for it.”
Known for being a vile piece of shit.
I smile sweetly. “Alright then, show me.”
He thinks I’m flirting and that he’s caught me easily tonight. What sinks in my gut is how he doesn’t seem surprised or like he expected the resistance, which makes me wonder how many he’s lured away and kidnapped under the guise of being a harmless young man to enjoy some attention from for a night. The world is cruel and full of nightmares with pretty faces.
When I feel his hand graze mine I refrain from a violent reaction. Instead I grit my teeth, allowing his palm to slip across mine as he leads me down the dark passage.
“Seems we’re going the opposite way from all the fun,” I remark.
“The most thrilling things are found in the dark. You’ll see,” he says smugly.
Two more figures appear at the end and my heartbeat picks up. Subconsciously I squeeze the guy’s hand and he chuckles.
“Relax, sweetheart. It’s not a party without friends.”
“Is it just the four of us?” I ask, only to try gain any information.
“You sound like you’re hoping for more,” he says, and my skin crawls to the suggestion that thickens his voice.
“He has a gun in the back of his jeans,” Rhett informs me. “Don’t do anything reckless unless you have no choice. We’re closing in soon. And that hand of his is getting ripped from his body first for touching you.”
I want to snip back playfully at his overprotectiveness, instead I pluck the lollipop from my mouth and smile.
“It’s hardly a party with just you three,” I say as we get closer to the other men who appear older than this guy.
I realize my complete faith and security in Rhett as I don’t feel even the slightest bit nervous anymore. All the unsettles in me is giddiness to watch their grins of triumph fall to frightened children when Xoid came.
“We have more friends for you,” one of the new men say, his voice gruff like he’s smoked twenty a day for a century.
“How many women?” I ask.
He looks down at me with a hint of confusion.
“Do you bat for both teams, princess?”
Rhett said not to do anything reckless, but I’m feeling pretty justified.
This guy doesn’t expect me to know about his gun as I pull it from the back of his jeans, nor does he anticipate my fingers jabbing into his throat when he tries to reach for me. When he chokes I push his chest which crashes him into the wall and point the gun at his face. My head snaps in warning to his friends. Their sly smiles have turned to vicious fury.
“How many women and children have you taken from this fair?” I ask, slower, with all the sinister intent that pours out of me thinking of those frightened victims.
“She won’t shoot,” the other guy says.
That gives the one under my gun the confidence to try grab me again but he’s not that much taller than me and I land a hit with the gun across his temple.
He yelps, clutching the bleeding wound. The other two drew guns, pointing at me.
“I have friends too,” I say.
“Baby, I thought I told you to wait for me,” Rhett’s voice is almost a purr, caressing down my nape.
“You took too long.” I shrug.
Rhett takes the gun from my hands, only to slide another in place. This one has a silencer attached.
I see commotion in my peripheral vision, figuring our people from Xoid have detained the other two.
Rhett grabs the guy’s hand, pinning it by his head. “You haven’t answered her question,” he says, low and menacing. “How many women and children?”
“I-I don’t know man.”
I watch, twistedly high with adrenaline, as Rhett stuffs a cloth into the man’s mouth to smother his scream when he snaps his wrist. He keeps twisting past the initial break and I almost wince imagining the agony. My heart pounds thinking he might actually follow through on his threat and tear the man’s hand right off. When he looks close to passing out, Rhett stops.
“That’s for touching my girl,” he says calmly. The man would have fallen to his knees but Rhett pins him up with a choking hold around his neck. “Where have you taken the victims?”
“I don’t think you’re getting the answer out of him now,” I mutter, still aiming my gun but he’s no longer a threat of attacking back or making a getaway.
“Dammit,” Rhett says half-heartedly.
He lets the man go who falls to a crumpled heap instantly.
“Those who enjoy to inflict malicious pain on others typically do have the worst tolerance themselves,” Rix comments. I flick a look over my shoulder to find him standing cross-armed behind Rhett. “I’ve never been in on the action, this side is kind of fascinating.”
