Chapter 24
SCOTTIE
Agrunt rumbled in my chest. The leather bounds strapped around my wrists and ankles bit into my skin. They burned. Such a stark contrast to the cold metal table I laid on. I closed my eyes, ignoring the overwhelming stench of sweat and urine that clogged my nostrils. At least right now, I was alone.
It took everything in me to avoid thinking about Thompson. But we’d been outnumbered. He’d not even been able to get a shot off before fifteen men swarmed our little room. I prayed that the team would find the glow stick and shards of the wrapping I’d torn from my sniper rifle just before they hauled me off.
At least the main guy wasn’t left unscathed. I’d managed to clock him in the jaw with my heel at least once before two guys bound me and carried me out. Blood beneath my fingernails was beginning to dry. Scrapes of skin from the back of the men who had tossed me over their shoulders on this journey mixed in with the iron.
We hadn’t gone far. But I’d been gagged and blindfolded, so there was no way of knowing where I was other than the fucking room I was in now. Not a single window existed along the four walls in this rectangular room. One single lightbulb dangled from the ceiling, casting that nasty yellow glow into the corners. Chatter sounded outside the thin wooden door that I knew I’d be able to bust down, if only I could get loose from these cuffs.
My stomach flipped. I wasn’t easily scared. But right now, fear was as abundant as the adrenaline flowing thick through my veins. I wasn’t ready to die. Thompson shouldn’t have died either.
Images of his gruesome murder flashed through my mind, and I tore my eyes open. “WHERE ARE YOU, YOU FUCKING COWARD?” I screamed, thrashing against the restraints.
Where is Mikey?
I couldn’t believe how quickly I flipped from ready to face the man who took me, to desperately wishing Mikey was here. He’d absolutely destroy this man. And somewhere deep within my belly, a smidge of guilt swam amongst everything else. I should have taken up his offer of some training. Maybe I wouldn’t have ended up here.
Maybe Thompson wouldn’t be dead.
I wouldn’t give up. I wouldn’t show them how scared I actually was, for Thompson’s sake.
And Mikey’s.
“SHOW YOURSELF, DAMN IT!” I shouted again.
And wood thumped against the rock wall.
“Feisty one, aren’t you?” the slimy man hissed. As I glanced to my right, in walked my kidnapper, and Thompson’s killer. The rest of his men wandered the hallway outside of this little room. I watched as they slowly passed back and forth.
“What do you want with me?” I asked, scanning across his hardened face. Average looking man. Nothing about him screamed killer to me, yet the brutality he delivered was on a different level. His dark hair was short, clean cut. Nothing distinctive about his nose, though his lips were a little overly full for such sharp features. His brows weren’t prominent, and his eyes were nothing but black, beady soulless pits.
There it was. Everything else about him may not scream psychopathic killer, but his eyes sent a wave of chills up my spine. Everything that had been trained to fire under circumstances like this zapped to life. Every defensive skill strained to reach my sniper rifle resting on the single chair in the corner by my right shoulder.
“What I want is to get paid,” he said, strolling into the room with his hands casually by his sides. An athletic frame sat beneath black clothes, tight enough I could make out a hint of muscling, but nothing impressive. Nothing like Mikey.
“Paid? How am I worth any money?” I tracked him as he plodded down toward my feet.
“That’s what I do, kitten,” he replied, pausing by my toes.
“You’re a mercenary for hire,” I gasped, finally connecting the dots. “Wait, I know you!”
“You should. Your government has wanted me for years and years. Normally, I avoid coming around places like this, but the money was too good to pass up.” He reached forward and trailed a hand over my bare foot. Nausea curled in my throat. Snapping my eyes shut, I begged for someone to put my boots back on.
I felt vulnerable enough being stripped down to nothing but my combat shirt and pants. “Stop,” I hissed.
“So, you don’t like that,” he muttered to himself, pulling his hand back. My brows stitched together and I opened my eyes. I’d expected him to continue. To make it worse.
“Aren’t you here to hurt me?” I questioned.
He grinned. It wasn’t unusually sleazy. It didn’t send that twinge of disgust into my stomach. Which only heightened my wariness more. “No, since technically that’s not what I was hired to do. But I’m getting bored. So, maybe yes. But not in the way you’re probably thinking,” he answered. Walking around the end of the table, he slowly meandered up to my left side.
“What do you mean?” I hesitantly asked. My voice hitched. The first unintentional sign that fear laced my bones.
