Fight the Shock Page 19

  One of the doors to the pool house opened and a man in a black silk robe strolled out. He pulled the cigar out of his mouth and blew out a cloud of gray smoke. He saw them and raised his arms in welcome. The robe parted revealing a protruding beer belly, black silk boxers and legs as thick as tree trunks. “Our guests have finally arrived. I was beginning to worry about you.” The cold look in his eyes made clear the meaning.

  “We’re so sorry for—” Donny said as he started forward.

  A huge paw of a hand clamped down on his shoulder to keep him in place.

  “Jax,” Donny winced, making it clear the guard wasn’t being gentle. “Mr. Cook, I mean. We’re sorry for being late. We got a little lost on the way out here. No Google Maps is like living in the stone ages, you know?”

  Jax stopped in front of Donny and looked up at him.

  Lily didn’t know what she was expecting, but it was taller than this.

  Even with the difference in height, it was Donny that shrank away.

  Jax let the tension simmer as he glowered. His expression finally softened and he smiled. “Don’t let it happen again.”

  “We won’t,” Zeke chimed in.

  Jax cast a glance his way. “Donny, you’re lucky to have such a good friend here. If it wasn’t for him, you’d be dead right now.”

  Donny laughed nervously. “Yep, we go way back. Always been there for each other. Always will.”

  Jax turned to Lily and slowly ran his eyes up the length of her until their eyes met.

  She wanted to look away. There was a cold cruelty in his gaze that made the hairs on the back of her neck prickle.

  He took a lock of her hair.

  She jerked her head away but he held tight with a clump in his fist. He brushed out some matted dirt. “What happened to this one?”

  “That’s Spice,” Donny said. “I had to be rough a couple times to settle her down. Nothing that caused permanent damage. She’s fine. But she’ll need some breaking in.”

  Jax’s lips spread into a smirk.

  Lily’s stomach twisted with fear and disgust. A part of her wanted to scream and fight. Another part had already given up.

  Jax sidestepped to Piper. He laid a hand on her hip and she flinched but didn’t pull away. He ran it down and squeezed her butt. “And this one?”

  “That’s Sugar. Doesn’t have the same spirit, but look at that body. You know she’ll be good where it counts.”

  Jax nodded. He gestured toward the living area. “Come, we have business to discuss.”

  His eyes lingered on Lily an instant. He smiled.

  And she’d never felt so cold. So drowned with overwhelming dread.

  Donny slapped her butt as he sauntered by. “You be a good girl, Spice. Or not. He’ll break you either way.” He winked and walked away.

  47

  Lily and Piper had been alone for a couple of hours and barely a word had passed between them. Piper still wasn’t talking. They were seated on the cement floor, each with their backs against a thick pole that was bolted to the floor and ceiling. She would’ve called it a stripper pole, but now it had more ominous uses. It was for enslaving girls. For keeping them prisoner.

  A guard had taken them to the room inside the house while Jax and Donny concluded their dirty business. Two hours had passed and the growing volume of noise beyond the door suggested it had turned into a party, and they were getting more and more messed up.

  Lily had tried to get free for the first hour or so, but had only succeeded in grinding up the skin on her wrists. She’d never felt so helpless. She’d always believed she could do anything. Been told that by her parents for as long as she could remember. And sure, she’d failed along the way like anyone, but she’d succeeded more. And she always knew that if it came down to it, she could deliver no matter the odds.

  But she’d never faced anything like this.

  She’d never lived in a world like this one.

  “Piper,” she said, hoping to get any kind of response from her friend.

  Piper’s head hung down, her chin on her chest. Her knit dress filthy and torn in places. The bandages on her knees had come off and the wounds needed attention. The mismatched sneakers added to her tragic appearance.

  Lily wanted to help, but she couldn’t. She could barely move and besides, her backpack was on the kitchen counter in the squatter’s house. She couldn’t help her physically, but the physical injuries weren’t the worst problem.

