Page 12 of Fervent

God. Even that observation proved how twisted my head was. I wasn’t normal. I’d become too immune to the evil that lurked in people. If I could trade places with the girl on the other side of the wall, I would.

It was too late to save myself, but she was innocent. She was fucking innocent and I couldn’t do a thing to help her, couldn’t even tell her she wasn’t alone. Her screams continued, and I buried my face in my arms to drown out her pleas for help.

“If you ain’t gonna fuck him, why shouldn’t I?”

“Because I said so.” Jax’s tone brooked no argument.

Cleft pushed off me, and I let out a sigh of relief as his heavy boots thumped across the floor toward Jax. “Just because you weaseled your way back in, don’t think you’re calling the shots now.” He jabbed a finger at his chest. “If you don’t do him, I will. One way or another, his ass is getting fucked and filmed. He’s fucking Rafe Mason. That shit will sell.”

“That’s exactly why you’re not filming him. It’s too risky. You know my old man will side with me.” Jax glanced around the room. “Besides, you’re full of it. I don’t see you filming shit here.”

“Just warming up.” Cleft rolled his shoulders. “Uncle Luke won’t have a problem with a little fun.”

“You’re not gonna touch him.” Jax curled his lip. “So back the fuck off.”

“This is bullshit.”

“No,” Jax said. “The mess in here is bullshit. Fucking clean it up.” He pulled a hand through his blond hair and moved toward me, his feet pounding the ground in angry stomps. “Get him on his feet. Move!” he yelled when the guys holding me down didn’t budge. They scrambled into motion and dragged me upright. Blood rushed to my head, making my vision fuzzy as one of the goons bent to release my ankles. The other stepped behind me and freed my hands.

“You don’t have the balls to do him,” Cleft said with a taunting edge to his tone. “Even though you want to.”

“He’s off-limits. That’s all you need to know.” Jax glared at the two holding me up, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Get those filthy sweats off. We need to get him to the showers.”

One guy bent and tugged my pants further down my legs. “Lift your foot,” he said.

I did so, my head in a fog, and blinked several times, but the whole room and everyone in it wobbled. This wasn’t happening. This was another nightmare. After he pulled the sweats free from one leg, I raised my other foot and nearly lost my balance. He tossed the soiled clothing to the side and grabbed me by the arm.

Jax nodded toward the door. “Get moving. Cleft can clean this shit up.”

Cleft grumbled his dissent as they ushered me out the door and down a long tunnel. We passed a guy hauling a frail blonde by a leash, her skin damp and pasty. As she crawled past, she lifted her tear-filled eyes—eyes that grew huge as she took in my presence. She didn’t even look old enough to graduate high school. I could only imagine how terrified she must be, and seeing a guy my size, naked and barely able to walk under his own steam, must have sent a devastating blow to her hope for survival.

But I couldn’t think about that girl. Not now. Not with all the chaos raging through my head.

Jax’s familiar stride echoed behind us. The fact that it was familiar at all was shocking enough, but to wrap my fucking head around the rest of it—his presence here and the implication of his words back in that room—I couldn’t do it.

Thoughts bounced around my head, but I couldn’t catch a single one, couldn’t even form the words to convey the total mind-fuck this situation was. Words refused to leave my tongue. They were stuck there in surreal silence as Jax and the others pushed me into a room full of showers.

“Get lost,” he told the other two goons as he switched on the water.

I leaned against the tile, arms bent and forearms flat against the cold surface, and tried to gather my strength. As soon as the door shut behind the men, I lunged for Jax, hands going for his throat. But the floor tilted under me, and instead of attacking him, I used his shoulders to hoist myself upright.

“How the fuck are you behind this?”

He shoved me against the wall. Water washed over us in a chilly stream, dripping from my hair and soaking his T-shirt.

“You’re wasting your energy. They dosed you with the same shit you gave Alex when we took her.”

“Get your fucking hands off of me,” I said through clenched teeth. I pushed against his stocky frame, but he wouldn’t budge. Fucking drugs. It was the only way they’d keep me down, and they knew it.

Jax had known it. The fucker had shared a cell with me for…I didn’t know how long, but he’d been there, and he’d been in my damn house, living under the same roof.

He’d helped me take Alex.

He’d gotten me a fucking gun to protect her.

Why?

“None of this makes any sense.”

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