29. - Corey -
Chapter twenty-nine
- Corey -
W e have a present for you,” Kayden said, sliding a latte across the kitchen island into Corey’s waiting hands. “It’s at the garage.”
Her eyes glinted in glee. “Is it a motorcycle?”
“I think I should teach you how to ride a motorcycle before we gift you one. Wouldn’t you agree?”
She smiled. “You’d teach me?”
“Of course, if you want to learn.”
“I do. I want to learn everything.” It still amazed her how much he was willing to give her. He hadn’t denied her anything. Whatever she wanted, Kayden provided happily, like she was the one doing something for him and not the other way around. He was perfect in every way—kind, caring, attentive, considerate, patient. She could list a thousand positive things about him and not a single negative.
And the sex was mind-blowing.
Both of them validated her lived experiences, accepted her trauma. They just got it, since they seemed to have it too. They didn’t call her crazy or a buzzkill or tell her she should see someone and needed to get over her past. Unlike her ex, they had no complaints. She felt like a different person with them.
No , she felt like herself with them. It was like the person she’d been before had been a character she was trying to play, while the real her had been trapped in the bars she’d tried to keep herself in, screaming loudly enough that it sent her spiraling more often than not.
“I’ll add it to the list, then,” he said, sipping from his own mug, not taking his eyes off her. “Jase is already there. Whenever you’re ready, we can go.”
“Do I need to wear something else?” She looked down at her grey hoodie. It was either Kayden’s or Jason’s. Honestly, she couldn’t keep track. They both smelt the same, cedar and sage and musk, probably bought the same soap from that fancy soap shop. It was comforting, being wrapped up in their woodsy smell. Whenever the hoodies she had disappeared for the laundry, she’d find another one of theirs lying around the penthouse, discarded and forgotten. She’d take it for herself and harbour it until that too went missing for laundry.
“The only thing I like more than seeing you in our sweatshirts is watching you take them off,” he said with a hungry smirk. “What you’re wearing is just fine.”
She blushed, because she still fucking did that every time he spoke, even after all this time. “Then I’m ready to go now.”
“She’s antsy for her present, is she?”
Corey rolled her eyes at him.
He slithered up beside her, wrapping his arms around her waist and nibbling up the shell of her ear. “So easy to please, Little Fox. I love that about you.”
His words fucked with her insides. She felt like she was simultaneously falling down an elevator shaft and had champagne bubbles stuck in her throat. If he noticed the hitch in her breath, he didn’t show it, just kept grazing her skin with his teeth. A sharp pain on her neck made her jump, and then his tongue was caressing the spot he had just pinched between his teeth, eliciting a soft moan from her.
He dragged his textured tongue up behind her ear and she closed her eyes, revelling in the sensation. He could never keep his hands off her for long, always finding his way back to her skin. “Fuck the present. Take me back to bed.”
She felt the breath of his chuckle in her ear, and the hair on her arms rose, heat pooling at her core.
“Will you be the one to explain to Jason why he had to wait?” he asked, only stopping his assault on her neck to get the question out.
“We can be quick.” She gasped as his teeth sunk into the space between her neck and her shoulder, his favorite spot. She felt the stitches still in his head rub against her cheek.
“ You can be quick, but I prefer not to be.” He circled around her, fingers running along the waistband of her leggings, pulling them away from her skin. He pulled a little harder, and she stumbled off the bar stool. Still watching her with that sexy-as-fuck half-grin on his face, he pulled her leggings down slowly and pushed her back into the chair, lowering himself with them so that they were at her ankles, and he was on his knees.
Everything else ceased to exist for her. It was just him before her, jade eyes blazing with danger.
“I could spend the rest of my life on my knees for you, and it still wouldn’t be enough. Your pussy is my favourite meal.” He really needed to stop saying shit like that to her. It was getting to her head. “Do you think I can make you come in less than five minutes?”
She wanted to say no , but didn’t have any faith in that answer, so she just spread her legs open a little wider, not bothering with the lie.
She felt his smile on the inside of her leg as he pressed his lips to her, moving up towards her centre with slow, teasing kisses. He nipped her as he went, licking and sucking her skin before switching to her other leg. She leaned back against the counter, letting her eyes flutter closed .
“Eyes on me,” he said, before spreading his tongue wide and pressing it between her folds.
“ Fucckkkk !” Her curse was drawn out, and she locked eyes with him again.
Again, she could feel his smile. After a few languid but firm strokes that lit her up, he picked up the pace, pressing into her clit as he licked her up and down, flicking his tongue repeatedly as he went. She was moaning with abandon, struggling to keep her eyes from closing, heat searing her skin as the bottoms of her feet burned up from the stimulation. “Yes, Kay. Just like that. Fuck, Kayden. Don’t stop.”
