Voices carry through from the next room.I reach the door and open it slightly, peering inside.I’m met with a deep-red curtain.I step forward, peeking through the little gap.Kai, Zion, and Bear are sitting on a large couch, with their backs to the door, in deep conversation.The room is covered in graffiti and mirrors.
“We need more people on our side,” Zion says.“And we need weapons.”
More people?Are they going to take more women like me?
I suck in a breath, then quickly cover my mouth.
My elbow hits the wall.I quickly shut the curtain, taking a step back.My pulse speeds up, my chest rising and falling as I wait for them to come through the red velvet, but after several heartbeats, no one comes.
I can’t go in there—not with them sitting around in wait—but I can’t return the way I came from either.It only leads back to the room where I was trapped.
I open the curtain once again, peering back inside.They are still sitting on the couch.
“We need a nuke, so I can just blow them all up,” Bear says, grinning.
I swallow past the lump in my throat.After being with Bear tonight, it wouldn’t surprise me if he did find a way to get a weapon of mass destruction.We’d all be dead, gone in seconds.
“What?Then we die anyway from radiation?”Zion asks, taking the words from my own mouth.
Bear’s mouth falls open, and he curses.“I can get us more money to get weapons from someone else.”
“How?”Zion asks, and the corner of Bear’s mouth raises.
“The usual—people pay for these guns of steel,” he flexes his muscles, and Zion rolls his eyes.
“We need more than funds and men to take down The Brotherhood,” Zion says.“We need to play this smart.We need to figure out how many of their men are left after the blowup with Dominic, and where their weapons are.Maybe find out more about the docks, their shipments—if we can take over that, we can control the whole district.”
“What about using women for intel?”Bear suggests.“I mean, we’ve got the perfect starting point with Amirah at our disposal.”
“Why women?Everyone knows The Brotherhood is a male-run organization,” Kai says.
“No, Bear’s onto something.Those boys are pussy-whipped by Freya; she’s basically got a seat at the table.Maybe this is a new age of The Brotherhood, where the women have more voice, and there’s nothing a woman loves more than a bleeding-heart sob story,” Zion says.
Kai throws his phone at Bear, and he catches it.
“Get one of your friends at the club to run interference for us.Tell them that you heard Amirah was taken by some college guys in Berkeley.It’ll give us time to figure this shit out,” Kai says, and Bear breathes out heavily through his nose.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Bear says.
I swallow hard.I want to scream, to run, but I can’t move.They have it all wrong.Women hold so much more power than they realize.If they went about this differently, if they knew that, they could gain the upper hand against The Brotherhood.
The women in the ville—or at least this woman—are done with being treated like second-class citizens just because they have a pussy.I’ve heard the talk at parties and around town.Women are over being told “not to worry.”The town hall was blown up!We’re allowed to be concerned.And after what I’ve discovered these last few months, with everything that happened with Jewel ...we’re ready to fight back.
The Brotherhood focuses on the men having the power, but what they don’t realize is that behind each man at the table there’s a powerful woman.I think they are scared of that; they don’t want to give us too much, because they know when a woman is in her full power, she’s the true leader.If we weren’t, how else would Freya have been able to make the three most obstinate men I’ve met fall to their knees?
Before I can take my next breath, the curtain is ripped open in front of me.
“Boo!”Bear grins, and I scream, taking one, then two steps back through the door and into the room of mirrors.
I run, but everywhere I look, I’m met with myself, and Bear is behind me.His bright-blond hair follows as I run, screaming my lungs out until my throat is dry.
A hand lands on my shoulder, spinning me around, and then I’m forced backward.My back slams into one of the mirrors.A crack pierces my ears.He pushes into me.I feel every inch of his body against mine, his hard cock and bulging muscles pinning me to the mirror.
He takes my jaw, turning my head, but I refuse to look at him.“Fuck, baby.I want to bottle up your screams and listen to them while I stroke my cock.”
He leans in, his breath hot against my cheek.When he swipes his tongue over my skin, my body reacts.A million butterflies flutter around in my stomach, my skin burns hot, and I squeeze my eyes shut.I don’t understand why my body is responding this way.He’s a bad person.I’m trapped here because of him.I hate him, but apparently my body is on the fence.
“Enlighten me, princess.What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?”
