Survival Games (12 page)

Ty walked into the
control room and ripped his shirt off, inspecting the cut on his arm. It was
deep enough to require stitches, but not deep enough to be life threatening. He
looked at the monitors, her monitor, and shook his head.

“It’s all about
you.” Heading out of the control room, he finally gave in to his need. He
pushed open her door and walked in, still shirtless and his arm dripping blood.

She jumped when the
door banged shut behind him.

“Oh God, you’re
bleeding.”

He nodded and
walked to her, leaving a trail of red droplets. She started to get up but
paused when he shook his head and knelt on the end of the mattress.

“Do you believe in
redemption?”

Jessica raised her
eyebrows and tilted her head, searching his eyes before focusing on his arm. She
reached out and took his bloody hand turning it slowly so she could see the
wound. She sighed and raised her eyes to his, still not answering his question.
Instead, she led him into the bathroom and motioned for him to take a seat on
the closed toilet lid.

Ty watched her and
with every beat of his heart, his arm answered with a throb. When she dropped a
washcloth in the sink and turned on the water, he raised an eyebrow. He hardly
felt the swipes of the washcloth. Her gentle touch stirred his need, taking it to
the edge of boiling over.

“Do you believe in
redemption?” he asked again.

She didn’t say
anything at first, just continued to clean his wound. “I don’t know,” she
finally said after silence settled between them.

“Why are you doing
this?” he asked, pointing his chin at her.

She shrugged. “Because
you’re hurt and it’s in my nature to help.”

“My nature is much
darker,” he said.

She didn’t say
anything but nodded.

He reached his
good arm around her waist closing the minimal distance between them. “Much
darker,” he whispered and crushed his mouth to hers and her lips parted
allowing him access to the sweet depths. He plunged his tongue inside, tasting
her, relishing the slow circles of the exquisite tongue dance. Pulling her
closer, the kiss deepened, stirring the molten lava flowing through him, his
bloody arm forgotten in the wake of the building sensual heat.

Breathless, she
yanked herself away and backed against the wall to the shower stall. Her eyes
wide with surprise, her chest heaving. “I can’t,” she whispered.

“Yes you can,” he
said and stood.

She moved out of
his reach into the shower stall.

Ty blocked the
entrance to the shower and slipped his clothes off, never breaking her wide-eyed
stare. He flipped the water on, drenching the nightshirt she wore and he stepped
under the warm stream.

“I know you feel
the same things I’m feeling. I see it in your eyes.” His mouth found hers again
and his hands glided down the wet nightshirt finding the hem.

“God help me,” she
whispered and the nightshirt slid up and over her head.

He knelt, trailing
kisses down the front of her as he tore her underwear off and his hands slid up
the inside of her thighs, spreading them enough for him to roll his tongue over
her clit.

She gasped,
running her hands through his hair, tilting her head back against the cool tile
as he teased her. His lips glided over her skin, reveling in her, sucking,
biting, licking, kissing until he found her mouth again.

“Oh God!” she
breathed when their kiss broke and he picked her up, wrapping her legs around
his waist and thrusting his hard member inside her. This time, her lips crushed
his, taking his breath away.

“Tell me you love
me,” he whispered and kissed her neck pushing deep into her.

She arched,
letting a soft moan escape. Her hips circled slowly, seductively with him and
she sucked his earlobe. “Tell me,” she said in a low husky voice.

“Jessie,” he
moaned and tore his lips away from her neck so he could see her eyes. She
gently traced the line of his shoulders with her fingertips, her other hand
embedded in his hair.

She arched,
pushing her hips into him and throwing her head back, her body tensing with the
climax rippling through her. The moan of pleasure escaping her lips pushed him
over the edge and he plunged deeper, his own orgasm exploding inside her.

He gently set her
down on her feet and stepped out of the shower, leaving her under the warm
stream. She turned the water off when he handed her a towel.

She wrapped it
around her watching him do the same.

He shook his head,
spraying water around the room and then turned toward her, his wet hair hanging
in his eyes, his bare chest rising and falling heavily with each breath.

“You never said
it,” he said.

“Neither did you,”
she responded leaving them at a stalemate.

What the fuck
am I doing?
He picked his clothes up and left the room. When he got to the
door, her voice stopped him.

“Ty?”

He paused and
looked at her standing wrapped in a towel, her hair tousled and her cheeks
flushed and he realized there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her.

“I’m hungry. Is
there any way I can get a steak in here?” She sheepishly looked down at her
feet.

