The Revenger

  When they stepped through the backdoor, they entered a negotiation in progress. Upstairs, someone was pleading. They climbed the stairs from the basement to the second level to find the commotion.

  Boston grabbed Savvy’s arm before she could put it together. In the hall was a lineup of housekeepers, carts behind them. A man held a gun to a little girl’s temple.

  Savvy swooned, the child’s crystal gold aura stunning her briefly. The housekeepers behind the girl were a mix of gold and red, but the child shone pure, glistening. The man spoke Spanish, and Boston translated in her ear: “No children. That’s the rule. You stay, but no children. They get in the way. The boss doesn’t like it.”

  “I had to bring her; no one would take her. Please. She’s my daughter. My daughter. Please.” The woman responded in English.

  Savvy handed the softly whining dog’s leash to Boston. The man with the gun was surrounded by an aura so red it was almost maroon. She could feel its pull.

  “Don’t,” Boston hissed. “He doesn’t like the rules disobeyed.”

  She gave him a hard look. “You’ll watch this happen? What has he made you in to?” With that she vaulted the banister and landed behind the gunman. Others down the hall pulled their weapons as she disarmed him.

  Savvy stood in front of the kneeling girl and addressed the crowd. “No. Not today.”

  The child’s mother broke rank and pulled her daughter to her chest. Savvy took a peek over her shoulder to see even more gunmen behind her. Red dots appeared on the little girl’s forehead from their high-powered weapons’ scopes.

  Savvy changed her tactic and put the gun she’d freed under her own chin. “If she dies, so do I.”

  Maroon aura got up and took a step in her direction. She released the safety, meeting his gaze. “Do it. I dare you. I’d love to feel the blackness this will bring.”

  Suddenly, Savvy knew Sagan was approaching the house. His gravity and hers pulled at each other. A magnet and a knife.

  Downstairs the front door opened, and Savvy could hear his whores scrambling into place. She heard no further sound except his footsteps on the stairs, and then his gaze washed over her like a breeze—up her leg and grazing her thigh, over her breasts and then to her face. She turned a bit to see his expression. He was furious.

  He didn’t yell; he just stepped toward her. “Put it down.”

  “The girl gets to leave. With her mom.” Savvy narrowed her eyes and began to apply pressure to the trigger.

  “Your brother will pay.”

  “His life is not more important than hers just because I love him.” Savvy took a step back, and she could feel Boston before he got to her. The auras had dulled since Sagan walked in with his stupid ring, but Boston still put off a glow. And fortunately she’d already commandeered a weapon, so adrenaline was plenty to keep her going, even as she felt her powers grow shaky.

  “Don’t you dare, Boston.” She felt his approach slow.

  “Fine.” Sagan stalked over to the mother and daughter. “Go. You’re free to go. Boston, take these two out of here.

  Trooper whined from where Boston had tied him to the banister, but Savvy kept the gun under her chin until she heard a car start.

  Sagan came to loom over her as they stood toe to toe. “I wasn’t going to kill her.”

  She lowered the barrel and put the safety back on. “He was.” Savvy nodded in maroon aura’s direction. “And they were.” The other men lowered their guns as well. “I think you have a rule, and they were going to follow it. Can’t have kids here because you’re such a spoiled brat?”

  He smiled at her, and the whores, who had trickled up the stairs after him in matching silver, gasped. “Boston will do anything I tell him. Anything at all. Why don’t you go get dressed. I’ll see you in my room in ten minutes.”

  He left her without an answer, walking past his women as they turned to file back down the stairs behind him. Maroon aura held out his hand for his gun, clearly irritated as the men around him began to snicker.

  Savvy shook her head and took the weapon with her as she went to her room with the dog. As she poured a water bottle’s contents into Trooper’s bowl, she saw a box, probably with her outfit from dickface in it, neatly centered on her bed. She refused to open it. Instead she wasted time, looking at the water, laying on her bed, and petting the dog until she heard Boston come into his room. She raced over and opened their adjoining door, relieved to see that his aura, while muted, was still there—and more gold than red. Her powers had not completely been stifled this time. Sighing with relief, she leaned against her doorframe.

