Fury Page 7

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  Ellie woke confused at first, until memories returned with a rush. Her throat felt a little sore. She reached for it but her arms caught on something. Her eyes opened to stare at a white ceiling inside a dimly lit, unfamiliar room. She lifted her head to peer around.

  The large bedroom contained dark furniture and a fire blazed in the hearth inside a corner fireplace, the source of the light. A toilet flushed, startling her. With a few tugs she discovered that her arms were stretched wide apart above her head, tied at the wrist with soft, black material that connected to the sides of the headboard.

  After a brief blast of running water sounded, a door opened at the side of the room. Fury stepped out of the bathroom. She glanced at his naked chest and the black sweatpants he wore. Ellie’s fear increased, seeing his half undressed state. She warily studied his muscular build. He flipped the light off behind him, causing the room to darken again, hiding all the tiny details of his body.

  “You’re awake.” His tone softened. He sounded deceptively calm under the circumstances. He moved toward the bed. “Good.”

  He’d covered Ellie with a thick, soft blanket. She looked down and realized the top portion of her chest was bare and exposed. She moved her leg, feeling sheets against…bare skin. Her stunned gaze returned to Fury.

  He stopped at the edge of the bed. “I removed your clothes.” He paused. “All of them.”

  “Why?” Her voice came out raspy from her dry throat. Her fear level notched higher. Why would he bring her to his home and tie her naked to his bed? She had a really bad feeling and she didn’t want to know his answer, positive it would terrify her more.

  “You know why.” He moved toward the nightstand. “Are you thirsty?”

  She nodded. The bed dipped when he sat on the edge, grabbed the bottled water obviously placed there for her, and then twisted to face her. He reached out with one hand to gently slide it under her neck and lift as he brought the mouth of the bottle to her lips. She swallowed as much as she could without choking. He pulled back from her, his touch leaving her as he replaced the water on the nightstand.

  “I thought long and hard about what to do to you,” he informed her softly. “I once wanted to kill you outright but that was before I knew you were a spy. I didn’t understand you were inside that hellish place to save my people.” He paused while he adjusted his position to sit sideways to stare at Ellie. “Now I’ve decided you can live.”

  Her heart rate slowed and some of the terror eased. “Why am I here? Why did you take me from the park?”

  Fury’s eyes narrowed. “You said you’d do anything to make it up to me. I decided you deserve some punishment.” He paused. “I also don’t know if I believe what you say. You are a spy, used to dealing in lies, and telling people what you think they want to hear to avoid danger. You injured my pride, betrayed my trust, and you need to pay for that. Do you know how they made me suffer for killing the technician?”

  She gaped at him. “What?” Her mind reeled at his words. Oh no. Pain squeezed her heart.

  “They were angry that I’d killed that male. They punished me for what you’d done.”

  Chapter Four

  Ellie saw the truth in his grim expression. She’d hoped they wouldn’t punish Fury for Jacob’s death. The technician had assaulted him, had planned to rape, and would have killed him. Tears filled her eyes and she had to blink them back.

  “I didn’t know.” She hated to ask but needed to know. “What did they do to you?”

  A soft growl passed his parted lips. “Do you want to hear the details to enjoy the suffering you caused me?”

  “No!” It horrified her that he’d accuse her of that. “I didn’t think they’d do anything to really harm you. I swear, Fury. They thought you were too valuable to kill, they put so much money into you, and it honestly never crossed my mind that anyone would care about Jacob’s death after what that son of a bitch tried to do to you.”

  “They did.” He leaned forward a little, glaring down at her. “They tortured me in retaliation for his death. They caused me great pain. You had to know that. You were a skilled spy and avoided the penalty of his death.”

  “I just wanted to save you. My handler promised it could be a matter of only days before they attempted to rescue you if I could smuggle out those computer files. I risked it all to rush into that room to stop Jacob from killing you. I lied to everyone at the testing facility but I’m not lying to you. I’m not really a spy either. I was a nurse, Fury.” She paused. “I worked at Mercile Industries at their corporate offices handing out aspirins until someone approached me to go undercover. This agent shared the rumors circulating about a secret testing facility with live subjects, human ones, and it outraged me that a company could do that.”

  “Why?” His tone roughened.

  “It’s one thing for someone to volunteer to allow a research company to test experimental drugs on them. They know what they are signing up for and I figure some people have nothing to lose if they are sick enough to take those risks. It’s entirely something else when people are forced against their will to take whatever is forced upon them. The rumors said they’d locked people up. I worked for them and that meant I had accidentally become a part of what they did. I just wanted to make it right.”

  “Why would you care what happened to me or my people? Why would you risk your life to save me?”

  Ellie carefully debated her words. “I watched you from an observation room I accidentally discovered days after I started working there. All the doors were so similar that I thought it was a supply room. That mirror in your room was two-way. I sometimes sneaked in there to check on you.” She didn’t mention it had been daily, not wanting him to know she’d been nearly obsessed with making sure he was fine. “I respected your courage and you wouldn’t allow them to break your spirit. What they did was a crime. I happened to be in there taking a break when Jacob entered your cell and I overheard him say he planned to kill you. I just couldn’t stand by without doing something.”