“Ana,” Adam says my name with quiet horror. He looks between the gun and me as if he doesn’t know who he’s seeing.
“You knew I wasn’t going to confront this with a teddy bear in my hand,” I answer.
Rix claps a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Welcome to the violent and ugly side of the underworld, pretty boy.”
“Welcome to reality,” I mumble.
Meeting Rhett’s eye, he contemplates just for a second before giving me a small nod.
I’d told him I wanted to be the one to stop at least one evil soul tonight.
Permanently.
I pull the trigger aimed for the man’s chest.
Even though I was prepared, I’d wanted to do it, I don’t think the twinge of regret, fear, will ever go away. It’s the kind that adds a small tarnish within me but I’m glad for it, when it’s the thing that separates me from the man I killed. Good from evil. Not the act but the intention and the emotions we bear toward it.
Rhett’s touch is gentle over my hands still clamped around the gun. I let him take it from me, then he tilts my chin up from staring at the body.
“Are you okay?” he asks, searching my eyes to know if I lie.
“I think so,” I whisper.
I flash a look around Rhett for Adam’s reaction. He doesn’t give away much; a little disturbed but it’s hard to tell if it’s toward what I’ve become or if it’s impacting him more to see the monsters behind the trafficking he’s only heard about so far.
When our eyes lock, I have my answer in the way he eases a small smile. It’s painfully understanding.
“Let’s get away from here,” Rix says.
“Are you sure nothing can trace this back to us?” Adam asks apprehensively.
Rix slaps a hand to his chest, deeply offended. “Dude, have you not been paying attention at all?”
They walk ahead as Rix continues voicing his dismay about Adam’s doubt in Xoid.
“You looked sexy as hell when I found you,” Rhett says, creeping closer to me. There’s a man I just killed lying a few feet away and yet he has the ability to make that insignificant in the way he speaks and reaches for me. “I almost didn’t want to intervene just to watch my violent little creature at work.”
My lips part to the rumble of his words cascading down my neck.
“Now you’re being inappropriate.”
He grabs my ass, pulling me closer until his thigh is between my legs.
“I thought we were still playing?” His hands coax my hips to move and I can’t help myself. I grip fistfuls of his t-shirt when pleasure starts to mount.
“We can’t do this here,” I pant.
“Why not? I don’t think he’s going to tell.”
This should be all kinds of wrong. There’s something fucked up with me not to give a damn about the body behind us. All I care about is him. Rhett, Rhett, Rhett. His name chants in my mind like an exhilarator to my impending orgasm.
“Please. I need––” my words are cut off by my own cry of tortured frustration when he grips my hips tight, stopping me from grinding against him anymore.
“I’m not above fucking you next to the blood of our enemies, even over it, but the other’s will be back to clean up the mess any minute and no one is getting to hear those sounds from you but me,” he says, equally as breathless.
I’m so needy that my underwear is soaked through. Rhett takes my hand, leading me out of the dark passage between the containers and we emerge into the bustling carnival again. My cloud of lust disperses enough to begin relaying what just happened.
“Will they find the women and children that we were too late to save?” I ask.
“Yes. We have the two others he was with. One of them was quick to give it up. These guys are always the easiest to break. They’re at the bottom of the chain; unreliable and flakey crooks just looking for a quick payout with the least involvement. The moment they get spooked they usually back out.”
It’s a relief to hear. Rhett goes on to explain how it’s not often they get a trace on the “poachers” as he calls them. Tonight we got lucky.
“There’s no redemption for someone like that,” I say, though I think I’m trying to convince myself after what I did.
Rhett pauses our walk to face me. His eyes are all serious. “Make no mistake that piece of shit had every intention to take you. He would have been the first to rape you and then watch as he wouldn’t be the last. I’ve met countless victims, Ana. Their stories are all unique but similar in the most tragic ways. That man you killed… this isn’t his first time kidnapping women and children, and he would have done it again until he was stopped.”
