Explicit Instruction (30 page)

‘Yes.’

‘Why would you want anything to do with a guy like me?’

‘You’re the strongest, most honourable man I’ve met in my life. I love you
, Rushe. It’s not a choice. It’s not something I can switch on and off. You protected me, fed me, pleasured me, took care of me. You did whatever was needed to accomplish what was in my best interest. You told me to leave that shack to protect me from Shiv, and from this. You sent me home when I didn’t want to leave your side.

‘
You broke me out of here,’ she said, and a salty tear broke onto the crack in her lips. ‘You took me to my parents; you made me believe that you didn’t care, because that was what was best for me... In that room earlier, you put your body between mine and danger, even when we were astronomically outnumbered. I love you, Rushe, because you treat me like a woman, you see me; you knew what was in me before I did. I had no idea that strength like this existed, not until I met you.

‘
Skeeve groped me but I taunted him, I wouldn’t let him see me tremble, because I’m better than him, we’re better than him, and someone has to stand up for what’s right, even against the odds of good sense... just like you did for me in Dell’s.’

‘There are things I should tell you,’ he said. ‘Things you should know.’

‘I don’t trust these walls any more than you do... We’ll have to hope that... You can tell me everything when we’re together again.’

‘
Damn, she’s fuckable,’ he said. ‘That’s the first thing I thought when I saw you. I thought you were going to keep going. But when you stopped... I froze up.’

‘
Out of the frying pan and into the fire,’ she said. ‘That’s roughly what I thought when I first saw you in that room in Dell’s.’

‘You thought I was going to hurt you.’

‘I didn’t know who you were.’

‘You keep that guard up
, Kitten, but keep your mouth shut. I’ll be pissed if I show up and you’ve stood me up.’

‘Stood you up,’ Flick said
, and grabbed for his watch to check the date. ‘Oops.’

‘Oops what?’ he asked.

‘I stood up Hayden again,’ she said, and pursed her lips to hide the smile that threatened.

‘
Hayden,’ he frowned. ‘You’re dating?’

‘Lover, I’m about to be bundled into a van and sold to the highest bidder. I think you have more pressing concerns about other men.’

‘Did he fuck you?’ Rushe demanded with that angry brow crowding his eyes.

‘You found your anger,’ she said. ‘And does it matter?’

‘Yes. Tell me!’

‘
Are you jealous?’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Answer me.’

Rushe was honest to a fault... when it suited him. ‘I never sleep with a guy on a first date,’ Flick said.

‘I’ve never taken you on a date.’

A statement that Flick couldn’t argue with. ‘True...  and I won’t sleep with you the first time that you do.’

When his exhale was almost a
laugh, Flick saw how his face softened when he looked at her. ‘Suits me. Sex doesn’t have anything to do with sleeping.’

‘You’ve used that line already, and you were lying to me
when you did.’

‘I don’t argue with women.’

‘No,’ she said, crawling into his lap. ‘We can find some other way to settle our differences.’

Flick pushed her mouth up to his
, and when his tongue touched her lip, she opened to him because blood, or pain, was nothing. This could be the last space, and the last time they spent with each other. In all of her life she’d never realised that love like this existed, and Rushe had even less experience of the phenomenon than she did.

‘Say it again
, Rushe,’ she murmured on his kiss, when his hands snaked up under her tee-shirt.

‘What?’ Letting his hands move around he took a breast in each palm
, and she sighed into his caress.

‘Tell me that you love me.’

‘You gonna stay alive ‘til I find you?’ he asked, and she nodded but he pinched her nipples, which seemed to be connected to her eyelids because they popped apart. ‘Speak.’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I promise.’

‘Good then.’ On an inhale, his mouth came towards hers, but there was a clatter outside that made them both sit up and stare at the door.

‘What was that?’

‘They’re coming,’ he said, stealing another glance at his watch. He cupped her face to train her eyes on him. ‘I love you, and I’m going to find you.’

More tears escaped
, and Flick clawed his chest. ‘I’ll be good, I promise.’

‘I know.’

‘Don’t let them hurt you,’ she said. ‘I’m not worth it.’

His mouth tilted to an
almost straight diagonal, forming a smile that she wanted to remember every second from now until she could see it again.

‘Kitten, you’re the only damn thing in the world that is.’

Someone was at the door unfastening locks, so she grabbed him to her body and kissed him again with every ounce of sorrow and anger she had.

‘None of this is your fault,’ she said. ‘Don’t blame yourself if anything... I love you.’

The door swung back, and three hulks of varying ethnicity entered with John and Skeeve behind. ‘Time to go, little girl,’ Skeeve drooled.

‘You gonna give us trouble?’ John asked Rushe
, but Flick climbed out of his lap.

Her intention had been to rise from the bed
, but Rushe linked his fingers between hers, and she stopped. He was holding her hand. When their eyes met Flick relived every second of their time together. Rushe didn’t have to say the words because they were written all over his face, which she was surprised at, given the audience. Then as she had the thought, all affection left his countenance, and he pinned those bullet eyes onto John.

‘If I beat the crap out of you
, it might make me feel better.’

‘Doubt it,’ John said.
‘We’ve got another three guys in the hall.’

Maybe t
hey had hoped Rushe would fight. Had they hidden the other men so that they could come in when Rushe didn’t expect it? Perhaps when he thought he had won they would unleash the second wave, but it didn’t matter.

‘There’s going to be no trouble,’ Flick said to John who held out cuffs to attach to her wrists.

Flick did exactly as she was told, and the men started out of the door, but she stopped. ‘I’ve never been able to walk away from you without looking back.’

