I truly believed the torture he might lay upon me would be right up there with Rafe, so as he strode towards me, my heart tried to stop. Even if I wanted to snark at him too.
It had been a shock to see him alive, to see him moving around in semi-decent condition. It was a bloody disappointment he hadn’t died while I was chewing up his rancid penis. Why had Rafael even bothered?
“What should I do?” Les asked, holding up the dress. “She’s too fat for it.”
“Just force it onto her then, I don’t have time or care for this,” Gabe said, typing into his phone, not glancing up or paying us much attention. Now that I knew his game, he was over it. “That fucking blondie who was looking after her has disappeared, and Rafe doesn’t want to hear about it.”
“Where did she go?” Les asked, his eyes never straying from mine.
Gabe only shrugged and stayed focused on his phone, typing away furiously. He seemed stressed about whatever he was reading on there, and Les looked wicked as I turned my gaze from his. They were talking about Lucy, the girl who’d never said a word to me. She was gone. Good. I hoped she was far a-bloody-way from here.
We were in a bedroom I didn’t recognize, not the one I’d rotted in for months of my life, but one with a lot less opulence. It was almost bare, with only a bed, a table with an old-fashioned lamp on it, and a rack of clothes that appeared freshly dragged in. I’d only seen a select few rooms of this god-forsaken mansion, so it was no surprise I had no familiarity. It only added to how unsettled I felt.
I tried to cover my body with my arms when Les looked me over again, just forever reminding me of my lack of autonomy, but he smacked me round the face again. “Drop them,” he demanded, nodding to my arms over my breasts. Glaring at him, I did. It would make no sense to defy this creep now; I needed to bide my time. This was all so strange.
But if Theo was dead…
If he was dead, nothing could stop me following him to whatever afterlife or lack of existed. The thought made me smile. That this might be all over soon. Cozy death must be close. It was almost freeing, knowing there was nothing tying me to this life.
“Fucking hell,” Gabe muttered at his phone, before looking up at Les. “I’ll be right back.” He pointed a finger at Les’s face. “Touch her beyond dressing her and die.” Gabe’s gaze then slid to mine, and for a second whatever was stressing him out leaked away, replaced with pure, evil humor. It twisted up his face, and I couldn’t see anything of the lie he’d lived before. He opened his mouth to say something, then bit it back with a glint.
Gabe left me alone with Les, and my heart squeezed. But Rafe was in this house, I could sense it, so much of my danger alarm was focused elsewhere that Les just seemed a gnat. Les was an evil bastard, but he wasn’t calculated, just reactive and pathetic. My eyes slid from the door to Les, and I knew there was no way he wasn’t about to try to hurt me. My shoulders slumped.
Rafael’s presence loomed heavy in the house, a weight that made my skin prickle and my bones ache. And I hadn’t even set eyes on him yet. Les was a wasp, annoying, persistent and hard to kill. But Rafe was the entire hive.
I shuddered as Les threw the dress at me, a white lacy thing that looked ridiculous in my battered, bloody hands.
“Put that on,” he demanded.
I don’t know why. I really don’t. Because I understood what it would do. I knew that I should just accept that sensation of letting go, let it happen so I wouldn’t suffer any more. I should let Les treat me badly and keep my mouth shut to prevent it being any worse.
“Fuck you,” I spat instead, the harsh word weird on my dry tongue. “You put it on.”
When Les met my eyes again, his face wasn’t even angry. It was excited, like he was getting exactly what he wanted.
I didn’t have a moment to react before his hand flew towards and grabbed between my legs, cupping the entire fleshy area and squeezing. I screamed out at the pain, but his hand landed on my mouth and he rushed me against a wall, slamming me into it and making the world spin as his fingers probed through my labia, so intrusive and vile.
“You’ve done it now,” he growled, his fingernails digging into me. He twisted his grip, pinching and pulling at my flesh, and pain vibrated down to my toes, making my eyes water as I fought not to scream into his sweaty palm.
My eyes swam with tears, but my vision still focused over Les’s shoulder. Gabe had returned, watching, interested but not moving, just observing the action in a detached, cold way, staying right by the door. My knees tried to buckle when Gabe shook his head.Don’t come to me for any help.
Les’s slimy fingers probed and grabbed, like he was trying to rip my vulva clean from my body. “No!” I shrieked into his skin, trying to fight, to bite his palm as he squeezed it over my mouth. But he was determined, one hand holding me to the wall, the other clawing at my sensitive skin. He was attempting to rip it off, he was. Revenge for what I’d done to him.
His fingernails popped through the top layer of skin, just above my clitoris, and I bellowed, battering him with all my might as sick images raced around in my mind. I couldn’t let him do this. It was a clear, easy attempt at retribution. An eye for an eye. A pussy for a dick. I drew up all the fight I had, pushing back the desire to give up.
A surge of adrenaline boiled through me, and my teeth sank into the skin of his palm. I bit until my teeth met with a clank and then I pulled back, a huge chunk of his flesh coming away as metal flooded my mouth and skin got stuck in my canines.
“What the fuck!” Les screamed, stumbling away before punching me with his uninjured fist. Blood poured down his other arm, dripping onto the floor. “Are you a fucking cannibal, you lunatic!” He lunged at me, but I dodged with a gasp, spitting out his flesh as I ducked out of his way on unsteady legs. Still naked.
My eyes were frantic as I looked for a weapon, for anything I could use to hurt this man. In a split-second, he would be back on me, returned to injure or kill. And yet, Gabe rested against the door, his phone in his hand, hardly looking up. There was a faint smirk on his face, almost like he’d planned or anticipated this…
“Fuck, Gabe!” Les shouted when he spotted his colleague. “Help!”
Gabe did not help. Gabe watched. Les muttered something and turned his full attention back to me, his face red with rage, veins popping purple in his neck.
I shoved against him when he dove for me, using every bit of might I had to keep him away. My hand wrapped around the dusty old lamp on the bedside table, and I yanked it, the wire pinging from the wall as I beat Les across the head with the heavy bottom.
I felt feral, alive and full of fury as I went for him. He wasn’t having me. Wasn’t touching me. Of course, I wouldn’t surrender. I hated that my mind had even gone there. No way. Not when Theo might still be alive out there, coming for me.