  “They’re fine. I dropped them in their cousin’s neighborhood.” He sat on his bed. “He’s going to make me make you go up there. You have to change.”

  Savvy nodded and closed the door. The gun was heavy in her hand, and a huge part of her wanted to take it up to Sagan’s room. Instead, she slid it into her sock drawer. After that she took a very, very long shower, ignoring Boston’s repeated knocks. Finally, the temperature dropped in the bathroom, and the steam dissipated to reveal Boston, looking extremely uncomfortable. She took a towel from the bar inside the stall and wrapped herself in it.

  Boston spoke softly. “He’s getting more and more pissed. Please don’t let him make me use that kid and her mom against you. That whole scene sucked.”

  “Okay. I hear you.” Savvy brushed her hair after drying it with another towel, and he left to give her privacy. She went to the closet and picked out a long skirt and T-shirt to go over her fancy lingerie. She wished she had plain cotton underthings, but that wasn’t in her fashion vocabulary at the moment. Twirling her hair into a bun, she opened the door barefoot.

  “There’s no making you put on these clothes?”

  “No way in hell. He can put his Princess Leia captive outfit in a pipe and smoke it. Fucker. I can’t believe I’m going to have to see his goddamn penis.” She stomped over to the door to the hall.

  Boston stopped her with a hand on her back. “Can you at least wear this?”

  Savvy saw her diamond necklace in his hand. She held out her wrist, and he wrapped it on.

  “Do you want me to walk up there with you?”

  “No. And don’t look at me when I come back either.” With that she closed the door behind her and headed up the stairs.

  When she got to Sagan’s elaborate door, she hesitated. Do you knock at an orgy? Is everyone’s door already open? Shit. She was saved from a lengthy decision-making process when the man of the hour opened the door. He still wore his suit, but the jacket was off and he’d loosened his tie.

  The silver ladies were bound to a series of poles, placed in a circle around the room. They writhed and pouted, seeming really aroused by their current predicament.

  Savvy locked gazes with Sagan. With everything in her she wanted to fight him, hurt him, make him pay. He held out his hand.

  *~*~*~*

  Teresa kept her eyes forward and pretended to listen to the guidelines the head housekeeper laid out for her. After the mother and daughter had been removed from the residence this afternoon, the jobs of the newly assigned housekeepers had been redistributed.

  Teresa couldn’t believe she was still here. Her cover had been as close to blown as it could have been, because despite all of her training, which demanded that she stay undetected, she hadn’t been planning to watch a little girl die in front of her. Savvy showing up and changing the dynamic had been incredible. Seeing her vault fifteen feet like it was nothing? Crazy.

  Teresa had been ready to snap, to army roll to the first attacker when Savvy’s feet hit the ground. She was not the gentle, soft lady in the pictures at Toby’s place. This woman had been honed into an athlete with the kind of body that even in repose looked strong. She’d been calm, clear-headed, and determined—and ready to end her own life, if need be.

  The agency had postulated that Savvy was possibly working with Sagan. They’d hypothesized that the woman was susceptible to him, or even in
love with him. That didn’t seem to be the case.

  “Teresa? Did you hear me?”

  She nodded at her new boss, looking down at her sloppy handwriting. While she’d been piecing the case together mentally, her hands had been busy taking notes. Multitasking at its finest. “Yes, I clean the girls’ rooms and bathrooms. Never go beyond the second floor.”

  Sagan’s office was on the first floor. She knew this from the handy tour they’d been given after they’d put on the stereotypical uniforms. Teresa couldn’t wait to dust that room. The sooner she had the information the agency needed on Compound E, the sooner she could grab Savvy and be gone. Teresa tried to avoid thinking about her being upstairs. The whole scene was off-putting.

  She’d been undercover before, and it’d been as easy as slipping on a new shirt. But this place brought out the stress in her. The fear in her. Her mother in her.

