Fight for Her#3 (4 page)

“They will.”

She leans back, and I bend in to her, catching her breast in my mouth. It’s as black as any room has ever been. I can only find her by feel.

Her response is sudden and intense, a sharp jerk of her body. I draw the nipple in, and she trembles.

I slide a hand up her thigh, pushing what’s left of her dress away. When I make it between her legs, her panties are wet. I press my fingers in hard, and she writhes against me. “Faster,” she urges. “I need it now.”

I push the elastic aside and reach inside her. She’s hot and slippery. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt her quite like this. Her body shudders as I go in, the flesh quivering. I think I could get her going just like this, but I know it’s not what she wants.

Still, I thrust into her, fast and deep. She bites my shoulder to stay quiet.

I know where she is. She’s taking back the power that was stripped from her before. I don’t know what happened, or if she’ll ever say, but I want to feed this need she has. I want to give her what she wants.

Her arms go around my head, and the wad of duct tape rests against my neck.
 

Her body moves with me, pressing against my hand. I can feel the ripples as her muscles begin to tighten around my fingers. I press into the nub, circling, keeping the rhythm. She rides my thighs, spread wide over my lap, driving down onto my hand.

But now she wants more, she wants me, and lifts her body up and holds still. I understand what she wants and withdraw. Her hands are still trapped around my neck.

I unbuckle my jeans. I push the pants aside just far enough to get them out of the way, then I drag her to me, shoving aside the panties again.

With one hard push, I’m inside her. Her breathing is hot on my neck. I know what she needs, something fast and forceful. I grab her waist and lift her up, slamming her down on me without mercy.

Her teeth bury into my shoulder, and I do it again. I can’t see anything, not her expression, her body, nothing. We’re just two figures in the blackness, taming our demons, wiping our memory of anything horrifying that might have come before.

Maddie lets me take her with total control. I jerk her to me again and again.

The buildup in her is slow this time, but then suddenly, it just explodes. Her entire body seizes up, like every muscle is contracting at the same time, then releases. She cries out next to my ear, shuddering, half-sobbing, her breath catching.

I let go of my anger and fear and drive into her like she wants me to. I possess her. I won’t let anyone else come near her. I will kill them if they hurt her. I will not let anyone take what is mine.

I spill into her, charged, electric, like fusion is taking place between our bodies. It sizzles through me like the rage I have felt for hours, but it’s all Maddie now. My Maddie. Mine. She’s here and I’m not going to let anything happen to her.

I vow to do what I have to do.

Chapter 8: Maddie

I can’t explain what I’ve just felt. I needed something powerful, dramatic, almost painful to blow out all the other things in my mind.

Parker has understood. No matter what he thinks of it, how crazy or strange, he’s done it for me, like he always has.

The first time that I asked him to tie me up, to make me his prisoner, he laughed. He wasn’t used to girls saying what they wanted at all, much less asking for it to involve rope.

I know there are other people like me in the world. Probably most of them hide what they feel, like I did with the last guy I dated.

But I don’t want to hide. I want to feel the things I’m moved to feel.

But maybe because of this, I end up in situations like this one. Surrounded by men who lead lives that aren’t normal, but are violent and unpredictable and dangerous.

Maybe I was right to leave him in the first place.

I’ve totally come down from the sex high now. I pull away from Parker and sit on the floor. My dress is in shambles. I can’t see it, but I know. I push up the bodice as best I can with tied-up wrists, feeling shame for having him tear it.

“Maybe we should find something to cut me free,” I say. As my body settles, I’m feeling a thousand piercing pains. My hands are hot balloons. The agony can no longer be ignored.

Parker turns on his phone to use it as a flashlight. The room isn’t empty. There’s metal shelving and a rusty desk with a broken chair.

He gets up to open and close the desk drawers. “All empty here,” he says.

I glance down and grimace at the drooping bodice. “Can you at least tie the strings together?”

Parker comes back over. He takes the two parts of the dress strap and ties a knot. That side is too high now, but at least I’m covered. “Let’s see if we can find another room with something sharp,” he says.

