Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
Thunder had been filled with rage enough times in his life to believe he was intimately acquainted with the term seeing red.
It turned out he’d been wrong.
Despite the anger that had been a constant companion for as far back as his memories existed, amplified when the experimental drugs they were given filled them with fury and a strong desire to end their own lives, what he felt right now made all that pale in comparison.
The slight whooshing sound had him grinding his teeth together, and he physically flinched when he heard what he knew was the sound of leather hitting bare flesh.
Maya’s flesh.
Dr. Gardner was whipping her.
There was no power on earth strong enough to save the scientist’s life. As soon as Thunder was out of this cage, he was going to unleash thirty-two years’ worth of rage on the man.
But for the moment, there was nothing he could do.
Since he wasn't Steel, he couldn’t just bend the metal bars trapping him in half of this room and walk out. Even if he could, he was outmanned and unarmed. Dr. Gardner might not know how to fight, but there were at least eight mercenaries who had abducted him and Maya somewhere close by.
While he could, of course, break his way out given enough time, the time it took wasn't going to stop what was happening to Maya this very second.
Each strike of what he assumed was the belt Dr. Gardner had been wearing against Maya’s skin had his anger ratcheting up another notch, until he was actually vibrating with rage.
“Have you learned your lesson, pretty toy?” Dr. Gardner crooned in a sort of sing-song voice one might usually reserve for talking to an infant or small child. It was loud enough that Thunder knew he was supposed to overhear, supposed to get angry about what the scientist was doing.
Just because Dr. Gardner had no way of knowing that he had fallen hard and fast for the pretty blonde currently being whipped as punishment for being rescued didn't mean that the maniac wasn't aware that seeing an innocent being hurt would enrage him.
“I'm sure you have, because you're a good girl, aren't you?” Dr. Gardner continued, his tone shifting now to one someone might use when talking to a dog.
“A good girl, even if you did let those men take you away from me.
But you're back now, aren't you? Back home where you belong. With your master who takes such good care of you.”
Despite the scientist’s rambling, Thunder didn't hear a peep out of Maya, and since she hadn't cried out in pain as she was being whipped, he worried that he’d already lost her.
That she had already retreated inside her mind, and that even once Dr. Gardner was dead and she was safe, he might not be able to pull her back out.
“Stand,” Dr. Gardner commanded, and since the man didn't say anything else, Thunder assumed that Maya had complied with the order. So if she had slipped away to hide inside her mind, she wasn't so far gone that she wasn't aware of what was going on around her.
That had to be a good thing.
At least he was going to believe that it was.
“Come,” Dr. Gardner gave another order, and while it only enraged Thunder further, the relief he felt a moment later when the scientist re-entered the room with Maya trailing along behind him was immense.
His girl was here, alive. Still dressed, so he had to assume that she hadn't been sexually violated. She was walking a little awkwardly, which he assumed was a result of just being whipped, but he couldn’t see any blood on her so that had to be a good thing.
“Don’t worry, she won't be punished again for your sins,” Dr. Gardner said with a smirk as he stopped just out of arm’s reach. Too bad the man wasn't stupid enough to get close enough that Thunder could reach through the bars and grab hold of him.
If he did, he’d be the one doling out punishments.
“Did you really think this wasn't the inevitable conclusion?” Dr. Gardner continued, that smug smile still in place. “Of course, I was going to get you back, you belong to me after all, every bit as much as my pretty little toy does. I created you, I own you, and you will work for me again.”
Thunder didn't disagree that there had only ever been one way this was all going to play out. They just disagreed on what that one way was. Dr. Gardner was so much of an egomaniac that he couldn’t fathom any other outcome than one where he got whatever it was he wanted.
But Thunder and his teammates had always known that they wouldn't stop until they’d made the man pay for everything he’d put them through.
Maybe they hadn't always gone about things the right way. Targeting Rose to use her like she was nothing but a pawn, had been a mistake even if things had worked out in the end and she’d forgiven them, even going so far as to fall in love with Steel.
Torturing Whitney before they had all the facts had also been a mistake, but again, one that had been forgiven, and she was now happy with Blade.
