Page 47

CHAPTER

THIRTY-THREE

AIDEN

A woman’s high-pitched wail interrupts the whirring of machines that runs constantly in this empty part of the building, making us halt.

We’re on one of our usual midnight excursions to map the vents and plan our imminent escape.

Below us, the rooms are reserved for storage.

No one should be in them, especially at this hour.

“Is it a new subject?” Eli asks.

It’s unusual for Acacia to admit someone new at night. Normally, it takes all day to check them in. They’re forced to parade around in front of doctors and undergo many tests. Some don’t even make it until sunset.

“I don’t think so,” I reply.

This feels different.

I creep a few feet forward and put my eye to a crack in the metal.

I see Acacia beneath me. He’s soaked from head to toe, donning a long trench coat that leaves a wet trail on the concrete floor. He drags a girl by her hair. They’ve come straight from the parking lot, and they’re followed by a gust of blustery wind from an open door.

The girl screams like a banshee. He tugs her hard, pulling her along like a dog on a leash. Black mascara runs down her cheeks, leaving dirty streaks behind. She’s wearing tiny denim hot pants that show half her ass, and her fluorescent pink bra is visible through a white crop top.

“That’s it,” Acacia rages. “Enough, enough, enough! How many times do I have to repeat myself?”

“Get off me!” She claws his arms. “You’re fucking insane!”

When she turns her head, I recognize her instantly. We’ve seen her before. In fact, we see her every year at Acacia’s annual event.

“You bastard!” she shrieks. “Let go, or I’ll tell Mom! Or are you so bored with hitting her now that you’re gonna hurt me?”

“I’m doing this for your own good,” Acacia says with a voice like ice, opening the door to a disused store room.

“Fuck you,” she hisses.

He throws her inside. Her body careers into the wall, and she lands with a thud.

“I’ll be back,” he threatens. “We start your treatment tomorrow.”

She scrambles up to escape, but she’s too slow. He slams the door in her face and locks her inside. She bangs against the wood, pounding hard with her fists, but no one will hear her. She yells more vicious insults, but Acacia pays no attention and disappears into the night.

He should know better than to leave his daughter here alone.

My cock hardens as a shiver of excitement runs through me. Tonight’s adventures are about to get a lot more interesting.

She’s hot, I can’t deny that. Her long blonde hair gives her a Barbie-like appearance, but she has the spirit of a wild tiger. She’s exactly what we’ve been looking for.

“We should make her feel at home,” I say.

Lex chuckles. “And welcome her to Sunnycrest the proper way.”

“It’d be bad manners not to,” Eli agrees.

We initiate all new patients in gen pop when they arrive. No matter what we force them to endure, it always ends in them swearing their undying loyalty to us. Nothing will bring me greater pleasure than having Acacia’s daughter on her knees, begging us for mercy.

We can’t rush, though.

We wait long enough to be sure Acacia isn’t coming back, letting the anticipation build. It’s hard to be patient when her screams turn into pleading. But he’s not coming back. Not yet, anyway.

I carefully remove the screws from the vent.

“Dad!” she screams. “Let me out! You’ve made your point, okay? You just need to chill and have some fucking fun! I’m sorry I’m not your perfect daughter?—”

I push the vent aside, and she freezes.

“Hello?” she calls. “Who’s there?”

I wriggle myself through the gap and drop into the room.

She looks me up and down. A mischievous smile plays on her lips, drying her tears instantly.

“Oh, it’s you,” she says calmly in a tone edging on boredom.

When we show up in a patient’s cell, their reactions usually range from screaming to tears to shitting their pants. Yet she barely blinks.

Lex and Eli drop to the floor next to me, and Acacia’s daughter crosses her arms.

“You took my cigarettes,” she says, pouting at me. “I want them back.”

I laugh coldly. “You’re in our territory now, Acacia. You don’t get to make demands.”

“Pity.” She sighs. “I fancy a smoke.”

Uneasiness settles in my stomach. This isn’t how I expected our meeting to go. Where is her quivering bottom lip or begging for her daddy?

“Am I supposed to be scared?” she asks, reading my mind and stepping closer. She trails a red, manicured nail down my chest, sending a jolt of electricity coursing through me as her eyes meet mine in defiance. “Because I’m not.”

For the first time in a long time, I’m speechless.

She looks over my shoulder. “Are these your enforcers?”

“Fuck you,” Lex snarls in his most menacing voice. “You don’t know anything.”

She laughs, swishing her blonde hair.

“Does my dad know you skulk around the asylum at night?” she asks, raising her eyebrows. “This is the second time I’ve caught you. What’re you locked up for, anyway?” She screws up her nose at my necklace. “Are those rat skulls?”

My fingers fly to my skulls. There are only three of them hanging on my chain.

I have many more skulls stashed in our cell.

