The Fortunates (Unfortunates #2) (5 page)

The metal pieces of a belt buckle echoed through the room as they clashed together.

“Do it and you’ll regret it,” Kathryn warned, anger prominent in her tone.

“I don’t think anyone would object to me sticking my dick in a traitorous Unfortunate whore.”

“Don’t be so sure about that,” I squeezed out, my voice trembling along with my hands.

Leaving his belt, he grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked it back, forcing the key deeper in my skin. Warm, sticky blood flowed down my neck and ran under the neckline of my tunic.

“You think a Fortunate like him would truly give a shit about you? You are a whore—a convenient place for him to dump his come. People like him don’t love people like you.” His mouth found my ear and he licked me, tracing my lobe with his slimy tongue. “Until they put a bullet in your skull, your ass is mine.”

Tears flooded my eyes and threatened to fall.

“And if they declare me a Fortunate?” I asked through silent tears. “What right will you have to my body then?”

He chuckled. “I’m not worried about that. You’re not one of them. You were born an Unfortunate whore and you will die an Unfortunate whore, but not before I fuck you like the stupid slut you are.”

I snapped. Anger shot through me, sucking the fear right out of me. I thrust backwards, pushing Jim off balance and sending him crashing to the floor.

“You cunt!” he shouted, clenching his skull. Panicked, I ran for the main door, but it was locked. My lungs heaved, my heart clenched, and thick tendrils of dread burrowed through my chest.

Jim laughed, his torturous cackle filling the room. “You didn’t think I’d let you out of your cage without locking the main door, did you?”

I was mortified, mortified because I didn’t hear him lock the door. With nowhere else to go, I dived for my cell. I needed something, anything to put between us to keep him away from me…but he beat me to it. He caught the gate before I had the chance to close it.

Jim yanked the gate open, pulling it from my hands. I backed up, my hands outstretched in front of me.

“Please,” I begged. “You don’t want to—”

He snapped forward, grasping my face in the palm of his hand, squeezing my jaw shut.

“I’m done hearing you talk.”

“If you hurt me, Kade Sario will kill you,” I squeezed out through my clenched jaw. “That I promise you.”

He shoved his free hand down the front of his pants. “You talk too much. Lucky I have something big enough to stuff your mouth with.”

“The Misfortunate? That’s what they call me?”

He squeezed my jaw tighter, making me hiss. Saliva spilled out the side of my mouth since my tongue was wedged against the roof of it.

“Do people simply drop dead around me or do I have someone looking out for me?”

He swayed on his feet.

“Think about it,” I said. “Is a quick screw worth your life?”

He dropped his hand from my jaw and I fought the urge to rub it as it throbbed.

“I don’t believe you.”

I almost wanted him to do it. I wanted to prove to him that people like me are capable of winning someone’s love—even someone as big and as strong as Kade Sario.

I swallowed hard. “Touch me and find out.”

To my surprise, Jim eased off. He pulled his hand from his pants as he backed up one step at a time.

“I hope they put a bullet through your head,” he growled, sneering.

I pressed my back to the wall and hung my head, relieved.

“Yeah. Me too.”

Chapter Six

Kade

Dew from the grass flicked onto his shoes with every step he took, making them glisten in the light of the full moon as he crossed the sparse field. Fifty metres ahead was the moderator barracks. It wasn’t a tall building but it was long, housing every single one of the town’s active moderators. Those that weren’t on duty were here, drinking and messing around like they had no care or responsibility in the world.

A dense, sick feeling swirled inside him. It’d be a lie if he said manipulating Nine into telling him about the jagged cut on her neck didn’t make him feel guilty. He didn’t plan it, but when the opportunity arose, he took it. She admitted everything, explained it in full detail, and he felt every hurtful word, every knock and every cut. He couldn’t ignore it, despite how bad he wanted to. He tried, but he’d based his whole life on principles and that moderator fuck she called Jim imposed on those principles. A lot of notable Fortunates would take a political approach to dealing with this kind of infringement, but his father taught him differently. As a Fortunate something had to be done. As a Sario, Kade would make Jim pay with his blood.

∞

Chet, the burly, red-headed moderator at the front desk, let Kade in without a word, and even supplied him with Jim’s mod number and what annex he resided in. Kade made a mental note to promote the man later.

James Buchanan was Jim’s full name. He was the offspring of Jarold Tremaine and an unnamed Unfortunate. Kade felt better knowing he was going to kill the seed of an insignificant Fortunate. No political issues would arise from that.

Kaden passed annex after annex, drawing closer and closer to the number he desired, and, as fate would have it, Jim’s annex was number nine.

How convenient.

Inside, pillows were tossed from bunk bed to bunk bed, followed by exaggerated laughter and every swear word under the sun. The smell of sour, poorly cultivated wine hung in the air and burned at Kade’s nostrils. He couldn’t stand to be in this place another second. In one corner a large man tugged his small cock to Unfortunate films from the Black House and in another, a young man, no older than eighteen, polished a rifle. For the briefest moment, he was grateful he was born a Fortunate. The thought of existing in the shit hole he stood in made his blood run cold.

“I’m looking for James Buchanan.” Kade shouted, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his slacks. “Number seven-three-two-D-B-six.”

Heads turned to look at him, their beady eyes wide and frightened.
How many Fortunates have come to the barracks seeking a moderator before?
he thought. Judging by the looks on their faces, he assumed it wasn’t many and he guessed the outcome was never good.

Kade stood patiently, waiting for the asshole to show his face. Within seconds, he was able to put a face to a name. Jim raked his thin fingers through his mousey brown hair and nervously licked his thin pink lips as he stepped out from behind a bunk and into the center of the room wearing his worn, all black uniform.