Their single-minded determination—obsession was a more accurate word—with revenge had led to them making mistakes, but that didn't change the fact that Dr. Gardner was going to die for the experimental drugs he loved so much. Drugs that had killed every other recipient, except for the six of them and Indigo. Not all of those people had signed up willingly, not that the scientist cared. He’d been prepared to kidnap and imprison, hadn't thought anything of buying the ten-year-old Whitney from her parents to get access to her drugs.
He thought buying a human trafficking victim was no big deal, because he wanted to have his very own sex slave.
A sex slave who now stood beside him, her head bowed, staring at the floor, or possibly nothing at all.
There wasn't a single thing that Thunder liked about the sleazy way Dr. Gardner’s gaze raked over Maya’s body.
It didn’t matter how possessive the man’s gaze was, Maya was wearing his clothes, and it was his body she’d willingly sought both comfort and pleasure from.
“Strip,” Dr. Gardner ordered Maya.
Like the well-trained toy that she was, there was no hesitation in Maya’s movements, no indication that she was embarrassed by removing her clothes, or concerned about her modesty, or lack thereof.
With practiced hands, she made quick work of removing her clothing— his clothing—letting them fall at her feet until she was standing completely naked.
Once again, she bowed her head, and her arms hung limply at her sides.
Bright red welts on her backside were now clearly visible, and Thunder couldn’t stop the low growl that rumbled through his chest.
Dr. Gardner beamed at him, obviously pleased to have gotten a reaction when so far Thunder had been denying him one. There was a sick smugness in the scientist as he eyed Maya’s body like it was nothing more than a piece of meat for him to enjoy.
“On your knees,” Dr. Gardner commanded Maya, who moved as if she were on strings, dropping down so quickly there was a thump as her knees hit the floor, and he knew it must have hurt.
If she was still capable of feeling pain.
If she hadn't burrowed herself too deeply inside her head.
“Take it out,” Dr. Gardner told Maya, and she reached out to unzip him, reaching inside the man’s boxers to pull out a rather insipid-looking penis.
Still, the sight of it in Maya’s hands, knowing that she was doing this against her will, either acting on trained instincts, or doing what she felt she had to do in order to buy them enough time for his team to show up, had nausea churning inside him.
He was right there, a mere seven feet or so away from her, and yet there was absolutely nothing he could do to protect her, to stop this from happening.
“Make me come, pretty toy,” Dr. Gardner commanded, and this time there was the barest hint of hesitation before Maya leaned toward him and parted her lips.
But that hesitation told him all he needed to know.
Dr. Gardner hadn't seen it because he was too busy alternating between staring with lust at Maya’s mouth and shooting Thunder smirks.
Thunder’s fingers curled around the bars, wishing with every fiber of his body that he had Steel’s enhanced strength rather than enhanced speed, forced to watch helplessly as Maya took Dr. Gardner’s length between her lips and began to suck him off with a resignation that told him she’d done this hundreds of times before.
As the scientist began to moan, Maya’s gaze finally shifted, met his, and in those beautiful gray depths he saw clarity, determination, and something that looked a whole hell of a lot like love, and he knew that so far he hadn't lost his girl to her own mind.
Unfortunately, if his team didn't arrive soon, he could still lose her to the crazed scientist who was never going to willingly give either of them up.
March 11 th
6:27 A.M.
You can do this.
You’ve done it a thousand times before.
Probably more.
And you have never had better motivation to do something that makes you want to throw up.
The only way Maya could ensure she didn't choke on the penis currently thrusting into her mouth and tapping the back of her throat, making her almost gag, was to keep coaching herself.
While it was true she really had been forced to do this thousands of times over the last thirteen years, this time felt different.
It was the worst, well, maybe second worst after her first time when she’d been so scared and unprepared she’d choked, vomited, and been punished for it, but this was a close second.
Because Thunder was there.
Forced to watch her down on her knees with another man’s penis in her mouth.
It didn't matter that they both knew she didn't want to do this, the facts were that she was doing it, and it had to be as awful for him as it was for her.
Harder maybe.