Darling Wildfire (Red Rabbit #2)

60

THERON

It was no surprise that Vetticus was in a bad mood when I was delivered to him a few days later. He was sprawled out in an armchair dangling a glass of whiskey in the air with a scowl on his face. He waved his hand at the guards escorting me and they pushed me into the matching chair across from him before going to stand on either side of the door.

Vetticus looked at me, resting his chin on his palm.

I sat rigid in the chair, staring at him coldly like I always did. He threw back the rest of his whiskey and set the glass carefully on the table next to him.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” He asked.

When I didn’t answer, he reached into his pocket and pushed the button for my tracker. The shock tore through my body. It was quick but left me slumped in the chair. Breathing heavily, I sat up, my cold stare now deadly.

“That wasn’t rhetorical,”

he said dryly.

“No,” I lied.

“Well, that’s good. The other night I could have sworn you were thinking it.”

He pulled the device from his pocket, twisting it around in his hand while he watched me.

“I know you’re planning to escape,”

he said bluntly. He studied me for a reaction and when I didn’t give him one, he went on. “Don’t worry, I can’t hear what you’re saying when you have your little pow wows but you’re at full strength for a game for the first time and I don’t know why but I have this strange feeling you’re close to making a move.”

I wasn’t surprised he’d come to that conclusion. It’s not like it would be a surprise to have people held captive plan an escape. Now, we’d have to be even more careful. He stood up and walked over to the table, selecting a few pistachios and cracking them loudly.

“You can imagine how upset it makes me when I think about losing you.”

Vetticus tilted his head at me, looking annoyed.

“I’ve been giving you too much rope. Taking out my other top player was—foolish. I really can’t afford to lose you now.”

There was more silence as he stood watching me and eating the nuts slowly until they were gone. He dusted his hands on his pants.

“Do you even know where we are?”

He asked. “Do you have any idea?”

I turned my head to look at him. “Does it matter?”

He chuckled. “No, I suppose it doesn’t. You’re going to try it regardless. Every time you take out a camera, I wonder to myself if this is it—if this is when I’m going to have to kill you.”

He walked over and ran his hand across my face. I leaned away from him in disgust, looking anywhere but up at him.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that. You know how to keep me on my toes and it surprisingly is something I love about you,”

he murmured. “I’m actually looking forward to hunting you down though. Our reunion will be extra sweet.”

He leaned closer and his grip tightened on my jaw, turning my head towards him and forcing me to meet his eyes.

“And just so you know. When I catch you—and I will—I’m going to take great pleasure in torturing Phantom and Reaper in front of you and then killing them slowly.”

Vetticus moved away before I could do something reckless and he slouched down in his chair again.

“I’ll have fun making Preacher scream,”

he went on as though casually discussing the weather. “I’ll have to build the team up again,”

he shrugged. “But it’ll be worth it.”

Vetticus nodded to the men near the door and they came over and pulled me to my feet. Without a word, Vetticus left the room and the guards followed with me in tow. We walked through the house until we’d descended into the basement and I was shoved through a steel door. My entire team was kneeling in the center of the room with their hands cuffed behind their backs.

“I want to make things very clear to you, Kraven,”

Vetticus said. “When you decide to act a fool…when you decide to pull at allll that rope—”

He walked around behind my men, his hand running over Nyx’s hair. “It’s not you who I’m going to punish.”

Vetticus came back around in front and pulled his gun from his belt. “I thought I already made that very clear, but I guess you need a stronger reminder.”

He raised the gun and pulled the trigger.

Ridley fell backwards, a bullet straight through his eye.

Nyx cursed quietly under his breath while the others' breathing picked up. Vetticus jerked his head and his guards descended on Kane. Three of them beat him brutally for several long minutes until Vetticus held his hand up. They immediately stopped and stepped away, leaving Kane a bleeding mess on the ground. He struggled to his knees, his chest heaving and his eyes blazing with hatred. He spit blood savagely onto the ground in front of him.

The guards moved to Atlas next. They yanked him to his feet and dragged him over to a barrel. At Vetticus’ signal, they pushed his head down under the surface. At first Atlas didn’t struggle but inevitably his oxygen ran out and he thrashed in the guards’ grip.

“Stop—let him go!”

Nyx had to be restrained. “Fuck you!”

They finally pulled Atlas’ head up, allowing him to grab a stuttering breath before pushing him back down. I tried to get to my feet but Vetticus turned towards me and whipped his gun across my face, sending me back to my knees.