Kade didn’t know what colour Jim’s natural complexion was, but he’d bet all seventeen of his mines it wasn’t pale white.

“I am James Buchanan, sir.”

Kade’s eyebrows pulled together. He wasn’t sure what he expected Jim to look like, but he definitely wasn’t expecting a man as young and as disappointing as him. Kade almost felt bad that he had to kill the guy, but he remembered that although Jim was small for him, he was still bigger than Nine. Kade had to remind himself as he looked at the uneasy moderator who stood in front him that he hurt Nine. He was a dangerous man. By killing him, Kade would be doing the world a favour.

Kade stepped to the side. “Let’s take a walk.”

∞

“You seem tense,” Kade wondered aloud, unable to take the smirk off his lips.

Moderators didn’t have the same restrictions the Unfortunates did. If they finished whatever their jobs required of them they were allowed to unwind with booze and food. To keep their spirits up, they were rewarded with an Unfortunate from the Black House twice a month.

“I can’t say a Fortunate such as yourself has ever brought me down to the lake for a beer before.” Jim replied, eyeing Kade suspiciously. “Forgive me if I’m a little…concerned.”

“And what would you have to be concerned about? Hm?” Kade asked, unscrewing the lid off his third beer, the golden bubbles racing up the neck of the clear glass.

He brought Jim to the lake to come clean and beg for forgiveness. He thought a relaxed setting would help him forgive like Nine did. At the moment, he didn’t plan on forgiving Jim, but as they passed by the Sario mansion, Kade felt a stir in his stomach. For Nine, he decided he’d try to be the man she wanted. So he grabbed a six pack of beer and brought Jim down to the lake. Kade’s favourite spot.

“I know you know what I did. Why else would we be here?”

Kade took note of the slight slur in his tone. He’d only had two and a half beers. If his gentle swaying was anything to go by, Kade assumed Jim was drinking before he arrived at Jim’s annex.

Jim glanced over his shoulder. “Are you going to kill me?”

Kade lifted the semi-warm beer to his lips.

“I haven’t decided yet,” he said before swallowing a large mouthful.

A short spell of silence filled the air and it did nothing but escalate the tension and impatience Kade felt. He couldn’t let it go. To forgive such disrespect just wasn’t his style. Despite Nine’s voice in his head, he knew in his heart that forgiveness would not be given this night.

“Is this where you caught the Unfortunate?” Jim asked a small eternity later, turning back to the lake.

The moon shone on the surface, making it look more like hard glass than water.

Kade cleared his throat uncomfortably, but Jim didn’t notice. “Yes. This is where I caught her.”

He shifted anxiously. He didn’t want to talk about that night. He already spent most of his time trying to forget it.

But he couldn’t.

He remembered her expression and the way her eyes glistened, begging him to do whatever she wanted him to do. He remembered the way she flinched when he told her he couldn’t love her. That hit home the most. That was his biggest regret.

“Did she put up a fight?”

Kade clenched his bottle. “No.”

Jim turned to face Kade, his shoes sinking ever so slightly into the semi-firm mud beneath his feet. Under the light of the moon, dark shadows circled his eyes and covered his lips.

“I don’t want to die. Not tonight.”

That didn’t matter to Kade. Jim was a dead man the second he touched Nine. He should have known that.

Kade tilted his head. “Did you know she belonged to me?”

“No.”

Lie. Kade smirked because he knew it. He dropped his beer on the ground and pushed himself to his feet. “I’ll give you once last chance to answer the question truthfully. Did you know she belonged to me?”

Jim stuttered and spluttered, his grasp making the beer in his hand tremble. “I…I mean…It…It might have been mentioned in passing, but I thought you were finished with her once they locked her up. I swear I meant no harm.”

Kade launched forward, grabbing the beer from Jim’s hand and smashing it upside his head before his body even registered he was angry.

Jim crashed to the ground, groaning and clenching the side of his face. Beer and glass coated and cut Kade’s left hand, but as the moment dragged on, and his chest bubbled with anger, he didn’t give a shit.

Kade bent and snatched the black fabric of Jim’s uniform in his hand and pulled him close to his face. Jim lowered his hand from his face and, under the light of the moon, Kade saw the blood and glass contorting his skin.

“You meant no harm?” Kade pulled back his arm, clenched his fist, and let it loose. It connected with Jim’s mouth, splitting his lip and staining his teeth with blood. “You attack a woman smaller and weaker than you and you meant no harm?”

Kade hit him again.

And again.

And again.

Until he was sure his fist would bruise. When he stopped slamming his fist into the pathetic excuse for a moderator, Jim choked on his teeth and spat up blood. It ran over his chin and down his throat. Blood from his nose spilled over his cheeks and got lost in his ears. Still Kade wasn’t satisfied.

“She makes you soft,” Jim spat, more blood trickling from the sides of his lips.

Kade smirked. “Oh. She makes me many things, but soft isn’t one of them.”

From his waistband, Kade pulled out his gun and pressed the eager barrel between Jim’s dark eyes.

Regret flooded Jim’s face. His eyes widened, his lips trembled, and sobs forced their way up his throat.

“Please…”

Kade slightly twisted the gun against his skull. “You know, if she was here, she’d be begging me not to kill you.”

“Please!”

He lessened the pressure of his gun on Jim’s forehead.

“I know she’d forgive you…”

The beginnings of relief crept over his face, starting in the curve of his eyebrows.

“But I can’t.”

With a squeeze, Kade pulled the trigger and
BANG!

The shot rang out.