Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
“What are you going to do to me?” Emma demanded as she was dragged through the hallway back toward the shower room.
After Mateo had pulled her out, he’d taken her back to her cell and left her there while he presumably went back to watch the shower show the other girls were forced to put on.
Now the other women were being herded back toward their cells by the other men.
“Teach you a lesson,” Mateo said simply.
“A lesson? You think I don’t already get what you want me to learn?” she snapped. Fear clawed inside her, threatening to take over. Literally the only defense she had against it was anger.
It was fight or give in and become exactly what they wanted.
An obedient little slave who did as she was told and kept her mouth shut.
In the long run, that was probably easier, submit, stop acting like someone was going swoop in and save her.
If the cops knew about these people and what they were doing, they didn't have enough to find them and stop them, so they wouldn't be riding in on white horses.
Getting away from them herself was like a pipedream, it wasn't happening, there were just too many of them.
And Nathan wasn't there, so he wasn't going to be mitigating any damages today.
“If you'd learned the lesson, then you would have participated in the showers,” Mateo said, walking much faster with his longer legs than she could keep up with without practically running.
“You really get off on watching women together, then find two willing participants,” she growled, managing to grab hold of the bars to one of the other cages and curl her fingers around them.
Mateo sighed as he stopped moving, his large hand circling her wrist, while his other hand maintained its hold on her bicep.
“It’s not about what gets me off, but to answer your question, no, for me personally, I don’t find that arousing.
The lesson you need to learn, little girl, is that here you are nothing. ”
“I'm not nothing. I'm a human being,” Emma protested.
“You were a human being,” Mateo corrected.
“Out there. Back in your old life. But not here.
Here you are nothing but a toy to be used.
Most people treat their pets better than you'll fare wherever you end up. The sooner you accept your new reality, the easier it will be. That’s what you were supposed to learn today.
Submit. Do as you're told. Maybe even get a few seconds of pleasure out of it.
But instead of a warm shower, clean skin and hair, an orgasm or two, you're going to get something quite different.”
“I'm glad I didn't stay in the showers today, I don’t want an orgasm,” she shrieked.
Maybe her body could have been forced to send pleasure sparking through her system, but it wouldn't have been real pleasure.
It would have been exactly what Mateo and the others wanted, humiliation, the ultimate betrayal as her own body turned against her.
It wasn't real pleasure, and Mateo knew it.
The others did too. It was a way to demean them, treat them like nothing but toys without feelings or emotions.
Pain sparked through her hand as Mateo pressed against her wrist, obviously finding a pressure point, because her fingers cramped and she lost feeling in them as they dropped from the metal bar.
Lifting her off the ground, Mateo banded an arm across her chest, pinning her arms to her side as he continued walking down the corridor.
“Never said you weren't getting an orgasm too,” Mateo said, chuckling.
“Just that you could have had it the easy way.
Now you're going to find yourself chained to the wall, helpless, taking a different kind of shower.
The guys are going to take turns cleaning you, and I can assure you, little girl, that you're going to be coming over and over again until you're begging and pleading for it to stop.”
Another time, another place, another partner, and those words might have taken on an entirely different meaning.
Not the chained-up part, Emma had never been into bondage, but a partner who gave her a never ending supply of orgasms would have had her legs pressing together as her insides fluttered in anticipation.
Now her legs pressed together for a different purpose.
As though the simple act could stop the inevitable from happening.
And it would be happening, she had accepted that. Mateo was going to chain her to a wall, and the disgusting men who worked there, roaming the halls like they were gods able to do whatever they wanted without consequences, were going to touch her body and make it do things it didn't want to do.
“You're sick, you know that, right? To do this to other people, it makes you a monster. You say I need to accept that I'm just a toy now, no longer a human being, well, you're not a human being anymore either. You're a demon walking around in human flesh.”
Mateo said nothing, just carried her back into the shower room, only it looked different now that it was empty.
There was water on the floor, lingering soapy suds that hadn't yet dissolved or disappeared down the drains.
Right in the middle of the wall were metal cuffs that hadn't been there earlier.
There were two together up high that she assumed were going to pin her arms above her head, and then two by the ground spread far apart that she assumed were going to spread her legs wide and give these monsters easy access to her body.
Fighting wasn't a conscious decision.
When Mateo walked calmly across the room toward those metal cuffs, and the heavy weight of reality began to press down upon her, Emma fought.
She slammed her head back, hoping to hit Mateo’s face, maybe break his nose or knock out some of his teeth, but he must have anticipated the move, and instead her head grazed his jaw.
Her fingers tried to find something to grab onto, preferably his crotch, although she had no intention of giving him a hand job like she’d offered Nathan.
This time, she wanted to rip his appendage right off his body.
But she couldn’t get to it. Couldn’t get to anything really.
Although she kept clawing, he was pure muscle beneath the T-shirt, and the soft material was all she could grab onto.
Her heels connected with his shins, his thighs, but it didn't slow him down.
In fact, he was so unconcerned about what she was doing that he didn't even bother to tell her to stop.
Setting her on her feet, he had her shoved against the wall before she could even get her balance and try to make a run for it. Of course, she wouldn't get away, she would only make him angry, but if she got a chance, she’d certainly try.
A large hand around her neck kept her in place as he grabbed her wrists and yanked them above her head.
Emma did her best to try to stop him, she tried to make it difficult for him to contain her, but it was shockingly easy for Mateo to restrain her.
Scarily easy, a reminder of the lack of control she had in her life now, and how easy it was going to be for whoever bought her to do whatever they wanted to her.
The cold metal of the cuffs brushed against her skin. Any second now, it would close around them. Then all he had to do was spread her legs and lock them into place. Then she’d be laid out before them like a meal they were going to devour until there was nothing left.
Even though she didn't want to admit it, Emma knew that this would be the first real step in destroying her, eradicating the woman she was now, and turning her into something else. She’d become like the others, a shell of a person, willing to do anything so she didn't find herself facing another punishment. There was no way she’d be able to survive her own body turning against her, that was something she couldn’t fight against.
Both she and Mateo startled when a loud shriek suddenly filled the air.
Was that a fire alarm?
“Stay, don’t make things worse for yourself than they already are,” Mateo ordered as he released her and stalked out of the room.
He hadn't locked the cuffs around her wrists.
She was free.
Alone in the room.
Excited energy shoved away the terror that had been threatening to overwhelm her moments ago.
This was her chance, and she was going to take advantage of it. If it didn't work out, then she’d worry about the punishment later.
Taking a deep breath, Emma darted toward the door and prayed for luck to be smiling down on her tonight. At this point, she’d even take being burned alive over the fate Nathan, Mateo, and the others had planned for her.
August 3rd
2:39 P.M.
This was quite possibly the riskiest thing Nathan had ever done.
Considering he’d spent a decade or so of his life working undercover, that was definitely saying something.
Mitigating the damage to any victims or potential victims was always important to him, and had always been something he did, since he had fallen into this work because of a savior complex.
But this was different. This was trying to save a woman who the universe seemed to be screaming at him was his.
Much as he knew Emma didn't and likely never would feel the same way, he still had to do everything he could to protect her. Including whatever punishment Mateo and the others had cooked up.
So as he ran through the smoke filling the basement from the small fire he’d set with a cigarette dropped into the couch cushions in the guards’ room, he searched for any sign of her.