At least she
didn’t ask to let her go.
He smiled and nodded. “I can do that, but only if
you let me join you.”

She hesitated and
tilted her head a little. “Okay.”

“It may take a
little while. I have to take care of this,” he said, showing her his bloody
arm.

She nodded and he
closed the door behind him.

He had some other
things to attend to first, like getting rid of the body in the warehouse
incinerator. Ty slipped into his jeans in the hall and walked back to the room
where Angela was. He opened the door and she looked up from her vantage point
on the floor, the knife clutched in her hand.

Her swollen red
eyes found his. “You killed her,” she said.

Ty nodded and said
nothing.

Her lower lip
quivered.

“Put the knife
down.”

She stared at him
then lowered her eyes to the knife.

“You almost killed
me.”

Ty inhaled. “Put
the knife down,” he repeated, closing the door behind him.

She looked around
the room and her eyes landed on Lisa’s broken body.

“Do you think it
hurts?”

“Do I think what
hurts?”

“Dying.”

He bit his lip. Death
in this place was always accompanied by screams of pain and terror. Lisa was
the first casualty of theirs that died a quick and painless death. “Yes. Now
put the knife down.”

Angela stabbed the
point of the knife to her throat and threw herself forward sending the blade
through her neck on purpose.

Ty watched with
his back pressed against the door. She gasped and gagged, bucked and twisted on
the floor, grasping the knife and yanking it sideways tearing her throat
further as death rode her slowly into oblivion.

I need to get
out of here.

He backed from the
room, rattled by her suicide. He headed into the bathroom off the kitchen,
splashing water in his face and studying his reflection in the mirror. Haunted
blue eyes stared back. “Get your shit together,” he snapped at his reflection.

He shook the image
of Angela out of his mind and opened the medicine cabinet in search of a
bandage to cover the cut on his arm. He found a box of butterfly Band-Aids,
antibiotic ointment as well as a good sized bandage that he could cover the
entire cut with. When he was finished dressing the wound, he picked up the
phone and called Frank.

“In a meeting,”
Frank said.

“I need to take
the trash out,” Ty said.

“That’s fine,” he
said. “The cleaning crew isn’t expected for another hour, does that give you
enough time?”

“No problem, I’ll
be out of their way by then,” Ty replied. That meant he had less than an hour
to get this done.

Ty grabbed a dozen
dark green garbage bags and a pair of plastic gloves and walked into the
utility room. Looking around, he decided on the quickest tool to do what he
needed and grabbed the chainsaw. He also grabbed a dolly to transport the full
bags to the incinerator. There was always a risk of being seen and the timing
needed to be coordinated.

He covered the bed
with plastic and went about the gruesome job of cutting the girls up and
placing their parts into the bags, and onto the dolly. Once he was done, he
took off his clothes, stuffed them into a bag and switched on the overhead
sprinklers to clean the blood off his body and the concrete floors.

A thick trail of
blood poured down the drain in the floor and he almost gagged, closing his eyes
for a second to get his stomach in check.

I need to get
Jessica out of here.

He rubbed his
arms, face and chest with disinfectant and stood with his head tilted back as the
spray cascaded down on him. When the water ran clear, he switched the
sprinklers off, stripped the bed of the plastic tarp and left the room.

He pushed the
dolly toward the elevator, stopping long enough to wipe himself with a clean
towel, change the soaked dressing on his arm and put on a jumpsuit and a hat
that would label him as a member of the janitorial crew if he were seen. As he
walked out of the room, he grabbed a key off the wall. He stood in front of the
retinal scan and waited for the elevator doors to open, once inside he put the
key in and pressed the button leading to the basement of the warehouse.

He got to the
incinerator without incident and heaved the bags in. He closed the door and
they melted in the heat. He didn’t wait to see the rest. They would be ashes in
a matter of minutes. He shook off the images and walked back to the elevator,
turning his focus back to Jessica.

Now that both
Angela and Lisa were gone, Frank would be on his ass regarding Jessica. He
closed his eyes, leaning against the back of the elevator. Mike would only
satisfy him for so long and he had to figure out a way to keep his stepbrother’s
paws off his girl. A small smile formed on his lips.
His girl.
What a
fucked up thought. His eyes opened with the whoosh of the elevator door
opening.

He had a steak
dinner to deliver.

He changed into
another pair of jeans and pulled out a black button up dress shirt, slipped on
socks and sneakers and placed a call.

