TRINITY
This was okay. It wasn’t a closet. I fought the urge to curl into a ball and rock. If I let myself react that way, I wasn’t sure how long I’d be checked out on reality. I could focus and stay calm. I looked around the room. It was massive. Almost bigger than the house I had grown up in. Definitely bigger than the closet in the basement.
Not the same, Trinity. It is not the same.
“You’re fine,” I whispered. “You got this. You survived a gun to your head. You can sit in this nice, large room and wait.”
I felt the tension in my chest tightening, and I took deep breaths. I could not go there in my head. I was in a house with killers or gangsters or whatever the hell they were. I had to stay alert. Even if Huck was Hayes’s brother. That man was nothing like Hayes.
They would check out my background or whatever they could do and see I was not in some drug gang thingy. I winced, thinking of the things they would also find. I wasn’t sure if the bogus stuff Tabitha and Roy had tried to pin on me would show up. There was no proof because I hadn’t done anything wrong. That’d all started when I threatened to tell my dad about Roy. The next thing I knew, I was getting arrested for crimes I hadn’t committed. Since I had never been charged, then that shouldn’t be on my record. The only item that might show up was the scholarship I had lost. My stomach twisted as I thought about that. No, I wouldn’t go there. I was away from that. It was over. Professor Jonathon Kilgore couldn’t do anything else to me.
I had to focus on the here and now. This situation was my current problem.
Philip had gotten me this job for Mr. Esposito. I didn’t think Philip knew the man was a drug lord. Surely, he hadn’t. Pushing that thought aside, I tried to think about the lovely decorations. It was a nice basement. I was sure the other doors led to more rooms. Glancing at my watch, I realized I had been sitting quietly on the sofa for almost an hour.
Before I had a chance to get more worried than I already was, I heard footsteps on the stairs. Huck was coming back, and I hoped he was ready to send me home. I needed a hot bath, a good book, and possibly three shots of tequila.
I watched him as he walked into the room, and his gaze found me. His neck was strained, like he was clenching his teeth. Had he been ordered to kill me?
I swallowed hard, afraid to ask. I didn’t want to die down here. Alone. Having not one person come looking for me. Dying alone and unloved was a sad way to go. There was May at the bank, who I’d gone out to drinks with twice but she ended up leaving with men she’d met at the bar so I’d stopped going with her. I doubted she’d miss my absence. Rochelle was the head librarian, and we always discussed our latest reads when I came in to clean at night. She might be considered a friend.
“Stand up,” he ordered me.
I did because I was afraid not to but I wanted to curl up in a ball and hide instead.
He stalked toward me and stopped a few feet from me. “I’ve got to check you for a tracker, Trinity.”
Okay … what did that mean? I waited for an explanation, but he continued to stare at me as his neck muscles flexed and his jaw clenched.
“Take your clothes off,” he grunted.
My eyes went wide. “What?” My voice cracked.
“You can fucking let me do this, or one of the others can do it. Trust me, you want me to do this. Gage would probably hold a gun on you most of the time.”
My hands trembled, and I had to fist them at my sides to make them stop. “Are you serious?”
He nodded his head.
“Why?” I asked, trying to think of another way to do this.
He closed the distance between us, and I had to tilt my head back to look up at him. “I can only protect you as long as you do as you’re told. This isn’t an option. I brought you into our home without knowing if you’re a liar or telling the fucking truth. If you are wired, then it’s my fault. If someone can track you here, it is my fault. You were Hayes’s, which puts you under the family’s protection. Unless you are working with one of our enemies.”
Okay. So, I had to strip in front of this man or possibly die. I could do this. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d taken my clothes off for an audience, although that had been another mess I hadn’t meant to happen. This was just the first time I’d be doing it for a man I’d watched kill someone. I took a deep breath and focused on a dark spot on the floor. This was a technique I’d learned as a kid. It helped me handle things I didn’t want to do. Things I shouldn’t have been forced to do.
However, this was a little different than the horror that I’d lived as a kid. Huck wasn’t Tabitha or Roy. The idea of this man seeing my naked body was a completely different situation, but it was still uncomfortable. The main reason being, he was a massive wall of muscle without an ounce of fat, and Gage was right. My ass was fat. It had always been too big. No matter how much weight I lost, my waist just got smaller. My rear end did not.
My hands were shaking as I pulled the T-shirt I was wearing up and over my head. I refused to look at him when I reached for the button on my shorts and unfastened them, then slid them down my legs before stepping out of them.
Huck picked up the shorts and inspected them, then laid them on the sofa before doing the same with my shirt. When he laid it on the sofa, I reached for it to cover myself back up when his fingers wrapped around my arm. My eyes shot up to meet his.
“The rest of it,” he said tightly.
“You … you want me to take off my bra?” I asked.
“And panties.” It sounded like a command.
Oh crap, crap, crap. I took a few moments to try and calm myself before reaching for the clasp behind my back. Slipping it off my arms, I stared at the floor and held the bra out to him so he could inspect it. I couldn’t watch him as he looked it over.