“Stop,”

I demanded.

Vetticus nodded to the guards holding Atlas but it wasn’t for them to stop. They let him come up for a breath and as he coughed and gulped in air, they shoved him back down. He started struggling almost immediately. I was grinding my teeth to dust at this point. Nyx was being restrained while Preacher, Kane and Vance looked on helplessly.

“Who do you belong to?”

Vetticus asked, sauntering in front of me.

I didn’t answer right away and he smirked wickedly. “I won’t let him up until you say it.”

I looked over at Atlas.

“You,”

I snapped.

Vetticus held up his hand to his ear.

“North!”

Nyx shouted frantically.

“I belong to you,”

I growled.

Vetticus motioned and the men released Atlas. He yanked his head up and gasped in air as he fell to his knees, He coughed up water and leaned against the barrel as he fought to catch his breath.

“Phantom,”

Vetticus said. “Who do you belong to?”

Atlas glared up at him, his chest rising and falling rapidly as his hair hung in dripping strands on his cheeks.

“You,”

he panted hoarsely.

“Good boy,”

Vetticus grinned.

He pointed to me. “Take him back upstairs, I’m not done with him yet.”

Vetticus followed after us and turned at the door. “Beat them all then take them back. But keep in mind we have a game in a few weeks.”

The following few weeks leading up to the next game were dark and miserable.

It became routine for Vetticus to bring me in to spend time with him every few days.

Nyx, Atlas and Preacher were pulled in occasionally to ensure I complied. Vetticus would force them to watch some of it—a reminder of his control. Sometimes it was Kane and Vance but he knew who I was more closely possessive of and used it whenever he felt I needed an extra reminder of who I belonged to.

A few weeks into it, Nyx pulled me aside, a worried look in his eyes along with a little guilt.

“North, don’t worry about us,”

he insisted. “We can take some of this from you—”

“Fuck off, Nyx,”

I growled. “I said I’d handle it.”

“I know but this—this is…”

He couldn’t finish the thought, just looked at me as though he was worried. They all did. I’d catch Atlas looking at me when he thought I wasn’t paying attention and even Preacher approached me.

“Hey boss, fight back,” he said.

I continued beating the shit out of the bag I was punching, caring little for the throbbing in my hand that still hadn’t healed all the way from when Vetticus impaled me on the table.

“Fight back,”

he pressed. “Please.”

The plea caught me off guard and I stopped and looked at him.

“Not going to happen, Preach,”

I said firmly. “Besides, it wouldn’t matter in the end. He has…feelings for me.”

I ground out the last part and went back to taking my aggression out on the bag. “You’re just collateral damage at this point. There’s no point in you guys getting hurt too when he’s just going to turn around and still do what he wants to me. Fighting back doesn’t help, it only makes things worse for everyone.”

“Yeah but—”

“Preacher, leave it alone,”

I snapped.

Now, I could see Atlas staring at me from across the lawn and knew he was going to come to me next. I’d just finished a run around the path and was fighting to catch my breath. I’d been pushing myself hard lately—mostly to get out of my head. It was my only escape these days.

Sure enough, Atlas came over and ran a hand through his hair, retying his bun.

“I know why you’re doing this,” he said.

I opened my mouth to feed him the normal fuck off speech but that was not what I’d been expecting him to say so I shut my mouth and waited for him to go on.

“You’re doing this because you think you deserve the punishment,”

he continued. “And look, I get it. I feel like I deserve to rot in the deepest pits of hell for how badly I failed my family but you don’t deserve this. No one does.”

“He chose me, Atlas,”

I said. “And I do deserve every second of this punishment.”

“I know he chose you. He has some fucked up crush on you and I know fighting will only make it worse for all of us, so I’m not going to tell you anything else but this: when you need us, when all of this becomes too much, we’ll be here. I don’t care if it’s tomorrow or years from now.”

He put both hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye. “If you won’t let us stand by you now and suffer with you, let us be there when you can’t go on anymore.”

I cleared my throat at the emotions shifting just beneath the surface. He was right. I was doing this because I deserved the pain and felt it was my punishment for my failures. I didn’t know when it would become too much but I nodded and grabbed onto his arm, gripping him hard.

“Thank you.”

He gave a curt nod and dropped his hands.

“You told us not to hide, T. I’m holding you to that same directive.”