Chapter 19
FIONA
Walking into the Judicium, I seek Hunter.
He’s sitting at a table in front of a half circle of desks. Cole sits across from him at the center of the half circle, glaring at him with hate-filled eyes.
If only they knew what I do. That Hunter isn’t the monster they think he is.
That he’s an angel on this earth.
I want to scream at the injustice. That these people should judge him infuriates me to my very core.
But Hunter wouldn’t want a scene.
Amber directs me to a seat next to the other Kept women. Many of them give me reassuring smiles, but their eyes show their pity.
It’s like I’m a widow at a funeral. No one knows what to say or how to abate my grief. They feel bad for me, but they’re glad that it’s me going through this and not them.
“Let’s get started,” Cole says once we’re seated.
Atticus rises and approaches the crescent, talking more to the assembled council than the crowd.
I listen as he goes over the details of the case, going back years before the apocalypse.
On an enormous screen behind the council, the evidence is presented, which includes ghastly pictures of Hunter’s kills.
They know he murdered dozens, if not hundreds, of people, but none of them knows why.
The first big twist comes when they call Brooke to the stand. I met her once when the Kept women tried to welcome me to their ranks. I ignored them, refusing to entertain a friendship with anyone from the Keep.
Brooke discusses her time on Salem Street with a club owner named Frank. She points to an image on the screen of the dead bodies found hanging, all of them are numbered. “I know Seven and Ten personally. They were ruthless, treating the girls as less than human. Some didn’t live through the abuse.”
She blots her eyes, stemming the tide of tears trailing down her porcelain cheeks.
My gut twists from the knowledge of what she’s been through, and it’s only made worse when Britney is called to discuss how her father sold her to Salem Street when they were trying to rebuild after Hunter’s massacre.
Their generosity to my cause is not lost on me. They’re trying to show Salem Street for what it was, which gives me hope that not everyone wants Hunter killed.
Alistair is called up next, and he describes how he’d tortured Britney’s father at Hunter’s suggestion. But he doesn’t seem to regret what he’s done. If anything, he speaks for Hunter, not against him.
Cole’s eyes fall on Amber, and she whispers into my ear, “It’s your turn.”
I hate what I have to do, but I know I have to do it, so I suck in a breath, rise from my seat, and walk midway between Hunter and Cole.
For the first time during the entire ordeal, Hunter reacts, jumping to his feet and snarling, “She has nothing to do with this.”
Cole must have expected his reaction because three big men come from behind to restrain him.
“Let her go!” he growls.
I can’t bear to look at him, so I face Cole.
“Do you have anything you’d like to say in Hunter’s defense?” he asks.
“No, nothing about Hunter. But I would like to tell you about myself.”
Cole looks to his right and his left, clearly frustrated.
Instead of waiting for permission, I begin.
“When the dead flooded the city, I watched my mother die. Thankfully, my boyfriend was there to help me. I became dependent on him as the horrors of the apocalypse unfolded, never knowing that the monsters weren’t just outside.
They were in the very apartment we shared. ”
Words pour from me, detailing the selling of my flesh, and how it felt to be owned. I never speak of Hunter’s feelings, thoughts, or motives, but I tell them how we met and the list that I gave him of those who’d hurt me. Because that is a part of my story and my life.
The men shift uncomfortably in their seats as details emerge. Of how Caspian took me, used me, sold me to others. What happened to me is their greatest fear, because it could have been their Kept woman taken as they’d trusted each other without question.
When I’m finally done with my statement, the room is so silent you could hear a pin drop.
And while moments before my story I’d wanted to fall apart, standing here, in front of them, I’ve never felt stronger.
Cole rises from his seat, his face stoic and unreadable.
“I’ll be retiring to the command post to go over the details of the case against Hunter. We’ll reconvene tomorrow, and my judgment will be delivered.”
I feel numb. Hardly able to stand.
I look over my shoulder at Hunter. In all the time I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him so wrought with emotion.
“Can I see him?” I blurt. “Privately?”
The room fills with murmurs, and I can see that some of the men are clearly annoyed.
It’s because they want a chance with me.
Jokes on them because if I’m ever handed off to another, I’ll show them what Hunter taught me, and they’ll have to adjust to life without balls.
Cole glares down at me. In his eyes, I see conflict. He doesn’t like the situation he’s in.