  Fury seemed to ponder her explanation. “You never stopped any of the other things they did to me. Did you watch when they forced females into my cell and beat them to make us have sex together? Did you enjoy watching that?”

  Horror kept Ellie silent. She’d had no idea the doctors had been doing those kinds of things. Perhaps because she was a recent transfer they had purposely kept her in the dark. Jacob hadn’t been the only one to sexually assault Fury. It made her sick inside. She wondered if they would have tried to force her to try to have sex with any of the male Species if she hadn’t helped bust the testing facility.

  “They made you have sex with women? I didn’t know. I never saw any women inside your cell when I came in. Was it the other nurses and technicians? I never heard anything about it, Fury. I swear.”

  “They were New Species females. They tried for years to breed us. They needed to make more of us but couldn’t successfully replicate the procedures they’d used to create us in the first place. I heard enough to know the doctor who had successfully spliced our genetics with animals had left them when we were young, took her research, destroyed what they had, and they wanted more of us. We were growing older and they feared we’d die.” Anger changed his voice to a growl. “An infant or a puppy? That was what one of those doctors joked. He laughed over the concept of finding out if our women were impregnated.” Fury’s voice deepened into a growl. “Did you ever try to save any of them from being forced to have sex?”

  He had so many reasons to hate. His rage, directed at her, was even more understandable. “I didn’t know about any of that. I never even saw one of your women. I was the lowest-level technician with very limited movement within the facility. It came as a shock later when I heard there were females rescued. I only saw males, Fury.”

  “You didn’t ask. The females were sometimes raped by the technicians. It angers me that you intervened for me but not them.”

  “I asked plenty of
questions but they told me it wasn’t any of my business. I had been ordered not to push too hard for answers for fear Mercile would grow suspicious of me. My handler thought they’d kill me if they had any inkling why I wanted to know exactly what they were doing down there and he was right.”

  Ellie blinked hard to hold back tears. She knew horrors had been committed in the name of science but the things done to Fury and his kind staggered her. They had been treated as though they were guinea pigs, tools, and nothing more. Taking blood samples, forcing drugs into their systems, and keeping them locked up had been horrible but hearing they’d been forced to have sex, used as breeders, sickened her.

  “I believed you wouldn’t harm me. Were you aware of that? When I didn’t growl at you every time you entered my cell, did that amuse you? I didn’t want to frighten you. You were kind with your smiles and tender with your needles. When you killed that technician, at first I believed you did it to prevent me from suffering.” His features tensed and his voice grew deeper, each word carefully pronounced. “Yet you left me there to be tortured by the guards for your crime. They whipped me and took turns inflicting pain. Some of them were his friends. They weren’t allowed to kill me but they caused great harm.”

  Tears slid down the sides of her face. “I am sorry. I—” She knew nothing she said would erase his hate of her but she had to try. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know they’d do that. I thought only Jacob had it out for you after you’d broken his nose. I knew they valued you too much to kill you. I never thought they were doing breeding experiments either. I thought you’d be safe long enough for me to smuggle the evidence out and help could reach you. I wouldn’t have told them you’d killed him if I’d known you’d pay for what I did.”

  His fangs flashed when his lips parted. “Thanks. Is that what you’re expecting to hear? You prevented him from raping and killing me. Should I be grateful for the hours they just tormented me?”

  “No.” Maybe. Confusion silenced her. “You’re alive and he didn’t rape you. Doesn’t that count for something? I didn’t stand idly by while it happened. I risked my life by going inside that cell to try to save you. I had to make them think you’d killed him in self-defense and I never meant any harm to come to you. I had to do it, Fury. Please try to understand. That evidence I smuggled out ended up being the key factor that swayed a judge to issue the search warrants that located your people. If I’d told those security guards I’d killed Jacob they never would have allowed me to leave. I’d have died and you’d still be locked inside a cell along with all your people. Doesn’t that matter at all?”

  He took a deep breath. When he spoke, he’d obviously calmed a bit since he didn’t snarl anymore. “Sorry doesn’t change what happened to me, does it? It doesn’t take it back what you did to me or how betrayed I feel. I trusted you, yet I paid for your actions. I am not going to kill you but I plan to make certain you understand humiliation and helplessness.”

  Fury agonized over how stupid he’d been to trust Ellie. The guards had even teased him before that incident about not snarling at her when she’d come into his cell.

  He’d borne their harsh words and accusations that he wanted to mount the human female, their cruel taunts that she’d never want an animal to fuck her, but she’d been his weakness. The sense of betrayal had run deep after that day. He’d spent months hating her, reliving the torture he’d suffered and blaming her for it. She’d left him on the floor, sent guards in to kick him then chain him back to the wall where the abuse had continued.

  Humans were deceitful, cruel creatures. He had already misjudged Ellie once. The painful memory of her actions tore at his heart. He would never allow her to fool him again by lulling him into a false sense of trust.

  Every human he’d cared about had betrayed him. Memories surfaced from his late childhood. He’d almost thought of Doctor Vela as a mother. She’d given him cookies, a rare treat he’d looked forward to. He would have done anything for her. She’d promised he could earn his freedom if he became a skilled fighter. They had even videotaped him to show off how their drugs worked on his body.

