Chapter 28 Kissing Death #3
Lucas clicked his tongue, bringing my attention back to him. His brows rose. “Spin.”
Wooden and awkward, I pivoted, showing him my bloody back. He brushed my hair aside. Several women gasped, and the soldiers broke into laughter.
“I guess you were never one for subtlety,” Lucas said. Could anyone else hear the fury in his voice?
“She needed a reminder.”
Lucas circled me. A muscle twitched in his jaw. “What to do with you now?”
“She’ll heal eventually,” said a man I couldn’t see. “Send her to the House so we can all have a taste.”
Goosebumps erupted across my body. Tears blurred Lucas’s face, but I couldn’t look away.
“Anna brings a medic weekly, doesn’t she?” Lucas asked.
Panic built in my chest, and I pleaded silently with Lucas.
Please don’t let them do this to me.
“She doesn’t need a medic,” Miller said with a laugh. “You can put those rusty doctor skills to use. She’ll thank you on her knees. Ain’t that right, sugar?”
The crowd of soldiers turned into a pack of jackals.
“I’ll take a turn with her,” one said.
“The last one you took had to be put down like a dog,” said another. “You can have her last.”
They kept going, like it was all one big joke. I wasn’t even human to these men. I was nothing more than an object to play with, and they’d play until I broke.
Through it all, I stared without blinking into Lucas’s eyes, using that familiar color to steady me.
He wouldn’t let these things happen to me. Surely he wouldn’t let it happen.
Right?
“They’re fighting over you, sweetheart,” Lucas murmured, egging them on. “Damaged as you are. Don’t you feel special?”
My teeth chattered. Why would he encourage it?
Behind him, Miller’s grotesque smile widened. “Popular little thing, isn’t she? I have an idea. What say we play for her, Scott? Like we used to?”
The corner of Lucas’s mouth turned up in the barest smile.
Was this what he wanted?
“Yeah. Let us play for her!” a soldier said.
“I’ll join,” said another.
Lucas touched the thin strap of the slip, trailing down my chest in an uncharacteristic show of desire. “We playing at the Hangman?” he asked.
Cheers and catcalls poured from the men in the room.
He wanted them to want me. Why did he want them to want me?
A small sob escaped my throat.
What are you doing?
“Yeah,” Miller said. “The Hangman. Tonight.”
Lucas’s finger reached the crook of the V in my dress. His finger moved in a tiny, familiar pattern over my heart. A spark of hope lit in my chest.
“Private game,” Lucas said. “Colonels only.”
Several officers of lower rank booed and grumbled.
“Interesting,” Miller singsonged. “Finally want some new pussy, Scott? Anna will be so disappointed.”
Lucas didn’t bother to look at him. “She’ll live.” A beat passed before he added, “Or she won’t.”
Miller laughed like they were old friends. “Alright, alright. Tonight, colonels only. If her judgment is settled, I’ll escort her to her life sentence.”
He strolled forward, and panic shot through me like electricity. I stumbled backward, and Lucas did nothing to keep Jack Miller from grasping my elbow. I struggled, but he gripped my arms in a vise.
“No!” I wrenched away, turning to one of the other women. “Help me! Please!”
None of them looked at me.
Miller took hold of my bound wrists and forced us toward the door.
“Please!” I seized Miller’s shirt. “Just kill me! Please!”
My legs gave out, but Miller took my weight easily, laughing in my face. “You don’t need to die. You just need a little correction.”
Dizzy, my head fell. “Please. Please don’t do this.”
He laughed harder, holding my arms to keep me upright. “Look at you. Just a few days and your manners are already improving.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “But I’m glad I had you when you still had some fight in you.”
“Please.”
“I kind of like the way she begs, don’t you, gents?”
A chorus of agreement.
“Think you can do it for us tonight?” Miller purred.
I changed tack. My legs found strength, and I turned. They all stared, but Lucas froze. I tripped toward him, and Miller let me, grinning.
“Lucas, please. Kill me. Please. Please.” I fell to my knees. “Death before slavery.”
Except for a flickering muscle next to his mouth, he was motionless as a statue.
“Please,” I whispered. “I’ll do anything.”
Every soldier in the room laughed. They laughed.
Someone to my left snorted. “The sluttiest ones always think you’ll save them, Colonel. It must be something in your face.”
The tears poured, but I kept my eyes open to stare at Lucas. “Please.”
“I envy you, Scott,” a faceless soldier said. “I’ve never had a whore beg me like that, and you get at least one a week.”
Miller strolled toward me. “He ain’t gonna save you. He’s a heartless bastard. Ain’t that right, Scott?”
Lucas said nothing.
“You’d be safer with me, sugar,” Miller said. “Better hope I win tonight. Scott’s a killer to the end.”
Lucas riveted those blue-green eyes to mine, the color bright. “To the very end,” he said. “Until I die.”
Miller made some joke about Lucas being indestructible, but I cried so hard I couldn’t breathe. Hysteria clawed at me, the oxygen refusing to enter my lungs. I gazed at Lucas, silently pleading, unable to speak or draw in air.
He observed me without any expression, but his aquamarine eyes splintered like gems compressed by tremendous weight. “You have your sentence. I won’t kill you, so you should probably breathe.”
Blackness crept into my vision.
“Do you hear me? Breathe!”
I couldn’t.
“Breathe!”
Their voices faded.
The shadows took me.