Chapter 33: Rebel Revenge: Chapter 33

Everything inside me wanted to kill the man who’d dared to lay a finger on my woman. He was right there, tied up at my feet, staring up at me with piss-stained pants and pathetic, begging eyes.

But he wasn’t mine to finish.

I knew what it meant, to take out the person who’d hurt you. There was a closure in it. One that brought peace you couldn’t get in any other way.

She needed that.

My little Pix.

I wouldn’t take it from her, even if this motherfucker deserved to die a thousand fucking times in a thousand different ways.

I knelt and stared Rebel’s rapist in the eye. “Your time will come. And when it does, I’ll be standing right behind her, proud as fucking hell. You underestimated her, friend. You think you’re scared now? Just wait.”

I meant every fucking word.

But if I hung around here any longer, my base desires that screamed to take out a knife and run it across his throat might get the better of me. I strode around the front of the house and leaned on an overpriced car, while I stared at the front door, waiting for Rebel to reemerge with Kian and Vaughn. She’d closed the door when she’d gone back in, and the fucking thing needed a code to open. One I didn’t know.

I pulled out a smoke and lit it up, needing the fucking thing to calm the nerves that mounted with every passing minute.

It was taking too long.

I strode to the gate where we’d entered and eyed the solid silver padlock that hadn’t been there earlier. I racked my brain for a single logical reason they would have locked everyone in and came up with nothing.

From the corner of my eye, I spotted the bucket of phones, stashed away, half hidden behind a garden bed. The rising sense of dread intensified. No one on that side of the fence had any way of leaving or even calling out for help. The whole thing screamed red flag.

I should have said something. Should have put a stop to this crazy before it got to this point. But it was too late for regrets now.

I rifled through the bucket, taking out my phone, as well as Kian’s and Vaughn’s. I picked up my pacing again and called Rebel, but it went straight to voicemail, her chirpy, sassy greeting and directions to leave a message familiar.

Normally it made me smile. I loved every fucking thing about her, from her voice to her body, to the way she made me feel whenever we were in the same room.

I hated how I felt right now, without her at my side.

I stubbed out the half-smoked cigarette. “Fuck this.”

I stormed back over to my hog-tied friend and yanked the gag out of his mouth. “Code for the front door and I’ll tell her to show you mercy.”

He rattled off a simple four-digit code quicker than you could blink.

“Sweet. Thanks. Lied about the mercy by the way. See ya.”

I shoved his gag back in, cutting off the pathetic man’s howl of despair.

It was easy enough to get back into the house with the code. I stormed through the doorway, not giving a shit anymore about who saw me or tried to stop me. Until I got to Rebel, let them fucking try.

The house was quiet, no sign of my girl or her purse. So why the hell wasn’t she answering her damn phone? I knew she hadn’t given it up at the gates.

I jerked open glass sliding doors and reentered the party like a man on a mission. I knocked into people as I passed. One guy told me to fuck off but was silenced by the glare I shot him.

I was just itching for a fight. Burning to use up some of this adrenaline and frustration on someone.

From my six-five vantage point, I spotted the bright yellow of Vaughn’s Robin cape and Kian’s face full of Joker makeup.

I shoved my way over to them, heartbeat picking up with every step.

She’d be with them.

She had to be.

I just couldn’t see her ’cause she was really fucking short, and Kian and Vaughn towered over her.

My body didn’t believe my brain.

I was running before I even realized it, shoving people out of the way.

I grabbed Vaughn by the shoulder, spinning him around, searching the space between him and Kian for my girl.

“Where’s—” Kian and I said in unison, before the music cut out and a chorus of boos drowned us out.

Hugh stood up on a table, clapping and telling the crowd to settle down. “Shut up, all of you. You’ll be glad you did when you hear what I have to say.”

The look on his face was one not entirely unfamiliar to me.

I’d seen it on men before.

Men who did bad things for bad reasons.

He waved for everyone to settle down. “Now that we’re all here, and the gates have been locked, it’s time to get the party started!”

Another cheer went up from the men around us.

Hugh was clearly loving every minute, because his grin was ear to ear. “There’s drinks in the coolers. Food on the table. And every slut here has been signed away by a man as free use. So take full advantage, boys! Enjoy!”

“What the fuck does that mean?” I asked Kian.

He glanced over at me. “No idea.”

But the other men all seemed to know.

A scream came from somewhere behind me, and I spun around to watch two men chase a woman through the yard. A third man caught her around the waist and pushed her onto the ground. A circle immediately formed around them, men leering and cheering at the two grappling on the grass, him yanking her skirt up while trying to get his pants off all at once.

All around us, other circles formed, each one full of men watching while others attacked the small number of women in attendance. Even if they weren’t the ones with a woman pinned beneath them, they had their cocks out, stroking themselves excitedly, watching the attacks take place.

Bile churned in my stomach. “What the hell is this?” I asked in horror.

Kian shook his head. “I’ve no idea, but we need to help them.” He lurched in the direction of the nearest woman.

Vaughn grabbed his arm. “Three versus a hundred, Kian,” he hissed. “We can’t save them all. We need to concentrate on Rebel.”

Everything inside me hated that. But the thought Rebel was here somewhere took priority over everything else. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, Vaughn was right.

The random guy next to me, who was casually sipping his beer, glanced over at us. “Save them? This is a primal party.”

“What is that?” I choked out.

“How sex used to be, back in the day, you know? When men were actually men and there was none of this woke bullshit. See a woman you want? You fucking take her.”

“Rape her, you mean?” I could barely hold myself together.

He shrugged. “They like it. They all got signed over when they came in. Don’t stress, they can’t go crying to the cops. We’re all in costume anyway, what are they gonna say? Batman fucked my tight little cunt?” He laughed like it was hilarious.

