Chapter Thirteen: Ill-Conceived Fucking on a Shuddering Mountain

Lia felt the formidable man shudder before he abruptly moved away from her.

She drew her legs up to her chest and rolled over to her side after her attacker uncuffed her wrists.

Before Lia squeezed her eyes shut, she watched the masked man tuck his cock back behind his zipper before he stared down at his blood-smeared palm.

Bane took a deep inhale and exhaled with a melodic rattle as he wiped his hand clean on the side of his pants before he left her to the messy sheets, dotted with blood, sweat and iridescent streaks of his spilled sticky seed.

Lia flinched as he slammed the door between the two rooms.

Bane paced the small room, staring down at his hand and her blood drying in the scarred webbings of his fingers.

He was distracted from further thoughts for a moment when his cheap phone chimed twice.

He read the message from Talia several times, hearing her speaking what she typed, suddenly having thoughts and a desire to satisfy his own needs and wants above all others for the first time in his tortured life.

Bane whispered the message aloud before he tossed his phone to the top of the flimsy card table.

"My friend, have the purchase ready, we'll be arriving in just a couple hours."

"My friend," he murmured in a melodic tone that was in no way soothing and only promised certain pain as he punched the wall.

As Bane settled back in the wheeled office chair and stared at the multiple screens and images of Lia as she shuddered under the cheap linen, crying fat, translucent tears, tasting blood from her lacerated lip and leaking his sticky come, making her inner thighs slick, hours away Gordon, Blake and their PTSD muscle continued north, sticking to the interstate as they waited for Fox to give them better coordinates.

As Gordon and the rest of the men chain-smoked their way north, Talia drummed her fingertips on the tops of her thighs as she mentally urged the large engine to move faster. The storm was slowing their progress, but Larry wanted the cash bonus and kept the accelerator pressed dangerously close to the floor.

At the cabin, Bane leaned close to the center HD screen and watched Lia sit up and wipe her eyes and dab at the skin of her broken lip.

He was mesmerized as she slid the sheet down to wipe his sticky seed from where it leaked out of her wet center. The video didn't have sound, but he saw her wince upon contact.

Bane glanced over at his discarded phone, my friend, kept echoing in the front of his brain.

"I've never touched something so shiny and new," he thought and clenched his hands into fists. Anger surging through him at this billionaire buyer en route who'd be taking away what he now considered his by the laws of the jungle.

Bane closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair, his weight making the plastic creak as his mind transported him back to Pena Dura and the darkness of The Pit.

The corners held more than darkness, men were gutted and left to die in the pockets of pitch blackness. Bane recalled a memory he had buried under miles of earth, yet it still remained just under the surface, barely dormant.

He had been a young man, already scarred, damaged, yet alive under the surgeon's hands.

A rainy day had drawn him out, he had always enjoyed the freshness the rain brought even to the dank air of The Pit.

Shouts from the lip of The Pit weren't rare and Bane was able to see a new prisoner added to the dangerous number of occupants.

The new prisoner was set upon by men who bared their teeth and snarled like a pack of wild dogs.

Bane watched from where he leaned against the wall, the rainy air also making his entire body ache, as the man took his last few breaths.

Bane's eyes watched the vultures descend and trap and truss the body, all fighting for the new shoes. Two men fought over a notebook and a square photo flew through the air and landed at Bane's feet.

He squatted down, grunting painfully as his hip popped and picked up the black and white photograph.

Bane's eyes instantly memorized the photo that captured a young woman, smiling as she stood amongst a vast vineyard. The wind had picked up in the valley she stood, and her hair swirled around her head like a silken halo.

Bane's eyes snapped open to stare at the monitor and Lia's tear-stained face, realizing as he had fucked her innocence away, the eyes that stared back at him were very much like the young woman who had smiled and comforted him in the darkness all those years ago.

He looked at his tactical watch, not a lot of time to prepare for Talia's arrival and whoever she had tapped for security.

Lia jumped when the masked man threw open the door that separated the two rooms. She pulled the dingy sheets tighter around her battered, naked body.

She kept her eyes glued to the floor as her attacker moved between the two rooms before making a few trips outside.

Lia froze when his footfalls grew louder as he walked towards her. She held her breath as his boots came into view under her downcast eyes.

"You need to clean up."

The masked man's musical words fell around her, and she flinched as he set a metal bucket of river water in front of her, the same oblong bar of soap and several rags.

Lia looked up as her abductor turned and began to walk away. Bane paused and half-turned, catching her eyes on him as he spoke. "After you've cleaned up, we'll discuss keeping you alive."

Bane left her without further explanation and shut the door between them, leaving her alone.

He smiled behind his mask as he watched her on the multiple monitors as she slowly soaked and wrung out the rag before soaping up the threadbare square of fabric. He let out a low melodical rattle as Lia began to dab the damp cloth on her bruised skin, avoiding the sensitive spots.

Bane gave her ten minutes to clean up before he pulled open the door and collected the bucket and rags.

He righted the chair he had knocked her out of earlier and pulled it closer to her. Lia watched him settle in the chair and level his wordless gaze at her. Bane stared until she began to squirm uncomfortably.

"You want to live," Bane finally stated.

Lia nodded as she cleared her throat. "Yes," she croaked.

"Do you know what it means in order for you to retain your life?"

Lia shrugged and adjusted the sheet around her naked flesh, "not completely," she admitted.

Bane leaned back in the chair, making it creak as it strained under his weight. He crossed his arms over his broad chest as he explained.

"You'll start your life over next to me, under my roof."

Lia felt a cramp sweep through her lower gut at his words as she tried to curl her legs further under her. "What else?" she asked breathlessly.

"You will keep nothing from me, not deny me and no harm will come to you."

Lia closed her eyes and looked down at the shabby surface of the air mattress. "The other choice is whoever is coming here to, to buy, me?"

Bane was silent before he answered, letting his eyes slide over the bare skin he could see, feeling his cock twitch as he drank in the sight of the oval bruises his fingers had left on the supple flesh of her upper arms.

When he spoke his voice rumbled throughout his broad chest and Lia heard the chair squeak in relief as he rose to his feet.

She kept a cry from falling between her lips when his knees cracked as he squatted in front of her, speaking as he tugged at the corner of the sheet that kept her naked skin from his eyes.

"That choice has been removed," Bane started and dropped his hands to her knees. Lia felt the vibrations under his touch with each of his spoken words.

"If you refuse me, I'll slip a ring through your nose and keep you penned with the livestock."