Survival Games (7 page)

Ty walked into the
control room and stared at her monitor. She clutched the bathrobe, her arms
wrapped around her legs and her cheek resting on her knees. Her hair hid her
face and he inhaled.

“Shit.” Today was
the second time he wanted to kiss her. He never kissed them, ever. It was just
too personal. But this, this was different from anything he encountered before.
She took his breath away every time their eyes met. Her defiance, the stubborn
set of her jaw completely frustrated him, especially with the heat burning in
her eyes. It was a contradiction he didn’t understand. A contradiction he
wondered would change if someone else’s life rode in the balance. If he had
that leverage, would he ever have the luxury of hearing her cry his name in
ecstasy?

“I need some fresh
air.” He turned away from the monitors and headed out of the complex.

He stuck his head
in Frank’s office a few minutes later. “I’ll be back in a few,” he said ignoring
Frank’s shocked stare.

He hopped into his
little Nissan, undid the convertible top and drove out of the private garage. Speeding
down the access road, he skidded onto the street moments later trying to outrun
the feelings coursing through his veins.

The sun shone
down, melting the remaining traces of snow and Ty tilted his face feeling the
renewing warmth. It took twenty minutes to get to his studio apartment and
another ten minutes to grab a couple shirts and a couple pair of jeans from his
closet.

He hadn’t bothered
with much in the way of decorating and he sighed as he took a second to look around
the near empty apartment.

Empty, just
like my fucking life.

He wanted a life
of his own, not this horrific crap Frank had him doing. Closing his eyes, he
hung his head and drew a deep breath before turning back the way he came.

He didn’t drive as
fast on the way back, taking his time and enjoying the sun on his face and the wind
in his hair for a change.

Jessica looked up
as the door opened. Frank walked in, leering at her as if she was his next
meal. He tossed a garment to her and she caught it.

“Put that on,” he
said.

Jessica looked at
the exercise top in her hand and back at him, swallowing. “Where’s the rest?” Her
voice cracked, betraying her unease.

He held the shorts
on his finger and twirled them around, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“Where is he?” Jessica
asked holding the bathrobe tighter.

“Out and you need
to work out today.” He continued twirling the shorts around. “Come on, let’s
go.” He pointed to the treadmill.

She turned her
back and slipped the sports bra on before crossing self-consciously to the
treadmill.

Frank watched,
still twirling the shorts on his index finger.

“My shorts.”

“Snap your wrist
in first.”

She pulled her
wrists to her chest, the shorts stopped spinning, and the peculiar smile on his
lips disappeared. The flash in his eyes was enough to trigger the memory of his
hands squeezing her throat and she trembled. She shook her head no.

The shorts dropped
from his hands and he stalked across the room, grabbing her as she tried to
scoot away. She struggled but once he shackled one wrist, her other arm was
easily overpowered and the iron clasped painfully around it. Her heart drummed
like a hummingbird’s wings, and fear tainted her veins, stinging with the force
of the adrenaline.

“You really think
I’d pass up an opportunity like this?” His sinister voice whispered in her ear.
He crowded her forward, yanking her top high enough for him to pinch her
nipples.

“Son of a bitch.”
The air hissed out of her chest, tendrils of pain shot through her breasts, his
hands painfully twisting, waiting for her to wince. She clamped her teeth
against the cry begging to be released.

He moved one hand
away, offering her right breast a moment of relief but the sound that followed
turned her blood cold. The descent of a zipper.

Oh God, not
again!

“Let’s get this
party started,” he said, hoisting her up onto the console.

Her wrists
screamed in pain at the odd angle, threatening to snap from her weight. Her
breath locked in her chest when his weight crushed her forward and the
sickening crack of her wrists muted her cry.

He laughed in her
ear.

Harsh gasps
accompanied each exhale because she couldn’t gather enough oxygen to produce a
scream. Tears streaked her face and she prayed. Prayed for this vile rape to
end, prayed she wouldn’t pass out, and prayed for Bedroom Eyes to save her.

Thankfully, he was
quicker today than the prior evening and he set her on the tread and started
the machine.

Waves of dizziness
accosted her and she stumbled, the shackles tearing at her already mangled
wrists and she cried out, catching herself. Wetness drizzled down her legs and
the thought of his semen crawling on her skin caused her stomach to roll. She
forced the vomit back down her throat.

He stood, staring
at her, biting the side of his lip, inspecting her like a mean kid inspected
bugs.

After a while, he
glanced at his watch and stopped the treadmill. He slid on her shorts, pulled
her top back to cover her breasts and whispered in her ear. “You tell him, you
die.”