  “Piper, talk to me. Please. I’m worried about you.”

  Piper’s head slowly turned. “Me?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why not you? You’re trapped here too.”

  “I know. But we’re going to get out.”

  Piper’s eyes closed and her head slumped down again. “There is no way out. And we both know what’s going to happen next.”

  Lily swallowed hard. She had an idea and she’d been struggling not to think about it the whole time. Letting her mind go there wouldn’t do anything good. It would drag her down into despair as it had to Piper. And she couldn’t let that happen.

  She had to be aware and ready. If she gave up, they were both done.

  The lock clicked and the door opened.

  A guard came in and cut the ties away from Lily’s wrists.

  She yanked one hand free and swung at him but he caught her by the elbow and squeezed. Pain shot through her arm, driving the breath out of her lungs.

  “Don’t be stupid,” he grumbled.

  “Let go of me!” she screamed.

  He wrenched her arms behind her back and held the wrists together with a single, giant vise-like hand. He wrapped a thick arm around her chest and picked her up like she weighed nothing.

  “Let go of me!” Lily said.

  He turned and headed for the door.

  She glanced over her shoulder and saw Piper’s sad eyes before the door swung shut. She kicked up behind her, hoping to connect with his groin but he was too fast.

  He squeezed on her wrists and sharp pain exploded. She gasped and tears welled in her eyes.

  “Warned you.”

  She wanted to fight, but the shock had numbed her arms.

  The guard carried her through the house and finally down a long hall. He stopped at the door and knocked.

  “Come,” a voice said.

  They entered a large bedroom with French doors on the far wall that opened onto the back patio. Several lamps spilled pools of light throughout the room. A four poster bed with thick carved pillars of dark wood at each corner with connecting spans at the top. A long dresser of the same material hugged one wall. A doorway opened to a bathroom filled with white marble.

  Jax strolled out of the bathroom with his robe open and a drink in hand. “Ahh, the reason for the party.” He pointed at a bedpost.

  The guard dragged her over and zip tied her wrists around it. “Need anything, boss?”

  Jax waved him away and he left. “Spice, huh?” he said as he did something with a silver tray on top of the dresser. He leaned down and snorted up what Lily realized must’ve been a huge line of coke. He spun around, sniffing and pinching at his nostrils. White dust clung to his upper lip. “Whoa!” he said and snapped his head to the side. “That’ll put some giddy up in your saddle!”

  He knocked back a few gulps of something amber-colored and set the glass down. Only he set it on the edge of the dresser. It fell to the floor and shattered. “Dammit!” He swept his sandal across the shards, pushing them under the dresser. “You can clean that up later.” He held out the silver tray to her. A pile of coke, razor blades and short straws were on top. “Want some?”

  Lily glared at him.

  He shrugged. “You will, eventually. They all do.” He set the tray down and came over to her. Bits of coke clung to his scruffy upper lip. He put a hand on her knee and she tried to pull away, but his grip was immovable. Even stronger than the guard’s who’d brought her in here. He grabbed her other knee and pushed her legs apart. He s
tepped forward and his round belly pressed against her.

  She turned her head away. He was a vile, repugnant beast and the heavy splash of cologne did little to mask the animal odor underneath.

  “What’s your name?”

  “My dad will find you and he’ll kill you when he does.”

  Jax let out a boisterous laugh. “Donny was right! You are a wild one. Do you want to know a little secret?”

  She didn’t answer. She was sure he had a million secrets, all of them horrible.

  “No? I’ll tell you anyway.” He grabbed her jaws, smashing her mouth from the sides, and wrenched her head forward. “I’m a wealthy man and have the means to own many horses. I’ve broken every last one myself. Do you know why?”

  “Because you’re a sick bastard?” Lily’s eyes flared with hatred.