“Aren’t we supposed to stay here?” Fear of running into the fighter group flashes through me.

He hesitates. “We can. It’s up to you.”

My hands throb. I’m not sure I can take it. “No, let’s try another room.”

He opens the door to the hall. “It’s all clear,” he says.

We step tentatively away. As we leave the safety of the locked door, I am anxious to get this tape off, to be less vulnerable.

Parker hurries ahead, checking doors. They are all locked, just as when the others looked for us.

“How did you get in that room?” I ask. “Was it the only one unlocked?”

“Jax opened it,” Parker says. “He had some sort of magnetic gizmo.”

“Really? Like 007?”

He laughs. “Sort of like that.”

We continue down the hall, checking doors with no luck.

“There were supplies in the van,” I say.

“You really want to go back out there?” Parker asks.

“No.”

He turns to me. The yellowish light overhead makes him look oddly colored.

“Let me see if I can do anything with it.” He pulls at the tape.

“Maybe just unroll it, the same as she put it on.”

He tries to find the end, lifting my arms to find a corner to start with. “Got it,” he says. He loosens the edge and begins the process of pulling the tape away.

I don’t like where we’re standing, just out in the hall. Anyone can walk up. “Can we find someplace more hidden?” I ask.

He looks around. “Let’s see if that bigger room is open.”

We head toward a door with windows down either side. We can see a vast cavernous room. He tries the door. Locked.

“Maybe farther down there is a little inset or a short hall,” I say.

As we walk, I grab the loose end of the tape and pull at it with my teeth.

Sure enough, there’s a recessed door with “Janitorial” painted in small fading letters. Parker tries the door, and it opens.

So much better. We slip inside. Parker flips on the light and closes the door. He looks around and finds an old push broom with a wide ragged fuzzy bottom. He shoves it against the base of the door to block the light from leaking out into the hall.

I’ve gone as far as I can pulling tape with my teeth. Parker begins unraveling it again, but I spot a pair of hedge shears on a high shelf. “Up there.”

Parker reaches for them. I hold very still as he snips the edge of the tape with the tips. As it opens up, I can separate my wrists, and eventually, the tape pulls apart.

I feel instant relief. Parker tugs the tape away and lets it fall to the floor. He massages my hands until they are less purple. “Can you move your fingers?”

I bend them slightly, although the swelling makes it difficult to do more. “They’re fine,” I say. It’s still painful, but nothing like before.

His phone beeps. The message reads “You moved.”

He taps back, “Needed to unbind M.”

“Heading to van. Sit tight.”

“They’re going back to the van?” I ask.

“Looks like it.”

“So they haven’t done anything yet?”

Parker sticks the phone in his pocket. “I guess not.”

“Should we go?”

“I don’t think you want to get mixed up in the scuffle,” Parker says.

I manage to make a fist. “I don’t know. Maybe I do.”

Chapter 9: Parker

I’m not sure Maddie should get back out there. I’m torn. I don’t want someone else finishing my battle for me. But I have to think of her. She’s not like the rest of us. We expect to get in tough situations and punch our way out of them.

Maybe I can get her to Jo.

I’m about to text her when there’s a pounding at the door.

Maddie stifles a squeal and jumps into me. I look around the room for anything that will make a good weapon. The hedge shears are unwieldy. I take the broom that obviously didn’t help with the light leak and break the stick over my knee. Sharp and light. Perfect.

“Are you going to open it?” Maddie says. If she seemed brave a minute ago, she’s terrified again now.

“No. Grab my phone and let Colt know we have company,” I tell her.

The door bulges down low from somebody’s kick. It’s a powerful move, so likely one of the fighters. No telling how many there will be. I know better than to open the door. Let them tire themselves out on it first.

Every fight, in the cage or out, is all about how much gas you have in the tank. I’m happy to let them use up theirs.

Maddie sends the text. The door resounds with a regular BOOM BOOM BOOM. They aren’t really making any headway. These metal-core doors have a lot of resistance.

I look above us to see if there is a way out. The ceiling is twelve feet, easy. We could climb the shelves, but unless there’s a lot of braces, the recessed ceiling won’t support any weight.