Chapter
16

Ty walked into the
control room to find Frank and Chris watching the monitors. Jessica was crying
and his gaze snapped to the video.

The video they
made of her. “What the hell!”

Both Frank and
Chris jumped in their seats.

He reached over
and shut off the video feed to her room.

“Are you out of
your fucking minds?” He grabbed both of them by the scruff of their necks,
hauling them out of the room and throwing them to the floor in the hallway.

“Chill,” Chris said
looking up at his brother.

Ty glared at him
and went back into the control room. He popped in a
Metropolis
DVD and
pressed play, piping it into Jessica’s room. Then he turned his attention back
to his brothers.

“You don’t get
it!” He stormed to the door. “You don’t fucking get it,” he said again.

“Do tell,” Frank
said sarcastically.

“She’s different,”
Ty began. “She’s not going to fall apart like the others. It’s about timing and
you just screwed it up.” He took a deep breath. “No more for a while with her. She
works out, eats and that is it until I say so. She only watches this as long as
she is on the treadmill, otherwise, nothing, especially the videos we make. Understand?”

Frank and Chris
exchanged a look.

“Ty, dude, this
isn’t the way we operate. We use, abuse, break them down and make them perform;
otherwise, we get rid of them,” Chris said.

“She doesn’t have
a reason to give us what we want,” Ty said.

“She certainly
worked out the other night,” Chris countered.

“We drugged her
and she didn’t know we were brothers then. I bet even if we drugged her again,
she wouldn’t repeat that mistake,” Ty said.

Frank shifted uncomfortably
and said nothing.

“I disagree. If we
doped her up again, I bet she would be just as good,” Chris challenged.

Ty looked over his
shoulder at the screen. He didn’t like betting on her and took a deep breath. “Okay,”
he said. “If she doesn’t, then we do things my way, and if she does, you two
get to do whatever you want and we do things your way.”

Frank looked at
Ty. “Maybe it should just be Chris,” he said.

“Two on one sells
better than one on one,” Ty stated. He sensed his brother’s discomfort, but
didn’t know why. “Go set things up and I’ll bring her in.”

Ty grabbed a red
dress and walked into the room. Her bloodshot eyes locked with his and her
eyebrows rose in surprise. He turned off the treadmill and undid her wrists,
pausing and staring at the bruises and cuts from the shackles. He raised his
eyes to hers, silently questioning her.

“I fell,” she
answered, pulling her throbbing wrists to her chest and avoiding his gaze.

“Are you okay?” He
stepped closer and she winced, stepping away. Her reaction sent threads of fear
through him.
What did they do to her while I was gone?

“I’m fine.”

He handed her the
dress. “Go clean up.”

She took it and
did as he asked. He heard the shower go on and turned toward the treadmill,
inspecting it. Something definitely was not right and he looked back at the
bathroom when the shower turned off and then his gaze traveled to the mirror.

Frank.

He was the only
one capable of putting the fear of God into the prisoners and that’s what he
saw in her eyes. Anger simmered and he started across the room.

She stepped into
his field of view and he sucked in his breath. The dress clung to her sensuous
curves instantly lighting his fire and when she ran her fingers through her wet
hair, he didn’t dare move a muscle for fear he’d grab her and bolt, taking her
out of this place and disappear into obscurity.

Neither of them
moved right away. With an almost imperceptible shake of his head, he dismissed
the initial shock of seeing her and said, “Come with me.”

He wrapped his
hand around her upper arm, staring at the barely visible bruises around her
wrists. He met her gaze before leading her out of the room and down the barren
concrete hall. She didn’t resist and she didn’t speak, her bare feet making the
lightest of swishes in comparison to his squeaky sneakers. It wasn’t until he
opened the door to the room that she tried to pull away.

“Uh-uh.” She shook
her head, her eyes wide at the sight of the two men.

Ty clenched his
teeth and yanked her into the room. He wanted her here about as much as she
wanted to be here and his mood darkened. He threw her toward them. “Hold her!”

Ty filled the
syringe and walked to Jessica. She trembled, staring at the needle with wide
scared eyes. It didn’t take long for the drug to take effect and she sank to
the couch, her eyes glossy as she traded hostile glances with the three of
them, crossing her legs and arms.

Ty stepped back
and took a seat at the table, watching the dynamics between Jessica and Frank
in particular. The way her body tensed when her gaze landed on Frank set off
his internal alarms and he felt his body react in a similar fashion. Muscles
clenched and his heart thundered in his chest, the anger that started in her
room bloomed, threatening to explode.

Chris sat down
next to Jessica on the couch and ran his hand up her leg.

