Yeah, keep your eyes on me, little girl. Because if you happen to look down, you’ll get an idea of just how much I’m enjoying this.
Which is exactly what she does. She rips her face out of my fingers, leaving red marks behind, and tries to peel my fingers off her wrist.
“Let me go,” she murmurs. “Please, Zach, let me go.”
“So now it’s Zach?” I jerk her into me, grab the small of her back and grind my dick into her stomach. “And when exactly did we become such good friends?”
Something akin to a whimper escapes her lips. She starts struggling against me, another breathless, “No!” slipping out of her trembling lips.
“Jesus, is this happening or not?” Cass demands behind me.
Guess I go out of my way to be cruel sometimes, even to those who don’t deserve it.
I grab Trinity’s arms, fumbling with her when she tries to rip free, and turn her to face my brothers. She tries to step back, but I keep her in place with my body.
We don’t have the kind of props and equipment down here that we had in the basement. No wire-framed beds with handy straps. No suspended rails and butcher’s hooks.
But we have Reuben.
He’s sitting on the couch, feet firmly planted. Cass is kneeling on the floor in front of him, buck naked.
When Trinity goes rigid in my arms, Cass glances up at Reuben and gives him a barely perceptible nod.
Reuben breaks eye contact, and his usually emotionless face turns to stone. He grabs Cass’s upper arms and wrenches him forward.
Tonight, Rube will be our brace and our straps.
Cass folds over Rube’s lap, burrowing his head into the couch beside Reuben’s hip, baring his already bruised ass to Trinity.
“Who did that to you?” she gasps.
Aw, fuck. Ain’t she the cutest?
Trinity hurries forward the instant I release her. While she falls to her knees beside Cass for all the world like a fucking mother hen, I walk past Apollo to fetch the belt he’s holding out to me.
“I did,” I say.
Cass lets out a soft grunt when my belt slams against his flesh.
Trin yelps in surprise and falls back, flashing me her white panties and a horrified expression as she scrambles away.
I expect her to start crying.
Maybe even run.
Instead, she bolts to her feet and shoves me hard enough to make me take a step back.
“Stop!” she yells, putting herself between Cass and me. “Stop hitting him!”
“Hear that, Cass?” I ask, absently snapping the belt as Trinity shows me her teeth. “She wants me to stop.”
“Jesus, fuck,” Cass groans, which is surprisingly articulate for him at a time like this.
I try to keep my eyes on Trinity, but it’s impossible with Cass busy having a fucking apoplexy behind her.
She doesn’t have a fucking clue. Not a single goddamn clue.
She’s hurting him more than my belt ever could.
“Put it down,” she says, holding out her hand. “Just…put it down.”
It must be the weed, because I legit want to humor her, just to see how far this goes before she realizes what the hell’s going on.
I can see why Rube likes her so much.
Fucking adorable, she is.
I haven’t met something this innocent since my parents tossed Cass down those basement stairs, nearly breaking the poor kid’s neck. That didn’t happen again, of course, not after his first Ghost saw the scratch he’d gotten on his pretty fucking face.
Oh no.
After that, nothing touched his face.
Or Rube’s.
Or Apollo’s.
I wasn’t there because I was pretty, so they felt they could hit me wherever the fuck they wanted. One of them even broke my nose.
Luckily, I don’t scar as easily as Cass.
Luckily, mine wasn’t the first nose the Ghosts broke in that basement, and by the time they broke mine, Rube had experience in straightening broken bridges.
“You think I want you to watch me belt him?” I ask Trinity, genuinely intrigued.
“I don’t care what you want,” she says. “Just give it here, okay?” She flicks her fingers, but doesn’t look at the belt. Keeps her eyes on me. Like I’m a wild animal bound to attack as soon as she breaks eye contact.
I guess I am, at that.
Her eyes flicker when I hand her the belt. “Okay,” she murmurs. Then she glances at Rube. “Now how about you let him go? Please?”
“Why are you sticking up for him?” Apollo asks as he collapses into his couch, a freshly rolled joint dangling from his lips. “Thought you had it in for him?”
“I didn’t say that,” she says, frowning briefly at Apollo before looking at me again. “Can Reuben let him go?”
I lean my weight back on one foot. “We’re not done here yet.”
“Please, Zachary. Whatever he’s done…he doesn’t deserve this.”
The smirk falls right off my face.
She shakes her head, those amber eyes glowing with naivety. “No matter what he’s done, you can forgive him. You’re friends, aren’t you?”
A soft laugh huffs out of me. “You think he deserves forgiveness?”
“Yes.” She nods firmly. “Definitely.”
“Fine. We’ll forgive him. But on one condition…”
Her eyes become wary, searching my face as if she can try and spot where I’m headed. But if she hasn’t figured it out by now, it’s not gonna happen.
“What?” she asks reluctantly.
Apollo lights the joint. A haze of weed smoke fills the space between.
I smile at her as I lean forward. She flinches when I touch the belt in her hands, but since I don’t try and take it away, she doesn’t fight me.
“You take his place.”
Chapter Forty
Trinity
I’m about ready to pee myself. Of all the possibilities I’d dreamed up, Zachary belting Cass while Reuben held him down and Apollo watched…
Yeah, that never came up.
I wince as Zachary tightens his grip.
I don’t want him hitting Cass, but…I don’t want him hitting me either.
At least, not with a fucking belt.
I don’t know where I summon the courage, but perhaps it’s because I’ve managed to convince myself that this is the lesser of two evils.
I move the belt to the side. “You can use your hand.”
Surprise or irritation flickers in Zachary’s eyes. He rips the belt out of my hand and grabs the front of my throat.
“You get the belt, or Cass gets the belt. It’s that fucking simple.”
He’s not choking me, else I’d have fought him. Maybe I can still reason with him. “What did he do to you?” I murmur, trying to keep my voice for Zachary’s ears alone. “Why do you have to hurt him?”
But this place is too small, because Cass hears me.
“What did I do?” Cass says.
Unwilling, my eyes drop to where he’s still kneeling a few feet beside me. And no matter how hard I try, I can’t look away.
It’s not just that he’s beautiful. And I mean, holy hell, he’s the kind of handsome where if you saw him in a movie or in a magazine, you’d spend a good few minutes wondering about him. What his life was like, where he lived, if he had a dog, how much he was paid and whether that was a lot of money to someone like him.