The panties. I had to take off the panties. Oh good Lord, this was not happening to me.
You want to live, Trinity. You need them to trust you.
I decided to do it quickly and get it over with. I stepped out of them and handed them over, keeping my eyes down. I shivered as I stood there, hoping he hurried.
“Lift your breasts. I need to see under them.”
I knew my nipples were hard, and I was sure he could see them, but the fact that I had to touch them and draw attention to them made my body flush. I didn’t meet his gaze as I held my breasts in my hands and lifted them up for him to see underneath.
“Turn around. Hold your arms out beside you,” he said in a husky tone.
“Why?” I asked in a whisper. I didn’t want him to see my butt. It had dimples in it. The humiliation was just getting worse.
“I have to check you for a tracker,” he bit out.
“On my body?”
“Trinity.” His tone was a warning.
Okay, fine. I could survive this. Maybe they’d let me go after this, and I would never see him again.
I turned slowly, biting down on my lower lip so hard that I tasted blood.
I felt his body come up behind me, and I stiffened. What was he doing? My heart was racing in my chest, and I began to tremble.
“Spread your legs and bend over,” he said.
I looked back over my shoulder at him, but he didn’t meet my gaze. His eyes were on my ass, and the heat I saw in them made me feel things other than humiliation. I was apparently a bad person. I should feel nothing but embarrassment right now. Jerking my head back around, I opened my legs and leaned forward. I held my breath, wondering if he could see the wetness between my legs.
“Fuck,” he swore under his breath, and I closed my eyes, feeling a tingle as if he’d touched me with more than his gaze. “Get dressed!” he demanded, and I straightened, turning to see his back as he walked away.
I wrapped my arms around my waist and stood there until I heard the door at the top of the stairs slam shut. Moving, I went to get my panties and dressed myself. There had been no trackers on my clothes or body. I knew that. I had proven myself. Surely, he’d come back soon and let me go. I could lock myself in my apartment and try and forget this day had ever happened.
Once I was finished, I sat down on the sofa and waited. I would not check out on this. I would not.
“You stay alert,” I told myself. “This is not a place to have an attack. You will be leaving soon.”
Time ticked by, and he didn’t return. What was taking so long? Why was I still here? I kept looking around to remind myself how large this area was. Not a closet. I wasn’t locked in a closet. I was fine. I was going to be fine. The cold sweat started to creep over me, and I stood up to walk around.
“Get control of yourself.”
I had to stop this. I began pacing back and forth, telling myself that, tomorrow, I would be cleaning the library at this time, and all would be well with the world. Rochelle would want to hear about the fairy romance I’d just read, and although the first book had been hard to get through, this second one was awesome.
My mouth was dry, and my stomach grumbled. I looked back at the stairs. Was he going to come back? I needed some water. Anything. I walked over to the bottom of the stairs and listened. It was quiet, but that could be that it was soundproof down here. My stomach rumbled some more. I needed something to drink and eat. I’d been told to stay down here, but he had checked me for a tracker since then. Maybe I was expected to come up when I was ready. He hadn’t told me to stay down here after he checked me and left.
I headed up the stairs, unlocked the door, and stepped into the hallway. The windows up ahead told me it was almost dusk. Why hadn’t they sent me home already? Had they forgotten I was down there? I began to walk, not sure which direction I should go when I heard something or someone. Following the sound, I listened for more, but it sounded like muttering.
The light was on ahead, and I could tell the noise was definitely coming from that direction. I walked toward it, and just as I stepped into the open room, I realized it wasn’t a mutter but a groan. My gaze went to the sofa. Huck was leaning back. I could only see the profile of his face, and his mouth was slightly open. I took another step in and started to say his name when his arm moved up and down. Pausing, I waited, unsure what he was doing.
“Harder,” he demanded, and I heard the gagging sound.
Before I covered my mouth, a sound escaped me. Huck’s head turned, and his eyes locked on me. I stood there, knowing I needed to leave the room, but unable to make my legs work.
The look of pleasure on his face made my stomach feel funny. I saw the brown hair clasped in his fist as he jerked up the head of the woman who was between his legs before shoving it back down. He kept his gaze on me. I watched as he lifted his hips to thrust into her mouth.
“Take it. Suck it like a good little whore,” he growled. “That’s it. Just like that.”
He wasn’t talking to me, but it felt like it. His eyes were locked on me as he talked to her. I should go, but I didn’t. I wasn’t sure I could. Huck’s face tensed up as a groan tore from him. He jerked, looking satisfied.
“Swallow it all,” he said as a smile curled his lips.
Forgetting about food or water, I spun around and rushed back to the door leading downstairs. I had just watched Huck get a blow job. What was wrong with me? Why was I so messed up? As if it wasn’t bad enough that he’d had to see every imperfection of my body today, now, he’d seen me be a full-blown voyeur. Surely, I’d be going home now.