The bottom corner of the door starts to bend in, but the lock holds tight. The kicks stop.

Voices. I wonder if Jax and Colt have come up on them yet.

Then the kicks return, not on the door, but the wall next to it. Of course. Much easier to break through drywall and plaster.

Within six kicks, the wall starts crumbling on our side. I’m trying to decide my plan of action. Wait until someone gets through and start smashing? Or open the door and get an element of surprise? Maddie might be able to escape if I did.

“Only one is going to fit through that hole at a time,” Maddie whispers. “Just take them down as they enter. Stab their damn eyes out.”

Old Maddie. Feisty take-no-prisoners Maddie. But still, I know all it takes is one thought of Lily to bring back the mother version. The more you have to lose, the scarier life gets.

There are more kicks farther down. That one makes faster progress. Now the game has changed. If there are several of them, they’ll make it in.

“Maddie, I’m going to open the door. When I do, I’m going to rush anyone who is out there. You’re going to have to run.”

“Shit, Parker.”

“You can make it to the outside. I know it.”

Maddie clutches the phone. “I won’t leave you.”

“Yes, you will. Take the phone and call 911 if you need to. Do whatever you have to do.” I am done with Colt and his friend. Time to end this bullshit.

I can see the bare leg and fight shorts of somebody. They’ll be in any second.

“Time to go,” I tell her and press a quick kiss to her lips. “It will be fine.”

A face peeks into the hole. Maddie stifles a scream. I turn to look. It’s the mangled mug of Crunch, a guy I fought a year or so ago. I kick him straight in the nose and he falls back.

“Time to hit it,” I say. I unlatch the door and fling it open. I don’t even get a head count before I launch into action, cracking the broom handle against the arm of the first guy I see.

Maddie takes off down the hall. One of the guys acts like he’s going to follow, but I smash the handle into his knees, knocking him to the ground.

Someone jumps on my back. I ignore him, clearing a path with the broom handle. There’s only four of them. I handled three of them earlier, and by the looks of it, these have already been in matches today and are probably worn down.

They are not going to be able to manage me.

Whoever is on my back is clinging like a damn monkey. No one is approaching me for the moment, so I pry a hand off my chest. It has black fingernail polish. A girl.

“You have three seconds to jump off before I slam you backward into the wall,” I say.

She doesn’t move. I step over to the wall. When Crunch comes forward, I swing the stick at him. He barely jumps out of the way.

“One, two, THREE,” I say rapidly and lurch backward, although I’ve left room for her to bail.

Sure enough, she flies off me, landing on the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.

“What the hell is wrong with you people?” I say. “Are you all trying to get your asses thrown in jail? At least in the cage you’re making money.”

Striker isn’t in this group. No telling what he’s said to them to make them think they should come after me.

I back away from them, the direction Maddie went. They all look at each other, not sure what to do. Crunch holds his face, which is bleeding profusely.

When I’ve made it far enough that I can safely turn around, I take off in a dead sprint. Damn it. I finally got Maddie safe and now we’re separated again.

Chapter 10: Maddie

I’ve had enough of this night. I stop running for a moment, trying to catch my breath. The phone in my hand has buzzed several times, but I didn’t want to stop and look until I was sure no one was behind me.

I push against a door and blessedly, it opens.

It’s a break room with a rusty sink. I run over to the faucet and twist the handle, splashing water on my face. It’s blissful. I drink and drink, so tired and thirsty and DONE with this horror.

I snatch up the phone. Colt has said in one message that he’s on his way. Then another asks why Parker is running. An unidentified person who I assume is Jax has said, “STOP.”

I’ll go with the last one.

There’s another exit to the room on the other side, so I collapse to the floor halfway between them and lean against the cabinets. This way if someone comes in, I can run for the opposite door. I want to scream, cry, break things, throw something. I want to go home.

Another buzz. “Jax is almost there,” Colt says. “I’m going after Striker.”

I wrap my arms around my legs, folded up in a tight ball. When this mysterious Jax shows up, I’m going to ask him to guide me out of here. I can take a taxi back to the hotel. Or somewhere. To Jo, maybe.