SEDUCTIVE PREY

NERVES AND NUTSACKS

My head is pounding, my throat is sore, and my muscles ache. And I can vaguely hear what sounds like Eden's voice calling out to me. Only she sounds far away. Like she's underwater or something.

My eyes flutter open just in time to feel a very heavy hand make contact with my face. Damn near taking my head off.

Definitely Eden.

Although Lexie is right beside her and did nothing to stop her from slapping me.

Noted. Also, payback is a bitch.

Glaring at her, I struggle to rise into a sitting position because my muscles feel like mush.

"What the hell happened to me?" I manage to croak out as she and Lexie help lift me into a sitting position.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Eden replies. "They tossed your dead carcass in here twenty minutes ago with no explanation, pissed about something."

"What?"

"Like she said... we don't know." Lexie says with an attitude.

Grumpy much?

"Are you mad at me or something?" I ask.

Rather than answer me, Lexie walks away to pace in front of the gate to our cell.

"Lex... talk to me." I shakily climb to my feet.

Seriously... what the hell did they do to me?

"Whatever plan you have, please tell me it doesn't involve allowing yourself to be carted in here like that again." She exhales a deep breath and looks over her shoulder at me with tears in her eyes.

"Lex-"

"If you're going to tell me its okay... don't." She cuts me off. "I already lost you once... for TWO YEARS Ali. Having them cart you in here like that..."

Using what little strength I have left, I quickly wrap her in my arms to hopefully stop her pain. "Lex, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be sorry," she shrugs out of my arms like she doesn't need me. "Just... get us out of here."

"I'm trying, Lex."

"Well, then try harder." She moves into the shadows where neither of us can hear her.

"Mm-mm-mm..." Victor's voice sounds off behind me. I turn to find him standing outside my cell holding one of his arms against his chest with the other. "Look what the cat dragged in."

"What happened to you?" I ask.

"I went to visit our man, but his ass is grumpy. He ripped my damn arm off." He has the nerve to actually look hurt.

Like he's completely oblivious to the fact that we're all being held hostage in this Godforsaken place.

With our friends being tortured almost daily.

"How did you even get close enough for him to reach you?"

"He was working out in his cell with no shirt on, so, you know me, I ventured a little closer to get a better look. One minute he was staring at me with sweat dripping down that glorious body of his, and the next I was begging for him to give me my arm back." He pouts.

Poor Victor.

If he wasn't a part of the shit parade currently keeping my friends and I locked up, I might actually feel bad for him.

"I'm sorry, Victor." I apologize on Ethan's behalf.

Even though I know neither of us are sorry in the least.

"Don't be." His pout quickly turns into a devious smile. "Little does he know, I like my men a little rough around the edges. It's nothing I haven't dealt with before. He's just a little hard to get."

"Try impossible to get." I deadpan.

"Why? Because he married you? Bitch, please. I haven't met a man yet who can resist all this." He waves a hand down his body.

"Don't take my word for it, then. Go back there and let him rip off the other arm."

"Nah," Victor shakes his head. "I'm going to give him some time to miss me so he can come to his senses."

Victor looks me up and down like he's sizing me up and then he leaves.

"Has he always been so-"

"Delusional?" I cut Eden off, finishing her sentence.

"Pretty much. I think the doctor slapped him too hard when he was born and dislodged a few brain cells." I chuckle.

"How can you two even joke at a time like this. Look at us! We're literally trapped in a freaking cell by the family from hell." Lexie starts to lose it.

"Hey, that rhymed." Eden laughs too. "You should consider a rap career once we get out of here."

"If we ever get out of here." Lexie corrects her. "Ali... Aiden might be next."

I know that look in her eyes. It's the same look I had when I thought I'd lost Ethan to Zara forever. And it's that realization that has me crossing the room to comfort her.

"I won't let that happen, Lex." I assure her. "I'll find a way to get us out of here."

"How?"

"I don't know yet. But I think whatever they did before they dragged me in here is the key."

"What did they do?" Eden asks.

"I don't know." I shrug. "I was hoping you could help me with that."

"Sorry, but the memory siphoning department is Ethan's bag. But I'd be more than happy to cut up a bitch." She lifts her hands to brandish her razor sharp nails.

"After what happened with Ethan, I doubt they'll let me anywhere near him again."

Then we'll have to figure it out without him.

Our conversation is interrupted by footsteps. And Lucas appears at the door to our cell moments later. His sad little puppy dog eyes immediately landing on Eden.

Because yeah... my BFF has Satan's overgrown baby batter wrapped around her little pinky finger.

Eden's eyes narrow to slits when she sees him, and she turns her back to him. Not wanting to look at him.

"Talk to me." Lucas pleads. "Please."

"I can't hear you over the sound of this power suck of a cell leaching my power." She says without looking at him.

Dejected, Lucas comes closer to the cell door, and Eden takes that moment to grip him by the collar, yanking him face first into the cell door.

He doesn't even flinch as his skull meeting the iron of the cell bars makes a sound I've never even heard before. But I'm willing to bet for a normal person it would be the sound of the end of their life as they knew it.

He allows her to do whatever she wishes to him. Slashing him across the face. Slicing her fingers across his throat. Slapping, kicking, and punching him until she throws a fist at his nuts, which he calmly blocks by raising his knee to absorb the blow.

"I'll talk to you when you get us the fuck out of here. And the longer you take, the more I'm going to hate you for Ethan losing half of the Syndicate we grew up with. For every person who dies in this hellhole, a new level of hate for you will rise. Do you understand me?" Eden glowers at him.

Lucas' throat bobs and he silently nods.

He's like a dog with its tail tucked between its legs.

And my bad ass best friend has this little devil's hellish nut sack in a vice grip.