He growled against her, grabbing her thighs with his hands in a bruising grip, spreading her wider and burying his face deeper into her. Her inner walls clenched and fluttered. He was relentless with his pace, and she was so turned on from just the few minutes of licks and bites on her neck that she panted, “I’m not going to last, Kay.”
Her whole body was on fire. She couldn’t stop her hips from gyrating into his face, and he feasted on her like a man starved. He moved his mouth, his lips, his tongue in a concentrated effort with one goal in mind—making her come as fast as possible, and he was getting there.
She was gripping his shoulders hard enough to leave marks, her nails digging into his flesh, and still he didn’t let up, never coming up for air, never breaking eye contact. She felt her orgasm cresting with every hard suck of her clit, every swipe of his tongue in a slight diagonal that had her seeing stars. One suck for every two licks, a pattern he kept up until she was chanting his name over and over again, barely distinguishable between her shameless moaning, the sounds of his mouth on her echoing in her ears. And still, he didn’t slow. He picked up his rhythm and increased the pressure, shortening the distance as he left her clit, adding a scrape of teeth with each suck .
It was a blinding release, and she cried out as it crashed over her. Finally forced to break eye contact with him, she fell forward, only holding herself up on his shoulders, shaking on the barstool, vision swimming.
She had to push him away to stop him from continuing. She had come so hard, too sensitive for any more touch, small zips of electricity still firing out from her core. Her cheeks were on fire as she heaved in ragged breath after breath.
He brought his hand up to her cheek, drawing out some of the heat. He was looking up at her with smug satisfaction. She wanted to roll her eyes at him, but she had no control of her faculties at that moment. Her entire face felt numb.
He waited until her breathing had settled and pushed her back, bringing his face back to her and licking her clean. He pushed onto his haunches and then stood up, leaning against the kitchen counter across from her, his face glistening with her cum and his own spit, basking in the fruits of his labour. His cock was straining against the confines of his dark denim jeans.
Kayden’s smile hitched on one side as he stared at her. “Perfect.”
Her heated cheeks got hotter.
“I’d love to stay and fuck you over the counter until you pass out, but Jason is waiting for us.” He grabbed a towel from the hanger and wiped his face off. He stepped back towards her and wiped up the mess between her legs too, before pulling her leggings up.
She caught the time on the microwave, and Kayden noticed. She hadn’t even lasted five minutes.
He winked, and then he turned towards the front hall.
She picked her mug up and took a fortifying sip of her coffee before floating after him.
They took the Rover. She noticed again how they still hadn’t fixed it from where she’d cut into the metal to interfere with the wires .
Scared of what might fall out of her mouth if she opened it, she kept quiet while Kayden drove. She was in the car with a beautiful man, and she was really fucking trying not to tell him that she loved him. She felt crazy, like when she stole a car or jumped off a cliff, or maybe she was shoveling her own grave. Her body was trembling with the effort of choking back the feeling.
He reached over to her, running his thumb along her skin, never able to break contact for long. She was pretty sure he loved her too. Though he hadn’t quite said the words, he had shown her in so many different ways. She felt her heart settling in her chest, like a whispered prayer only her soul could understand.
Jason was waiting for them outside the garage when they arrived. He was leaning against the door, a cigarette between two fingers and a trail of smoke billowing from his mouth.
It had been over a week since she’d last been in the garage with him. She had been so certain he was going to kiss her on the couch, after he’d told her she wasn’t poison. Her stomach had dropped when he’d pulled away, and she’d realized she had lost another battle with him. They’d spent the rest of the week stuck in some kind of perverse ballroom dance, him taking a step towards her, her mirroring that step, only to have him pace back once again.
His attention was undeniable, though. In the gym, on the couch, in the kitchen, he was always finding his way to her, until he would pull away and disappear. He had even joined their combat lessons, which had turned into all-out sparring now that she had all the basics down. She had seen him laugh so many times. She couldn’t believe Kayden when he told her Jason wasn’t one for laughter .
“I heard you have a present for me,” she said as she walked up to him.
She reached out for the rolled cigarette between his lips, slow enough that he could have passed it to her. But he didn’t. He let her thumb and index finger press against either side of the smoke, brushing his lips in the process. She pulled it away from his face, his mouth parting.
He watched her as she brought it to her own lips and took a drag, savouring the smoke in her lungs before blowing it out and up into the brisk air. She took another hit before reaching it back toward him, again giving him the opportunity to use his own hands to break the intimacy of her fingers so close to his mouth. But for a second time, he let her fingers touch his lips as she placed it back between them, a smirk forming around the cigarette.
This was part of the dance. He would accept these small touches, this glimmer of what could be. And then he’d flee.