She slapped it
away. “I don’t think so,” she snapped and looked from Chris to Frank and back. “Not
goin’ ta happen,” she slurred with attitude. She looked at Frank. “You already
got some today, last night too. Did you know about that?” She looked at Chris
then beyond him at Ty. “He told me he’d kill me if I told you.”

The volcano
erupted.

Frank launched at
her and Ty moved like a shadow, intercepting Frank before he could touch her
again. In one motion, he catapulted him across the room. Storming after him,
the only thought that filled his mind was
I am going to kill you!

Frank’s restricted
hiss of pain satiated his volatile need for violence and Ty took a second to
glance over his shoulder, just in time to see Jessica’s knee connect with his
brother’s groin, knocking him off the couch. Turning his attention back to
Frank, he loosened his grip on his throat and lowered him back to the ground. “I’ll
kill you next time.” He squeezed for good measure and then released him,
stepping away.

He crossed to
Jessica, taking her arm and gently pulling her to her feet. Meeting his
brother’s gaze, he smirked triumphantly. “I won. It’s my way.”

Ty walked her to
her room flipping between triumph and fury. Even though he witnessed their little
ménage the other night, the thought of his stepbrother taking advantage of her,
hurting her, turned his stomach.

She weaved down
the hall stumbling occasionally from the drugs and each time he caught her. When
they entered her room, he sat her down on the mattress and met her glazed
stare.

“I’m sorry about
Frank,” he said and the flash of sorrow in her eyes cut deep.

Tears brimmed,
sliding down her cheeks and she tilted her head into her hands, cradling her
face as the sobs ripped from between her fingers.

He gently stroked
her silky hair and pulled her into his arms, holding her as she cried. Long
deep sobs shook her frame and he closed his eyes, kissing the top of her head
between the soft “shh” repeating from his mouth.

Escape scenarios
played over and over in his mind and in each case, he ended up behind bars or
worse. There was no happy ending to this fairy tale and he knew it.

When she stopped
crying, he put her gently back on the bed and stood to leave.

“Can you play some
music?”

He paused. “What
do you want to hear?”

“’Calling all
Angels’ by Train.”

“Okay,” he said
and walked out. In the control room, he popped in a CD he had made months ago,
set the CD to loop and piped the music into her room. He typed commands into
the computer, bringing up the feed for the time he was gone and scrolled
through stopping when Frank walked in the room. He watched the brutal rape with
something akin to murder in his heart, flipping the feed off after a few
minutes of her harsh sobs.

He inhaled and
exhaled, counting his breaths, dialing back the rage so he could think. Frank
would never allow him to take her out of here. If he somehow managed it, Frank
would use Chris as a bargaining chip. He had done it before, and Ty wouldn’t
put it past the bastard to kill his little brother out of spite.

Movement on screen
caught his attention. She stood and swayed to the music, the drugs doing their
magic in concert with her natural grace. Twirling and singing in the red dress,
her voice soft and sexy and her movement downright seductive. He watched,
breathless, the hunger filling ever fiber of his being.

He had to find a
way.

He turned at the
noise behind him and swung the chair around to face his brothers.

“God damn,” Chris
whispered, his eyes glued to the monitor.

“She’s different,”
Ty said and they looked at him. “This is going to take time.”

Frank and Chris
both nodded.

“Frank, I don’t
want to see you anywhere near her,” he warned.

Frank looked at
his feet and nodded.

“I want to hear
you say you’ll stay away.”

“Sure,” Frank
said. He still wouldn’t look at Ty.

“Not good enough
Frank. You’ve got to look at me and swear you won’t go near her.”

Frank’s face
scrunched in anger and he glared at his stepbrother. “Jesus, Ty,” he said and
gestured to the monitor.

Ty stood up and
advanced slowly. “Maybe I won’t kill you. Maybe I’ll just castrate you.”

Frank’s head
snapped toward Ty, his eyes wide at the threat, went even wider at the vow in
his eyes. He stepped back in response. “Okay, okay, I swear. I won’t touch
her.”

Ty unclenched his
itching fists, keeping the rage in check. Instead, he took another step toward him.
“Say you won’t fuck her.”

“Jesus, okay. I
won’t fuck her, I swear.” He crumbled under his intense stare.

Ty reached out and
slapped Chris on the side of the head. “You too.”

“Huh?” Chris
looked away from the monitor.

“Swear.”

“Swear what?” Chris
asked and glanced back at Jessica.

Ty grabbed him by
the throat and pulled him so they were face to face. “Swear you won’t go near
her,” he said when he had Chris’s undivided attention.

“You got it,”
Chris said and Ty let go. “You don’t have to get so worked up. Jeez.”