Chapter
22

Blood seeped out of the razor-thin cuts Sean left behind. It was excruciating, and I couldn’t do more than groan as I tried to move my head. Where was I? How long had I been out?

“You’re awake.”

I turned my gaze toward the voice and spied Dahlia.

“You asked for my help, and I provided it.”

I frowned at her. Her help? She didn’t force Gleeson to touch me. It wasn’t because of her Caesar had attacked him. No, she hadn’t done anything but accept money from Sean after she turned against Caesar. I hadn’t asked her to do that.

“You told Gleeson’s men about what Caesar did?” I asked. My voice was thready as I forced out the words. A scratchy, piss-foul mattress was under me, and I shifted, trying to make myself more comfortable.

“Caesar is untouchable. And after I saw what he did to Gleeson, I knew it wouldn’t be easy to get you out of there.”

I stared at her. She did this all for me? I wasn’t fucking stupid. I highly doubted she’d go to war with Caesar and face certain death because I asked her to help free me. “You don’t have to lie to me,” I told her. “I know how the world works. You got paid to do this, and we both know it. The question is why?”

Her lids flickered. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her Sean had made plans for her death, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.

Dahlia looked me over for a moment before she gripped my chin in a hard grasp. “You’re going to sell well, my sweet. All that bite and sass. Men will pay extra to beat it out of you.”

She smiled down at me, her face twisting. I spat on her and smiled back as a glob of saliva dripped down her nose and slid over her lips. I still grinned as she gripped my hair, pulling at the strands. My scalp stung; I wanted to cry out, but I refused. Not for her. Not for that piece of shit Sean. No one.

“Caesar won’t come to save you,” she hissed. “He’s going to think you’re a crumpled sack of meat weighted down in some ocean somewhere, and he’ll be looking for a new pet. And you? You’ll be licking the shit off your owner’s boot. I’ll make sure of it.”

There was nothing for me to say as she forced me to sit up. Dahlia hid surprising strength in her small form. She wiped her face with a forceful swipe before she pushed her palm, covered with my spit, into my face.

“I tried to save you, and this is the thanks I get!” she yelled.

She was delusional. She and I both knew she didn’t save me, not now. That may have been how things started, but Sean already let the cat out of the bag. I bit the palm of her hand in retaliation and laughed when she yelled.

“Bitch!” she screeched, hitting me with a balled fist and rocking my head to one side, but I didn’t stop laughing. She couldn’t hurt me. Not like Caesar could. She didn’t have enough strength, enough power or force of presence to scare me. I didn’t care how many times she tried.

“You think you are something special. You aren’t. You’re nothing more than a whore,” she said. Then, an eerie smile spread over her face as she speared her fingers in my hair. She clenched the strands, and pinpricks of pain danced over my scalp.

“But I know your secret, little dove. I know what you can’t fight. What breaks you. Do you want to see how long it might take?”

Her whispered words pushed beyond my laughter, but I didn’t let her see it. She would die soon. Whatever hell she visited upon me, at least I’d still be alive when it was all said and done.

“You’re a gift to Gleeson’s son, the man who is taking over his father’s network. With his favor, I’ll have enough backing to never work with Caesar again. I need to make sure you’re well broken in, don’t I?”

Dahlia stood and walked away from me before she knocked on the steel door trapping me in the concrete room. It opened wide with a whoosh, and a burly guard, three times as wide as Dahlia, pushed into the room. I forced myself not to shrink away from the sheer size of him.

“Bring more. I want to ensure she understands the consequences of not doing as she’s told,” Dahlia said.

“How many?”

“Enough to break her.”

The guard smiled a sick, twisted smile, and left the room. I knew. I knew what she intended for them to do. Inside my stomach plummeted to my feet. How many? How many men would I have to fight? It didn’t take long before he was back with five men following him. They swallowed the small space, and I cringed.

“Too late now,” Dahlia hissed. “Fuck her until she can’t stand. Then clean her up. She’s Caesar’s prized bitch, and we want to make sure Gleeson’s son knows it when he sees her.”

Darkness filtered in, a wave of sickness and absolute desperation filling me. The men, faceless and rugged, hovered around me and cackled back and forth. The pale-yellow bulb in the room hung down low enough I couldn’t see their faces, and one of the men hit it so it swung back and forth wildly. I leapt to my feet and rushed at the door. My actions were futile, but I tried anyway.

I lost my footing when one man grabbed me by my hair and yanked hard. I hit the ground with a thud, the impact enough to rattle my brain. That sick, garish light blinded me, and I struck out with my fist as bodies pressed close.

“I want her ass,” one said.

I can’t breathe.

“Fine by me. We’ll all get a turn.”

Don’t touch me.

“Her pussy is mine.”

It’s Caesar’s.

“Look at her tits. Their big enough to play with.”