I can’t remember when I started collecting them.

Until I had Eli and Lex, the rats were my only friends, and keeping a part of them with me brings me some comfort.

I never take the necklace off and, no matter what happens, I’ll never be alone again while they’re with me.

“We don’t have to answer your questions,” I growl.

“No, you don’t,” she replies. “But it’ll help pass the time.”

She reaches into her bra to retrieve a cell phone.

“What?” She winks. “Do you really think I only have one phone with a father like mine?” She holds it above her head. “Shit. No signal.”

“Aren’t you worried about being locked up with three men who hate your father?” I ask. “Three men who’d do anything to see him suffer.”

“If you wanted to hurt me, you’d have done it already,” she says. “Besides, we’re on the same side.”

Eli splutters in disbelief. “The same side?”

“Doesn’t sharing an enemy make us friends? We all hate my father,” she says. “I’m Sarah, by the way. If you don’t remember.”

“We’ll never be friends,” Lex hisses. “And we don’t care what your name is.”

She saunters over and whispers in his ear, “I think you do.”

He flinches, but his eyes light up. He’s intrigued. We all are, and I find myself jealous that he’s gotten so close to her. Close enough to feel her breath on his skin. Close enough to smell her.

Fuck, I want her. No, I need her.

“The way I see it, you have two options,” Sarah says, exuding the same arrogant self-confidence she did the first time we met. “You can keep up your little circus act by trying to get me to fear you, or we can spend the night really getting to know each other.”

I clench my jaw. “What do you have in mind?”

She undresses slowly. First, she pulls off her wet T-shirt to expose her toned stomach and perky tits.

Next, she unzips her boots, drawing attention to her toned calves, before wiggling out of her hot pants to reveal a pink thong.

Fresh cuts cover the tops of her thighs, and a rush of protectiveness surges through me.

She’s damaged. Broken. Just like us. An unexpected burst of rage makes my hands curl into fists.

Whoever made her want to hurt herself deserves to bleed out.

“You can put your tongues back in your heads. What did you expect? I’m soaking wet.” She cocks her head. “I need to warm up before I catch a cold.”

She’s a fucking psycho. Perhaps even crazier than we are.

I wrap my fingers around her neck. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

She laughs as her hand glides down my body to stroke my erection through my pants.

“I think I do,” she whispers.

We both lean in, and our lips brush. She tastes of cherry lip gloss and rum. We don’t kiss. Not yet. Our breaths melt together, and then she sinks her teeth into my bottom lip, biting hard enough to make me bleed.

I release her throat. “Fuck!”

She licks her lips. “Mmm.”

“What’s your game?” Lex snarls. “No sane girl would throw herself at three random guys from Sunnycrest.”

“I never said I was sane.” Sarah winks, unfastening her bra and letting it fall to her feet. “Don’t you want to fuck Acacia’s daughter raw?”

My cock throbs, dying to touch her, but still holding back.

“Maybe we don’t want to touch a little slut who’ll spread her legs for anyone,” Lex answers.

She nods at the growing tent in his pants. “Liar.” She turns to Eli. “Can you talk?”

Eli, thus far, has stayed silent. He isn’t like me or Lex. Sex means something to him.

“Leave him alone,” I say.

“Come on,” she purrs. “Having fun isn’t a crime.”

“I could snap your neck in a second,” I warn.

“Do it,” she challenges. “I dare you.”

I grab her throat. For a brief second, her eyes widen with fear. She isn’t completely stupid. I push her against the wall and lift her up, and her toes skirt the floor as I squeeze the air from her lungs.

Crazy meets crazy when our pupils dilate.

We’re the same.

Her nipples harden as she wraps her arms around my neck, and her thighs clench around my middle, drawing me closer.

Our mouths reunite with a new hunger. The metallic taste of my blood mixes with her sweet gloss. While she clings to me, I unleash my cock with my spare hand and slide her sodden thong aside. Fuck, it feels incredible to know how turned on she is, and I’m not gonna disappoint.

I don’t wait for permission. Why should I? She’s already soaking. It’s easy to glide into her cunt with a single deep thrust. She claws my shoulders with every violent motion, and her pleasure-filled cries vibrate my throbbing dick. She’s loving this as much, if not more, than I am.

She gasps as I choke her.

“Harder,” she croaks. Her pussy tenses. “Harder!”

I’ve heard people say that they can pinpoint specific moments in their lives when everything changed. This is one of those moments. While I’m balls deep in this dirty slut, I know that life will never be the same because she’s mine now. All fucking mine.

“Fuck, yes!” she moans as I claim her. “Yes, yes, yes!”

Maybe this is just a game to her. She’s a bratty, entitled bitch wanting to fuck a few psychos to get back at her father, but it’s not a game she’ll win.

After tonight, I’ll never let Sarah Acacia go.