He has to be freaking kidding me. If he isn’t, he’s even more screwed up than I thought. Without words at my disposal, I shake my head from side to side. I refuse to be a part of his dirty game. 

Refusing to take no for an answer, he shoots out a hand and curls his fingers tight around the biceps of my left arm. He yanks me toward him, his gun pushed into my temple—cold, hard, deadly.

“Don’t play games with me, ma chérie. The rules are simple. Obey or you die.”

My eyes flicker to Damien. I’m unable to read the reaction from his eyes as they are shut. But the heat of his rage burns through the air between us only for his helplessness to cool it again. His eyes open. Our eyes lock. He gives me a barely visible nod.

I shake my head, sprinkling tears on the floor. He can’t expect me to do what Judson is asking. Isn’t he as disgusted as I am?

For a flash of a moment, I wonder if they had planned to share me all along, whether all this was meant to happen. Had Damien really planned on letting me go, or had he made arrangements for his brother to show up at the right time, so they can play this dirty game with me?

But it can’t be. Why would Damien put himself through the pain for a few moments of pleasure? Watching him I know his helplessness and anger are not an act. No way. The undiluted anger between the two brothers is unmistakable, so heavy it sucks oxygen from the air.

Judson Devereux, the evil twin, is acting alone.

Fed up with my disobedience, Judson spins me around to face him and shoves my panties down then lifts each of my feet so I can step out of them. “Quit making this harder on yourself.” Drops of spit land on my nose as he gives me yet another warning. “I can do worse than this, trust me.” He shoves me toward Damien.

“No,” I try to scream but he can’t hear me and doesn’t care either way.

He returns to his chair, one of his hands still holding his groin. He picks up the bag of crushed chips and leans back as though waiting for a movie to begin.

As I stand in front of Damien, tears streak my cheeks, cutting a hot path to my chin. I can’t do it.

Damien is looking up at me, his defeated eyes assuring me it’s all right. It’s not. How can he expect me to be okay with taking part in this disgusting power game?

We both jump when something cracks and whizzes past my ear. The bullet hits the wall inches from Damien’s head.

“What the fuck are you both waiting for?” Judson’s tone is as deadly as his bullet.

It hits me not for the first time that I have few choices in this matter. My only options are succumbing to acting like a whore or dying without a chance to escape.

It shouldn’t be a big deal, I tell myself. We’ve done this before. We’ve had sex, some of it raw and heartbreaking, some of it earth-shattering. But doing it with someone watching feels so dirty. The urge to puke thickens the saliva on my tongue.

Tears blind my eyes as I pull the waistband of Damien’s pajamas and reach inside, encircling his warm penis with my fingers, pulling it out. My tears drip onto his flesh.

“That’s right. Now give him a handjob to prepare him for the ride of his life.”

Given the trauma Damien has experienced and his lack of desire to participate, it takes ages for me to get his penis erect with my bound hands. My shoulders sink with relief when it hardens in my hands, taking both of us by surprise. My stomach twists when it dawns on me that there’s no longer anything stopping me from having sex with him.

“Good girl,” Judson says. “Now fuck him. It’s not as if you haven’t done it before.”

I swallow hard and shut my eyes as I settle into Damien’s lap. Holding my bound hands to my chest, he slides into me as he had done not too long ago.

Humiliation floods my entire being. I can’t open my eyes, can’t look into Damien’s eyes. I wish I could hide from the whole world. But even when my eyes refuse to look, I feel Damien’s gaze on my face and Judson’s stabbing me in the back, a twisting blade. I refuse to think about what he’s doing while watching us. My stomach twists at the thought he might be jerking off.

My cheeks burning with humiliation, I rock against Damien, finding no shred of pleasure whatsoever. I force my mind to conjure up images of comforting things, things beyond this room, beyond this town. Oaklow, the first time I entered the campus, the rush of freedom I’d felt then. My father, my few friends, anyone who has ever meant anything to me. I call to mind any moment that has ever brought me a shred of joy. I think of my life before I lost it.

Despite the bleak circumstances, Damien hardens and lengthens even more inside me. I don’t stop. I keep going, doing as I’m told, holding on to however many minutes Judson will allow me to live.

How can Damien’s body respond when all I feel is disgust? How can he be in pain and still feel aroused? Then again, not too long ago when we had made love for the first time—when I was his prisoner—my body had responded even though I had not wanted it to.

A few minutes later, Damien stiffens and jolts as he comes inside me. A sound like that of a tortured animal escapes his body. He buries his sweating face into my shoulder.

I open my eyes and wait for Judson to give us the next instructions. When he doesn’t, I twist my body to look at him, tears dripping from my eyes. I’m relieved to find his jeans zipped up, his penis out of sight. He had not been jerking off to our humiliation.

“Get off him, you whore.”

His words cut deep but I ignore the pain. I rise off Damien’s lap, his penis sliding out of me. My gaze is averted as I go to pick my panties from the floor with both hands. Judson gets to them before I do.

“You don’t need these. You’re a filthy whore. Covering your shame won’t make it less true.” He tosses my panties toward the stairs. They fall on top of the broken bottle of gin.

Judson takes a few steps toward his brother, hands inside his pockets, back straight. “Look at you. As weak and pathetic as you used to be. Well, I hope you enjoyed that fuck. It’s one of my last gifts to you.” He pulls his hand from his pocket and ruffles Damien’s hair. “My final gift is death. I’m sure you’ll agree that this world can’t accommodate both of us. One of us has to die. That person isn’t me.”