  *~*~*~*

  Boston sat in his room petting the dog. Trooper whined from time to time, and he felt like doing the same. The mantra of keeping his brother safe pounded in his heart, in his soul. But Savvy’s words from this afternoon had embedded themselves in him. They repeated over and over in his head: “His life is not more important than hers just because I love him.”

  Savvy was impressive with all the fucks she didn’t give, but to put a gun to her chin without hesitating to save a little girl? That made him feel less like a hero than he’d ever felt before.

  And then he’d let her go upstairs to Sagan. He’d encouraged her to wear the diamonds on her way to her torture. Boston had been asked to do a number of things he disagreed with during his employ with Sagan, but grooming Savvy for him was the worst.

  He should be busting down the door, scooping her up, and getting her out of there. The man he once was would have done it in a heartbeat. But that guy was on a tight leash. He’d seen what the assassin could do, would do, at Sagan’s request.

  “His life is not more important than hers just because I love him.”

  Her logic replayed in his mind over and over like a stuck, skipped needle on a record. He petted the dog with one hand and clenched a fist with the other.

  *~*~*~*

  Still reeling from having discovered Teresa’s feelings for him just before she disappeared undercover, Toby waited with Mike, her partner at the agency, in the basement of an abandoned house—the agency’s satellite office space of choice, it seemed.

  “Okay, we’re in,” the man announced, typing briskly on his laptop. “She switched the receiver on in the office. Thanks to Teresa, we are going to know more about this fucking bastard than we’ve ever known before.”

  They already knew Savvy was still alive; she’d taken a walk with the big guy after a dune buggy ride. They had a dog with them now. But there were rumblings that Sagan himself was back in the compound.

  “How much do you need before you get my sister out of there?”

  Mike was tightlipped as he shrugged. “We’ll know when we’re done.”

  Toby ran his hands through his hair and started to pace. “Maybe we can just get Savvy and Teresa out of there now, and bomb the fuckers afterwards?”

  Mike typed a bit more into the computer set up on a folding table before responding. “Listen, I know you want your sister out. And you keeping your cool and letting this play is the only safe way to do it. They’re creating something there that we need to have in our possession. Silas Sagan could and will start wars with his chemical compound. Teresa knows what she’s in for.”

  “Does Savvy?” Toby threw up his hands, frustration getting the best of him.

  “Hopefully Teresa will be able to clue her in. Remember, she’s abnormally strong. Right?” Mike was a burly guy with thick glasses, his computer knowledge a contrast to his giant biceps.

  “Waiting sucks.” Toby rolled his head, stretching his neck.

  “Yeah, wait until you get a load of being fake dead. That’s a ball. A set of balls even.” Mike returned to the computer as a hazy camera feed appeared.

  “So they have all this technology, and they won’t know you’re broadcasting from the mothership?” Toby pulled up a seat next to Mike.

  “I built that little fucking thing, have some faith. It’s plastic—made it with a 3D printer, and I’m piggybacking on their signal. That place is wired as fuck. They could notice the miniscule bit of memory I’m pulling, but it’s not likely. And if nothing hampers it, we could get more than two months of footage before its battery dies. I hope anyway.” Mike pulled out an iPad and started typing on that as well.

  Toby held his head. He and Teresa had spent the night before tangled up in the sheets of a seedy motel. He was afraid of how much he missed her today, how much he wished she were here instead of Mike.

  But he was a cog in the machine now, part of the investigation. Toby just wanted to make sure the women were safe. And if he had to ride up to the compound and start some shit, he wasn’t afraid of that. Screw the agency and their agenda. He didn’t trust how they seemed to get their people. Or even that they had good intentions with the compound.

  After losing his brother-in-law and niece, Toby hated the idea of sitting back. It was a terribly guilty place to live.

  Chapter 23

  Powerless

  Savvy ignored Sagan’s outstretched hand and stepped inside his bedroom.

