Page 52 of Vengeance of Childhood Proportions (Till Death Do Us Part #7)

Chapter Forty-Two

Holly

I was floating as I skipped my way down the stairs of the bunker.

The conversation from the night before had taken the hours Valentino had warned it would, and it still wasn’t over.

But I had a contract in hand—not actually in my hand, it was back at my apartment—that I was to read over thoroughly, make notes, and add amendments as I needed.

Master Mal even encouraged me to text him throughout the day if I had any questions.

Then, once I was ready and not a moment before, Master Mal and I would sign the contract to make our relationship official. I couldn’t wait!

But there was a big issue that I needed to address: Jason.

I needed Jason in my life. He wasn’t just my mentor, he was the father mine had never been. He’d saved me, protected me, trained me, given me a purpose. I owed him. I could not risk him seeing my decision to stay with Master Mal as a betrayal.

There was no telling what Jason might do then. His moral compass wasn’t exactly pointing north. Actually, Jason might not even have a moral compass. At least I had one, and it was only slightly askew.

Problem was, I didn’t know what Jason wanted. He wasn’t the sort of man who cared about material possessions. Or people. Or animals. Or…well, anything other than himself. And I couldn’t exactly gift him himself.

I needed… something . But what did I own? It wasn’t like I had money of my own. I didn’t have a nine-to-five job, a car, or anything. Everything I had came from Jason. Hell, even this bunker was technically his.

I had nothing. But there had to be something I could get for him or do for him in exchange for Master Mal’s life.

I heard grunting as soon as I opened the door to descend the stairs down to the cells. Hannah, with her newly tattooed face, was staring up at me from her place on the floor. The metal boots I’d painted red were due to be tightened soon, and she knew it.

Roman’s and Jerald’s cells were empty.

Alicia was surrounded by vomit and bile.

Beyond my rape that she’d participated in, Alicia had been a bully from the time we’d entered kindergarten together.

Mostly, she made me write reports for her.

So, I went to the library and found a book about a group of teenagers who cheated their way through school by bullying a nerdy boy named Karl to do all their work for them.

Not willing to harm a book, I borrowed Jason’s laptop and copied the book into a document before printing out numerous copies of it.

Then I started shoving the book down Alicia’s throat, paper by balled-up paper. Since she couldn’t stomach doing her own homework during school, I was making her stomach it now. Ah, karma.

Based on the amount of bile around her, apparently homework wasn’t sitting any better with her now than it had when we were teenagers.

Ignoring both women, I wandered into my cell, where my jaw dropped.

Roman and Jerald were both wearing Victorian dresses, complete with corsets, bonnets, petticoats, heeled boots, and makeup. Around their throats were shock collars, like people put on dogs, and they had gags in their mouths that looked like a horse’s bit.

To top it off, Jason was sitting in a beach chair completely naked with his feet up on a cooler, sipping a beer with an oscillating fan next to him.

He even had sunglasses and a white smear of sunscreen down his nose, like he was fucking sunbathing.

He had his back to me and the other cells as he watched the show before him.

Most of my torture equipment had been pushed to the sides of my bunker room. On the floor in the center was a painted black attempt at a circle. Based on how jagged the edges are, I had to wonder how many beers Jason had had before picking up the spray-paint can.

“Come on, ladies! Let’s put some effort into it! You know what happens to the loser!”

Roman and Jerald charged at each other like they were on Wrestle Mania .

I walked up next to him, my hip to his shoulder. “What happens to the loser?”

“They have to recite the entire script of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Every error is five minutes in the ring with me—and I treat my losers very differently.”

I’ll bet , I deadpanned silently. “What happens to the winner?”

“He gets food I haven’t pissed on.”

I shrugged. “Well, all right then.” Since my cell was currently in use, my plans for today would have to be reevaluated. If I cleaned up the vomit in Alicia’s cell, I could tie her down there and start shoving more papers down her throat.

Jason grabbed my wrist as I made to walk away. “What happened last night?”

I cringed internally, because I didn’t have a bargaining chip ready yet. But Jason was right yesterday. He was the one person I didn’t lie to. “We talked about a contract.”

Roman and Jerald suddenly yelled through their gags as their entire bodies spasmed.

A puddle of piss appeared beneath them on the concrete floor, but I couldn’t tell if it came from one or both of them.

Their hands had been clasped together during whatever wrestling move they’d been attempting to make and now they were a writhing mess, braced up against each other.

The moment Jason let go of the button in his hand, both stopped screaming as they crumpled to the piss-covered ground in a heap of skirts and petticoats.

“Get the fuck back up!” Jason roared. Both groaned and whimpered through their gags. “If you’re not standing in ten seconds, I press the button again!”

They fought to get to their feet. Roman, who was the bigger of the two, was slower. He stumbled, and nearly crossed the painted line, but then righted himself. His skirts now hung heavily on the one side from laying in piss and the heel of one boot was broken, making him hop instead of walk.

They started wrestling again without a prompt from Jason.

We watched them in silence for a few minutes before Jason said, “You’re crueler than I thought you were, Hols.

Maybe you don’t care about him, after all, if you’re willing to so easily let him die.