I couldn’t even get a word out.

I’d seen some messed-up shit in my time. I’d seen men do evil things. This was maybe the worst.

Kian stared over at the woman on the ground screaming. “Does she fucking look like she likes it?” He turned around and slammed his palms against Vaughn’s chest. “Did you fucking know about this? That this is what you were signing Rebel up for when you brought her here?”

Vaughn shoved him back, his face equally distraught. “Are you insane? Of course I fucking didn’t!”

I spun around in circles, desperately searching the yard for Rebel. I checked the face of every woman in every circle, desperately wanting to save them all but knowing I was outnumbered a hundred to one.

A bellowing scream of frustration and fear burst from my lungs when I couldn’t find the one woman I would take on a hundred men for. I wouldn’t have even given it a second thought.

“She’s not here.” Vaughn came to the same conclusion I did.

“She has to be!” Kian shouted at him. “She wouldn’t just leave.” He turned to me. “You were supposed to have her back!”

“I fucking did!” I roared. “She came back for you two!”

“I haven’t seen her since we first got here.” Kian palmed the back of his neck, eyes wild.

How was that possible? She hadn’t been in the house. And she hadn’t been out the front. “She never came back out at all?”

He shook his head slowly.

The fear was choking. If one man here had laid a fucking finger on her I was going to burn them all alive. Every single sick fuck here.

“Have you called her?” Vaughn asked, pulling his phone from my hand and checking the screen.

“It goes straight to voicemail.” I shoved Kian’s phone back at him. “Check your phone.”

He looked down but then shook his head tightly. “Nothing.”

She wouldn’t have just left. I knew it in my gut. She was here. Somewhere. The fact I couldn’t get to her was killing me.

Kian paused. “I can find her on SnapChat. She added me last week. If her location is on, it’ll show me where she is.”

I didn’t even know what the hell that was, but I didn’t care.

Because something else had just occurred to me. “I don’t see Caleb.”

Vaughn scanned the party the same way I had. “I don’t see him either.”

“He’s not here,” I realized with a start. “If he were, it would have been him up there, making that announcement. Did you see the way Hugh got off on it? You think Caleb wouldn’t have wanted that power?”

“Rebel isn’t here,” Kian announced. “She’s…fuck, back at home? How?”

Relief flooded me. “She’s home?”

Vaughn turned the screen around and flashed it at me. “If she’s with her phone, she is.”

I slumped, the relief as soothing as balm on ragged, torn skin.

“Thank fuck for that,” Vaughn blew out a breath and ran his thumbs over his phone as the three of us strode to the exit. “I’m calling nine-one-one to get the cops out here.”

We got to the locked gate, and I shook my head in disgust, knowing now it was to keep the women in. To keep them from escaping this fucking house of horrors. I slammed one booted foot against the eight-foot fence, taking out all my anger on it, and took the momentary second of joy when it popped the lock straight off the gate.

The three of us strode across the lawn to Vaughn’s car. Kian watching his phone the entire time.

“How on earth did she get back home so quick?”

“Uber, maybe?” Vaughn replied, his pace practically a jog in his impatience to get out of there. He looked vaguely green in the light of a streetlamp. “I don’t fucking care, I’m just glad she’s not still here. You guys have to know that I knew nothing about this. I would never come to something like this if I’d known. This is so fucking messed up.” His fingers shook as he ran them through his hair.

You couldn’t fake that level of anguish.

He truly hadn’t known.

I was still pissed with him though. He’d put her in danger.

But maybe I had too. I’d gone along with all of this.

I’d let her go back into the house without me.

I’d done exactly what she’d told me to do, like a good fucking puppy.

I shouldn’t have let her. It was my fault as much as his.

We were halfway across the lawn when Kian suddenly stopped, his gaze pinned on the open garage door.

And the empty space beyond it.

“What if she didn’t take an Uber?” Kian asked, his voice as cold and dead as the Halloween decorations around us.

I stared at the empty car space, a new fear rising and swamping me. “We saw him drive in here. His car should be here.”

“Call him.” My voice was cold. Dead.

Vaughn hit a phone number on his phone, and a moment later, Caleb’s laughter came down the line. “Vaughn! Old friend. Are you enjoying the party?”

He didn’t even need to say a word. The smugness in his tone told us everything we needed to know.

He had her.

“If you’ve so much as laid a finger on her, Caleb, I swear to God—” Vaughn clenched his fingers around his phone so hard I was surprised the screen didn’t crack.

“You’ll what, Vaughn?” Caleb scoffed. “Run off to California again?”

Vaughn said nothing.

Caleb’s chuckle was nothing short of menacing. “Relax. We’re just having a little private party. You want to talk to her? Cry for them, baby. I bet they like it too.”

Rebel’s scream came down the line.

I was going to vomit.

“We’ve called the cops,” Vaughn choked out.

The pain in his face was a mirror image of mine, I was sure of it. That scream… I’d never be able to forget it.

Caleb clucked his tongue. “Waste of time. Already paid them off to turn a blind eye tonight.”

Vaughn looked to me, then Kian. “We’re coming, Roach. Hang on.”

“Great!” Caleb crowed. “Just in time for you to watch me fuck her some more then. You know she screams when you take her hard and fast? Oh, of course you do, she lives with you. You probably fuck her tight cunt like that all the time, don’t you? Your other friends too? I knew you’d all like my parties. You’re my kind of men.”

The noise that escaped my mouth as we ran for Vaughn’s car was a howl made of outrage and agony. Everything inside me hurt, like someone was squeezing every organ until I was nothing but mush. I couldn’t run fast enough. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t fucking help her.

He had her.

And it was all my fault.

Again.