Pleasure Bound - Complete (43 page)

“They’ll be here in a minute.”

“How the hell did they let her get caught? They promised me they’d protect her!”

“There’s more.” Annie broke in. “She was wounded.”

Sweet Jesus.  “How bad?”

“Bad enough.” Annie said as she reached out and took the baby from his shaking arms.

“I’m going back for her,” he said.

Before he could take a step, his brother Joe’s stern voice shot through the air.  “You’re doing no such thing, little brother,” he said as he and Ben raced into camp.

“Why the fuck not?” Buck hissed.

“Because we’ve run out of ammunition, that’s why. We’re going to have to go back to the spaceship and get some more.”

* * * * *

White-hot pain ripped through Virgin’s wounded side as she inhaled a deep breath.

What in the name of Goddess of Freedom had happened to her? One minute she’d been running from the gunfight, her heart swelling with joy at the thought of her baby safely tucked away in Buck’s strong arms, the next instant something hard and painful had slammed into her right side knocking her clear off her feet.

She’d hit the ground hard, her breath knocked out of her lungs. Then she’d promptly passed out only to wake up…

Where was she?

She forced her eyes open.

Familiar gray stonewalls greeted her and her stomach sunk like a rock.

Prison.

She’d been re-captured.

Sweet Goddess! Had Buck and her baby also been caught?

Terror at that thought made her cry out.

At the sound of her voice, someone moved in the shadows. She could hear the person breathing. Could barely make out the silhouette of a tall male.

Goosebumps crawled up her bare arms. Instead of hooking her up to the fucking machine this time perhaps they’d sent a sex slave to impregnate her? She doubted she could fight him off. Not with the pain searing through her side and feeling so weak.

“Virgin? You awake?”

She blinked in shock at the familiar male voice.

Heavy chains clattered throughout the damp cell as a nude male stepped out of the shadows.

Virgin clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.

She knew him. He possessed the face of a one-eyed stranger, yet his face also seemed familiar. Too familiar.

In the glow of light that swept through a narrow barred window in the door, she noted the familiar long black hair that shimmered over his shoulders and cascaded like a midnight waterfall all the way to his brown nipples.

“You’re alive?” she whispered.

The chains clattered again as he crouched down beside the prison bed on which they’d placed her.

A smile touched the corners of his full lips. “It is I, Jarod, your twin.”

A wide dark blue eye the color of Freedom Sea stared down at her, a black patch covered his left eye. A jagged scar reached out from under the patch and streaked down the left side of his cheek ending beneath his earlobe.

Suddenly she felt as if she were in some sort of dream. Her dead twin was alive. How could this be possible?

She lifted her hand and touched the raised scar. “What did they do to you?”

For one brief instant an icy look flooded her brother’s dark blue eye making Virgin shiver, but the frigid look quickly melted replaced instantly by concern.

“It is the question I should be asking of you? How do you feel? I cleansed the gunshot wound as best I could with the items they gave me. But I’m no doctor.”

“Jarod, you did a good job. I’m fine.” She lied.

The pain in her side seared like a hot poker brand but it was nothing compared to the pain clenching her heart at the thought of her twin losing an eye and what he must have endured over the past year.

“They promised to bring a Quick Healing Injection for you, but that was hours ago,” he said.

Virgin let her fingers trail over the deep blue bruises shadowing her twin’s strong jaw-line.

“They told me you were dead.” She let her hand drop as emotions she couldn’t put a name to welled up inside her.

“They told me you had escaped,” he said.

“I did. But I came back for the baby. Buck and some others helped me. I don’t know if they got away.” She babbled as the tears burst free.

His warm hand curled over her shoulder in a gentle squeeze.

“The guard spoke of you being the only one captured.”

“Thank the Goddess of Freedom.” That’s all that mattered right now. Her baby and Buck were safe.

“I had heard they’d impregnated you.” Jarod’s voice sounded angry. Strained. “I wanted to help you but they kept me under constant guard in the prison and at the Brothel Town.”

Virgin shivered at his words. Brothel town. It meant only one thing. They’d returned him to being a sex slave.

“I’m surprised they didn’t cut out your tongue or worse because you’re educated.”

“A tongue is too useful for what is required of me.”

She blushed at his words and at the memories of Buck’s tongue slamming deep inside her body only hours ago.

She wondered what Buck must think of her. Wondered how angry he must be at her for attempting to betray him. It didn’t count that she’d warned him at the last minute. Didn’t matter that he’d known all along she’d wanted to use him to trade for her baby.

What she’d done to him was wrong. Yet he’d still saved her child.

And she’d been captured.

And if she hadn’t been caught, she would never have known about her twin being alive.

Jarod’s one eye brightened. “So it is true? There are other talking males that helped you? Were they my friends, Taylor and Blackie?”

“I don’t know what happened to your friends, Jarod. The last I heard they disappeared into The Outer Limits.”

Jarod winced and closed his eye. “That was our original plan before I was betrayed.”

“By who?”

Jarod frowned. “Aren’t you curious as to why I betrayed you?”

Virgin shrugged. “They beat you. You didn’t know what you were saying.”

“That’s no excuse.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Jarod. We were all deceived. Someone wanted me out of the way. Someone didn’t want the laws to be changed.”

“I think someone is coming.”

He stood and the chains between his ankles and wrists clanged as he headed to the thick-planked door. It was then that Virgin heard numerous footsteps click upon the rock floor.

And they were approaching fast.

“Do what you have to do to get out of here, Virgin. Don’t think about me, just-.”