He finished his smoke and stubbed it out on the brick wall, cutting out the last of the embers before flinging the butt into the trashcan by the door.
He turned to her, eyes roving her face like she’d hidden a secret message amidst her freckles. She didn’t know if he found what he was looking for, but he said, “Ready?”
She shrugged. “I have no idea. Kayden didn’t tell me what you guys were getting me.”
Jason cut his eyes over to Kayden, who was grinning. “It was supposed to be a surprise.”
“Ugh, Kayden. We talked about this! It was specifically not supposed to be a surprise.” He groaned, looking from his brother to her and back.
“No, you said you didn’t want it to be a surprise. I never agreed to that.”
“Whatever. You’re responsible for any fallout.” He pushed the door open and walked through, Corey and Kayden hot on his heels.
The garage had been cleared out since the last time she’d been there, but it still smelled of rubber and gas. The fluorescent lights were bright above them. There was a large plastic sheet covering the centre of the workspace. A metal chair sat in the middle.
There was a man tied to it. She could see his big denim-clad legs tightly roped to each leg of the chair, his arms restrained to the chair arms. He was wearing a red flannel shirt that tickled a memory in the back of her mind. A white pillowcase covered his face. Kayden led them towards him.
“What’s this?” Corey asked hesitantly.
“Your surprise,” Kayden said, gleeful as he walked up to the detained person.
He whipped the pillowcase off the man’s head with a flourish and bowed like he was the greatest showman.
She felt Jason stiffen beside her as she took in the man’s familiar features—the features of her nightmares.
His tanned leather face showed signs of significant aging. There were tracks marks along his face that were slightly lighter than the rest of his skin. If someone didn’t know, they would think it was just natural discoloration. But she knew. Could still feel the skin as it lifted under her fingernails.
She shuddered.
George Martosh’s eyes widened as they landed on her.
“Corey?” he stammered.
Jason backhanded him so fast that she heard it before she even registered what she was seeing. “Keep her name out of your mouth.”
He spit blood onto the white plastic below him.
“I found him for you,” Jason said, uncertainty lacing his words. “You can do whatever you want to him before you kill him.”
The man was whimpering in the chair. The sound grated on her ears. He had no right to that noise, the noise she’d made so many times in her youth because of him. A sound he still elicited from her in her sleep.
“Shut up,” she spat at him and walked over to the nearby table, taking in all the tools that were laid out there .
Jason met her at the table. He pointed to each tool, explaining what they were. “There’s an orthopedic bone saw, a hunting bone saw, a wood saw, a wire saw, a Wartenberg pinwheel, meat scissors, wire cutters, a wood carving gouge set in different milometers, two pull hooks, different sized scalpels, forceps and a variety of knives. If you’re unsure what a tool is used for, I’d be happy to demonstrate.”
She ran her fingers over all the different tools. “Which one can I use to cut his dick off?”
Jason’s guard seemed to drop at her comment. His answering smile was so wide that his lips pulled back from his gums. “Depends. Do you want to stab it or lay him down and saw it off?”
“Ugh, no. I don’t want to see that thing again.” She picked up one of the larger hunting knives and strode over to the man. He was still making pathetic sounds, eyes bugging out of his scarred face.
“I told you to shut the fuck up, you disgusting pedo.” She twirled the knife around her finger, staring him down with cold eyes. “You know what I think you forgot about with raping little girls?”
She waited for his response, but none came, his eyes fused to the knife she was holding. A vicious smile spread across her face as she took the knife hilt in her hand.
“Little girls grow up.” She rammed the knife into his crotch, and he bellowed out in pain, head thrashing back and forth, his feet tremoring against the chair legs.
With a jerk, she pulled her hand away, leaving the knife blade embedded at the base of his pelvis. She was starting to feel a little manic. She’d thought about this moment for so long, never imagining it would happen.
“I’ve told a few people that I had a latent desire to fuck up this man. I was told it was unhealthy, and I should go to therapy. Not you two, though.” Her eyes darted between the twins as the coppery tang of blood fused with the scents of the garage. From one conversation, Jason had found the man and given her this gift. She looked at the knife sticking out from his crotch, denim darkening quickly around the wound, and she cocked her head to the side. “He’s going to bleed to death if I pull that out, won’t he?”
“Unless we bandage up the wound, probably,” Jason replied, but made no move to interfere, allowing her to call the shots.
“Ew, we’re not doing that. I’ll leave it in there until he can get medical attention. I want him to live. I want him to go through the rest of his life without his dick.”
“Sweetheart, we can’t let him live now. He’s seen our faces.”
