Lie to Me (9 page)

The guard shoved her forward. Kella waved at the crowd as the punisher gripped her arm. “I don’t want to do this, Mack,” he whispered as he walked her to the cross-like apparatus he’d bind her to. “Punch me or kick me in the balls and take off. You know the crowd will protect you.”

Jeb was a friend, a fellow compatriot fighting the good fight against the system, but she wouldn’t endanger him to save herself. They needed him to maintain his position among Regent Jones’s ranks. “Do your job, Jeb.”

His lips tightened, and he shook his head. “Goddamn you, Mack. Hurting you will plague me.”

And it would help her cause. “I’m tough.”
I hope
. She’d seen grown men weep and soil themselves from an electrical lashing, and none of them had endured twenty.

“You’re stubborn.”

She couldn’t argue with that so she stepped up to the cross, gave a cheeky salute to the crowd, and positioned herself so Jeb wouldn’t have the added guilt of that. Boos surfaced around them as Jeb strapped her to a wooden X—how fitting given her status as a Xeno and an X-Diplomat. After securing her wrists, he had her spread her legs, which caused a moment of alarm because she couldn’t understand the reasoning behind the position. He lifted her pant legs so he could bind her ankles to the apparatus.

Testing the restraints, she tugged her arms against the bindings cutting into her wrists. The tight ties must be for her own good, but the way he’d bound her, along with the pinching rope, unsettled her.

He cut her shirt off, exposing her back. Her hair had already been braided, so he pushed that over her shoulder and out of his way. Next he slashed off her pants, and that succeeded in escalating her apprehension. With only her panties and bra maintaining her vanity, she was rendered vulnerable, exposed in a way that bought her a shit ton of alarm.

Part and parcel of the repercussions of my actions
.

But what was the point in spreading her legs and baring her from the waist down? Further humiliation?

I’d do it all over again
.

People were tired of being devalued because of their birth status. Tired of being a disposable commodity because the government only valued spooners and their wealth. Born a dreg, always a dreg. Dragging oneself out of that crevice was next to impossible. The only ones who received favor were Xenos, and they lost their freedom for their gain.

“I’d go easy on you if I could.”

Kella glanced at Jeb, his expression troubled. She nodded that she understood. Electrical lashes prevented the punisher from holding back.

Jeb startled her when he doused her with water. Oh, shit, Regent Jones meant business with her torture. She’d never seen them employ water with the electrical lashes before.

“Mack Ellason,” the smug tone of Regent Jones’s voice slithered down her spine. God, she hated him so much and couldn’t wait to cripple him. She wished he’d choke on his hypocrisy, but he deserved to suffer a long time. “Your punishment is twenty electrical lashes for interfering in my business.” The crowd gasped over the harsh sentence and proceeded to scream obscenities. “You may proceed, Jeb.”

The glee in his voice sickened her. He enjoyed the suffering of others, always had.

As soon as the X-Ds can manage it, he’s going dow
—

Kella gasped when the first lash struck diagonally across her back. In protest of the severity of the hit, her spine arched, driving her belly into the wood she was bound to, possibly acquiring a splinter or two. She’d definitely underestimated the suffering of the penalty handed down. Streaks of pain sizzled along her skin several long seconds after the blow. The second one took her breath. Unprepared, the third came immediately on the heels of the second, causing her entire body to jerk uncontrollably. She bit her tongue to halt the scream ripping upward from her lungs with the fourth, and tasted blood.

I’ll never make it to twenty.
She panted, tears rolling down her cheeks.

The fifth resulted in the edges of her vision darkening. Her nerve endings stung like a million needles pricked her skin. Or a billion bumblebees dive-bombed her. Or maybe a trillion paper cuts. She couldn’t decide which would hurt the most.

The sixth landed low on her waist, just above her butt and curled around to bite into her hip. The worst part followed, her uncontrollable shimmying and the stinging that radiated along her skin, like she was connected to a live current. Restraints became too much, her bra and panties chafed her raw skin. Even the tears on her cheeks supplied too much sensation to her over-sensitized skin.

Kella shuddered in her fetters like a person she’d seen in a movie who’d been tortured with electricity.

