Page 74 of Twisted Fate

Inside, a long, poorly lit hallway leads down to a large open space with mismatched chairs scattered around a cheap card table, a few guys sitting around it smoking cigarettes and drinking beers, playing some kind of game with dice.

They’re clearly gambling, from the pile of money and other items tossed in the center of the table, and the stack of dollar-store chips near each of them.

I pause just long enough to take it in, to try to center myself, but Sean doesn’t give me a chance.

He shoves me again, harder this time. “Fucking go, bitch,” he snaps.

“I don’t have time for you to stand around and take in the sights.

” He grabs my arm when I don’t move fast enough, and I freeze, too shocked to try to pull away.

I’ve seen the other bouncers lay hands on the girls from time to time, when they’ve gotten out of line, but it’s never happened to me before.

I always behave. I’m one of Doug’s good girls .

My stomach roils again at the thought. What has that gotten me into?

“Down the hall.” Sean turns me to the right, pushing me forward. “Third door on the left.”

I realize that Cara and the other girl are no longer behind me; they’ve gone somewhere else. I walk forward, the hard wooden floor clacking under my shoes, and I stop in front of the door Sean pointed out, my heart beating so fast that it hurts. I can feel my pulse fluttering in my throat.

Sean shoves the door open, and me inside.

The light is so much brighter in the room that I stop for a moment, blinking rapidly to clear my vision.

There’s an actual lighting rig in here, the kind that looks professional, surrounding a black leather couch in the center of the room.

There’s a guy sitting in the middle of it, built like a bodybuilder with a shaved head and bulldog face—nose crooked, all of his features too close together—and he’s stark naked, his hand wrapped around his stiff cock, idly stroking.

I stare at him for a moment too long, a spasm of fear tightening my chest. He’s fucking huge .

The tip of his cock reaches his navel, and it’s thick enough that it looks big even in his hand.

Four other guys are lounging around the room nearby. One more is naked, leaning against the side of the couch as he plays with his half-hard dick. Two are fully dressed, and another is in just a pair of boxers.

They all look at me when I walk into the room, lips curving in anticipatory smiles, a predatory look on every single one of their faces. They all look hungry .

I feel my knees turn to water. I want to run, but if I do, I’m afraid my legs will give out.

I twist around, desperately looking for Sean.

He’s standing behind me, blocking the door, arms crossed.

“This is—” I swallow hard, my mouth dry.

“This is the wrong room,” I manage. “It must be. I don’t do…

” I swallow again, my throat tightening up with fear.

“I don’t do this. I do solo shows. Just me. ”

“I know what solo means, bitch,” Sean snaps. “You’re in the right room. Boss says you’re doing a gangbang video tonight. Go stand in front of the couch so they can make sure the lighting’s good on you. We start filming in five. Stay dressed, he wants you stripping down in the video.”

“I—” I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I stare at the five men, feeling my head swim.

The guy leaning against the couch is fully hard now, pivoted to face me, stroking his cock with intent.

He has a shit-eating grin on his face, and he raises his other hand to his lips, fluttering his tongue between his first two fingers in a lewd gesture as he jacks himself harder.

That does it. Something snaps in my brain, and I forget about how badly I need this job, how empty my bank account is, everything except the fact that there are five guys in this room that think they’re going to fuck me, all at the same time, on camera .

I pivot on my heel, nearly falling as my ankle rolls sideways, and I bolt around Sean for the door.

I only make it two steps. His thick arm wraps around my waist, lifting me off of the floor as he blocks me. I slap at his muscled arm, letting out an anguished, animal sound of fear, but he just picks me up, holding me against his side as I squirm as he carries me back toward the couch.

“Grab her,” he tells the two naked men, and they both obey immediately, coming toward me one on either side, each grabbing an arm. I feel something hard and stiff brush against my right hip, and bile rises in my throat.

“Hold her still,” Sean snaps, and he grabs my face in his meaty fingers, squeezing until my cheeks are pressed inward.

“Listen here, bitch,” he growls. “Boss says you’re gonna get fucked on video by these five guys.

You’ve got three holes and two hands, so you oughta be just fine.

You keep fighting like this, and I’ll make sure the guy who gets to fuck you in the ass doesn’t get any lube handed to him. You feel me?”

