Grabbing a handful of Sully’s roguish hair and yanking his head back, Drake spat directly into his face. “I’m tired of your bullshit, Sullivan. I’m tired of being nice to you. You just ensured I’m not just gonna fuck your girl tonight, but I’m also gonna kill her all while she rides my dick. And the best part? She’ll be so fucking high on whatever you’ve created in your special little labs that she won’t even care. She won’t remember you. She won’t miss you. She’ll thank me for giving her the best fuck of her miserable little life.”
Sully punched Drake square in his guts.
Two guards punched him in return.
“Stop!” I dashed forward, earning a gun to my temple. “Stop it. Just…leave him be and I’ll—”
“Hear that, Sullivan? Your whore is begging for your life. She’s fighting your battles for you because you’re a worthless piece of shit and always have been.”
Turning his back on Sully, Drake commanded, “Bring her here. Now!”
The guard dragged me away from Jealousy and across the sandstone tiles, dumping me in front of Drake as the three men ringing Sully kept their guns digging into his nape, making him bow forward, his bound hands between his spread legs, blood oozing through his bandage, and his eyes sparking red and blue fire.
He’d never been so inhuman, so consumed with nefarious wrath.
I trembled as Drake grabbed the rope around my wrists and untied me. “Do you like watching him be hurt, pretty Jinx?”
Gritting my teeth, I swallowed back the temptation to return the favour of spitting in his face. “What do you think?”
“I think you’re a temptress and a fighter. I think you’re not above using your body to get what you want. I think you’ll do whatever it takes to save him…even if it means sacrificing yourself.”
I balled my hands, glad they were no longer tied. “You know nothing about me.”
“Oh, no?” Arching his chin at the guards ringing Sully, he barked, “Shoot him in the foot.”
Spinning around, I ran as fast as I could. I leaped through the sky and landed on Sully’s lap. He grunted as I hurt his stitched leg. He shuddered as I shouted with every passion and pain in my lungs. “Don’t!” I glowered at the men with guns. I straddled Sully and stared them down. “Don’t you dare!”
Drake’s applause filled my ears, his laughter sent sickness washing through me. “Thanks for proving my point, Jinx.” Snapping his fingers again, he barked, “Bring her back here. Don’t shoot my brother.”
It was the worst pain imaginable being torn from Sully’s body. Removed from his heat, his power, his love. Our eyes locked, even as I was dragged away and shoved back into my position in front of Drake.
Sully hadn’t spoken a word, almost as if he couldn’t remember how to articulate, too consumed with the feral savagery of ripping out his brother’s throat. His nostrils flared with every breath. He never surrendered even as the three guards once again dug their guns into the back of his head, making him fold over his knees.
Jealousy padded toward me and Drake, the only one of us with some margin of freedom. She stopped beside me, staring at Drake with a coldness I’d never seen on her. A familiar hate that said she’d known men like Drake before. That she’d endured her own torment and come out the other side intact.
Her voice snipped with disgust. “I’m tired. I’m hungry. I’m not feeling very well, and I’m sure I speak on behalf of both my master and my friend that no one wants any more bloodshed.”
“Jealousy…” Sully growled. “Shut up.”
She didn’t look at him, keeping her stare pinned on Drake. “Sullivan won’t be cooperative, no matter how many guns you point at him. He only cares about Eleanor, so unless you’ve figured out how to work Euphoria on your own, you need someone else to help you.”
“Jess!” Sully bellowed.
Oh, God, what is she doing?
Drake smirked. “And I suppose you know how his virtual reality works?”
Jealousy flicked me a look, hiding her loyalty or her deception, I didn’t know. “I do. Sullivan regularly trusted me to load a guest’s program and insert a goddess into his VR.”
My heart hammered as I whispered, “Jealousy, please…”
“I’ll show you. I’ll load you safely into any program already cyphered by Sullivan…if you promise to leave Jinx alive once you’ve had her.”
Sully stayed silent, his anger pulsing behind me.
Drake snickered. “And why would you do that? You’re in love with her too?”
“She’s my friend. I don’t want her to die just because you have a feud with your brother.”
“Jealousy…Jess.” I reached with my unbound hands, touching hers. “He’ll kill all of us, or make us wish he had. Don’t bargain with him—”
“Done,” Drake snapped. Reaching for Jealousy’s rope, he released her and smirked. “Show me.”