Finally, the brutal quivering in her nerve endings ceased, and she could breathe once more. The next lick came to the tender skin on the inside of her thigh. Before she could stop it, a scream tore from her lungs, and another shriek followed as he struck again, but higher on the inside of her legs, and much too close to her vagina. Her knees gave out, and she sagged against the wooden X, the bindings chafing her wrists and drawing blood.

She understood the reason for spreading her legs. Those last two hurt worse than those against her back.

Jones’s chuckles repulsed her, causing a wave of nausea to roll in her belly. Or maybe the bile hitting the back of her throat resulted from the pain raping her system.

“Your mighty defender is brought low by the justice system.” Darkness narrowed her vision, but Jones made a show of entering her line of sight. “Citizens of Quadrant2, do
not
follow in her footsteps or you’ll suffer the same fate.”

Kella’s heart beat too hard, hurting her breastbone. The loud panting of her breathing drowned out Jones, a small reprieve in her misery. She managed to process his evil grin as he showed her the wand in his hand. A different torture device from the whip-like apparatus Jeb lashed her with. This one resembled a cane, but with the ability to electrocute like the whip Jeb utilized. His sadistic smile didn’t bode well for her either way.

“Let’s amp it up a bit, Mack.” Jones flicked the wand on and off, a mental torture all its own. At the crack of electricity and blue lighting, she cringed away from the gadget, as she anticipated the pain it’d cause, escalating her heartbeat. “If you survive this, our relationship will change.”

Kella guessed what he intended, but she’d carve his dick off before she’d allow him to debase her that way. He trailed a finger along her cheekbone, the touch like a scalpel splitting open her skin. She whimpered, bringing forth a sadistic smile from her tormentor.

Jones strolled around her until she couldn’t see him. “Beautiful burn marks that play against your skin exquisitely.” Fingertips traced each injury and she jerked in her restraints, but her effort to evade his touch only brought out his violence. He clutched the braid at the base of her neck and yanked her head back. She gasped at the sudden wrench and resulting strain on her tendons. His breath puffed against her cheek. “You’ll be a fun fuck-toy. So much fun to break.”

“No.” Her denial was nothing more than a breathy rejection, but if the tightening about the edges of his eyes was any indication, he understood her clearly.

“I’ll receive a
yes
or I won’t stop until you’re pissing and shitting your panties...or dead.” Jones shoved her face forward, pressing her forehead against the wood and immobilizing her with his hand on the back of her head. He laid the wand against the back of her thighs, a blow that resulted in a screech ripping from her throat. The electrical charge hurt worse than the whip, but she had expected that.

Three more rained against her, each one a little lower on the back of her legs. What exacerbated the agony was instead of striking and pulling back for more, he held the wand to her flesh a second or two too long to guarantee the full effect of the abuse he doled out.

“I’m so goddamn hard, I’d shove my dick in you if not for the audience.” The far off sound of his voice was the first thing that scared her because it indicated she’d lose consciousness soon. A lack of awareness would leave her defenseless to whatever Jones wanted. “Say yes, Mack.”

She tried to get the word no out, but nothing would leave her lungs, even the act of breathing became impossible.

“Soon I’m going to fuck you as I hurt you just like this.” A jab of the wand to her ribs, high enough the tip of the wand landed against the soft side of a breast.

Kella had lost the ability to scream her agony. She couldn’t tolerate a repeat performance of this torture. Death presented a haven from the suffering.

“Mackella Starke Emmerson.” Was she dead? Or had she heard Jones correctly? “Yes, that’s right, you little slut, I know your real identity. You’ll say yes, or I’ll tell Stone who you are.”

Another blow was laid directly across the center of her ass.

That’s thirteen
. Tongue numb, the darkness at the edges of her vision grew. Her head became too heavy, and rolled on her shoulders.

The thin cotton of her panties afforded her zero projection as the sizzle of her skin resonated to her ears. Belly rolling at the stench of burning flesh, she probably would’ve retched if her body wasn’t so busy jiggling helplessly in the restraints as he held the satanic device against her flesh, delivering a shot of unending pain.

Darkness crashed, dragging her under.

***

S
tone could hardly bear to watch the scene. His stomach turned at the obvious enjoyment Jones received from meting out torture. The bulge in the Regent’s slacks evidence of his sexual sadism, and not in a good way in this instance. Murmurs of rebellion propagated as their beloved vintage archeologist was abused for aiding one of their own.