I can’t speak. I can’t move. Forget fight or flight—I’m frozen, shuddering in the grasp of these three men.

I hear the one to my left chuckle, see him reach down out of the corner of my eye as he gives himself another stroke.

“I like this one,” he says in a rough, Eastern European-accented voice.

“I like the ones who struggle. Maybe we make this a rougher video than we planned, boss? I’ll fuck her in the ass.

Sergei can sit on the couch, have her pussy. ”

Fight kicks in again, at that. I twist in their grip, screaming, and Sean lets go of my face just long enough to rear back, slapping me hard enough to send my head to one side.

“You keep this up, bitch, and this gang bang is gonna go on a very special corner of the Internet. You hear me? You’re no virgin, so it doesn’t matter if you’re bruised up when we send you out of here.”

My ear is ringing where he slapped me. That last sentence doesn’t make any sense. I look at him, dizzy from the slap, and I try to breathe. It feels like I can’t, all the air trapped in my lungs, my chest painfully tight.

“Just let me go,” I whisper. “Please, I—there must have been some kind of misunderstanding. Doug gave you the wrong girl. Someone else is supposed to be here—” Someone who agreed to it.

Someone who’s willing to film this kind of porn.

There’s girls at the club who would do it.

Carmen would, I know that for a fact. She’d probably get off on it.

But I feel like I’m going to pass out. I don’t even think I could fuck one guy on camera, let alone?—

“Listen here.” Sean’s fingers are digging into my cheeks again, my chin held tightly in his grasp. “You either do this, and you act like you fucking like it, or there’s gonna be consequences.”

“I’ve never—” I gulp, shivering so hard that I think my teeth are going to clack together. “I’ve never done this before. Fucked on camera. This isn’t what I’ve been asked to do before?—”

“There’s been a change in management,” Sean snaps.

“That enough of an explanation for you? This is part of your job description now. So when I tell these two to let go of you, you’re gonna stand here like a good girl, let them get the lighting right, and then you’re gonna act like getting fucked in all your holes is the best fucking day of your life since your birthday. You understand me?”

I don’t think I have a choice. I stare at him, unwilling to nod, to actually agree to this, but when he lets go of my face and motions for the other two men to step back, I can’t move.

I can’t make my feet budge even an inch, much less run for the door.

I see the crew starting to adjust the lighting, and I feel frozen once again, like a deer in headlights.

“Good,” a voice says, someone I don’t know.

“Now, we’re going to get started. When the music starts, I want you to start dancing.

Strip just like you would for a private show.

We want the two men by the couch there for now, naked—keep stroking, yeah, we want those dicks hard—and then the guy in his boxers, you come up here next.

Two of you dressed, you come in last, like you’re walking in on a private show.

We want the participation staggered. In three, two?—”

I stiffen, braced for the first note of the music, for the moment when I’m going to be expected to start, unsure if I can. If I can move, if I can do anything at all—and I’m terrified of what happens if I can’t. Of what happens if I can.

I’ve never been so afraid in my life.

I hear the music, the first beat filling the air and making me flinch—and then a different sound cracks through the air, making me jump and let out a sharp, startled, shrill scream.

I know that sound. Anyone who lives in a neighborhood like mine does. It was a gunshot.

Before I can take a breath, or think, or react, there’s more of them. Crack after crack , the sound splitting the air outside the room, and I hear the ping of metal, shouts, the stomping of boots, a guttural, male cry of pain…

I stagger backwards, arms wrapped around myself, looking around terrified for somewhere to go. Somewhere to run. There’s only one exit, and it leads out to where the gunshots are?—

The door slams open, and I scream again.

Chaos erupts. I hear the men behind me swearing—I don’t know who, the camera crew or lighting guy or maybe the ones who thought they were going to get to fuck me, or all of them.

Someone shoves me as they run past, more gunfire erupting in the room, and I drop to my knees as one of the lights crashes onto the floor next to me, glass shattering and spilling across the hard concrete floor.

“Fuck! My fucking cloth—” There’s a guttural, choking sound, and I wrench around to see the man with the bulldog face, the one who said he was going to fuck me in the ass, sprawled on the concrete. There’s a smear of blood under his body, more leaking from his head.