The sharp sound of the bolt being lifted from the other side of the door cut him off.

Instantly he backed away as the heavy door swung inward. Three guards swooped inside like vultures; two of them grabbed his shackled arms. The third guard quickly placed a penis leash on him.

“Leave him alone!” Virgin cried out.

She struggled to get out of the bed but pain lanced through her side making her fall flat onto her back.

Perspiration dampened her body, chilling her to the bone.

She watched helplessly as the guards threw Jarod up against the stonewall. Rage lit up his eye but he didn’t do a thing to protect himself.

Why wasn’t he struggling? Why didn’t he overpower them and rush out the open door?

“I said leave him alone!” she screamed.

“I’m sure you had a nice visit with your twin, Virgin.”

Dread filled her as the prison warden, Cath, strolled into the cell. Her right arm hung in a sling, compliments of the arrow Virgin had embedded in her shoulder when she’d reached for her weapon earlier in an attempt to stop Buck from escaping with her baby.

“I assume he tended your wound as instructed.” Cath said.

“She needs a Quick Healing injection as I instructed,” Jarod growled.

Virgin didn’t miss the third guard, the one who’d efficiently placed a penis leash on him, groping his half erect penis with her hands. It disgusted her to watch her twin being fondled by women who had no interest in him except to satisfy their lustful urges. He deserved better than that. He deserved a woman who cared for him.

The way she cared for Buck.

At the thought of Buck, Virgin inhaled a shaky breath. Would she ever see him again? Would she ever see her baby?

“She’ll be given a Quick Healing Injection only when she has agreed to my terms.” Cath said smoothly.

She reached out and tried to grab Virgin’s nipple, but Virgin swatted her hand away, covering herself with the sheet that had slipped off when she’d tried to help Jarod.

“You dare to strike me?” The warden gasped in anger.

“I’ll do much worse to you if you touch her again!” Jarod bit out furiously.

Cath whirled on him. For a moment she thought Cath would strike him with the stun-baton she carried in her hand, but she didn’t.

Instead, she smiled. It was the smile that had made Virgin’s blood grow cold many a time during her months in prison.

“And exactly what would you like to do to me, Jarod?” Cath spat.

“Break your neck for starters.”

A muscle twitched in the warden’s left cheek.

Past experience had taught Virgin the twitch meant she was ready to explode at the slightest provocation. And it wasn’t pretty when she did. Cath had injured many guards and prisoners because of her short temper. She hadn’t always been like that. The Slave Uprising had changed her.

Rumors had flown she’d been gang raped by some of the males who’d taken over the Brothel Town last year. Others had said she’d fallen in love with a sex slave who’d spurned her during the revolt.

Whatever had happened to her, Cath had changed into a bitch, a bitter woman who inflicted pain and brutality on a mere whim. And Virgin had been the brunt of it many times. Especially when she’d been pregnant.

“Hmmm, such brutal honesty becomes you, lover.” Cath said.

Lover? Virgin’s guts crunched into a sickening knot.

“Unfortunately, I prefer my males strong and silent.” Cath nodded to the guard who was now playing with Jarod’s balls.

The guard reacted quickly. Drawing something out of the bag she carried at her waist, she efficiently trussed a ball and gag into Jarod’s mouth.

“There that’s better. Strong and silent.”

In response, Jarod glared back at her. His one eye so icy blue, it reminded Virgin of the day he’d confessed to the High Five Queens that Virgin had been the one to educate him and his friends.

“Now back to the matter at hand.” Cath returned her attention to Virgin. “You will do what I ask.”

“Stuff yourself into a boiling pot of water, Cath. I’ll do nothing you ask.”

“Not even if it insures the continued good health of your twin?”

“He doesn’t look like he’s been well taken care of so far.”

Cath smirked. “I don’t know why I never dangled his life over your head while you were in prison. Perhaps because I was amusing myself too much with him to give you much thought, aside from the beatings I gave you when your twin was difficult with me.”

She let her words dangle over Virgin’s head.

Now it made sense. Why Cath had shown up numerous times at her cell and irritated without reason? She’d assumed the woman simply enjoyed tormenting her. But now she’d indicated she’d made Virgin’s prison stay a virtual hell to get back at Jarod.

Another thought struck her. Could the rumors be true about Cath falling in love with a sex slave?

Was Jarod the male Cath had fallen in love with?

That thought made Virgin’s blood boil with anger.

“You are the coldest, cruelest bitch I’ve ever come across, Cath Smart!” Virgin hissed.

“Silence! Or I will have your twin whipped and you too!”

Virgin clamped down on a sharp retort.

“Now! I once again have your attention.” Cath sat down on the edge of the bed. “In order to keep your twin alive, you will allow me to do with you as I please.”

Virgin held her breath as Cath grabbed the sheet from her clasped hands. The urge to slap the horrible woman was so great that Virgin almost did it, but she had to protect Jarod.

Had to do what Cath wanted.

For now.

Thank the Goddess of Freedom; Cath didn’t attempt to touch her again. But the lust shining in those evil eyes as the woman’s gaze rove greedily over her bared breasts was enough to nauseate Virgin.

“I’ve always admired your breasts, Virgin. They’re plump and perky. Your nipples are unique. They are large and suckable and such an unusual dusky color. And I’m sure your breasts feel just as silky as they look.”

“What do you want from me, Cath?”

“I want you, of course. I’ve always wanted you as my mate. To have you as my own would be a treasure. I’ve seen the way the other prison women look at you. They admire those large nipples. They lust after your delicious looking labia lips.”