72. Kiera
KIERA
I followed my saviors onto the train, stepping into the vestibule and letting them lead me through a sliding train door.
Leo held the sliding door for me as I walked into a cabin.
“Welcome home, Bunny.” Spencer beamed as she gestured to the stacked bunk beds. Unlike a usual sleeper train, they were full-sized beds. A bit more luxurious than I was expecting.
Along with the beds was a plush green U-shaped couch with a little card table at its center. The lush velvet matched the emerald green walls of the cabin perfectly.
But as I stood at the center of our cabin, the train horn blew down the platform and the gears underneath us lurched forward.
My throat tightened as I watched the platform moving past our window, it was slow first. Enough that I could have jumped off the vestibule and sprinted out of here, maybe fast enough to escape my captors.
Wherever we were headed was going to be a long trip, otherwise there wouldn’t have been beds. And that was enough to make my heart race.
As if on cue, the train rocketed forward. It picked up unimaginable speed.
I grasped the post of the beds, trying to steady myself for what I was certain would be a hit of velocity that would force me to the ground.
It never came.
“Is this a fucking bullet train?” Everything was clicking in my mind. I’d seen pictures of bullet trains, sleek and meant to minimize drag. And this was starting to feel exactly the same.
“Yes.” Dom answered as she shoved her suit jacket into a small closet near the door.
My mind tried to keep up. The whole thing was insane. A bullet train in America had always seemed like a pipedream. But one buried under a small town, used by a secret organization that killed rapists…
What world was I even living in?
Questions rolled into my mind faster than a tsunami.
Looking between Leo and Spencer, I picked one. “Is anyone else on the train?”
Leo shrugged. “Not sure, Princess.”
“Where are we going?” I pressed.
With a wink, Spencer flopped herself onto the couch. “To Delphi, babe.”
Rolling my eyes, I huffed. I hated it when they played games like this. I was one of them and even then, I couldn’t get a single real answer out of either of my angels.
Dom reached into her pocket as her phone rang. Swiping right on the call, she put the cell to her ear and moved through our cabin to the opposite door and slipped out.
Once she was gone, Spencer got comfortable on the couch as Leo sank into one of the beds.
Outside the windows, gray tunnels whipped past. Any moment now, I hoped the concrete would break and open up to a view of the moonlight mountains of New York.
“Don’t get your hopes up. It’s all underground so there won’t be a view, darlin’.” Leo watched me closely, my shoulders dropping as she read my mind. “Wouldn’t be very secret if a bullet train was flying through corn fields in Nebraska, would it?”
“Right.” I clicked my tongue as I looked around the small cabin.
“Try and get some rest, Bunny.” Spencer patted her chest, a perfect resting spot for god knew how many hours we had ahead of us.
How fast do bullet trains even go?
I was tempted to slip into Spencer’s grasp, let her cradle my body and put me to sleep. I’d smell her fresh scent in my dreams.
But I felt my leg tapping, too anxious to lay down. All of this was too new, too unknown to be able to shut off my racing mind.
Shaking my head, I looked at the door leading to the rest of the train. The one Dom had disappeared through. “I think I’m going to go for a walk.”
Leo and Spencer exchanged a glance, debating whether I could be trusted.
“Not like I can jump off a bullet train. Relax.” I shook my head at my two angels before moving toward the door. “Be back soon.”
I peeled open the cabin door and stepped into the vestibule. I expected the noise of the train to be more obvious there. When I was little and my parents would take me into the city, we’d stand between cars to get a good view out of the window.
It was too loud to talk, my mom, dad, and I forced to take it all in ourselves. I still remembered how magical the skyscrapers looked, shimmering in the evening sun.
But it was quiet here, that memory — and my father — far away now.
I made myself move forward, into the next cabin.
Full of velvet seats and entirely empty, the car only had a single conductor who smiled at me as I walked into the train.
She was pretty, the conductor cap looking shockingly hot on her as a low bun peeked out of the back.
Her feet were propped up on the opposite seat, her hands folded delicately in her lap as she greeted me.
“Good evening, Miss Tierney. Welcome aboard.”
“Oh, hi.” I swallowed hard, now completely unused to being seen in public, let alone identified.
The conductor nodded toward the next car. “Bar car is the next cabin.”
“Thanks.” I smiled as best I could and kept moving.
As I stepped through the vestibule, I could hear the low rumble of Dom’s voice. I looked through the glass window into the bar. Her back was broad and her muscles strained the white dress shirt.