I nod, grateful for the assurance. Rhett pulls me to him and my tension dissolves in his strong, warm hold.
“You guys win anything yet?” Rix’s voice travels over to us.
We release each other and I turn to find Adam carrying a medium-size teddy bear, and Rix holds a single goldfish. He lifts it up when they stop before us.
“Another for the Xoidship. I’m sure Jer will appreciate it,” he says.
It twinges in my chest and on Rix’s face for a second to think of Jeremy.
“Another game?” I say to Rhett. “Whoever wins the biggest teddy bear gets their job finished by the other?”
His eyes dance, knowing my meaning. I smile innocently at Rix, who hooks a suspicious brow.
“Deal,” Rhett says, taking my hand.
Rix and Adam follow us as we scope out the games to choose our competition.
“Oh!” My eyes land on a long shooting range. It’s childish, with a cowboy scene of small targets and shotguns with pellets. I pull Rhett toward it.
“You’re choosing a losing game,” Rhett warns.
“Wow, you really have to shoot down my skills like that.” I give an innocent side-smile at the pun, and he rolls his eyes.
There’s room for four to play at a time, so Rix and Adam join us.
I lift the shotgun to take my turn, but I notice Rhett hasn’t touched his. I slide him a look.
“I’m not missing a moment of how hot you look right now. Go ahead,” he says.
“You’re distracting me. This is cheating.”
“You know you’re getting far more than the job from the Ferris wheel finished no matter what. I’m just going to string it out in punishment for your attempt at retribution.”
My body tightens with a shiver.
I try to focus on my game. This gun isn’t real, but the skill of aiming it is. I hit the first, narrowly skim the second, but I miss the third target, and the booth mocks me with a cowboy’s yeehaw. Rhett doesn’t disturb me. I hit the fourth, miss the fifth, and hit the sixth, seventh, and eighth, but barely. The last is my best shot, close to the center.
I beam in triumph when it’s finished, winning a small bear.
Rhett’s eyes make me erupt with pride for some reason. He doesn’t say anything as he turns for his game. It’s over far sooner than mine, and I think I turn to a puddle watching him aim and shoot like a pro, hitting dead center of all the targets. But when he finishes, something isn’t right.
His jaw locks and his chests rises with deep breaths. The guy behind the counter asks him which of the huge teddies he wants, but Rhett isn’t even present. He sets down the gun as I hastily ask for the pink one and struggle with it being the same size as me.
“Hey, you with me?” I say, taking Rhett’s hand.
He blinks, and I try to figure out what’s wrong. Until he winces at the shots Adam and Rix are firing and his expression shifts to anger.
“Let’s go,” I say, tugging him. He’s rooted like stone.
I push us through the crowds until we reach the back of some trailers that gives us a moment of privacy. Rhett sits on some steps, and my heart speeds at his distress.
“I killed a kid,” he says.
Then it slams into me.
I set the teddy bears down and sit with him.
“No, you didn’t?—”
“You don’t get to take that off my conscience,” he grinds out.
“It’s never on your conscience,” I say firmly. “It’s no more on your conscience than if the bullet had been in your chamber and fired by your finger. That kid didn’t stand a chance the moment Alistair got ahold of him, and you know it.”
“Then I should have fucking stopped him sooner,” Rhett snaps, pushing himself up.
“You’re just one person,” I say sadly. “A victim, just like any of them.”
“Don’t call me that,” he says, almost a plea.
“It’s true, and you need to accept it. You’re his victim. Not his monster. Not his assassin. His victim.”
“Stop.”
“No. Because you’ve never fought back for you,” I say. My nose stings with how much I hurt for him. “You’ve been wanting to avenge Sarah, stop his crime on others, but you didn’t deserve what he did to you. For six years before you got out. For what he made you become to stop him when he ripped apart your life again. Nothing is your fault, and if you won’t fight for you, then I will. I’m not going to let you fester in guilt you don’t deserve.”
