Theirs to Pleasure: a Reverse Harem Romance Page 2

  And he was stuck in this fifteen-by-ten-foot room, fucking useless. She was out there, with God knew what happening to her, screaming and screaming for his help and he couldn’t get to her—

  “Let go of me. This is for the prisoner!”

  Shay.

  Charlie jerked to attention and ran to the door, ankle fetters yanking taut and tripping him halfway there. He hit his knees hard but then stumbled back to his feet and scrambled to the door.

  It was almost dark out now but there was a single candle burning in the hallway of the alcove. Charlie got to the window just in time to see the big, bald guard who sometimes patrolled yank the tray of food out of Shay’s hand and then backhand her.

  “No!” Charlie roared, pounding the door with his fist. “Shay!”

  Her body was knocked to the ground where she lay crumpled like a ragdoll. “Shay!”

  The bald bastard nudged her with his big, booted toe, then chuckled and walked off, tray in hand.

  Charlie was about to pound at the door again but fisted his hands and bit back his curse. Because goddammit, he didn’t want to do anything to bring the guard back. Yet again, he was fucking useless. Another woman he cared about was laying out there hurt and he was here, just feet away, and he couldn’t do a goddamned thing to help her.

  As soon as the guard’s footsteps were gone, he dropped to his knees to look through the tray slot.

  “Shay. Shay! Can you hear me? Are you okay?”

  But she just laid there.

  Fucking lifeless.

  Fuck. FUCK.

  Charlie grabbed at his hair, wanting to yank it out by the roots and—

  But then he heard a noise.

  The smallest groan.

  “Shay!” He smashed his face to the hole in the wall and thank God. She was moving. He shoved his fingers through the small slot. “Shay, Jesus, are you okay?”

  What the fuck, obviously she’s not okay.

  “Sorry, that’s stupid. Can you sit up?”

  She rolled over and dragged her body farther into the little alcove where the office was, out of the path of the main hallway.

  When she finally sat up, he expected tears. He expected a bitter grimace. He even expected to see blood.

  And she did have a fresh split lip, blood trickling down from the corner of her mouth.

  But what he didn’t expect?

  For her to be fucking smiling.

  She was grinning. Huge.

  “Shay?” Charlie asked uncertainly. “Are you feeling okay? He hit you pretty hard.”

  When a small giggle escaped her lips, Charlie really started getting worried. But then she hopped to her feet.

  And when she came near, there was a light in her eyes he’d never seen before.

  “Shay, what’s going—”

  “I know where Audrey is.”

  Charlie coughed in shock, hand going to the plexiglass. “Where? Is she okay? Who has h—”

  “Back up.” Shay gestured impatiently for him to move back.

  He frowned, totally fucking bewildered.

  “Back up.”

  He took a couple steps away from the door.

  That’s when her grin got even wider, though he wouldn’t have thought that was possible. And, with one quick glance back toward the hallway, she produced a keyring, holding it up briefly so he could see through the plexiglass.

  Holy sh—

  He didn’t even have time to finish the thought before he heard the click of the lock turning. Then the door pushed open.

  He could only stare in shock as Shay slipped inside. Her dark head was bowed as she flipped through keys on the keyring. Then she reached for his hands.

  “Shay,” he gasped. “How did you—”

  She didn’t look up from unlocking the shackles around his wrists. “I stole them off Carl when he was grabbing for the tray. I’d scrounged up some butter for your bread and made sure to pass by him. I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist.”

  “But he hit you.”

  Shay just shrugged it off as if it was nothing. She got his wrists free and then dropped to his feet. The sight of her, crouched down at his feet, was just too much.

  “Shay, Shay, stop.”

  Charlie leaned down and put his hands on hers, taking the keys.

  Those endless green eyes of hers flashed. “I know where Audrey is. And I’ll tell you. Better yet, I’ll take you there.” Then her face went flinty with determination. “As long as you help me get the hell out of here.”

