Chapter 28

"Renee."

"Mmm?" she murmured. The bed was warm and the pillow was so soft. She didn't want to wake, but she blinked open her eyes-

-and recoiled from the face a few inches from hers.

"Hey, hey," said Sawyer. "It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you."

She forced her heart back under control. The boy was laying next to her because she had chosen to sleep there. There's no reason to be afraid.

"Sorry," she muttered. How long will it take before I stop doing that? she thought. Silly question. She'd never stop until she was safe. Until she had no reason to fear.

How long until he stops putting up with it? asked the voice in the back of her mind.

She pushed the question aside.

"I have to go to school," he said, slowly, as if she were still in danger of bolting. "But I'm going to come home right after, alright? There's food on the table, if you feel like eating."

Renee nodded.

"I'll see you later," he said, then reached and squeezed her hand firmly in his own; he hesitated, as if he wished to do more, then he gave her a tight smile, his cheeks flaming, and exited the room.

The girl yawned and stretched out on the bed, settling herself more comfortably. Within the day, she would know where Simon was being held.

She needed to figure out how to save him.

Telling Sawyer was out of the question. She could trust him with her safety, but she wasn't sure he would let her leave.

Confined to either his house or Zack's, she wasn't getting out unless one of them let her.

Renee bounced ideas around in her head, but she could think of no situation where her owners would let her go gallivanting off to save a fellow synthetic.

Hours into the problem, she lacked an answer. She couldn't kill her masters again. Not only was there no loophole this time ... she liked Sawyer. Zack would have been easy, but the other?

No.

It was a conundrum.

She sighed and let her eyes close.

Consciousness had almost drifted away ... when the door creaked open.

"He's still letting you sleep in his bed?" said a disgusted voice.

Zack.

Renee shot up, bones moving without her will. She'd gotten her back against the wall before his first command.

"Come here." The tone was neutral, but she could hear the steel in the words. She recalled the anger in his eyes when Sawyer had dismissed him.

The girl wanted to stay as far away from that as she could.

Her body scooted off the mattress and edged closer to the boy, each muscle quivering with the urge to escape.

Zack growled at the distance still between them and closed it with three strides. He grasped her hair and forced her head back, so she could meet his gaze.

"Sawyer-" she began.

"Still at school," Zack sneered. "I 'didn't feel well enough' to go to classes, today."

Renee deflated in his grasp.

"You are mine," said the boy. He released her and watched dispassionately as she crumpled to the floor. "You're mine, and if I show Sauce how synthetics are supposed to be treated, maybe he'll come around."

"He wouldn't let you do this," she whispered. Before, she might have doubted. But after last night ... she could trust him. She knew he would not hurt her, even if she jumped in his presence.

The boy's hand flashed out and struck her across the face, throwing her aside. "You know, it doesn't really matter what Sauce would let me do, because he isn't here. And I own you just as much as he does."

"Until he figures out how to delete you from my registry," she shot back. "He doesn't trust you anymore, Zack."

"He will, you little bitch. Do you really think I'd let a syn-" The teen paused, then tilted his head to one side, regarding her with a queer smile on his face. "But why am I arguing with you?"

Renee felt the atmosphere change, and her heart began to beat like a drum. She lurched to her feet, and nearly made it to the terminal.

"Stop."

Renee halted so abruptly she fell to her knees.

Zack sauntered into view. "Now then. Where should we begin, Renee? We have..." A pause. "Four hours. How long do you think it will take me to break you?"

"You won't," she hissed up to him, ordering her body to attack. Nothing happened. "You think you are so great; let me tell you, Zack: you are nothing- nothing compared to Claude. You're just a pathetic little boy playing games, and you don't even do it well." She curled into a ball, covering her head as a foot struck her side- once, twice.

Then nothing.

Her breathes came in short gasps, and the girl cursed her anger. It may have felt good, but look at yourself now, dumbass, she thought. Don't piss him off more.

Renee waited until she could inhale easily before daring to lift her head from the safety of her arms-

-the blow caught the girl across the chin and jerked her head back; sight spun sickeningly around her, the room turning black in places.

"Shut up," said Zack ... but calmly.

The lack of emotion turned the synthetic's stomach to stone.

"Take off your clothes."

Her hands began shakily unbuttoning the garments. First the shirt, the pants. The nausea in her stomach made a joke of any resistance.

In less than a minute, she stood naked before him. The bracelet Sawyer had given her would not come off, even if she tried.

She watched his fists.

He reached out for her, and she flinched back. He followed her backpedaling stumble until a corner trapped her in his presence.

"Look at me," he said, forcing her chin up.

Renee met his gaze defiantly, but the anger had already drained away to fear. Four hours. She could last that long, though she didn't want to.

Fingertips brushed up her ribcage, along the edge of a breast. They lingered on her neck, and for a brief instant she thought he would choke her. Then he went on, the creeping inspection making her flesh crawl in its wake.

He paused, and they stared at each other for a moment before he swooped in, lips meeting hers in a parody of a kiss. His tongue inside her mouth - he tasted like too many breath mints - and she was fighting, pushing against his immovable flesh and shaking her head from his unyielding grasp.

No, she thought. No.

Zack absentmindedly caught her wrists and slammed them against the walls behind her. The impact against the healing tissues sent a shock wave of pain to the ends of her body, every muscle constricting to counter it.

He drew back, a fresh grin on his face. "Did that hurt, Renee?" he asked, squeezing her injuries for emphasis.

The girl whimpered, although she couldn't speak. She wanted to hit him, or spit in his face... something, anything to show he hadn't won.

But he had.

The boy released his hold and she sank to the floor. He caught her by the hair before she could scrabble away, and jerked her head to his waist. "Suck my cock," he said. His other hand released it from his jeans.

Her lips wrapped around his stiffening member and she fought the urge to gag. One wrench of her hair, roots screaming in protest, and it filled her mouth. She gripped his arm in a futile effort to control the pulling, but he was unaware of her effort.

He tugged her forward, pushing until he hit the back of her throat. It convulsed in response, made her want to cough, and the boy groaned. He shoved into her again, and she swallowed automatically. Gagging would only make her choke.

The synthetic dropped any pretense of fighting him. It's not surrender, she insisted to herself.

It is.

She just wanted it to end.

She wanted it over.

She called upon the sessions Claude had forced upon her daily, remembering technique she spent so much time blocking out. She refused to think of it as yielding.

If he doesn't know of your defiance, it's submission.

Renee ignored the voice in the back of her mind. She gripped the base of his cock in her small hands and squeezed it rhythmically, timing it with each suck.

You're being the whore they said you were.