Rhett doesn’t answer. I swallow past my tight throat, fearing I won’t be enough. That he might push me away and not let me save him from drowning.
But he moves suddenly, and my back’s pressed against the metal trailer behind when he claims my mouth with a wild, unleashed passion that I don’t even care about the face paint anymore. I moan when his tongue sweeps into my mouth, and our kiss turns deep and lustful.
“I guess I owe you for the win,” I say breathlessly.
“I don’t care about that,” he growls, spinning me. I gasp, pressing my palms to the cool metal. “I’m going to fuck you fast and hard right here. You’re going to owe me by coming on my cock.”
He undoes my shorts, pulling them down just enough to slide his cock between my thighs without entering me. I mewl to each pass of his tip hitting my sensitive clit, thinking if he keeps going I could come just like this.
“Don’t stop,” I rasp, pushing my hips out more.
It’s so deplorable for where we are. The different clashing carnival music and constant murmur of voices makes me hyper aware how public we are.
“Such a bad girl,” he says, low and gravely across my ear as his hand slips around my neck and he pulls me upright, back curving to keep his cock teasing along my pussy. “Look at all those passing people. Any one of them could decide to come down here, but that turns you on, doesn’t it?”
It would be strange for someone to come down this way, but I can see the movement of bodies down the dark space between the ride trailers he’s close to fucking me against.
Rhett pulls back and his cock pushes inside me. I gasp at the sudden fullness.
“Doesn’t it, little bird?” he prompts again.
“Yes,” I choke out.
“You’re so ready for me.”
Rhett starts pounding into me and I bite his fingers that slip up my throat. He groans, dragging his teeth over my neck in return and I’m becoming delirious with the wild high of this.
“You’re going to feel me dripping out of you for the rest of the night here,” he growls.
I need it so badly I start pushing back, meeting his punishing pace. Rhett adjusts his position, gripping my hips ready to spill inside me.
“You first, baby” he says, barely holding onto his release.
“I need more,” I pant, lost in pleasure but not quite ready to finish.
“So greedy.” Rhett pulls out with a grunt and spins me.
I’m quite lightheaded that when he leans down and pulls off my shorts, I don’t register what he plans to do next. He grips around my thighs and stands with me, I’m completely thrown off guard. I don’t get a second to protest or register the height with my thighs wrapped around his neck now when his mouth devours me. He sucks my clit hard, flicking his tongue too, and that’s what tips me over the edge. The music is loud but I clamp a hand over my mouth with the explosive orgasm that detonates inside me. Rhett is unrelenting and I can’t get away, can only trust he won’t drop me while my body trembles against the metal trailer and I tighten a painful grip in his hair. Pleasure rocks endlessly through me. I’m a shuddering, helpless mess when he slows his assault. Licking and kissing me more gently but each time jolts through me with bursts of pleasure edged with pain.
“Holy shit.” I gasp as he drops me down until my legs are around his waist.
“My turn.”
I claw at his nape but he swallows my cry with his mouth over mine when his cock plunges back into me.
He doesn’t go slow or teasing. Rhett uses my body for his pleasure now and I let him, squeezing his cock with my pussy. He swears, thrusting a couple more times before his dick twitches, his face buries in my neck and his raspy, choked sounds are my favorite in the world.
Rhett spills every drop inside me with slow, long strokes that I lose all sense of time, wrapped in a hot, sweaty entanglement.
I whimper to the lick of cold in his absence as he lowers my feet to the ground and tucks himself away. My knees are boneless but I’m spared from having to reach down for my shorts when Rhett does, helping me into them before pulling them up and fastening my buttons. He takes my hand but I think if I move his release will trickle down my thighs.
Rhett smiles deviously. He cups my jaw, leaning in to whisper huskily across my ear, “You either keep all of me in or let this whole carnival see who you belong to.”