  He felt his eyebrows shoot to his hairline. This woman was full of surprises. But everything she was saying was music to his fucking ears.

  “You’ve got a deal.” He’d protect her. Yes, they’d only recently met, but he was not going to let her down.

  In another half minute, he had the shackles off his feet. The chains dropped to the floor and he stood fully upright for the first time in three months.

  Then he reached out a hand to Shay.

  “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 2

  CHARLIE

  “Get your hands off me,” Charlie roared as the giant with the scar down his face wrestled his arms painfully behind his back and shoved him forward. After all they’d done to get here to Jacob’s Well? “Shay! Shay, are you okay?”

  They’d escaped Travisville and traveled all night on a stolen four-wheeler to get here—not to mention walking the last two miles when the four-wheeler ran out of gas—and now these motherfuckers were going to treat them like this?

  Charlie strained to look over his shoulder at Shay. Another soldier in dark fatigues led Shay forward with a hand at the small of her back. How dare the bastard fucking touch her?

  “It’s okay, Charlie,” Shay said, hurrying up to his side. “Trust me. Everything’s going to be okay.”

  How the hell could she say that? They were met with hostility almost the second they’d arrived at the Central Texas South border five minutes ago.

  Charlie asked about his sister and one of the guards radioed it in on a walkie talkie.

  Then, bam, next thing Charlie knew, he was eating dirt with a knee in his back and his arms wrenched behind him. Bastard had him zip tied in thirty seconds.

  If only Charlie weren’t so damn weak from three months in that prison… He’d tried to work out back in the cell when he had the energy so if he ever had the chance at escape, he’d be strong enough to make the most of it, but still. Some days he was living on what had to be maybe eight hundred calories a day if that and others they didn’t bring him any food at all.

  How the hell was he supposed to protect Shay if he couldn’t hold his own against some prepubescent guard with more muscles than brain cells? But that was how it went, wasn’t it? When it counted, he always failed at protecting the people he cared about.

  Then he had to endure the humiliating experience of being thrown on the guard’s horse to be taken into town with a black bag over his head. At least before everything went dark, he’d seen the other guard helped Shay on his horse in a decently respectful manner. But relying on the chivalry of a stranger in a strange town was not what Charlie had in mind when he’d vowed to protect Shay.

  There was nothing to do other than stew furiously about it while he was jostled ruthlessly up and down on the back of the horse for the ride into town, though. Finally they stopped in front of a building that turned out to be some kind of security headquarters.

  That was where this dickhead with the face scar had taken over.

  When Charlie demanded to see his sister, the guy totally lost his shit. He shoved Charlie up against the wall by his throat.

  It was only Shay’s screaming that stopped the crazy bastard from choking him to death. Then another man stepped up and said the Commander should decide what to do with them. So the scarred guy—Nix, Charlie heard someone call him—let go of Charlie’s throat only long enough to start marching him across the street and town square into what looked to be an old courthouse.

  People in
the street all stopped to stare.

  As soon as they got in the building, a man’s voice echoed off the granite walls. “—the rules apply to every woman who enters the township.”

  “What if I said I was a lesbian?” an angry woman’s voice challenged.

  There was a pause. Then, “Are you?”

  Another long pause. “Yes. Yes, I am. So no matter how long you give me to acclimate,” the word came out acidic, “to the idea as you call it, it would still be rape. No matter what.”

  What in the holy0 fuck was going on in this place? Even the huge oaf dragging him around had paused in the corridor outside the door as the shouting continued.

  Charlie’s eyes shot to Shay. Some woman in there was talking about being raped. Coming here had been a bad idea. He never should have risked it. He was so blinded with excitement about seeing his sister again and Shay had been convinced it would be a safe place. But they were obviously so, so wrong.

  “You’re being impossible.”