He must be a great fuck. Tell me, is it the size or does he just know how to use it?

Maybe I’ll have a round with him before I gut him. ”

I made myself breathe through the cruel words. Getting angry at Jason solved nothing. But fuck, it was hard. My very soul screamed at me to do everything to protect Master Mal—even go up against Jason.

If it came to a fight, I wouldn’t win. I didn’t want it to. I would do everything in my power to keep it from turning physical. What scared me more was realizing I would still fight, even knowing I would lose. I would stand between Jason and Master Mal.

But I couldn’t let it come to that. Couldn’t! I knew where I would stand, but I still could not allow it to transpire.

There had to be something I could give him.

I came around to stand in front of him. Not wanting to block his performance, I sat by the cooler where he had his feet up, leaning one arm on the white plastic lid.

“Jason, I know you don’t like me seeing Master Mal. I know you think it jeopardizes what we’re doing here. But I swear , it won’t. I need this. I need him . I have finally found what I have been looking for in a Dom. He’s patient and understanding and he cares for me.”

“Don’t be so fucking delusional, Hols. He cares for the person he thinks you are.”

I winced. “Maybe, and maybe it’s not my happily-ever-after, but it’s what I need, Jason. After everything I’ve been through, don’t I deserve that?”

He was silent for a long time, just staring at his unwilling wrestling contenders. “I’m not okay with this, Hols. You’re risking everything, including me , for this guy.”

I licked my lips. “I can’t let you kill him.” It broke my heart to say, but I had to be honest. “If it comes to it, we leave.”

He looked down at me, raising an eyebrow. “You would leave him?”

I gave him my best Jason-smile. “Never said I’d leave him. Just that we’d leave… with ,” I added, “him.”

Jason snorted. “There’s my Hols.” He turned his attention back to the fight. “You’re still risking your vengeance to be with him. I know you care about him, I can’t deny that, but maybe it’s better to end him now before you get too attached. If it’s painful, it’ll be less painful now than later.”

I looked over my shoulder at the wrestling pair. One had raped me while the other stood by and watched. I truly could care less their reasons for what they had done. I’d vowed they would die by my hands—and they would.

But…maybe…

I looked back at Jason. The man was naked and very clearly aroused by the show he’d put on for himself. I knew he had…specific tastes when it came to men. He wasn’t big on labels, though I still thought of him as bisexual. Maybe…

No, it was ridiculous. He’d never go for it. But , what if he did?

Could I do it? I didn’t care what became of my victims. My plan was to kill them all by their worst fears… My eyes landed on Roman and Jerald. Could I? After everything that had been done to me, could I really give another human being unwillingly to Jason? Knowing what would happen to him?

Jason claimed over and over again that what he did to men was not rape.

He was not into gay guys. He was not turned on by the male form.

But he loved submission through humiliation.

He needed the man he was with to hate himself for letting Jason do…

whatever it was Jason wanted to do to him in that moment.

I knew he was sexually aroused by women. I’d seen him at the club with some of the pain sluts. But more than once I’d heard him complain about how fragile women were, how much more men could take.

I didn’t care which one, Jerald or Roman. The choice would be his, though it would be more poetic towards my cause if it was Homophobic Roman.

A life for a life, in a twisted sense.

“Jason.” I waited for him to look at me before I made my offer. “What if I gave you one of them?”

His feet came down so hard they made an echoing slap on the concrete floor, but he did not flinch. “What do you mean?”

“I mean , I’ll spare one of their lives, give him to you to do with what you will, if you spare Master Mal’s life.”

I could see the eagerness in his eyes. It wasn’t quite right, though. A warped and evil sort of anticipation. And I knew that I had him.

Jason stood up. He pressed the buzzer again, but quickly this time. Both Roman and Jerald jumped. Roman had taken Jerald down to the floor, but had been struggling to pin him.

“Get up,” Jason ordered. “Kneel!”

They scrambled to obey. Those collars really worked wonders in ways of obedience, but I would still never feel right about putting one on a dog.

Jason went to one of the cabinets, unlocking it, before pulling out a gun. He held it out to me, holding the barrel.

I came forward and took it. But he didn’t let go right away.

“You’re serious? You’re trading one of their lives for your cop’s?”

I made sure I did not blink as I stared into his eyes. “Yes.”

“Either one?”

I shrugged. “Makes no difference to me.”

He dropped his hold on the gun. I checked it over as he taught me to before chambering a round.

Roman and Jerald were kneeling by the edge of the poorly drawn circle. Roman had a split lip while Jerald had blood dripping from his mouth. Both were breathing heavily and had rips and loose pieces of their dresses hanging from them.

“Today’s your lucky day, ladies. The woman you raped has decided to spare one of your lives.

” He started circling them, rubbing his hand through hair, touching their shoulders.

Roman flinched like Jason’s touch was acidic as Jason undid the buckle of their gags with an easy flick of the wrist. “This job opening is a first come-first serve basis. Literally .” He came around to stand in front of them, completely uncaring about his nudity or arousal.

“The rules of the wrestling match have changed! The first one to strip the other one down and make him cum by any means necessary gets to live. The loser? Well…let’s just say it’ll be the last orgasm of your life. ”