Always running from me.
Throwing open the car door, I sauntered inside. My heels were starting to hurt my feet but I wasn’t going to let Dom know that.
“Understood, I need that report on my desk first thing in the morning.” Dom raised an eyebrow as she turned to look at me.
Just the thought of her conducting business for Zeus made me want to scream.
I sidled up to the bar, watching Dom through the glass behind the bottles of luxury liquor. The car was empty, whatever bartender had been here clearly forced out while Dom worked. Leaning against the wood, I licked my teeth as I watched her talk.
“This is between us, got it?” She waited for an answer. “Good. See you then.”
Hanging up, Dom set her phone on the clean bar as she twirled her glass of neat whiskey in her hands.
Her blue eyes met mine.
And it was enough to incise me.
“Did you kick that poor bartender out? Dick move.”
“A little privacy doesn’t hurt.” Dom let a deep breath hiss out of her nose as she looked straight forward. “Not that you’d ever notice.”
Despite myself, I dug deeper. “I don’t understand how you can stomach working for him. After everything.”
Nothing. She stared ahead, taking a sip of that bitter amber drink.
I was hankering for a punishment, clearly. Or I would have kept my mouth shut. “Do you think you’ll ever be able to get your soul back? Or is it gone for good?”
“Watch it, Viper.” Dom’s jaw tensed, her eyes watching my face in the mirror. But mine were peeled on her: the way her veins bulged from her hand as she gripped the glass; the way her temples pulsed as she tried to calm herself down.
But I wanted to fill her with rage. To make her feel what she’d done to me.
I drove a knife into her soul. “Probably for the best that your mother isn’t around to see you shilling yourself out for him. She’d be ashamed.”
That was all it took. In a blur of motion, Dom threw the whiskey glass into the mirror behind the bar. A CRACK of glittering glass bounced off the walls of the train car as Dom’s bar stool scratched against the parquet floors.
Her fingers were burning into my wrists before I could move away from her, my reaction not fast enough to escape the fate I’d sealed for myself.
She pinned my arms to the bar with one hand. Her free hand was on my throat in seconds, clasping down on my esophagus as I tried to catch up.
But all I could hear was the dripping whiskey on the mirror behind me, blinking rapidly as I watched Dom’s face.
Her voice was nothing more than a growl of anger and fury as she spoke, “You fucking brat. Not enough that I did it for you, is it?”
I guess the dress code is accurate.
Opening my mouth, I was ready to push her further but she knew me too well. And she knew that I needed this, to be put in my place when I was ready to throw a fit. Her grip tightened around my throat as the air started to cut off from my brain.
“I sold my soul to the devil to protect yours, Viper.”
My heart raced in my chest as I started to wonder if I’d ever feel air in my tightening lungs ever again.
Dom brought her face closer to mine, her eyes flicking across my face.
I could see her tempted to kiss me. And I couldn’t deny the pounding between my legs, matching my heart as my body begged for her.
I stopped fighting it and used what little movement I had to press my lips into Dom’s. All of my anger and anxiety took over, shoving my tongue into Dom’s mouth as her grip tightened around my wrists.
More bruises for me.
Spencer and Leo would ask, I already knew that.
But god, did Dom’s mouth feel perfect pulling the breath right out of my lungs.
I needed air. Or I’d let this hot piece of shit kill me.
She’s a fucking monster.
A moment of clarity allowed me to pull my head away just enough to wind up. I sent my skull flying into hers, our foreheads meeting with the deep force of a brutal headbutt.
Dom didn’t lose her grip on my arms, but her hand released my throat as she hollered. “FUCK, you motherfucker!”
Her hand darted to her forehead, checking her fingers for blood as she became more incensed by my behavior.
Through gritted teeth, enough force that I thought she might break her own jaw, Dom shook her head. “Fine, Viper. You wanna bite? I’ll rip your fucking fangs out.”
I’d pried her violence right open. Using the force of those muscles, Dom spun me around and pressed my chest into the bar. Her grip on my hands hadn’t released, now she just held my palms into the wood counter.
My eyes caught on the shimmer of a gold ring. On her left middle finger, I hadn’t seen the jewelry before. It must have been connected to the Station code somehow.
With my chest down, I had no choice but to push my ass out and into her crotch. The same hard, long, thick strap between her legs that I’d felt at The Hollow.
“You wanna fuck around, it’s time you found out.” Dom leaned over my body, pressing her body into mine as she reached between my legs.