who’s been acting like a slimy softy around this one.” He shoved the gun harder against my throat, making me cough. “Your father would’ve been long done with her. He was just and always shared his women with his crew, too. If there was anything left to share, that is.”
Moving his stare away from Wyck, Nocc slid it down my body in an assessing way.
“I’ll tell you what.” He licked his lips. “I’ll show you just how kind and generous I am. I’ll let her choose her first fuck.”
“No one is fucking her!” Wyck lunged my way. Two errocks grabbed his arms, aided by two dimos, straining to hold him back.
“Stay where you are, boy.” Nocc grabbed a handful of my hair, tipping my head back. The cold metal of the gun trailed a chilling path along my throat. “Or I’ll change my mind on being kind and generous tonight.”
“We had a deal.” Wyck glared at him.
“The deal was for her to entertain us. And none of us find her fancy moves entertaining enough.”
“I’ll touch her, no one else.” Wyck shrugged his shoulders, making those holding him stagger. “Like Vrateus touched Svetlana.”
“Too late, boy. I don’t care about touching. I want to see some real fucking.”
“No!” His teeth clenched, Wyck yanked his right arm free then punched the errock on his left in the jaw.
Nocc jerked the gun Wyck’s way again. Two more errocks leaped from the crowd and onto Wyck. Someone kicked the back of his legs, sending him to his knees.
“Don’t hurt him.” A sob ripped from my throat, warm tears rolled down my cheeks as my entire body shook from shock and terror.
How did it all go so wrong so fast?
“I said stand back!” Nocc pressed the gun to Wyck’s head, between two bony ridges. “I swear on the memory of the Great Scodr, I’ll burn a hole in your brains, my promise be fucked.”
Nocc’s threat charged the air with a new level of brutality. The room stilled, everyone watching the errocks going against each other. The tension grew so thick, I could hear it ring in my ears. It seemed a drop of a pin could set the fire off, resulting in the murder of an unarmed man.
“I’ll do it!” I said, barely realizing myself what I was doing. My voice sounded high but strong enough to carry through to the far walls of the room. “I’ll do what you want me to do. Put the gun down.”
If Nocc shot Wyck, I’d be on my own. I didn’t dare imagine what would happen to me then, but it wasn’t the reason why I’d stopped Nocc. At that very moment, I didn’t think far enough ahead to worry about myself. I simply couldn’t let Wyck die.
The two men broke their stares from each other to gaze at me—Nocc with an obvious triumph, Wyck with utter shock.
“Nadia.” There was so much in Wyck’s voice—warning, regret, sadness...
“Unlike you, the girl has some brains.” Nocc beamed with satisfaction that quickly turned to eager anticipation.
I’d come here tonight fully expecting to be degraded. What they wanted from me, however, added an entirely new level to it.
“You said I can choose,” I hurriedly reminded Nocc. Panic pulsed inside me as I’d seen how little weight Nocc placed on his promises.
“Do you have someone in mind already?” He gave me another one of his leering stares.
I bit my lip, holding back a curse and a slap to wipe that repulsive smirk off his face. Unfortunately, he was the one with the gun at Wyck’s head, and therefore the one with the power over both of us.
“I want Wyck,” I said firmly.
Nocc’s brow ridge rose.
“Him?” He released a roar of laughter. “You want the boy?”
Trox growled low at my side, his grip on my arm tightened from bruising to agonizing.
“Did you hear that, Wyck? Your newest pet wants you to fuck her.” Nocc kept guffawing. “The hassle of looking after her might be paying off for you.”
I dropped my gaze to the floor, dreading to look at Wyck. Whatever camaraderie we had shared before, whatever fragile friendship might’ve developed between the two of us, I felt it would now be crushed by the brutality of this situation.
Wyck was the last one I wanted to see me as nothing more than a sex object. His was the only opinion that mattered to me here. I didn’t want any intimacy between us to happen this way.