  “Me?” the woman sounded absolutely enraged. “I was the commander of a sovereign territory and you brought me here against my will. Now you try to impose your barbaric polygamic practices on me, and I’m impossible? This is all bullshit nonsense anyway. What we need to be discussing is organizing a rescue mission to go back for the rest of the women still being held at Nomansland—”

  Charlie’s whole body jolted. They knew about Nomansland?

  “I told you, I’ve put the request in to President Goddard multiple times. But he doesn’t feel it’s a priority at this time considering our limited resources—”

  “Not a priority?” the woman all but roared.

  “We’ll be out here all fucking day if we wait for these two to stop,” Nix said, rolling his eyes and knocking. Without waiting for a response, he pushed the door slightly open and said loudly, “Bad time?”

  He slid it open wider, revealing a woman with long blonde dreadlocks standing toe to toe with a tall, distinguished looking man who was dressed in similar military fatigues as the guards.

  “I was just leaving,” the woman said, still glaring at the man for another long second before turning on her toe with a grand flip of her rope-like hair.

  She stormed past them, only pausing when she noticed Shay. “Oh. Hi. This bastard gives you any trouble,” her eyes flicked back toward the man by the big oak desk, “you come find me.”

  “Drea,” the man said sharply, but the blonde just squeezed Shay’s arm and then left without a backward glance.

  The man by the table sighed heavily and waved them in. “What is it now?”

  He stood up straighter when Shay moved out from behind Nix, though. “Oh. Hello. I’m Commander Wolford.”

  He smiled and walked toward Shay like there was nothing at all unusual in the world.

  “Don’t you fuckin’ touch her,” Charlie snarled, yanking to get away from the big ape who had a tighter hold on him than ever.

  The Commander leveled a glare over Charlie’s shoulder, presumably at Nix. “Who is this? What’s he done?”

  “He’s a stranger. He showed up at the border today asking about Audrey. Claiming he was her brother.” He jerked one of Charlie’s arms up and back in a way that almost had his bone snapping. “Her dead brother. The only fucker who’d even know her name and to say he was her brother would be her fucking cousin, who tried to—”

  Charlie jerked his head around to look at Nix, his eyes wide. “She’s here?” Jesus, it was true. She was really here. He hadn’t let himself really believe it. But the only way Nix could have known any of what he’d just said was if Audrey was really here.

  “I am her brother,” Charlie said. “That day by the spring when we were attacked. I was hit over the head and the last thing I saw was those bastards going for her. Is she okay?” The man had relaxed his grip on Charlie but his face was impassive. “Just tell me if she’s okay,” Charlie demanded.

  “She’s fine,” the Commander said from behind him.

  Charlie swung around. “I’ll believe it when I see it. Where is she? Take me to her. Now.”

  “You’re in no position to be making demands,” came the growl from behind him.

  “Oh yeah?” Charlie challenged. He was tired of this bastard’s attitude. “And who the hell are you to even get a say in it?”

  “I’m the Security Squadron Captain. And her husband.”

  Her… what?

  “You son of a bitch,” Charlie yelled and launched himself at the larger man even though his hands were still zip tied behind his back.

  He hit a solid wall of muscle and all but bounced off. Motherf— As soon as he got his strength back, he’d—

  “Nix,” the Commander snapped. “Enough. Go get Audrey. You know how happy she’ll be to see her brother’s alive.”

  “If he’s her brother.” Nix glared at Charlie.

  “Well the quickest way to find out would be to go get Audrey, wouldn’t it?”

  Nix’s mouth went tight but he finally sent a sharp nod in the Commander’s direction. He didn’t leave before directing a harsh, “Watch him,” to the other guard, though.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Charlie moved further into the room toward the Commander. “That woman when we came in. She was talking about polygamy and rape and now I find out my sister has a husband after only three months.”

  The Commander let out a heavy sigh and put a hand to his temple. “We live in a new world. Things couldn’t go on as they were or—”

  “Look,” Shay said, cutting in and stepping between the Commander and Charlie, eyes on Charlie. “I probably should have clued you in to a few things before we got here. Then again, we were escaping Travis Territory on a four-wheeler and didn’t exactly stop for snacks or to chat along the way, so…” she lifted her shoulders in a helpless little shrug.