How far I’d fallen, to give myself willingly to the Devil, and yet hate demons like these men. To wish Caesar would come and save me, rip them all apart and take me back to his broken fortress and keep me safe. From everyone—except him. He didn’t make sense, but I couldn’t stop myself from needing him. Crying out for him. I didn’t have anywhere to run as they reached for me. Rough hands ripped the clothing off my body, the fabric stretching and shredding under the pressure. The scratchy mattress shifted under my weight but gave no comfort, and ice settled in my veins.

There was no Caesar to save me because he would think I was dead.

So I fought.

I balled my fists and swung as hard as I could. They laughed at me, and two men gripped my legs and pinned them before another two held down my arms. Immobilized, my chest heaved and my heart shuddered as one man stripped out of his clothes. His thick cock swelled as he watched me, and he palmed it. In morbid fascination, I watched him twist and jerk at the head until a white pearl leaked from the tip.

“How tight is that pussy?” he asked me, but he didn’t wait for an answer. He knelt between my legs and angled his cock to my pussy. I sucked in a breath as he ripped inside. No hesitation. No softness. I bit my lip, fighting the urge to scream as stars danced in my vision, dimming it at the corners. He fucked me, jerking his hips hard against my groin and forcing his dick further into me. My labia burned and stretched around his girth until I couldn’t catch my breath.

No. Please. No more.

But my pleas went unheard. They washed out as more clothing hit the ground. With sudden clarity, I realized the men had no intention of taking turns. My fingers were forced around cocks, jerked up and down the lengths. The hard grip the men had on my hands forced me to their bodies and I couldn’t pull away.

No. No. No.

Black. Black. Black.

Fading. I wanted to fade.

“Fuck me good, Ash. Fuck me good and I won’t make it last all night.”

Jason. His voice hunted me. The imprint of his touch inside me made me sick. I cried out, too shocked to assimilate the pain when a fist connected with my face. Warm, metallic blood filled my mouth, and I turned my head to spit it out. My gums ached, and I feared my teeth were gone. Another hit and I gagged on more blood.

“No biting or you won’t have teeth anymore.”

Barely a warning. And then a cock shoved its way into my throat. I gagged once more, unable to stop the bile from rising, but it had nowhere to go. Instead, it filled behind my lips, swishing around his dick as he moved. The putrid taste turned my stomach, and I forced air past the seam of my lips. The mess spewed down my cheeks and down to the floor, but he didn’t stop. I swallowed a breath through my nose and tried to hold on.

“Lift her up a bit.”

Yellow light. I focused my vision on the swinging bulb as they lifted me off the floor. A warm body snaked underneath me, and I rested my back on his chest. His heat burned, and his cock—larger than the one in my pussy—scalded my ass cheeks.

No. Please, no. Caesar! Caesar!

But he couldn’t hear me. He wouldn’t come running. Tears formed in my eyes and fell. The man under me forced my ass cheeks apart and angled his cock to my puckered entrance. Too full. I felt split in two as he forced the head of his cock into my ass.

“Spit down there, man. I need some help.”

“Should have thought of that first.”

A chuckle. They laughed as they tore me apart. The sounds of a throat working and hocking up spit reached my ears a split second before wetness flooded and slid down over the cocks in my ass and pussy. The sound came again, and more spit coated me until the man under me could force himself deeper. He wrapped his arms under mine and gripped my shoulders, pulling me down on his dick.

I screamed.

The sound came out garbled and twisted around the cock in my mouth.

“Look how pretty she fucking looks. Tits bouncing. Hold her down. She’s got one last place to fuck.”

No, I can’t breathe. I can’t.

The man gripping my head and fucking my mouth leaned to the side and turned my head sideways to make room. Another man stood to the side, jerking his cock while he watched. Then the last man crawled over and straddled my chest. He spat on me, making the valley between my breasts slippery and soaked before he pushed the mounds together and slid his dick in between.

“Right and fucked now,” he growled down at me.

I was lost. No place on my body was untouched. The pain radiated and my nerves fired from every point. I didn’t know what hurt the most or what wasn’t enough to feel. My entire body was a livewire of agony, bleeding orifices, and spittle. Time slowed and sped up at the same time. I didn’t know how long they fucked me like that, jostling my body back and forth for their pleasure.

One glided on my chest, jerking his hips faster and faster, moaning into the air. “You like that, you cunt? Like being fucked like the whore you are?”

He moved harder, his breath spotty. Then he came, great spurts of thick cum spreading over my neck and chest.

“She needs to clean me up,” he said.

The one in my mouth pulled out and switched with the one on my chest. Salty cum blasted my taste buds as he slipped into my mouth. Fade. I faded as they fucked and came on me. As they switched positions and left me in a sticky heap. I breathed in relief, and then screamed in pain as they rested for minutes at a time, and then picked me up again. I was a doll, their whore, and they got their use of me.

By the end, even the idea of my name was too much to hold on to.