  “Because breaking their will gets me hard. I enjoy the battle as much as that final moment of triumph. The more challenging the horse, the more exciting the fight and the sweeter the moment of inevitable capitulation.”

  “So you’re a horse pervert?” Lily didn’t get long to enjoy that because he clamped down on her jaws. The pressure made the bones creak.

  His eyes froze over. “I’m going to break you. It will hurt and it will leave scars. But, in the end, you’ll be begging for more.”

  She spat in his face. It was all she could do.

  He backhanded her across the face.

  Her head snapped to the side and blood rushed through her neck, nearly making her pass out.

  He stepped away, wiping at his face. “Okay. So you need to be muzzled. I’ve got just this thing.” He walked into a large closet. Drawers opened and closed.

  Lily slipped down off the bed with her wrists still bound around the bedpost. She kicked her feet out to the dresser, and to the shards of glass underneath. She strained one foot out as far as it would go.

  The toe touched a jagged fragment. She nudged it across the tile floor and carefully gripped it between her shoes. She rolled back on the bed and doubled over to get the shard into her hands.

  She palmed it as a drawer in the closet slammed shut and then Jax reappeared.

  He stopped when he saw her. “You’re not going to break that post. And those zip ties will cut you to the bone before they fail.”

  With one hand hiding the other, she was already sawing away at one of them.

  He came over and dangled something in front of her face. He forced her mouth open and shoved the ball inside. He secured the straps behind her neck and head. He pulled a knife out of his robe and flicked it open.

  The five-inch blade glinted in the lamp light.

  Lily’s heart ran like a rabbit in her chest. So fast she was getting dizzy. Her breaths came in shallow pants.

  “You might want to hold still,” he said with a leer. He grabbed her shirt by the collar and sliced it open down the front. He hooked the tip under the center of her bra. A flick slashed it apart and exposed her breasts.

  She cut through the last zip tie and her hands came free. She punched the fragment straight into his eye.

  He screamed and dropped the knife. He clutched at the glass embedded in his eye socket. Blood poured down his cheek.

  Lily froze for an instant, terrified that guards would hear and come bursting through the door. But they were being so loud, and probably so drunk, that none heard.

  Lily snatched up the knife and sawed away the restraints around her ankles. She bounced off the bed and started for the door, but a hand clamped around her upper arm and hauled her backward.

  Jax hurled her onto the bed. He reached for her neck, but she batted the hand away.

  She slammed the knife to the side and it drove through his palm and deep into the bedpost.

  He shrieked in agony, his free hand caught in the middle between the ruin of his eye and the hand pinned to the dark wood.

  Lily yanked the knife out, rolled away and didn’t look back.

  She had to get Piper and get out.

  Before it was too late.

  48

  Lily tied her shirt together and ran down the hall. She ducked behind a corner when voices drew near.

  A couple of guards walked by. Beer bottles in hand. One telling a story about a boosted car while the other laughed and toasted the life of crime. Both with dusty white haloes around their nostrils.

  She waited until they passed and then took off again. Mind racing faster than her feet, she traced the way back to where Piper was being held and tried the door.

  Locked.

  “Piper!” she said through the door. “Piper, are you in there?”

  “Lily?” a scared voice replied.

  She was there! Not taken into some other room and forced to endure what Lily had escaped.

  “Yes!” She stepped back and then lunged into a kick below the handle. The door shook but held. She tried again and this time it burst open. Splinters of wood bounced across the floor.

  She dropped next to Piper and cut away the zip ties. Adrenaline surged through her veins, making her hands tremble. A cut went too far and the knife cut into Piper’s skin.

  “Oww!”

  “Sorry!” Lily got through the remaining restraints. She pulled Piper to her feet. “We’re leaving.”

  Piper nodded, her face a mix of fear and hope.

  Lily led the way out and down the hall. They were almost to the front entrance when voices approached from that direction.

  “I want her found! Now! And get the other one!”

  Jax. And between groans, he was livid.

