Page 23 of Worth the Ruin
I don’t understandwhat the hell is going on here and I can’t get close enough to Traeger to demand an answer, though I’m pretty sure I already know what it is. But no. I refuse to accept that, to believe it. It’s been three days, and I still haven’t been punished or locked up or seen any signs that this place is the hell we all thought it was. Every day, I’ve been escorted to meals and my shift in the garden or greenhouse I was assigned to by Renee, still with a guard trailing behind us. Everything has been…fine.Nice even. I really like Renee and Wynn has joined us at our table for dinner every night too.
I might not have been able to talk to Traeger yet, but I’ve seen him, and every time his gaze locks with mine across the room, his look is so intense that it makes my pulse race. I can’t decipher the look. Is he still pissed or upset or whatever he’d been when I’d essentially called him a sadistic psychopath that first night? Is he waiting for me to do something stupid? Is he rethinking my (embarrassing) offer to be his whore? I have no idea, but I decide to do my best to just ignore him until he decides he wants to talk to me again. Maybe that’ll be never.
I’ve had the privilege of running into Jett on several occasions though and it’s taken all of my self-control not to kill the bastard each time. He’d blocked my path coming in from the gardens my second day, forcing me to walk around him with a stupid self-satisfied grin on his face. Last night, he’d forced his way in to sit beside me at dinner, continually brushing my thigh with his, even going so far as to grab it roughly when I tried to jerk it away. He’d given it a harsh squeeze, hard enough to leave bruises where his fingertips had been before releasing me, eating and chatting and laughing as if nothing had happened. Wynn had eyed him with thinly veiled contempt and given me a look that asked if everything was alright. I nodded, letting him know I was fine. This place may not be what I thought it was, but I knew that I was still being watched very closely to make sure I was keeping to my end of the agreement and behaving. Having beef with Jett wouldn’t be a good idea.
But now, he corners me in a supply closet.
“One of these days,” he says quietly as he closes in on me. I don’t lash out, not yet, but I tense every muscle as he presses me back against a shelf. I don’t think he’ll actually try anything here and now, this is just a scare tactic, but I’m ready to defend myself if I need to.
“One of these days,” he continues, “I’ll get to play with Traeger’s new shiny toy.” He grips the shelf just above my head as he leans in to whisper in my ear, his breath hot and smelling like an ashtray. “I tend tobreakmy toys though…”
I inhale sharply but he only chuckles and pulls away, leaving me alone and fuming and feeling like I might vomit. That’s when I realize that my body reacted to Jett with pure revulsion…but with Traeger, it had practically purred.Maybe because you know Jett is a true monster, whereas Traeger is just masquerading,my mind whispers. I push the thoughts away and force my muscles to unclench as I try to calm the undeniablefightinstincts that are still screaming inside me.
Because I don’t really haveany other choice, I reluctantly begin to settle into life here at FOS. It’s been two weeks now and though I’m still cautious and trying to keep to mostly to myself, Renee and Wynn are both already weaseling their ways into my heart. Maybe I’m just getting soft in my old age, but as much as I might pretend, I don’twantto be alone here. So, I’m happy to have them, but I think about Jonah constantly, missing him like a lost limb. I’ve cried myself to sleep more than once…at least on the nights when the live-action Skinimax isn’t blaring from next door. He thankfully doesn’t entertain visitors every single night, but it’s a pretty steady rotation, that’s for damn sure.
The worst part is that hearing him in the throes sometimes doesn’t make me annoyed. Oh no, sometimes it makes me very much…otherthings. More than once I’ve imagined what was happening on the other side of that thin wall, picturing it as my hand dipped below the covers. One night his deep voice had rumbled “Grab the headboard,” and I’d nearly whimpered.Fuckingwhimpered, literally having to bite my lip to keep quiet. Don’t even get me started on where my dreams have taken me…
Though I’ve poked around as much as I can, I’ve found jack squat hiding in the shadows of this place. No prisoners in horrific living conditions. No one chained up in a dank closet. No one being starved to death in a boiler room. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I’m fairly certain I understand the game now.
I’m pulling up peanuts now when Kyle, one of the guards, walks over.