I don’t blame him. He loses no matter what choice he makes because it will only divide his people further.
Finally, he speaks. “I’ll do you one better. You two can stay the night under house arrest in one of the apartments.”
HUNTER
Spending one last night with Fiona should be a dream come true.
Instead, I feel tortured.
I hate myself for what she had to go through to try and save me. That she had to relive the abuse she’d endured for too long.
“You won’t be able to leave the apartment once you’re inside,” Atticus says. “But there’s a button next to the door if you need anything.”
Fiona nods as she crosses the threshold into the apartment.
I can’t bring myself to enter.
“You should take me to the holding,” I tell Atticus.
“Don’t do this to yourself,” Atticus whispers. “All we want—”
“You want something I can’t give you, so stop looking. Bring me to holding and go back to your books and your libraries or whatever else it is that nerds like you enjoy.”
He cocks his head to the side and gives me a look, his brow narrowing. “Huh?”
“Look, I have nothing against nerds—”
“Why aren’t you coming in?” Fiona interrupts.
I look up to see a sad expression marring her beautiful face.
I hate that I’ve done this to her.
Atticus looks lost in his own world, muttering things under his breath.
“Are you mad at me?” Fiona asks.
“No,” I say, trying to make my tone reassuring.
Snapping out of his daze, Atticus says, “Go in there. Give her closure.”
I know I shouldn’t. That me leaving might be the best thing for her.
But I can’t.
I need her.
I enter the apartment, and without another word, Atticus locks us in.
“For a moment, I was worried you didn’t want to join me,” Fiona says.
“I wanted to more than anything,” I confess.
“Then what took you so long?”
“I just didn’t want to make things worse for you.”
She nods, wiping away a tear.
“I wish you hadn’t said what you did.”
“I’m sorry if I said too much about you. I couldn’t say nothing, and I tried to keep your secrets as best I could.”
Unable to keep away, I close the distance between us, cupping her cheeks in my hands. “I don’t care what they know about me. I didn’t want you to have to live through that again.”
“If you don’t care what they know, why not tell them your side?”
“It honestly wouldn’t have mattered. In their eyes, I’ll always be a threat to the Keep and their Kept women.”
Her eyes pinch shut. I bend, kissing her forehead.
“I love you, Fiona.”
She presses into me, putting her head against my chest.
In another life, she’d be mine.
But not this one.
“What do you want to do?” she asks. “They have every movie ever made, and they’ll probably make us whatever we want to eat.”
“Whatever you want, baby.”
She pulls back and gives me a nervous look.
“We can’t torture anyone,” I say, hoping to see her crack a smile.
She does, and I cherish the thought that I can bring her joy.
“It’s not that, but there is something. I’m a little scared about how you’ll react.”
My brow furrows. “Please don’t let it be a sex act that involves my backside. I mean, I’d do anything for you, but that’s not how I want my last night to go.”
She giggles. “No…I want a baby. Your baby.”
My jaw drops because I don’t know what to make of what she just said.
“I don’t know what the chances that it can happen over one night are, but they can’t be zero. I think I’m at a fertile time.”
“I won’t be here.”
She nods. “I know, but I will be, and I can’t stand the thought of going forward with my life without keeping some small part of you alive.”
I turn away, shoving my fingers through my hair.
“If it’s a girl, I’ll name her Gabby, if you’d like, and if it’s a boy, I’ll name him Hunter.”
I shouldn’t want this. Making Fiona a single mom in a world like this is something only a terrible man would do.
But what if she doesn’t have to be single?
“If I do this, you have to make me a promise.”
“Anything!”
“You have to find a Keeper.”
“You’re my Keeper.”
“I’ll be dead.”
Her lip curls into a snarl. “But I don’t want anyone else! I hate it here—I hate the people here. I can’t believe you’d ask that of me.”
“I know, and Cole said he wouldn’t make you take a Keeper, but I want this for you. I want you to know love again. I want you to love your life—every moment of it—even if it’s without me. And if we make a baby, I want it to have a father.”
She flings her arms around me and presses her lips to mine, locking us in a soulful kiss.
I can’t believe I get to have her this one last time. That maybe we’ll make a baby together.
God, I hope we do. I hope it’s a beautiful little girl that looks like her.
