Chapter 6 #2
Returning her to the room a few hours after he’d removed the ring would have been the prudent thing to do, and it was absolutely what Van had intended.
Only when he’d pulled it out, and she’d made that small groan of pain, the biggest concession to her discomfort she’d given since she’d been here, he found he couldn’t.
Just keep her until you're sure her jaw isn’t dislocated, he’d told himself. But it wasn't, and he knew it wasn't. It would probably have been more compassionate to let her rejoin the others, because it had to be hurting her to sit on the welts that would barely have begun to heal yet.
But he wasn't compassionate. He was a selfish monster, and he took what he wanted without any care for how it impacted the other person. Makayla gave him the stability he’d been searching for his entire life.
For as long as he could remember, his world had been rocking from side to side, sometimes smaller rocking, just enough to be unsettling, but other times it felt like the world was doing its damnedest to throw him right off it.
Only when Makayla was around, it all went blissfully still.
“No, it didn't, stop being ridiculous,” he muttered under his breath as he pushed off the door and returned to the room he’d set up to become his own.
The other guys would spend time in here, too.
They’d prepare meals, watch TV, crash after a long session with one of the women, but they would all know the space was really his.
It was early, and he wouldn't have to worry about anyone else being here yet.
Breakfast was usually served at eight, and they only had the six women to cook for.
Even Ernie wouldn't be in before six to start prepping food.
For now, he had the place to himself, which meant he should get to work by fitting out cameras.
No one here ever paid much attention to what he was doing, so he didn't even have to pretend the cameras he was working on were just for public use. They’d never guess he was adding his own surveillance as well.
“Idiots,” he grumbled as he headed into the room to start collecting his stash.
Makayla Adair didn't know anything about him, even if she’d been watching him with a set of blue eyes that were far too knowing for his liking.
Plus, nobody would care he’d kept her in here longer.
The guys had lost interest in her around dinner time when they weren't getting the reactions they’d hoped for, so they wouldn't even know anyway.
The only idiot here was him because he’d wasted an entire night.
He should have either put Makayla away and gotten to work setting up cameras or put her away and gotten some sleep.
Something he needed because he hadn't slept more than a handful of hours here and there since Mateo went rogue, took Ally, and fled.
Years of living in abusive situations had helped him hone the ability to sleep while still being aware of his surroundings. Never knew when you were going to wake up with someone approaching the bed. He’d trained his body to adapt to little sleep, caught in small pockets when he actually felt safe.
Now there was no point in lying down. The couch wasn't comfortable, and this old factory didn't have the luxury of apartments in the building, so he’d have to go and check into a hotel to crash for a few hours. That would be a waste of time and money, so he got to work.
In the guards’ room, he went for the large tub filled with equipment that he’d told Griffin he needed to have this place secured and ready for business.
It was a shame their fearless leader hadn't allowed him to set it up ahead of time. As far as Van was concerned, it was important to always have a backup plan for your backup plan, and not having this place completely ready to go was a failure on Griffin’s part as far as he was concerned.
Still, there were lots of lovely tech goodies buried in the box, some of them supplied by Griffin and Azure, and the others were some of his own that he’d slipped in.
Always thankful that the others here were completely disinterested in their surveillance set up, trusting that he had it under control and they could just check in on the live streams to get themselves off to the sights and sounds of one of the other men torturing one of these women.
The last couple of days, he’d had to focus on getting some of the main cameras for public use up and running, since that’s what everyone was expecting.
But this morning, he was the only one here, there was no one to interrupt him, no one to get in his way, no one to watch what he was doing, so he was free.
Gathering up a couple of cameras and the tools he’d need to get them installed, Van went to work.
He put two up in the guards’ room. The training rooms had cameras in them already, both the ones everyone would have access to and his own, so he didn't need to worry about those.
The room with the women in it needed to be done, because he was pretty sure that, despite his lesson, Makayla wasn't going to give up trying to escape.
As he started adding cameras to the main corridor, he wondered how long it would be before Griffin decided she could go up for sale.
Chances were, she really wasn't going to be trainable, that she wouldn't stop fighting, which meant she wouldn't be to the tastes of the men who purchased from Azure.
They were after someone highly trained who would follow all their orders without complaint.
But there were other places to sell product like Makayla.
Auctions where men who wanted someone they could destroy and who would fight them every step of the way went to make their sick and twisted purchases.
That was no doubt where Makayla was going to find herself sometime in the coming days, once the others clued in to what he had become sure of.
She might think strength and determination were going to get her out of this hell, but she was wrong.
Maybe she’d get herself out of this particular space, but that only meant she’d go somewhere worse.
The facts were, she wouldn't be able to escape.
Foster care always had an expiry date because you aged out of the system, which meant all you had to do to survive was make it to the finish line.
But there was no expiry date to this, no finish line.
It would just go on and on until the end was her death.
That was the difference Makayla didn't understand yet.
Still, as far as he was concerned, the quicker she was sold off, the quicker she was out of his hair and became Prey’s problem instead.
Because even though she affected him in a way he didn't like, he wanted all the women here rescued.
He was empty inside, but he wasn't cruel.
They were innocents, and he was here to destroy Azure so they could stop destroying lives.
“Don’t move a muscle,” a calm voice demanded from behind him as something cool and sharp pressed against his neck.
Focused as he’d been on his task and lost in thoughts of a woman who thought she had what it took to survive this ordeal, he hadn't heard her coming.
Maybe Makayla Adair really did have what it took to survive this. Because she was no longer locked inside the room he’d just put her in, she was standing behind him, naked as the day she was born, but a fierce warrior, holding a knife to his neck.
Van had no idea how she’d gotten out of the room, no idea where she’d gotten the knife, but he was grudgingly proud of her for figuring out the impossible.