“Come with me,” he says, not unkindly, but not overly friendly either. I quirk a brow but stand and wipe my hands off on my shorts. He leads me to one of the tall towers that had been erected around the lake without making small talk, but his lips quirk when he jerks his chin towards the ladder.
“Up you go.”
I give him a salute and he almost cracks a real smile, I think. I climb up, wondering what the hell this could be about, and my stomach clenches when I reach the platform and see Traeger and Jett waiting.
CHAPTER NINE
TRAEGER
“Mel,”I say, nodding in greeting. Something flashes in her gray eyes, something surprisingly not hostile…no, it’s actually theoppositeof hostile, I think…but then it’s gone so quickly that I wonder if I actually imagined it. She smooths her feature into an impassive mask, like she doesn’t have a care in the world. She glances between me and Jett, her muscles tensing. Does she think we’re about to toss her off the tower or something?
Or maybe she just knows what kind of man Jett is. He hasn’t been able to hide his disturbing mix of hatred and fascination of Melody very well. He wants to hurt her, that much is clear, but whether it’s because she challenged him in front of so many people back at FOS or he just enjoys hurting people, especially women, is anyone’s guess. Maybe a little of both. I’ve got eyes on him that he doesn’t know about, and he’s still too afraid to make any kind of a move with me around, but I know he’s just waiting. He will find a time and a place one day.
And I’ll be ready when he does.
I push the thoughts aside, surprised by the hot surge of anger that rears up inside of my chest. My fists clench discretely atmy sides. They want to lay into the bastard right here and now, to feel cartilage and bone crunching beneath them, to feel the hot blood coating my knuckles as I teach the prick what it’s like to be a victim. I force my thoughts under control and keep my demeanor calm and cool.
“How are you settling in?”
“Could use some better soundproofing in my bedroom,” she says pointedly and I can’t help but smirk at her. I know she can hear damn near everything through the walls, and yeah, ok, maybe some horrible, sick part of me is glad about it, maybe hopes it’ll make her jealous. I think about her straddling my lap that night, how I’d barely been able to stop myself from gripping her hips and pulling her harder against me, from slamming my lips to hers and making her forget about everything else in the world. She’d offered to be my whore and it had sent ice through my veins, effectively squashing the moment, but that didn’t mean that I hadn’t thought about it since then. Not her being my whore—I fucking hate that phrase—but about her and me and all the things I would die to do with her…to her…watch while she does to me…
I clear my throat and focus on the task at hand. We’re up here for a reason.
“But, other than that, it’s been surprisingly…pleasant. Mostly,” she adds, cutting her eyes briefly to Jett. I don’t miss the look. Oh yes, she knows exactly what kind of man Jett is. I’m willing to bet she had him dead to fucking rights the minute she bowed up to him that day. Melody is extremely observant. Too observant. She has to have figured out everything by now, though she hasn’t accosted me or demanded answers. I haven’t met with her again, but I’ve been watching and waiting, letting her come to her conclusions and deal with that information as she will. We’ll talk soon enough.
“All reports show that you’ve been behaving.” I try to hide my smile when she clenches her hands into fists at the word, knowing that it grates on her nerves. She gives me a saccharine smile.
“I think we’ve established that I’m smart enough not to do anything stupid.”
I hold her stare and quirk a brow.
“Smart enough that I can trust you with a weapon?”
She physically perks up at that, like my old German Shepherd when he heard the wordwalk. His favorite thing in the world. I study her for a heartbeat longer, gauging whether she’s going to haul off and shoot me or anything. I decide that I’m safe and nod to Jett. He reluctantly shoves an M4 carbine at her. She transforms before my eyes the second her hands wrap around the weapon. It’s like it’s a part of her, like she was made for it. There’s an undeniable, quiet skill and strength and confidence in her all the time, but it turns into something completely different when she’s holding a weapon. Something deadly and beautiful and terrifying. Prior military, I’m guessing, but I know without a doubt that Melody Morales was born to protect people.As if I needed one more thing to fucking like about her.
She does a quick, efficient check of the weapon and nods to herself before looking back to me. Don’t ask me why that was fucking hot as hell.