He put the phone
down and looked around. He didn’t want to bring her to the room with the couch.
That would be in poor taste. He walked into the kitchen and shook his head;
this wouldn’t do either, too many sharp objects for her to get a hold of.

He grabbed the
card table, two chairs and a tablecloth he found in one of the kitchen drawers
along with a couple wine glasses and headed to an empty room. He set the table
and stepped back, scanning his work. Something was missing and he turned,
heading to the kitchen, rifling through all the drawers and cabinets, but came
up empty.

How could he
not have candles here?
he thought and grabbed the ice bucket, filling it
and placing it on the table in the room.

He glanced at his
watch and headed up to the ground floor. Frank’s eyebrows rose when he stuck
his head in the office.

“Everything okay?”
he asked.

“Yep.” Ty smiled
and headed to the garage. “Be back in a flash,” he said and started whistling
as he hopped in the car.

True to his word,
he was back within fifteen minutes, carrying a large take-out bag and a bottle of
wine. Ty set the plates out on the table, put the bottle in the ice bucket and
went to get her. He swung in the control room, dropped the CD in, turned it on
low and flipped the switch to feed it into the room.

He hesitated and
looked at the screens. She sat on the bed with the towel around her. He
chuckled. While he would love to have dinner with her only wearing a towel, he
was sure she wouldn’t appreciate that at all. He turned and looked at the
selection of dresses in her size and picked his favorite, reaching down and
grabbing a pair of sandals that matched.

His gaze landed on
Mike’s monitor. He wanted the bastard to know he won the game, that she
belonged to him now and flipped the live feed from the mock dining room to his
monitor. “This’ll kill him.”

Ty left the control
room to collect his date.

Mike looked up at
the screen and saw a beautifully decorated table with two plates, wine glasses
and silverware. A bottle opener lay on the table next to the ice bucket, which
held a bottle of zinfandel. The plates were covered with warmers you would find
in an upscale hotel and music played softly in the background.

When Ty escorted
Jessica into the room, Mike stopped breathing. She was wearing a floor length
white gown with a slit that came up to her hip. She had her hair up in a clip
and she was stunning.

Ty held her chair,
pushed her into the table, and pulled the warmer off in a grand gesture. She
looked down taking in the delectable meal on the plate before her and then
smiled at him.

She fucking smiled
at him!

He opened the wine
and filled their glasses. When he put the bottle back in the ice bucket, he
looked into the camera. He slowly smiled directly at Mike.

Mike approached
the monitor and punched it with everything he had, shattering it to pieces. The
image shattered with it. He paced the room, oblivious to his cut hand and
broken wrist.

“How could she?”

Chapter
32

Jessica stood when
he walked in the room. He held an amazing dress, sandals and a hair clip,
offering them to her.

“Your dinner awaits,”
he said waving toward the door in a grand spectacle.

“I’m not
Cinderella and you’re certainly not Prince Charming,” Jessica replied and
tentatively took the dress and the hair clip and headed to the bathroom to put
it on. The white silk fabric caressed her skin and she smoothed it over her
abdomen, loving the way it felt on her skin, reminding her of his hands. She
brushed her long hair and twisted it into a bun, putting the clip in to hold it
in place.

When she walked
into the room, Ty dropped one of the shoes and fumbled with the other one.

Even though she
was amused by his reaction, she didn’t give any hint of it, her face remained
stoic and she glanced in the mirror, appraising herself, pleased with what she
saw. She shrugged and turned back to Ty reaching for the shoes.

He brought them
over and she held onto his arm with one hand while slipping them on. She did
the once over in the mirror a second time and then turned back to him. “It’s a
beautiful dress,” she said.

“Mhm.” He escorted
her out of the room glancing her way and his bangs fell into his eyes. He ran
his hand through his hair, pushing it out of his face and smiled down at her.

Everything seemed
to switch to slow motion as he walked her into the room, sat her down and
pushed her seat in like a true gentleman. She was thrilled when he pulled the
warmer off the plate and she saw the filet mignon with béarnaise sauce drizzled
over it along with the bright steamed vegetables. Her mouth watered and she
smiled up at him.

She put the linen
napkin on her lap and picked up her fork and knife as he sat down. She studied
the sharp steak knife.

He picked up his
wine glass and froze midway to his mouth, his eyes glued to the blade in her
hand. A stab of fear went through him.
Please don’t
, he thought and held
his breath.

“You trust me with
this?” she asked, holding the steak knife and hearing his thoughts as if he
spoke aloud.

