Chapter 42
Lovelyn
A low pulse of dread threaded through my body, winding me up tight. I’d entered the skeleton crew’s basement with good intent but now regretted ever making this decision.
Hidden in the brightly lit dressing room, where four other women chatted nervously and dished out compliments like sweets, I couldn’t ignore the roar of the men.
They were locked in two cages in the main body of the room.
I’d caught a glimpse of one group, in masks and with their eyes blacked up, most shirtless, a brawl starting up between them.
Utterly terrifying.
When I’d originally had the knee-jerk reaction to enter the game, it had been with Kane in mind, or at least the things we’d done together and the predator-prey fun we’d made work for us. I’d loved that. I wanted more of the same.
Yet attraction and interest had shrunk to fear and cold panic.
I went over my conversation with the skeleton girls and Cassie’s plan.
I’d sign up for the game publicly, putting the message out about my intent by coyly mentioning it on my socials.
Telling friends. Most of my internet acquaintances had no idea what I meant by ‘Deadwater’s infamous game’ but wished me well, and even the ex I’d told Kane about had commented.
I’d told my father, knowing he’d bitch to his cronies.
Not that I cared about his opinion. I’d had the choice to go back to my life as it had been before. I could’ve accepted the date with Lyle and reset everything to the status quo.
No, thank you, Satan.
With that done, it was over to Arran, Shade, and Convict to monitor the requests they had to get in on the action.
Throughout the warehouse, beds were rented where voyeurs would watch the fun with their favourite sex worker raking in the cash.
It was the only way they could see it as it wasn’t transmitted or filmed. Only live streamed to the select few.
According to Genevieve, the beds sold out months in advance.
A new face on the scene shouting loudest for a place would be telling.
And more than likely the culprit who’d sent the messages about me and invaded my home.
He’d need to see me in action. He’d have to know who claimed me before we disappeared off together for weeks.
Our trap, with me as bait.
Somewhere, my therapist would be having a field day.
Despite the plan being a good one, I still shook. The tremble in my hands wouldn’t quit from the moment I’d made a show of walking in, the last person to do so.
Or so I’d thought. Another man had been led in after. I’d blocked out his enraged shouts to focus on simply breathing.
“Lovelyn, are you okay?” One of the women crouched beside me on tall heels that made her legs look incredible. She had eldest child energy and had introduced herself as Wendy.
I felt like a fraud. She and the others wanted this so badly. I had long since changed my mind. My escalating pulse was evidence.
Luckily I had an out.
Soon, this would end for me. My involvement came with the provision that someone would let me out. Arran had agreed to it.
Where was that person now?
I’d done the hard bit and made a show of walking inside, the trap sprung. Since I’d been here in the dressing room, I’d expected a door to be opened. Someone like Convict or Manny waving to me.
They hadn’t come.
Wendy tilted her head at my lack of an answer.
“I’m scared out of my mind,” I confessed.
She held up her hand, displaying a tremor. “It’ll be worth it. Trust yourself. You’ve done all the thinking outside the room. Inside is for action.”
A second woman laughed, the sound nervous. “I just need that buzzer to sound. I’ve never felt like this. I’m so…alive.”
I forced a smile. A roar sounded, louder than before. All five of us went to the door and peeked out.
Taller than the rest of us, Wendy craned her neck. “One of the men is fighting the others. Jesus. He’s huge.”
“What can you see?” A pretty woman with wavy black hair and sparkly eyelashes pushed up on her toes.
“He’s got a contestant by the throat and is threatening him, his lip sticking out, snarling in his face. There are two on the floor of the cage. I think they’re unconscious already. God, there’s blood.”
We stared at each other. Them with excitement in their eyes, me with…
A strange feeling took hold of my belly. That feral violence sounded familiar. It reminded me of a man I was trying hard not to think about. Who’d haunted my dreams, taking free rein there unlike in the daytime when I could block him out. The universe really had a type, and apparently, so did I.
Not tonight, Kane Ryan. He needed to get out of my head.
The lights swirled over the door, pink neon flaring. A siren wailed.
I jumped. No, no! This wasn’t meant to happen. Where was my exit?
The women shrieked and scattered. I sobbed and followed them out. Straight ahead, down the cavernous space.
The cage doors cranked open behind, and I peered back. A mistake. A terrifying spectacle. A gang fought to follow us. To hunt us. But they were still brawling.
A second pack joined them, uproar among their ranks. They clashed, and some broke away to the left or right, pursuing the women who were making this a true game.