His eyes slid to my thigh as he paused and faced the table. “You know, it doesn’t have to be painful for you. But that’s up to you and what you choose because either way, I’m getting something out of this.”
He reached forward, his hand trembling, and he brushed it very lightly across the top of my quad. “Something very satisfying for me. As satisfying as…” His voice trailed off, the volume dimming as if someone turned a dial down.
A tremor surged across my skin, rippling with a current of trepidation.
“As satisfying as…what?” I asked, not even sure I wanted to know. He seemed too casual about this entire thing, and it rocked me to the core.
He placed his hand directly onto my thigh and slid his empty eyes up to mine. “As satisfying as something more unique. More…enjoyable for me.”
Hollowness swallowed me up whole. I was powerless to stop him from doing whatever he wanted to do.
“It’s been a long time since a woman crossed my path. Normally, it’s men that I’m hired to obtain. They’re more difficult to work with.” He lifted his hand and approached my head.
“You should remove my cuffs instead of being the fucking coward you are and see how difficult I can be,” I snarled.
He smiled at me and brushed some hair behind my ears with a tsk of his tongue. “Already trying to find a way to escape. I’m not that dumb, kitten. I can’t just let you out of these cuffs.”
I bit down on my tongue, frustrated and helpless. Revolting disgust heaved through me as he leaned forward toward my face. Cheap alcohol washed over my nostrils as he exhaled. “I’ll be in your mind forever, kitten, after this. That’s the beauty in it.” His eyes narrowed in on my hair. “And you are so incredibly beautiful.” He rubbed his hands together, excitement flashing across his empty eyes.
Adrenaline surged through my veins, carrying the jolts of fear down to my fingertips.
He smoothed down his shirt and stopped at the belt around his waist. “You’re going to do what I tell you to, or then I’ll become rather angry, and you don’t want that.”
My bottom lip trembled as he methodically undid his buckle. I hated how calm he was. I hated how even and casual everything about what he was doing exuded from him.
Pressure built behind my eyes. I was strong. I was powerful. Yet, as I laid on this table, unable to move, unable to do anything to stop him, I felt absolutely helpless. But I refused to beg him to stop. I would not wilt at his game. Grasping at what little control I did have, I would fight for as long as I could.
A snap from his button seared into my ears and I looked away, squeezing my eyes shut as his pants fell to the ground. Hands snapped around my chin, clenching so tightly, my jaw pumped hot with pain.
“You’re going to look at me while I rip you apart, piece by piece,” he snarled. The calm demeanor on his face snapped away in an instant. Lines carved deep into his features, carrying a wave of insanity with them.
“Fuck off,” I hissed, and his palm fractured a sting across my cheek.
Several footsteps pounded into the room, and I glanced at the doorway where four new men crowded around the entrance. But my original captor paid them no heed as Merlin pulled down his underwear, exposing himself to me.
I hated to admit that my first thought was comparing it to Mikey’s, even though I’d never actually seen Mikey’s, but that’s what I did. This man’s dick was nothing when weighed against Mikey. Damn, Mikey soft had more than this man did hard. A snort escaped my nose.
“What are you laughing at?” he hissed, clamoring onto the table. A hand wrapped around himself, and he slowly pumped once, a disgusting gleam in his eye.
“I guess I expected…more?” I hoped that I could taunt and tease him enough to keep him from doing whatever he was aiming for.
Wrong idea.
“Use that mouth for something else, you bitch,” he snapped. And within a flash, he hovered over me, shoving his penis against my lips.
Ramming my mouth closed as tightly as I could, he prodded and pushed, attempting to slip between my teeth. Shadows and body heat washed down on me as he continued to thrust to no avail.
Wrinkling my eyes shut, I turned my head sideways, and he slammed my cheek against the table. “You bitch!” he hissed. Here was his undoing.
Fingers wrapped around my hair, jerking up. Waves of agony seared through the roots of my locks, darting down my scalp. The more I twisted, the more I fought, the more pain shot dizzying jolts through my head.
“Hold still, kitten,” he whispered, suddenly calm and back in control. As I kept my lips closed tight, he pressed his tip against my mouth again, and then pressure tightened around my nostrils.
My eyes snapped open in fright.
One of the other men was holding my nose closed with his hand. Panic coursed through me like a violin string screeching with the fury of lightning. Every inhale was fruitless. Stars popped in my vision. My face burned red hot with desperation. Every cell in my lungs burst, screaming for clean oxygen. I could not exhale either. Every dire attempt ended in muscle straining against the pressure cutting off my airways.
