Page 19 of Taken
Although Trish wanted to talk, to ask questions, to get to know Trix - she couldn’t help but wonder if Trix had started out as a captive too - she found herself tongue-tied. After all, Jordan was still sitting beside her, his arm wrapped possessively around her, firm fingers resting against her thigh. Cupping her thigh, really, as if holding her in place against him.
It didn’t seem as if Trix needed much encouragement though. She started talking to both Trish and Jordan, acting as if they were already old friends. Or maybe that was just how she was. From listening, Trish learned that the man and woman who’d just left were named Bryant and Lenore, and that Lenore was a sniper about to go out on assignment. Exactly what the assignment consisted of was left rather vague, and Trish got the idea that Trix didn’t know. Apparently Bryant worked on the Compound, making weapons rather than using them, but was considered a civilian because he wasn’t trained. Before they’d left, they’d been discussing the merits of him training with Chevie and Trix.
Trish also learned that Chevie was trained, but was in charge of the Compound’s kitchen, and Trix was not trained, and helped Chevie in the kitchen.
“Have you seen the news vids today?” Trix asked.
Jordan’s arm tightened around Trish, and she looked at him curiously. Mostly she avoided looking at him, but she didn’t understand his response so she looked.
“Trish doesn’t have access,” he said.
The lack of inflection in his voice made it sound like a warning, which made Trish wonder why she didn’t have access and why he wouldn’t want Trix to talk to her about it. Obviously there was something she was missing, but what? It couldn’t have been of too much import because Trix’s expression didn’t even flicker, she just shrugged and immediately moved on to a new subject. Maybe Trish could gather up the courage to question Jordan about it later.
Just from sitting with them, letting Trix control the conversation, Trish learned a lot about the Compound itself. Like it had its own gardens, was self-sustaining, the Wolf was one of the best leaders in the area, paid well, provided jobs for the community, and would even take in the many homeless in the area when severe weather conditions made the outside unlivable. Hearing Trix’s heavy praise of the Wolf was jarring, to say the least.
Fortunately she didn’t have to listen for too long before Jordan was getting up, saying they needed to get inside for dinner and the floor show. Trix just laughed, a slightly mean edge to her laugh, while Chevie smiled.
“Well no one wants to miss that,” Trix said, a bit of a gleam in her eyes. “I always love watching those Moon assholes get theirs.” She glanced at Trish. “Not you, I mean. You’re different, obviously.”
Why? And why obviously? But Trish had to bite her tongue as Jordan led her away. Although she wasn’t sure she’d have the guts to ask anyway. What if she didn’t like the answer?
She didn’t feel like she fit in any more with Trix than she did with Alex and Bella. Trix was obviously happy to be here, loved the Wolf, and hated the Moon and anyone from it, even if she had been nice to Trish. Still, it had been kind of nice to be able to hear about the Compound, from someone a bit more effusive than Jordan.
Maybe she should cultivate Trix… she seemed to know everything. Maybe she would know something that would help Trish and the others escape. Not that she thought Trix would willingly tell her, but she might let something drop…
It was a thought anyway.
The floor show consisted of Bella being molested by another woman as she received a plug in her bottom. Trish shifted on Jordan’s lap, her own plug shifting with her. She barely noticed it anymore, except when he was taking it out or putting it back in. Trish couldn’t help but feel that the exhibitionism of Bella with another woman being forced on her was almost karma for earlier… even though she knew that hadn’t really been Bella’s fault. Bella had been forced to it as well.
Ugh.
Trish turned her head, tucking it under Jordan’s chin, to observe the Wolf. He was watching the “floor show” with dark, hungry eyes, completely focused on what was happening to Bella. Trying to remove herself from the situation, Trish pushed aside her own personal feelings to make some observations.
The Wolf enjoyed what he was doing to Bella and Alex.
The Wolf also treated his own people well. He didn’t consider Bella or Alex his ‘people’ even though he considered them ‘his.’
The Wolf could probably give a team of psychologists a lifetime of work, figuring out his motivations and documenting his actions and theorizing about him. The Compound could certainly give sociologists the same thing.
The residents were just as interested in the floor show as the Wolf. They were distracted by it, enjoying it… as if they didn’t see Alex and Bella as real people. The thought made Trish’s mouth twist into a grimace, because she was all too aware how often the residents of the Moon didn’t see people who were below their own financial and social strata as people either. In some ways, there was a kind of equality about it.
Trish wondered if that’s why the Wolf did it. Old Roman Emperors had distracted the impoverished masses with gladiator shows. Was the Wolf deliberately doing something similar here? Only with the added benefit that his people could become hands on as well, doling out punishment to real, living representations of the Moon and its ill treatment of Earth’s population? A way of debasing the people of the Moon, getting revenge on them? It might only be one or two people at a time, but…
That savagery, that pulsing desire that filled the room, it was more than just sexual. Trish found herself snuggling more firmly into Jordan’s arms, well aware that as a former resident of the Moon she was just as vulnerable to that bias. Or, at least, she would be if it weren’t for him. She couldn’t protect herself from him, but he had apparently set himself up as her protector from everything else.
Cold comfort when she wondered how long it would last, but at least, for now, she was safe. It was no wonder her instinct was to burrow into him.
Deliberately, she got control over herself and pulled away. He kept his arms tight around her, but she was no longer clinging to him. Have some self-respect, she told herself.
While she’d been ruminating, the floor show had turned into Bella being used on each end by two men. Closing her eyes, she listened to Bella’s inexplicable orgasm, followed by the Wolf’s question to Alex… and Alex’s utter rejection of sucking the Wolf’s cock in exchange for a meal.
At some point, Alex was going to have to cave, wasn’t he? If they were ever going to escape, Trish didn’t fool herself… Neither she nor Bella were fighters, nor did either of them possess much brute strength. They both conformed to the Moon’s definition of feminine, which meant they were physically weaker than probably every single person at the Compound.
“Hands above your head, babygirl,” Jordan ordered, moving her arms up like she was a doll. Trish obeyed anyway, not fighting him as he put her in the position that he wanted, flat on her back on his bed.
Well fed, but feeling strangely defeated and alone, it was just easier to obey for right now. At least she wasn’t bursting into tears constantly anymore, she told herself. She supposed the shock and disbelief must have finally worn off and now she’d moved on to acceptance. Or, at least, resignation. Only until she could find an ally or something to help her escape, she told herself… but until then, she’d rather not be crying constantly anyway. Especially because Jordan had been forcing fluid down her throat all day, constantly making her drink from a glasses of water that he kept procuring. When she’d finally protestedduring her third glass at dinner, he’d firmly told her that he wasn’t going to risk her dehydrating.
Now, he wrapped soft cuffs around her wrists and Trish felt herself quake in fear. Being tied up like this meant there really wasn’t anything she could do… not that she could do much anyway.