Not me. I couldn’t run, only managing a backwards pace across the wide expanse of floor, my feet bare, the concrete rough. Terror had almost paralysed me.
Something had gone wrong.
I was in this for real.
I didn’t want it. I’d only ever wanted one man, and he’d rejected me. To let a stranger touch me now was the worst thing I could imagine. My skin crawled, and my throat clogged with tears.
“Touch her and I’ll tear ye apart.” Furious words shredded the air.
I knew that voice. It was Kane, somewhere in the middle of the pack. I had to be hallucinating.
“You can’t do that,” another man hollered back.
His reply came just as angry. “Lovelyn, long brown hair, fucking beautiful. Any of you arseholes go near her and I’ll put ye in the ground.”
Another snarled back, and at last, I caught a glimpse through the bodies. Kane really was here, no mask, no disguise, just huge, brutal, and enraged.
A thickset man with long hair got in Kane’s way. “You don’t get to call dibs.”
Kane picked him up and threw him. He crashed in a heap to one side.
My jaw dropped. My back kissed the brick wall at the far end of the space. I couldn’t look away from the force of nature coming for me.
Nor could I understand why he was here, but he was calling out my name, claiming me before he’d even seen me. My broken heart ached for the words I’d so badly wanted to hear.
“She’s mine. Mine.”
Then he spotted me.
Kane’s prey.
He bellowed and charged. I clasped my hands behind my back to anchor myself, my legs seconds away from giving out.
But others clogged the gap between us.
A shadow broke from the melee, one of the men who’d been brawling nearest the cages. Over his mask, his face was red and slick with moisture, his eyes wild with bloodlust. He saw me, and the grin that spread across his mouth turned my blood to ice.
“Aw, you’re shaking. I’ll make you sweat, too.”
I shook my head and stumbled backwards. He came at me in three strides, so fast I barely had time to gasp. His hand shot out, catching my arm, and the bastard wrenched me hard against his chest. The stench of sweat and blood filled my nose.
“Scream for me.” He dragged his tongue across my cheek.
Revulsion crawled where he touched me. I rammed my knee up between his legs. He grunted but didn’t let go. Panic clawed up my throat, and I raked my nails down his face. He roared, releasing me long enough for me to shove him back.
I bolted, bare feet slapping on the concrete, but he recovered fast. He snatched my hair, jerking me to a halt so viciously my scalp burned, then yanked me back against him, his hot breath on my neck.
He growled, “You’ll do what I say—”
The words were cut off by a brutal impact. The man jolted, the air leaving his lungs in a grunt, and then he was gone, snatched backwards and slammed into a wall with bone-crunching force.
Over him, Kane breathed like a beast, sweat gleaming on his huge form. “Go near her again and I’ll tear ye apart.”
He didn’t need to raise his voice. Every man around us heard the promise.
The attacker tried to rise. Kane didn’t let him. He planted his foot on the man’s chest then followed with a savage punch that dropped him cold.
I staggered back, shaking, and pressed a trembling hand to my mouth. I’d fought, I’d tried, but the sound of my own cry still resounded through the chaos. Kane’s head snapped toward me, that same fury in his eyes softening.
“Lovelyn,” he said, his voice rough and low.
Shaking, I extended my hands to hold him off. “Stop.”
For the first time ever, he did. Mere feet from me. A monster held at bay. My monster.
My bottom lip wobbled. “Don’t do this if you aren’t for real.”
This wasn’t the moment to negotiate relationship terms, but apparently my mouth had other ideas.
He took a step, blood dripping from his knuckles. Pure wildness in his eyes.
I sobbed. “Don’t do this if you can’t give me everything. All of you.”
To my shock, he dropped to his knees. “Hear me out, flower girl. Please.”
I managed a tiny nod. I couldn’t expect love. The want was enough. I’d survive on a promise.
Someone ran at us. Kane threw out a punch without looking away from me. His opponent fell.
“I fucked up. Worse than that. I hurt ye. There’s no excuse, but I can try to explain myself.”
Nearby, a woman cried out. One claimed. Then a few yards to my right, a couple tumbled to the floor, the hunter yanking at his jeans to free his dick, the woman’s dress torn away to expose her naked body.
Kane reached out and stroked my face, his action so gentle in deep contrast to the carnage around us. “I’m in love with ye. That’s what I had to say.”
Bodies moved. Shouts echoed in the basement. Somewhere, someone came with a scream.
My world stopped.