Deliberately she turned to see him there on the bed
, exactly where she had left him. The pain around him broke her heart. He’d always blame himself, and Flick knew Rushe would come for her, and he would probably die in the process, because nothing would make him give up. He took his responsibility of her seriously.

‘I’ll do as I’m told,’ she said.

‘You could use the practise.’ Then he shut down. In one instant, Rushe was that man she had met in the alleyway. ‘Get.’

John got hold of one arm
, while Skeeve snatched the other, and Flick was tugged out of the room. The pair dragged her down the corridor with three bulky men in front of her leading the way. The sound from behind her of locks being put in place reminded her that he was in there alone, and ripping himself apart for doing nothing to help her. But nothing could be done.

The three hulks who had come in with John and
Skeeve closed ranks behind her, and after one door and a corridor, a turn here, and a turn there, Flick noticed a dull light from the end of this passage. It told her that they were heading for the exit, and then the rush of cold night air made her tense. The van would be out there, and her instinct was to dig her heels in, to refuse to leave with them, to make a fuss, to fight.

Rushe wanted her to be safe, all of his actions were to assure her safety, and she hadn’t even thanked him for the five million
dollars that she’d never be able to pay back. So many questions buzzed in her mind, but it was unlikely that they would ever be answered. His words kept her warm. His unexpected declaration made her heart swell even now, as she replayed the moment.

Love was a strong word
, but she’d meant it, just as she knew he did. The trust she had in him was greater than the trust she had in herself, and she didn’t want to be the reason for his demise.

The air was thick but
cold, and it stuck to her skin. A hood was hung over her head before they went outside. Pulling her up the outer stone stairs Flick heard an idling engine and the crying women she had met previously, at least that’s who she assumed they were.

Someone lifted her off her feet
, and she was shoved into a cold, hard, plastic pull down seat. Her feet were bound, and she was bent into the brace position to tie her ankle restraints to the cuffs.

‘The gang’s all here,’ John said.

Flick couldn’t see him she couldn’t see anyone. But the women were definitely here, and if the elbow that brushed hers was anything to go by they’d all been arranged in the same position.

‘No push
ing, no shouting, and no crying.’ John listed the rules. ‘If you piss me off, I’ll shoot you and they’ll take your price from my cut. So I don’t wanna do that, but if I have to, I will. We’ve got a bit of a journey ahead, so I’d tell you to get comfortable, but I doubt that’s really possible. No talking and no crying.’

Having said the latter twice must mean that was the most important rule, or at least most important to John. With a few clicks and mumbles
, the van started to move.

Flick figured that in this position she could probably get her hood off
. But that might just piss John off, and wouldn’t really serve a purpose. She knew where they were right now, and she wouldn’t have a window to look out of, so she couldn’t see where they were going to follow their progress.

Her thoughts went back to Rushe
, still in that room, on the bed they’d made love on. She knew he’d be driving himself crazy with the possibilities. Flick chose to turn that particular function in her own brain off.

The thugs it seemed could make all the noise they wanted
to, and they ignored the sniffles initially. A couple of times John snapped at the women who cried, but Flick tried to block it out. She thought about Rushe, about the things they’d done together. Despite everything, Flick felt lucky to have met him, to be a part of his world, though for too brief a time.

If it hadn’t been for the dangerous predicament they were in
, Flick doubted he would have declared his feelings so spontaneously, or voluntarily. But he had, and he’d vowed to come for her, to liberate her. Then what?

Flick realised that the only way she could get through this was by thinking about her future with Rushe. He had said that there were things she needed to know
, and she’d listen to every word he said. Once he explained what this was about, or rather how he got involved in it in the first place, Flick was sure they could move forward.

Dreaming of a fut
ure with Rushe distracted Flick from the scuffles and the whimpers. It helped her to block out what she was about to face. Not knowing the details drove her insane, but speculation only came back to the worst-case scenario time and time again, so Flick thought of Rushe.

A man so power
ful, and so enduring as Rushe struck her with awe. He’d picked little her to get into a bother about, and no one had ever seen her like that. Rushe would walk through fire for her, and he wouldn’t give one thought to any pain he might have to tolerate in the process.

One of the girls was crying again, and John shouted back, but there was a scrambling, like someone was climbing around.

‘Where you going?’ John asked
, and the scuffling paused.

‘I’m gonna have me some fun,’
Skeeve said, and Flick didn’t like how close his voice was.

‘You’re gonna fuck her in the back of the van?’

‘She deserves it.’

‘Whatever.’

John’s one word was her last line of defence. Here, now, Flick had no way to defend herself and she knew, she just knew, he would come for her.

‘Hear that little girl?’
Skeeve taunted.

Her hood was grabbed and Flick
was yanked upward, but he didn’t pull her hood off, he took a handful of her hair with it.

‘Go to hell.’

‘Where’s your boyfriend now?’

Thrown from her seat
, Flick ended up on the hard metal floor on her face. But with her hands still tied to the ankle binding, her rear stuck up and out. Skeeve’s hands fumbled around with her tee-shirt, and though Flick tried to get away, she was wedged in the aisle between the rows of bound women lining the back walls of the van, and so had nowhere to go.

‘Bet you’re still wet,’
Skeeve said, pushing her tee-shirt up to her waist. ‘Nice of that superior sonofabitch to warm you up for me.’

More women cried
, the grate of his zip had Flick trying to climb forward, but there was nowhere to go, she was trapped. Skeeve was going to rape her, and there wasn’t a thing she could do to stop him. So with the hood still over her face, she pressed her cheek to the floor.