Page 189 of I Will Break You

“Are those zip ties?” I rasp.

“Good girl. What else?”

“They stuffed a rag into her mouth and taped it shut.”

He nods. “Anything else?”

“Scarves,” I say through clenched teeth. “They’re grabbing everything they can to tie her up.”

“Why do you think that is?” Jynxson asks.

I glance over at Xero’s friend. “To make the video more creative?”

He makes a see-saw motion with his hand. “They don’t want to travel with obvious restraints in case they get stopped. The less incriminating evidence they carry, the better.”

The screen goes black, then the next scene is Lizzie fully dressed and made up, being shoved against a mugshot board. Men dressed as officers poke her with their batons, forcing her to face the camera and strip.

Nausea clogs my throat. All my intentions to witness Lizzie’s ordeal waver, and I find myself whispering, “Do I have to watch this part?”

“I can increase the speed,” Jynxson says.

“You need to understand the threat,” Xero growls. “You can’t hide away from what’s out there or assume they’ll be satisfied with Lizzie Bath. This could be you, and you need to be prepared.”

I want to close my eyes, stick my fingers in my ears, and escape the guards’ laughter and the sounds of her whimpering. But Xero is right. Even if it’s for my peace of mind, I still need to know how to fight, and more importantly, escape bindings.

Tears sting my eyes, and I swallow over and over, trying to force them back. “Alright,” I rasp. “I won’t miss a single scene.”

EIGHTY-FIVE

XERO

I sit beside Amethyst on an exercise mat, studying her reaction to Lizzie Bath’s video. There’s a strip search where she’s degraded by officers and assaulted with batons, followed by a ‘night in jail’ where the officers take turns with her while she’s cuffed to an iron cot.

Amethyst’s breath shallows and her skin glistens with sweat. My chest tightens. I hate for anyone other than me to make her so distressed, but this is the only way for her to grasp the gravity of the threat. I can protect her as long as she’s compliant, but nothing is foolproof.

The only way I can be sure Amethyst survives long enough for me to take out her enemies is if she’s equipped with the basics of combat and escape. Her posture shrinks, and her face leaches to the shade of her peroxide-blonde curls. I’ve never seen her look so ghostlike.

Back on screen, the older woman passes out, and the actors slap her awake. By the time they shave her head, both Amethyst and Lizzie’s faces are blank. Afterward, they chain her to a shower room, where she’s surrounded by a quartet of male prisoners for a final gang rape before the grand finale.

“No more,” Amethyst whispers. “I’ve got the message.”

“Which is?” I ask, as a naked man in an executioner’s hoodsits Lizzie on an electric chair, where he shoves a metal probe into her vagina and attaches crocodile clips to each nipple. After securing her body with electrodes, he thrusts his cock in Lizzie’s mouth.

“I need to take this training seriously. Stop fighting you. Stop complaining. Stop getting in your way.”

“And?”

She takes her eyes off the screen. “What more do you want from me?”

“No plotting your escape.”

Her jaw clicks shut, confirming my suspicions that she was planning on leaving. Without another word, she turns to the screen where Lizzie sits under a metal cap with cum oozing from between her lips. Behind her, the executioner pulls down a lever that sends a deadly current into her twitching form.

My jaw clenches, and my veins surge with hot fury. This is what they would have done to my Amethyst. Defiled her in multiple different ways before executing her for fun and profit.

We’ve killed pornographers before, but never encountered anything so well-organized. The last den we took out was a three-man operation run from a rented apartment, where they converted each room into studios. Amateurs compared to X-Cite Media.

The scene is so similar to John’s execution that it’s obvious they have an insider in the prison to help with authenticity. I turn to Jynxson. “We need to have a word with Officer McMurphy.”

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