Page 15 of Taken By the Convicts
Not that Jayce cared. Not really.
Her eyes widened at Ivan’s question, but she didn’t answer. Not so bold now, their little toy. Something about seeing her restrained stirred Jayce’s cock.
“Answer me!” Ivan yelled.
“No,” she squeaked, her eyes glued to Ivan.
“Do you know what it’s like to be in pain every day, hours on end? Pain so relentless you can’t sleep without drugging yourself, but you can’t drug yourself because that leaves you vulnerable to the sick fucks who would kill you in your sleep if you don’t sleep with one eye open? Pain changes a person, doctor. It makes a person not care about anything except getting relief.”
Or revenge.
Jayce knew Ivan from their days growing up on the outskirts of Turul on Argus. Ivan never let anyone take advantage of him, or harm him, not without exacting his own brand of justice. It’s what had made him such a good soldier, what had made his men so loyal to him. What had made Jayce loyal to him. Fuck,stillloyal to him.
Ivan dropped her. She crumpled to the floor but turned those defiant eyes up to Ivan once more. “If you’re in pain, I can help you. I’m a doctor and I specialize in pharmaceuticals.”
That was the wrong thing to say for some reason. Ivan lifted her, rougher than Jayce had ever seen him handle anyone, and this was a woman. Ivan ripped the coat from her, grabbed her by her neck, and flung her at Jayce. “She’s all yours. Make it hurt.”
Ivan stormed out of the room. A minute later, another door slammed down the hall.
Apparently, pain did change a man because Jayce had never seen Ivan hurt a female in his life, and the man had had his share on Argus. But he wanted nothing to do with this one.
She drew her legs up against her chest, trying to hide her nudity from him. And still, she didn’t lift her head to see Jayce. It’s as if he were as invisible as he was all those years growing up on the streets of Turul.
* * *
MELINA
Melina drewher knees up and wrapped her arms around her legs. Down here in the bunker, the temperature was moderate. Even so, she couldn’t stop shaking. She couldn’t wrap her head around everything that had happened to her. The danger remained the same; only the predators had changed.
The anger running through the leader, Ivan, frightened her in a different way than the man who remained with her in the room. Jayce had been straightforward about what he wanted. Sex. He didn’t appear to want to hurt or humiliate her though, not like Ivan or the men who’d pulled her from the hole.
She had no desire to be with Jayce, or any man really, except maybe her patient this morning. Reece. She let her memory drift to him. He’d killed for her. She still couldn’t believe that. No one had ever done anything for her, let alone commit the ultimate crime. It’s why she’d told the guards she’d killed Collins. She couldn’t let them harm Reece. For all she knew, the man was a serial killer, but he’d saved her. He’d even locked himself back into his cuffs after the attack, trying to make her feel safe. Hecared. A man actually cared about her.
And she’d never see him again. She’d been taken because she had ignored Manager Thorne’s advice and left the med-center. He knew this would happen, as had she. It was inevitable. Too many men had been waiting outside the med-center. Collins had been inside the med-center.
Three weeks ago, when she arrived on Veenith, she had an emergency lockdown button in the med-center, giving her some control over her situation. That had left her feeling confident about her safety. It wasn’t until two prisoners dragged Hannah in that Melina realized anyone could enter the med-center, that she couldn’t rely on the guards. Some could be bribed, others didn’t follow protocol which stated only wounded prisoners would be admitted. Conditions grew worse when Thorne removed the lockdown mechanism and startedpromotingwell-behaved miners to med-tech.Well-behaved. . . What a joke. They were all murderers and rapists here.
Safety on Veenith was a fallacy.
That’s why she had wanted a unit for protection, even knowing that she’d have to pay with her body. She would indeed pay. But would these men kill her when they were done with her? She had to make herself valuable somehow, even if only through sex.
Before arriving on Veenith, she’d made up her mind that she’d do anything to survive. After all, she’d survived Namir and The Company. She could do this.
Sex was just sex. If she kept reminding herself that and learned to zone out like she had with Namir, she’d survive this. She had an illegal birth control implant, so there’d be no lasting repercussions. If they weren’t too rough with her.
A hand sifted through her hair. Jayce stood over her. Flashbacks of Namir holding her down for his friends ripped through her mind and she let a whimper escape.
“I won’t hurt you,” Jayce said as he squatted before her.
Her eyes shot up to him. She’d forgotten he was here. How could she forget a sexual predator was in the room with her?
Because Namir haunted her no matter what she did to forget him. No matter where she was, or what was happening to her, and nothing scared her as much as Namir.
“You’ll hurt me for him,” she said.
“Ivan?” he asked as he looked over his shoulder for a moment. Green eyes returned to her, softer than earlier. “I owe him.”
He hadn’t denied her accusation. The man was loyal to Ivan.