There was only so long left before I would pass out and my mouth would open involuntarily. Adding one more thing out of my control. Silent tears streamed down my cheeks. Frustration bursting at the seams.
But there was one other option.
Gulping down the wretched nausea curdling with the thought, I closed my eyes. And opened my mouth.
Oxygen quickly inflated my lungs right before his slimy dick slid between my lips. A groan left his chest as he thrust, ramming against the back of my throat.
And I clamped my teeth down.
Hard.
His groan quickly shifted to a scream and he ripped himself out. Iron slid hot across my tongue, and I leaned to the side, spitting out the shredded skin and hurling what little contents had been left in my stomach. How the hell Mikey bit someone more than once, was lost on me.
As I continued to dry heave, the man flopped to the side, clutching his bleeding junk.
“Told you to fuck off,” I snarled between gags.
“You little…” His voice rose and his fist slammed into my jaw. Reverberating pain crashed like waves through my bones, and my teeth clattered. The sting of the blow snapped my mind fuzzy. Once I managed to shake myself stable, I looked over at him on my left. Blood dripped between his fingers, rage turning his face as red as the liquid that oozed down his legs.
“Macavoy,” he nodded at the man who still stood beside my head but no longer pinched my nose.
The beastly looking guy turned his grotesquely scarred face toward my captor. “Sir?”
“Give it to me and back away,” he instructed. Holding out one hand, he wiggled red fingers toward Macavoy. The thick, neckless man grabbed the baton hanging on his belt and passed it to my captor.
Crimson liquid plunked steadily to the floor as Merlin’s attention returned to me. “And I told you to not make me angry.” He took a ginger step forward and extended the black metal rod.
“What are you going to do? Hit me a few times with that? You wouldn’t be the first,” I hissed and spat some leftover blood at him.
He shrieked, silencing his companions outside of the room. “I’m not that cliché, kitten.” He tapped his thumb against a button, and blue volts of electricity crackled across the end of the baton.
Shit.
Double shit considering I was lying on a metal table.
A malicious grin spread across his face and he tipped the baton forward.
With a crackle, the rod connected with the metal table.
Electricity jolted through me. My back arched off the table as the tendrils of lightning splintered beneath my skin. Every nerve in my body roared with a kaleidoscope of energy shearing like a knife through me, weaving a tapestry of burning warmth and icy claws.
A garbled cry split my throat as the fierce crescendo surged with the force of a tempest. It was as if the very essence of vitality surged through me, a wild, untamed energy pulsing freely with its electrifying embrace reminding me just how fragile my mortal life was. My senses roared with agony. Surging with every tick crackling from the taser.
I groaned, straining against every muscle tensing beneath the fiery current. And as quickly as it came, the electricity fled my body. “What will…” I paused, trying to coax my vocal cords to work again. “Karim al-Jabari say… When he finds out…” I gasped, panting for breath as the fibers in my body twitched with lingering current. Everything was warm.
And I’d never been so tired before.
“Who?” my captor asked.
I blinked through the hazy blur, and flopped my head toward him. “Karim al-Jabari. You know, the man who hired you?” Every word felt like a cheese grater on my throat.
He fervently shook his head, the blood between his legs slowing. “I don’t work with terrorists. Like I already told you, I don’t come here often, and that’s why.”
My neck twitched, straining against the involuntary contraction of muscle. “Wait, what?” I coughed, stretching my trembling fingers out. “Then who…who hired you?” Cotton coated my tongue, muffling the enunciation of every letter.
The man smiled, that same sickening one that sent another jolt of shivers and current down my spine. “He didn’t give me a name.”
“Then…Then how do you know it wasn’t al-Jabari?”
“Because Karim is rather distracted with what your team has been up to lately. He doesn’t have the time to hire me for some simple kidnapping so one of his soldiers can come in and rescue the damsel in distress.” He gingerly pried his hand away from his junk.
“Wait, that’s what this is about? Someone hired you so they could come and simply be a hero and rescue me?” My stomach dropped.
He nodded but said nothing as he prodded at his dick that had mostly stopped bleeding.
“Who?”
“Someone who has 500,000 US dollars, kitten,” he replied with a wicked grin and stepped toward me. “Now, should we try this again? Or will you need to be taught another lesson?”
I narrowed my gaze at him and lifted my chin. “If you try to get your dick anywhere near me again, I’ll bite the entire fucking thing off this time,” I snarled.
And Merlin slapped the baton against the edge of the table.