He said nothing
and forced himself to bring the wine to his lips and take a sip. His heart
pounded in his chest as she twirled the knife in her fingers.

She smiled and
began to cut her steak.

Ty let out a long
silent breath, watched her take a bite, and close her eyes.

“This is amazing,”
she said, opening her eyes. She couldn’t remember the last time she had a
steak. “How long have I been here?” she asked between bites.

He took a bite and
didn’t say anything.

“How long?”

“Over five
months.”

Jessica stared,
her next bite halfway to her mouth. She thought about that as she continued to
eat. “Really?” She took another bite.

He nodded and ate
the rest of the meal in silence, watching her. When she finished, she picked up
the wine and drained her glass. She held it out for more. He filled the glass
again and sat back.

“Thank you,” she
said. “For all of this.” She waved at the table.

He nodded and
watched her drain her wine glass. She held it out again. He filled her glass a
third time and polished off the rest of the bottle into his glass.

“I’m not getting
out of here, am I?”

He didn’t answer
her.

“I have kids,” she
said.

“I know, two of
them. A girl and a boy.”

Something flashed
in Jessica’s face and she picked up her knife, pointing it at him. “I will kill
you if you go near them,” she hissed but didn’t make a move.

“I wouldn’t do
that,” he answered. “Going after kids is wrong.”

Jessica slowly put
down the knife.
At least he has some scruples
.

“But your
husband,” Ty said and raised his glass.

Jessica paused and
looked at Ty. “My kids need their father.”

“Do you love him?”

“I’ve been with
him for almost twenty years; he’s the father of my children.”

“That’s not what I
asked. Do you love him?”

“Of course,” she
answered. “But my kids need him.”

“Fair enough.”

She finished the
glass of wine, put it down and picked up her water glass, the effects of the
alcohol warming her hands and cheeks.

“I’m not getting
out of here, am I?” she asked again.

Ty shrugged a
little and looked down at the table.

“What happened?” she
said and pointed at his scar, changing the subject.

He put his hand up
to his face self-consciously and then looked at her.

He slipped his
shoes off and stood, crossing to her side of the table extending his hand. She
stared between his hand and his eyes before she took it. He helped her up and
pushed the volume control on the small remote. Music encompassed the room.

He pulled her
close and slowly swayed with her in his arms. Ty rested his cheek on the top of
her head and she nestled into his shoulder.

* *
* *

Having her in his
arms felt right and the same thoughts he had earlier echoed in his mind,
especially now that Frank had no one else to play with.

I have to get
her out of here.

She looked up at
him. “What happened?” she asked again, tracing the scar on his cheek.

“My stepfather,”
he answered. “He used to beat the crap out of me on a regular basis. One day, I
dropped his beer bottle when I was bringing it to him and he decided to teach
me a lesson.”

“Jesus,” Jessica
whispered. “Where was your mother?”

He stiffened and
looked at her. “She was dead. My stepfather killed her. Made it look like an
accident.”

Jessica put her
cheek back on his chest.

He pulled the
hairclip out, tossed it toward the table and ran his hand absently through her
hair as they danced. He kissed the top of her head and looked at the mirrored
wall.

She had her eyes
closed against his chest. Dressed in white with her long dark hair falling over
her shoulders, he thought she looked like an angel.

“Did he hit your
brothers too?” She gently rubbed her fingers back and forth on his shirt.

Ty squeezed her
closer and continued. “I did my best to protect Chris. Pissed the bastard off
whenever I stepped between him and my brother.” He inhaled. “The other one,
Frank, he’s my stepbrother. The sun rose and set on him. We were the old man’s
punching bags; he never laid a hand on his own kids.” He stopped and pulled
away from her. He hadn’t ever talked about his past and didn’t really want to
talk about it now.

He took her hand
and walked her back to her room. He reached out and touched her face. “You
really look beautiful tonight,” he said and gently kissed her. He pulled away
and left her alone for the night.

* *
* *

She turned toward
the mirrored wall. With her hair down, she looked even better in the dress. She
twirled around, smiling and looking at herself until she saw him in the corner.

Frank walked out
of the bathroom glaring at her. “What the hell have you done to him?”

“Nothing,” she
answered and stepped back as he advanced.

He pointed at her.
“He’ll be going on a little trip soon, and when he does…” He looked her up and
down. “When he does, you and I are going to settle a score.”

He slipped out of
the room as quickly as he appeared.