“I won’t say anything. I promise, please.” The fucker was begging, the tendons in his neck straining with his pain. Corey punched him, using everything she’d learned to make sure she didn’t break her hand this time. With her newly built strength, she felt his nose break on impact, the cartilage and bone crumbling with the force.
“I don’t want to tell you to shut the fuck up one more time. We should have worn masks.” She blew out a pent-up breath. “Were you raping Michael?”
The man shook his head no, vigorously. She didn’t believe him. She went to the table and picked up another knife. She came back with it, waving it in his face. “Answer me truthfully, or it’ll be your eyes next.”
The man groaned and nodded his head.
Corey gasped, her hand dropping back to her side. She stood staring at him.
“How many others?”
“I don’t know,” he panted.
She stabbed the knife into his hand, splayed out on the chair’s arm.
He howled.
“How. Many. Others?” Corey repeated through gritted teeth, eyes watering with unshed tears.
“I don’t know!” the man sobbed. “All of them.”
“What if we cut his tongue out so he can’t speak?” she asked Jason.
He chuckled, bringing his hand up to her cheek to wipe away the tears that were starting to fall. “You can if you want to. Good thing I brought the cautery tool.”
Corey looked up at Jason from between her lashes, and asked, “Will you teach me to cut without killing him?”
Jason’s grin was infectious, and she giggled. He only beamed brighter, like all of his wildest dreams had come true. She saw Kayden catch Jason’s eye; some twin conversation she couldn’t understand passed between the two of them.
“Get the forceps and the meat scissors, Little Fox,” Kayden directed her. “I’ll get the cautery laser.”
Corey went back to the table of tools and picked up the two, bringing them back to Jason. Kayden plugged in an extension cord and brought the machine to the chair. It was a big square with a bunch of knobs and buttons and a wand-like pen attached by a long cable.
“I’m no surgeon,” Jason confessed. “I’ve only used this a few times, so I make no promises that he won’t bleed out.”
She shrugged and lifted the scissors up, snipping them a few times. The man was still making drivelling noises as he sobbed in the chair.
“Forceps first,” Jason guided.
Kayden moved behind the man and held onto his jaw, applying enough pressure that he opened his mouth, Kayden’s biceps bulging under his shirt.
“Catch the tip of his tongue and then pull it out.”
Corey did as directed, catching onto the piece of muscle and squeezing the forceps tight to keep the tongue from slipping out. The man was barely fighting at this point.
She picked up the scissors in her other hand, but realized her dominant hand was holding the forceps. She didn’t know if she’d have enough control with her non-dominant hand. “Can you hold the forceps for me? ”
Jason nodded and replaced her hand on the tool with his own, brushing her fingers as they traded places. It sent a shiver up her spine. He pulled the man's tongue out a bit more, and Corey angled the scissors. “Fast or slow?”
“Doesn’t matter. Slower will be more painful, but the tongue is extremely vascular. He’s going to start gushing blood immediately.”
Corey closed her grip around the plastic handle of the scissors, fighting against the tissue to cut through. She made the first cut, and then moved the scissors farther along the muscle to make the next, and then the next, all while Jason held the forceps strong against his tongue, sounds of pain escaping from the back of the man’s throat. Kayden kept his mouth open enough for them to continue working.
When the tongue fell away, Jason moved to the table and got another tool. He latched it between the man’s jaw to keep it pried open. Then Jason used the forceps to hold the nub of muscle that was still moving around in his mouth. Kayden gave Corey a pair of tinted glasses to protect her eyes from the laser and turned on the cautery machine. She picked up the wand and started to cauterize the stump under Jason’s direction, the smell of burnt flesh and metal thickening the space around them. There was a lot of blood, but it looked like burning the tissue had stopped the flow as intended. The man passed out from the pain before she’d even finished.
“I don’t think I should take him to the hospital and drop him off at emergency,” Kayden said. “I’d love for him to live out the rest of his miserable life like this, but there’s other ways to communicate, and he’ll need a lot of medical care to put him back together. The taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for that.” He motioned to the slumped body in the chair, bloody and mutilated.
She looked at the vile creature before her and wondered how people became that way. Maybe someone could ask the same of her, but the god's honest truth was that inflicting that pain on him had been heaven. Maybe that made her just as corrupt as him, just as broken and brutal. But Corey had never really cared about morality. She had seen men like George Martosh get away with absolute depravity, and she’d been forced to do what she could to survive for so long that it never really mattered.
Every person she’d talked to about that man who had done nothing about it was just as guilty as him. Maybe they hadn’t perpetrated those vile acts, but they had contributed to the pain that all the children who’d come before and after her had suffered. They hadn’t been willing to do anything about it. But she was. And so were the twins.
She didn’t mind his blood on her hands one bit. “Fine. Cut his head off and burn the body.”