  “Your spot is there.” He waved to a stripper pole with a canvas loop attached. Handcuffs dangled there, fancier than any cuffs Savvy had ever seen. They were inlaid with what looked like gems.

  “Hands,” he demanded.

  Turning to face him, she gave him a pissed-off look.

  “Really? This is what works for you?”

  Sagan stepped forward, and she backed up into the pole on instinct. He grabbed the loop above her head, still not touching her. Her lips were even with the hollow of his throat, exposed by his open dress shirt. He smelled amazing, surely some expensive cologne with an unpronounceable name...

  “It’ll work for you.” His voice was quiet, a whisper for a lover.

  When she didn’t lift her arms, he released the loop and grazed the edges of his fingers down the side of her face, trailed them to her arm, and made his way down to her wrist. Chills found their way up her back and behind her neck.

  He slowly encircled her hand with his, pulling it upward. She knew he wanted her to make eye contact, so she turned her face away, looking at the girl two poles down instead. She was missing her G-string and stared at Sagan like he was water and she was dying of thirst. An act? Reality? It was crazy to even try to determine.

  Sagan clicked the cuff into place, the inside soft, lined with some sort of fur. Without meaning to, Savvy looked at him then. Whether it was the noise of the metal securing or the knowledge that she had essentially agreed to be under his control, she couldn’t ignore it.

  “These are just for show,” she told him. “So you know.”

  His breath was tinged with rum when he answered. “Wouldn’t you love that? But try. Try to get loose.” He put his hands around her neck, gently but still a threat.

  He loved to play games. Head games for sure. Savvy felt the tightness in her chest because of his ring like before, but it wasn’t as strong. She could still see auras, just dimmed. Except for his. She heard no screaming

  Savvy yanked hard on the cuff, finding that it held tight. She wanted to spit in his face. “Fuck you.”

  “No, I plan to fuck you. Feel free to enjoy it, though. When I touch you, you’re powerless.” He smiled and nodded toward one of the other women. “Now Rebecca here has already realized that being powerless in front of me only benefits her.”

  Sagan fought Savvy for her other hand and won, slapping the second cuff on with a snap. Then he stepped away from her, backward. “You see, I know you’ve been watching me, like I’ve been watching you. So maybe you can learn while we’re here.”

  He advanced on Rebecca, the silver girl with no bottoms, and slipped behind her. When he turned on the vibrator,
she purred and writhed. He attended to her, but kept his gaze on Savvy.

  “Watch,” he mouthed to her as he slipped the spherical vibrator between Rebecca’s legs. He pressed it against her as his other hand worked on revealing her breasts. “Open your legs. Did I tell you to close them?” he commanded her.

  She whimpered but complied, heels shuffling farther apart.

  Savvy looked at her own bare feet as Sagan grabbed a long phallus-shaped tool.

  “No. Savannah. Eyes up. You watch.”

  She shook her head and regarded only her toes.

  A loud smack brought her attention back to him. She looked up in time to see him slap Rebecca in the breast again.

  She yipped.

  “You only get pleasure if she watches,” Sagan told the now-naked woman. “If not, you get pain. Which do you prefer, Rebecca?”

  Rebecca bit her over-plumped lip. “Pleasure, sir.”

  Savvy rolled her eyes but gave him her attention. He gave her an elaborate bow when she’d done as he requested. The dynamics in this room were all in his favor.

  He slipped behind Rebecca again and started his procedure from the beginning. First the sphere until she was undulating, her nipples hard.

  “Beg for it.” His brow glistened with his efforts.

  “Please. Please. Please. Please.”

  He stepped in front of her, and even if Savvy had wanted to look away now, she could do nothing but watch. Sagan worked furiously between her legs, as if this woman’s pleasure was a musical instrument and he a virtuoso. He pressed the vibrating sphere hard against her as he pumped inside her with the dildo, working his mouth feverishly on her breasts. After a few minutes she came loudly, screaming and shaking with the power of it. He never stopped until she hung from the cuffs, legs just rubber underneath her.