  Lily cut around a corner and hurried through an expansive living room and then through a library, a study and the kitchen. She peered through the windows and didn’t see anyone on the back patio. All the guards must’ve been looking for them. “Come on!”

  They raced outside and the plan was to… she didn’t have a plan. Not a complicated one, anyway.

  The plan was to get away as fast as possible.

  They looped around the pool and she was about to lead them down the path to the rear of the property when voices came from that direction. She spun around and saw dark silhouettes moving in the kitchen.

  “In here,” she hissed as she dragged Piper into the pool house. It was a large room with a bar on one side. Beer and liquor bottles covered the counter. Ash trays with piles of stubbed out cigarettes. One had a cigarette with the end still burning, a tendril of smoke curling up to the ceiling.

  Shuffling sounds came from the doorway on the other side of the room. She turned and pushed through a closed door.

  And ended up in a bathroom.

  The toilet flushed and someone stepped out of the stall.

  Donny.

  He stared in confusion for a second, and then spotted the knife in her hand. He reached behind his back, but Lily was already on him.

  She drove the knife at his chest but he managed to dodge to the side and they both crashed down in a jumbled heap. The fall knocked the knife out of her hand.

  But it was there, within reach.

  She grabbed at it, but then his fist hammered into her head, knocking her to the side. Her head hit the floor with a sickening crunch. She tried to sit up and warmth spread down her neck.

  Donny shoved her back down and straddled her chest, pinning her arms under his legs. The knife appeared in his hand. He twisted it above her face. “I’m going to cut you up, Spice. Make you wish you were dead.” The cruel grin on his face made it clear he wanted nothing more.

  She stopped fighting and relaxed all her muscles at once. Went completely limp. The abrupt change caught him off guard.

  And that was all she needed.

  Lily bucked upward with all of her strength. If he’d been sitting on her stomach or lower, it wouldn’t have worked. But on her chest it did.

  She flung him forward and then turned around and jumped on his back. She found the handgun tucked into his waistband, got it, and fired.

  Two shots in the back.

  It
was better than the bastard deserved.

  A voice outside.

  An idea hit Lily in a flash. She dug into Donny’s jacket pockets and found the car keys.

  The bathroom door opened and Zeke walked in.

  Lily turned the gun on him, ready to take him down too.

  “What did you do? What did you do?” Zeke ignored her and collapsed next to Donny. He rolled him onto his side. “Hey, buddy. Come on, now.” Tears streamed down his cheeks and his words slipped into blubbering incoherence.

  Lily guided Piper out the door and they snuck outside. Shouting voices echoed around, but no one was on the back patio. They slipped around the side of the house.

  The sound of someone running and they ducked into some bushes. The runner passed and they continued on. After avoiding another close call, they got to the front and jumped into Donny’s car. The Mino, as he called it. It was actually a slave wagon, but it was their way out.

  Lily cranked on the ignition. “Put on your seatbelt!” She hit the gas and nearly crashed straight into one of the SUVs. She managed to broadside it and keep going. She hit the pedal as they drove away. A glance in the rearview mirror showed Jax standing in the driveway, cradling his injured eye. A bandage already around the injured hand. He yelled something, but she couldn’t hear over the roar of the engine.

  The tires squealed around a curve and the gate came into view. “Hold on!” Lily yelled as she fastened her own seat belt.

  They hit the gate like a thunderclap.

  The seatbelt bit into her hips and across her chest.

  The gate bent and bounced to the side, and they were through!

  She cranked the wheel over and the end fishtailed out to the side. The car spun around in a full three-sixty before lurching to a stop.

  Bullets pounded into the side of the car. One hit the rear glass and it shattered.

  She gripped the steering wheel with both hands and stomped down on the accelerator.

  Another spray of bullets thunked into the car, but they were off!

  The headlights were destroyed and it was dangerously dark even with the moonlight. She nearly drove them into a ditch at the end of the road.