  It had been a lie to manipulate him into compliance. When they’d come to take him away to another facility, she’d laughed at him over how incredibly naïve and stupid he’d been.

  Hell had begun after that when they’d taught him to endure physical pain. That torture continued into adulthood. The beatings he’d endured as they’d tried to create drugs that would heal humans faster, the sickness and pain he’d suffered on the failed ones that nearly killed him—all those memories surfaced now.

  There had been the female guard who promised to help him escape. He had been young, ruled by lust, and still experienced shame at how badly he’d wanted to mount the woman. Her name left a bitter taste in his mouth. Mary had unlocked his chains and he’d followed her out of his cell, down a long corridor, and straight into the trap they’d set up to test his fighting skills against a dozen heavily armed fighters.

  They had hit him with clubs and shot him with Taser guns, and Mary had cheered on the guards from the sideline while he’d struggled to survive. Afterward she’d crouched by his bloodied body, shaking her head. Her words had killed something vital inside him.

  “You didn’t really think I’d want you touching me, did you? You’re nothing but an animal, 416.” She’d smiled at the men around them and risen to her feet. “Too bad we’re not allowed to kill him. Take him back to his cell. Did you catch all that on camera, Mike? That should impress Doctor Trent with how much he endured before he went down. One of the doctors has a new batch of drugs they want to test on him to see if they can speed up the healing process. You did good, guys.”

  He’d lost consciousness then, but if he hadn’t, he would have tried to kill her. He wanted revenge on everyone who had ever hurt him, lied to him, and betrayed him.

  Ellie stared up at him with her big, fearful beautiful eyes. If she wasn’t face-to-face with him would she laugh at how stupid he’d been to trust her? Had he been a source of amusement to snicker about when he’d allowed her close without snarling at her or fighting his chains? Had she joked with the staff that 416 seemed not to hate her?

  “I’ll stay away from you if you let me go. That’s what you want, right? I’ll quit my job and leave Homeland.” Hope flared in her blue eyes. “You’ll never have to see me again.”

  Anger surged, hot and fierce, throughout Fury’s body. If she were truly regretful of her actions, she’d take whatever punishment he dealt out to make them even. That’s what honorable people did. She’d told him she would be willing to do anything to make things right between them but now she asked for mercy. A growl tore from his throat.

  Ellie watched as Fury’s expression twisted with the anger that burned inside his gaze. She realized that asking him to release her had somehow set him off. She tensed.

  He moved then, grabbed the blanket, and jerked. In a heartbeat he’d torn it away from the bed to expose Ellie’s nakedness. He stood and stared down at her with a callous expression.

  “You should understand how it feels to be naked, unable to move, while someone else has control over what is done to you. That’s part of what you did to me. You saw every inch of me exposed. How does it feel to be helpless, Ellie?”

  Embarrassment heated her cheeks and she tried to twist away, to roll onto her side, but he’d tied her too tightly. She could only curl her legs up protectively while she tried to use them to cover her breasts. She understood humility without him doing this to her but she didn’t say it aloud.

  “Then there was touching involved so I’m going to do that to you as well. That’s fair, isn’t it? Do you know what it is like to have someone’s hands sliding along your skin? Touching your sex? I understand you needed to remove the painful restrictive thing he put on me but your touch lingered. Don’t think I didn’t notice.”

  Ellie stiffened with shock and dread but then she took a quick breath. It wasn’t easy but she fought down the panic
that tried to overtake her. She understood that he needed revenge. He couldn’t get back at Jacob because she’d killed him and left Fury to suffer for it. She had touched him, gawked at his body, soaked in every naked inch. She supposed she deserved it. He said he wasn’t going to kill her. She could take it if humiliating her was the worst he planned. He’d been beaten and tortured. Some embarrassment seemed tame in comparison.

  “Go ahead and look. I do understand.” She eased her legs flat on the mattress and kept still. “Just please don’t hurt me.”

  A confused look marred his features as their gazes locked. He glared down at her while he climbed onto the bed to crouch over her body on all fours.

  “What?” He sounded as shocked as he looked.

  “I understand,” she whispered. “Do it.”

  He clenched his teeth but then lowered his body over hers until he caged her under him. If terrifying her had been his plan, he’d succeeded. The silence stretched between them. Her heart rate slowed.

  “Reverse psychology doesn’t work on me but I want you to know I won’t hurt you,” he whispered. “I would never make you suffer what I did. I could never bring myself to punch you or make you bleed. I believe I have come up with something fitting. I’m going to touch you. Do you know what is worse than being tortured with pain?”

  She didn’t want to know the answer. So far all the responses Fury had given didn’t bode well for her. He waited for an answer, though, and she didn’t want his rage to return. She had to say something.

  “No. I think pain is the worst thing ever.”

  “It’s when your own body betrays you by wanting something you know you shouldn’t. You learn to expect being let down by others but never yourself. It is a great, humble lesson to learn. It will also give us both the answer to a question on my mind at this moment.”