Buttons and Lace (Buttons 1)
“I’d rather die than be a slave. I’d rather die than live another moment in this hell.” Her bottom lip quivered from the emotion, the destruction of her life. Her eyes still carried their fire, their hatred. But she’d had enough. She’d been pushed too far, and now she cracked. Her wrist moved for the blow, ready to say good-bye to the world.
My thick legs propelled me forward and got me there just in time. I threw her wrist down and knocked the knife out of her grasp. It clanked against the nearby window then dropped to the floor.
“No!” Her knees collapsed underneath her as the anguish took over. “Just let me die. Have you no mercy?”
I caught her as her body slackened and crumpled. She fell against my chest, aiming right for the floor. I wrapped my arms around her then scooped her into my arms.
She lay there as a limp corpse, no longer caring what happened to her. She didn’t care about anyone or anything. I could hold a knife to her throat, and she wouldn’t blink an eye over it.
I carried her into the main room.
“You knocked that bitch out?” Cane poured vodka on his cut then bandaged it up.
I walked into the bedroom and set her on the mattress. There was one window in the room, but it was covered with metal bars. The room lacked any decorations and didn’t have any furniture. The bed was just a mattress on the floor. A bathroom connected to it, but it was just as plain. It was a prisoner cell—with some privacy.
The second she was on the mattress, her body came back to life and she crawled away from me, sitting as far away as possible. Her arms crossed over her chest for protection, and she refused to look at me. She eyed the window with heartbreak. Her tears never fell, but I knew they formed. “I’m not a slave.” The strength of her voice reverberated off the walls, amplifying in my ears. “I may be a prisoner, but I’m not a slave. You can try to do whatever you want to me, but I’ll fight back—every single time. When you least expect it, I will kill you. And that’s a goddamn promise.” She finally turned her gaze on me, and her eyes were colder than the arctic winter. Her promise burned bright like a star. She wasn’t afraid of me. She wasn’t afraid of my men. She would get her retribution one way or another.
“I’m a man of my word.”
“You’re a criminal. A kidnapper. A rapist. Your word means horseshit.”
My body tensed in response. My heartbeat quickened, and I felt the burn course through my blood. Her fight, her ferocity, shined like a beacon right into my soul. It set my body on fire, making my cock hard in my trousers and my hands desperate to touch her.
I pulled out the syringe.
She eyed it, immediately turning cold. “If you think I’m letting you stick that inside me, you have another thing coming.”
“I’m asking you.”
“You’re asking me?” she asked incredulously. “Like I would ever agree.”
“If I leave you here, which was my original plan, you will be fucked constantly. The men will take turns, and you will never have a break. They won’t even let you sleep. If you think Bones is bad, you have another thing coming. We are the men who make up night terrors, not nightmares. We are the men who give evil a definition.”
She tightened her arms in response, taking me seriously.
“I may be evil, but I have a few rules. The first one is, I always keep my word. If I tell you something, it’s law. Alright?”
She clenched her jaw tightly, refusing to agree with me. She needed to be defiant, to oppose me whenever possible.
“I’m giving you this syringe because I need to transport you. I can’t do that if you’re conscious.”
“Fuck. You.”
The insult aroused me, not offended me. “If you don’t cooperate, I’ll have to leave you here. And if I leave you here, you’re going to wish you were with Bones.”
She shivered noticeably. “And where do you want to take me?”
“My home.”
“Why can’t I see it?”
“I don’t want you to know how to get there. I don’t want you to know how to leave.” I held up the syringe. “Do we have an understanding?”
She eyed the syringe, her lips pressed tightly together. “I think you’re just drugging me so you can fuck me without a fight.”
I chuckled because she couldn’t be more wrong. “I want to fuck you with a fight. That’s how I like it.”
Her face paled.
“What’s it gonna be?” I spun the needle in my fingertips.
“If I go with you, you’re going to hurt me. You’re going to rape me.”
I held her gaze and didn’t deny any of those claims. “Or you can stay here and be fucked in your mouth, your ass, and your pussy all at the same time. Your choice.” I was the lesser of two evils, and we both knew it.