This is awful. Why do people willingly take this shit?
Breathing deeply, I meditated until my emotions were back under control and reassessed the situation. Breaker was snoring loudly beside me. Limited morning light shone through the curtains, showing me more of his rugged features. The lines of his face and the fullness of his beard made him look older than his twenty-seven years. I was only a year younger, but I’d always looked young for my age which was probably why he’d been attracted to me.
Last night, I hadn’t learned anything about Breaker outside of the fact that he liked being on top, and I certainly hadn’t heard anything about the missing girls. I needed to provide him with enough motivation to keep me around until I found out what was going on. Desperate to please him and start this day out in my favor, I wrapped my lips around his cock and woke him up in the best way possible. He let me be in control for a few minutes before grabbing the back of my head and forcing himself down my throat. Surprised, I tried to push off, but he held me there until my eyes watered and I started to gag.
Once again, the asshole was showing me who was in charge.
My entire body was sore, but he didn’t care. As he flipped me over onto the bed, he was ruthless, violent, everything he’d been last night. Only now I was sober and there was nothing sexy or empowering about having my face shoved into the mattress and my ass hiked into the air. Tears stung the back of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I wanted to tell him no—to tell him to get off me—but the words froze on my lips. The second I said no, this became rape, and I wouldn’t give a lowlife like Breaker the satisfaction of raping me.
Besides, I was right where I needed to be.
Reminding myself that I’d started this by walking into The Serpent’s Nest I bit my lip against the cries of protest that wanted to rip free. By sitting on Breaker’s lap and accepting the spiked drink he gave me, I’d signed up for this. By letting him carry me into the office and fuck me on the desk, I’d given him permission. By waking him up with my lips around his cock, I’d started the launch sequence and encouraged lift off.
But no matter how many times I lied to myself, I was never really in control and this wasn’t consensual.
This is acting. Just act. Play the part.
I wondered if this was how my mother felt every time she spread her legs for a John. Did she ever keep control? Or did they wrestle it away from her, too? This was just a taste of what she went through, and I didn’t like it one bit.
No wonder she started using.
When Breaker finished with my body, he slid his jeans back on and told me to get dressed. Hoping he was done with me, but also praying he’d let me come back, I did as I was told. Then I followed him out of his room and beyond the club’s common area. Rather than heading out front, he led me down the stairs into a basement.
“Where are we going?” I asked as a feeling of dread crept up my spine.
He gave me a smirk. “You’ll see.”
And boy, did I ever. We marched past a prospect who was standing guard and into a basement that had been converted into what looked like jail cells, each complete with a sink, a toilet, and a couple of ratty cots. There were at least six girls in each of the cells. Their clothes were little more than rags and their eyes were hollow, their expressions lost. They shrank away from the bars as we approached, retreating deeper into their cells. I searched their faces, trying to connect the battered, dirty mugs with the girls on the photographs on the “Missing” posters. I’d bet money that the mousy girl curled up in the corner on the left was Alicia Nunez.
Does he know I’m a cop? Am I busted? Why is he showing me this?
As my muddled brain tried to process the scene, searching for exits, and wondering how I could free the girls, Breaker unlocked one of the cells and flung me in. Realizing what he was doing, I grabbed onto his arm, refusing to let go. I pushed against him until both of my feet were on the outside of the bars.
He laughed. “What’s wrong, babe? I told you I was dangerous, and you said you could handle yourself.” The side of his lips rose in a sneer. “You handled yourself, all right. Best pussy I’ve had and I’m not about to give it up yet. I’ve got shit to do, so you can stay down here until I’m ready for more.”
I couldn’t let him lock me up. Fighting through the panic that squeezed my chest, I grappled for the confidence I’d seen in my mom. Forcing myself back into character, I joined Breaker in his laughter, making him look at me like I was crazy. “You’re kidding, right?” I asked.
His expression sobered as he gestured at the cells filling the basement. “Does this look like a fuckin’ joke to you?”
I glanced around, coming up with a plan. “No, but neither do you. You’re a smart man who’s obviously been doing this a while. I bet you research your victims to make sure you don’t take anyone too valuable. Wouldn’t want those pesky authorities to come knockin’ on your door, would ya?”
His expression morphed into something cocky and self-assured. “You think I give a fuck about pigs? That I don’t throw them enough bacon to stay in their pen and out of my shit?”
My mind sputtered over the reference, trying to figure out what he meant. Cannibalism? Payouts? What was he trying to say? I hated it when people mixed their metaphors; it confused the shit out of me. Regardless, it was clearly time to step up my act again. I released my death grip on his arm and splayed my fingers across his chest. “We were… busy last night, so you must not have researched me. I’m not some young girl with daddy issues who people will think ran away. I have an office job at an architectural firm with a powerful, well-connected boss who depends on me. And it won’t be difficult for him to find me. Do you really think I’d be stupid enough to go into a place like The Serpent’s Nest without telling anyone?”
He stiffened.
I traced my fingertips across his collarbone, down his chest, and looked at him beneath my lashes. “I came into your bar looking for a good time. You gave me what I wanted, but it was so good I want more. But if I don’t show up for work in a couple of hours, my coworker will call the cops and tell them where I went last night. And although I have no doubt you can handle the police and their questions, why would you want the bother? There’s no need.” I leaned closer, planting kisses up his Adam’s apple as my hand dropped down to rub against his length. “If you want some little bitch in a cage, you’ve got several here to choose from, but if you want another shot at the best pussy you’ve ever had, you’ll let me walk out of that door so I can come back and give you some more.”
“But you’ve seen this place,” he said. I could feel him growing hard again through his jeans. The man was insatiable.
“So.” I shrugged. “You think I give a single fuck about your little pleasure dungeon or whatever this is?” Grinding against him, I added, “It’s actually kind of hot.”
His eyes darkened. “Is it now?”
No. It was sick and depraved, and made me want to nail his balls to the wall. Trying to sell my lie like my life depended on it—because I was pretty sure it did—I nodded. “Yes. Why don’t you take me back upstairs to your room and give me another round of this giant, hard cock before I have to leave for work? Then you can let me know when you want me back for more.”
I was putting the ball in his court, returning some of the power I’d stripped away when I hadn’t let him throw me in the cage, and hoping it would be enough to mollify his enormous ego. His gaze drifted toward the bars he’d been trying to lock me behind, and I said a silent prayer that he’d buy my act. If he didn’t, I was screwed. I should have been smart enough to tell someone where I was going, but I didn’t exactly have anyone I could trust.
