Vegas and Pete: the series

Dangerous Disobedience

POV Pete

I was starving, the knaw in my stomach becoming a constant ache now. I was sitting on the floor, my legs crossed as I did my best to ignore the food on the floor next to me. It was a salad of some sort. I hadn't paid close attention to what was on it in case I got the stronger urge to eat it. I hold my hands into weak fists to keep them from giving in and just taking the food as my body wanted to.

Vegas walks into the room almost silently, he heads to the hedgehog cage and gives him his food and replenishes the water. From where I sit I can see the soft eyes that he looks at the tiny creature with. But the moment he turns around that softness dies.

He comes over to me and crouches down. He nods to the food I've been ignoring. "Why didn't you eat?" He asks me, he doesn't seem angry, at least not yet. It was hard to guess this bastard's mood.

"I'm not eating." I state sharply.

"What?" He asks, tilting his head toward me as if he wants to hear me say it again. "Not eating?" He brings his face closer to mine. "Do you think you can choose?"

"I'm not choosing." I say. "I'm just not eating." In this way, it was his fault I was starving, I'm not eating because he has me locked up here, and I refuse to eat if I have to stay. So I wasn't the one making that choice, that was him. I starved because he wouldn't let me go, not because I chose not to eat.

Vegas smiles a small wicked grin and then stands and yanks me to my feet. My body, weak as it is, flares with a dangerous awareness as Vegas dark eyes meet mine. "You know, what an untamed pet would get?"

I pull back from him as much as bonds will allow as I listen to Vegas undoing his belt, without letting go of my gaze. His violent aura swirls around him, thickening the red light of the room and pushing all other colors away. There is nothing here but pain. I feel my body stiffen as I brace myself, but I won't let him see it. "Well, I don't like it."I tell him with a voice I'm surprised doesn't sound that weak. "I'm not hungry."

Vegas pays no attention to my words. "I'm gonna hurt you." He states with clenched teeth. "So you'll remember."

Then he rears back and whips the belt into my chest. I cry out at the pain that digs into me, the sharp thick notch of the buckle cutting my flesh and drawing blood. He doesn't stop, doesn't hesitate, lash after lash hits my skin, stinging, gouging, and I scream. I scream loudly as I desperately try to turn my body away from him and away from the pain.

This hurst, this hurts so fucking much. I want this to stop, I don't want to be here.

I'm scared.

Vegas raises the whip again and I flinch, eyeing him fearfully.

He stops.

I don't know why, I'm in pain and near tears but I see something flicker in his gaze that isn't anger, hatred, or a desire to inflict pain. He lowers the belt, not angry anymore, just, disappointed. "You're no fun at all." He scolds me and then chucks the belt onto the bed and heads for the door.

Once he's gone I suck in a sharp breath wincing at the pain throbbing from my chest. I can feel warm blood dripping down from me and peppering the floor. I lean limply as I try to get my feet under properly.

As I do I spy the belt still on the bed. That buckle, the one that just got done battering me, looks small enough to fit into the lock on my cuffs. I eye the door, waiting to see if Vegas will realize he made a mistake and come back into the room, but he doesn't. So I take the gamble.

Using my legs and the grips of my toes I try to pull the belt off the bed and flip it into my waiting hands above me. It takes more than a few tries but I do surprisingly manage it without tossing it somewhere I couldn't reach.