“Ohhh. Oh yes. Harder, baby. Harder.”
“OHHHH!”
Ellie meets my gaze and rolls her eyes.
I place a finger in my mouth and pantomime gagging, eliciting a tiny smile from her. A fleeting smile, yes, but a smile all the same.
The sight makes my chest puff out, masculine pride swelling inside me.
I fucking love it when she smiles.
“We need to be quiet. Cautious,” Ryker begins, his voice a low rasp. “We can’t?—”
Zane kicks the door open with a cheerful, “DING DONG, THE BITCH IS DEAD!”
I facepalm, Beckett rolls his eyes, and Ryker looks two seconds away from having an aneurysm.
But Ellie? She giggles. Actually fucking giggles, and it’s the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard. It makes me want to kill Zane less than I did before. Slightly less.
Marginally less.
The judge is an older man, with a receding hairline and white wisps that resemble cumulus clouds on the top of his head. His pudgy belly strains against his shirt, and his cock is out, his hand wrapped tight around it.
On the screen, a woman is getting railed by a man who looks eerily similar to him in size and stature, though the face is completely different.
I have no idea if this porn is a product of POP—and the participants are unwilling—but it doesn’t matter. He’s going to die either way.
He signed his death warrant the second he purchased Ellie.
“W-what? Who the fuck are you?” His eyes bulge out of their sockets as they volley from face to face. We discussed wearing masks to this little meet-and-greet before deciding against it.
We want him to see our faces before he dies. To look the Grim Reaper in the face and tremble in fear.
Then his eyes slide to Ellie, and the shock is replaced by something else, something I can’t read. Avarice, maybe. Greed. Or maybe it’s a desire so pungent I actually start to gag.
Either way, the sight has anger blazing up my spine in ropes of fire. I shift slightly so I’m standing protectively in front of Ellie, shielding her from sight.
Not that it deters her. The stubborn girl simply shifts to the right, so she has a better view of our victim.
“You know her,” Zane says with feigned casualness, though no one can miss the malevolent undercurrent in his voice. It laces each and every word, imbuing them with poison. “You recognize her.”
“I…I don’t know what you mean.” The judge moves to stand, desperately searching for a sympathetic face, but he won’t find one.
Everyone here hungers for his death.
“You know exactly what he means,” Ellie says, taking a single step forward. I fucking hate that she’s even speaking to this scum, but I can’t help but be proud of her. There’s not an ounce of fear in her eyes, not a single quiver in her smoky voice. Sheer determination reflects in her gray-blue eyes behind her glasses. “Youboughtme.”
The judge releases a strangled sound. “What the hell are you going on about? Kids, get out of my office before I?—”
“Before you what?” Ryker materializes behind the judge, an insidious grin stretching his lips. His ice-blue eyes glimmer ruthlessly through the darkness of his hood. “Sit the fuck down, you ugly cunt.”
Ryker doesn’t give the judge time to comply.
He simply reaches forward and pushes at the judge’s shoulders, forcing him back into his seat.
“You don’t want to do this.” Some of the judge’s bravado returns, his chest puffing out even as his cheeks turn blotchy, stained red with anger. “Do you have any idea who I am?”
“A sick pervert who buys people online?” Beckett moves toward the judge’s computer and twists it so he can type on it. His eyebrows lower in concentration as his fingers dance across the keys. After a few moments, he pulls back, triumphant, a smirk dancing on his lips. “Found it.”