“He’s being unusually cruel,” James remarked. “And that one is going to do something stupid if this mockery of a punishment doesn’t end quickly.”

Stone glanced in the direction James nodded and caught sight of the guy in dreads Mack had shook her head at earlier. “He won’t need to do anything. The crowd is going to revolt if Jones doesn’t let up soon.”

James considered the mass and nodded his agreement.

Stone winced when Jones laid the wand across her backside. He knew the minute she lost consciousness because her entire body went slack, her head rolling back. People yelled insults and slurs against Jones and his government. If this were a typical day in Quadrant2, he’d revolt too.

With that reality driving him, Stone jumped up on the gallows to intervene. His gut had wanted him to intercede sooner. Stone snatched the wand out of Jones’s grip, and the asshole swiveled to face Stone. Jones’s eyes were glassy with delight, sickening Stone. That glaze of pleasure slowly sizzled into an affronted glare at Stone’s high-handedness.

“You’re a fool. You’re going to lose control of the crowd if you hit her again. Your point is made.”

“You’ve no right to interfere, Regent Emmerson.” Jones panted like a man about to orgasm.

“I do when you’re putting your life in danger.” Hers too because he feared Mack Ellason was a few lashes away from sending her heart into fibrillation. Stone shut off the device, threw it down, and smashed it with his boot. The crowd cheered. “Take a hard look, Regent, you’ve not enough guards to protect you, and this mob is angry. Walk away before it’s too late.”

Walk away before I fucking kill you by shoving the glass fragments of the wand up your ass.

Jones hesitated, taking a long survey of the mob. He motioned for his guards to join him and all but spit out, “Take her. I’ve no more use for her now that she’s passed out.”

Thankfully the bastard walked away without a backward glance. James cut through the restraints binding her, and the dreadlock guy shoved both of them aside, getting to Mack first. The man swung her into his arms, cradling her gently to his chest. The crowd parted as he strode off the platform and across the street.

“We’re following.”

“I suspected as much,” James said, his tone dry. “I don’t know what we’re walking into, so have your weapon on standby.”

Paranoia is what he paid for, but seriously? Mack was gravely injured. Mr. Dreadlocks and the other two—another man and a woman that followed—surely they sought Mack’s wellbeing. Stone highly doubted they were going to attack, but he’d be ready just in case.

“Jones makes a mockery of his position.”

“He’s a tyrant. Enjoys his all-access power. And that
show
had nothing to do with her interference with his authority and everything to do with a personal vendetta.” James’s insight was usually spot on.

“I have the power to take him down.” Just speaking the words gave him a sense of satisfaction.

“I’d advise against it.”

Of course James warned against the move. To overthrow Jones would put Stone in more danger, and James always endorsed the safest course of action.

A row of identical housing stretched in either direction. The blond guy shoved open a door and they entered. The red-haired woman halted at the bottom step to block their entrance. “Mack’s friends only.”

“Cute, button, but ineffective.” James gripped her hips and set her aside as easily as he would a sack of sugar.

Stone took the four steps two at a time and heard James’s tread behind him.

“Wait!” Stone called, halting Dreadlocks from placing Mack on a stack of blankets. “The hard floor will agitate her burns.”

“Who are you?” The blond guy folded his arms over his chest and glared. He wasn’t hard looking like the one holding Mack, and his suave comportment unveiled an entirely different story. Stone would bet this man’s connections were of an elevated nature. Might even be a spy for the Regency. At the very least Mr. Mole hadn’t been raised a dreg. The only thing that didn’t fit with that suspicion was the tattoos covering both arms.

“Later. Is this the doctor’s office?” Why else would they be in this hovel?

Dreadlocks leveled Stone with an antagonistic stare, but his tone implied Stone was a moron. “It’s Mack’s residence.”

Good god!
Horrified by her living conditions, Stone gawked at the meager dwelling. His bathroom boasted more square footage than this one-bedroom shack. There’d been at least a dozen of these homes in either direction, stacked in a neat row side-by-side with only a sliver between them. He’d assumed they were businesses.
His
citizens lived better than this.