  “What?” Charlie took a step toward Shay. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Charlie! Oh my God!”

  Charlie whipped around. Audrey. The relief of seeing her safe and healthy made him stagger a step backward. She came running toward him, a huge, disbelieving grin stretched across her face.

  She flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around him. “How? You were dead! The blood. There was so much blood!”

  Then she pulled back, face stricken. “Oh my God. You weren’t dead and I just left you there. Oh God, Charlie. How can you ever— Oh my God, why are your arms tied behind your back. Nix, cut him loose. He’s my brother!”

  Nix did as she said and Charlie didn’t even take a swing at him, that’s how relieved he was to see his sister again. He pulled her back into his arms, shuddering with relief.

  “Hush.” He pulled her back into his arms. Jesus. After all this time, she was safe. She was here and she was safe. He hadn’t failed her completely. She was alive. Unless he was dreaming. Oh God don’t let this be a dream.

  “Are you real?” she whispered and he laughed.

  “I was just wondering the same thing.”

  She giggled against his chest and it was the most wonderful sound he’d ever heard in his life.

  He pulled back just so he could get another look at her. It had only been three months but she seemed so changed. She wasn’t as skinny for one. Her cheeks were rounded out. And her hair looked… softer, or something.

  And well, she was smiling. Like she couldn’t stop. And Charlie didn’t think it was an act for the other people in the room. Audrey never could act for shit. She’d done a play when she was in Jr. High and it was so painful he felt the audience cringing around him during her speaking parts.

  But that was part of what made Audrey Audrey.

  “Jesus, where are my manners?” Charlie ran a hand through his hair. “Audrey, this is Shay. She helped me escape and get here.” He ushered Shay forward.

  Shay held out her hand but Audrey threw her arms around her just like she had Charlie. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. You’ve won a devotee for life.”

&nbs
p; “So the border patrol agents said you claimed to have come from Travis Territory. That you were detained there against your wishes?” the Commander broke in.

  Charlie nodded absentmindedly, still too focused on his sister.

  “Yes,” Shay answered, and Charlie realized the Commander had been speaking to her all along.

  “And I always heard talk about this place,” she continued. “No one watches what they say in front of the help. So I knew you treated your women well here. And I don’t have a problem with the lottery system. I just want a place where I can finally be safe.”

  The Commander’s face softened but Charlie could only look back and forth between them in confusion. What in the holy fuck were they talking about? “Lottery? What is she talking about?”

  “Charlie, calm down,” Audrey said, putting a hand on his forearm. “Just give them a second to explain. It sounds bad at first, I know it does, but it can actually turn out really—”

  Why were they all suddenly acting like a bomb was about to detonate?

  “What. Is. She. Talking. About?”

  “It’s a lottery to see who I’ll marry,” Shay said calmly.

  Charlie all but choked, sure at first he’d misheard her.

  But then she went on. “There aren’t enough women to go around anymore. Everybody knows that. So Central Texas South Territory came up with a solution. Each woman marries five men. The only way for it to be fair is to have a lott—”

  “No fucking way.” Charlie’s head whipped around to his sister. “Aud. Tell me you didn’t.”

  Audrey’s face was screwed up in that way she did when she used to come home with a bad report card she knew would disappoint her parents. Fuckin’ hell.

  “Look, Char, it sounds worse than it is. Once you get to know the guys themselves, you’ll understand. They have protections in place. Not just anyone can enter the lotto.”

  “You don’t believe that,” Charlie scoffed. “You’re a shit liar. Why are you protecting them, Aud? Are they holding you here against your will? Cause I’ll—”

  “No,” Audrey breathed out loudly in frustration. “Okay, look, I still have some reservations about the whole thing. My husbands treat me like a queen but there was one case of abuse discovered recently.”