She pulls away and looks at me with frantic eyes. “Fine—you win. But you can’t make me wait any longer. I need you.”
I don’t tell her how badly I need her, too.
Instead, I lift and carry her into the adjoining room, placing her on the bed.
She looks so sweet and innocent that it’s hard to imagine she’d watched me torture a man. That she liked it.
I unzip the Keep-issued orange jumpsuit and let it fall down my body. Fiona waggles her brow enticingly, and for a moment, the situation isn’t so desperate. It’s like we’re normal people.
She shimmies out of her tank top and shorts, and I notice her pale yellow panties are already damp.
God, I want to fuck her. She’s the only woman who’s ever done it for me without having to tear flesh from bone. The only one that’s made me forget my pain.
“Have you been thinking about me?” she asks.
“Every day.” I crawl onto the bed, grab her ankles, and pull them apart.
“You don’t have to do that!” she says.
“You think I don’t want to?”
She shrugs. “Time.”
“I want to die with the taste of you on my lips.”
“Don’t say that,” she says sadly.
I drop my chest to the mattress and pull her panties down her creamy thighs.
She smells like heaven, and I can hardly hold myself back from devouring her, but I need to fucking see her.
“Look at me,” I demand.
She brings her eyes to mine and her cheeks tint pink.
I loop my arms around her legs and spread her lower lips. “Don’t you ever be embarrassed about your pussy. It’s perfect.”
She gives a happy sigh that satisfies me in a way I imagine makes me a Keeper.
I plant a series of sloppy kisses on Fiona’s thighs, relishing the way her muscles tense, her legs closing against my cheeks.
I wish I could say I was patient and able to draw out her pleasure for hours, but I’m too damn hungry for her. I need to feel her come.
“Oh, God—” she cries as I let out a growl, pushing my face against her seam as I bury my tongue in her sweetness.
I come unglued as her hips buck against me. No longer shy, she threads her fingers through my hair, urging me to her swollen clit.
“That a girl,” I mutter, swiping my tongue around her bud. I shove two fingers into her channel, arching them up to give her what she needs.
Driving her stark raving mad.
“I’m…I’m…” Her pussy convulses around my fingers as she rides my face. In all my years, I’ve never seen anything so sexy before.
I can’t believe she’s mine. If only for tonight, I get to claim her. I get to put a baby in her.
The thought turns my already hard cock to steel.
Driven by primal instinct, I lift to all fours and yank her down the bed. Fiona’s eyes are dazed from the high of her orgasm, which is a sight I could get addicted to.
With one sharp yank, her bra gives way, revealing puckered rose-colored nipples I fully intend to devour later.
But first, I need to fuck her. I need it more than I need the air in my lungs and the blood pumping through my veins.
“I’m going to fuck you now,” I warn.
“Yes, do it!” Fiona whines. “Come in me. I’m yours.”
She brings her hands to my cheeks and lifts off the bed, bringing her lips to mine.
My world stops.
I broke my rule when I kissed her before, and it changed everything.
I pull back, but her hands dig into my face as her tongue drives into my mouth.
There is nothing I can deny this girl.
I push her back down on the bed, relishing her moans as they flutter against my mouth.
She hooks her legs around my waist, urging me to her center.
The taste of her pussy is still on my mouth, and I love that Fiona accepts it so hungrily. With as crazy as she’s driving me, there’s no way I’m going to be able to fuck her slowly.
So I don’t.
I drive into her, again and again, fighting against her tight walls. She clings to me, her arms wrapped around my neck, her chest raised to meet mine, which creates the perfect angle to stimulate her clit.
My balls are so full of cum, I know I won’t last long. Which means I’ll have to take her again, and again. As many times as I can throughout the night.
She’s babbling incoherent sounds, her needy fingers digging against my neck. She’s there. Right-fucking-there.
The feel of her orgasm on my cock makes me unable to hold back any longer, and I let out a growl as my seed spills into her.
Fuck, I need this to work. I need to believe that we’ve created something. That her belly will grow round with the seed I planted.
“God, I needed that?” she says with a sigh.
I comb my fingers through her sweaty red hair. “You are amazing.”
Her pretty face brightens.
“But…if you really want a baby, it would be good for us to go more than once.”
She wiggles and turns over so that she’s face down, then she rises onto all fours. “Good thing we have all night.”