Taken by the Viking Ch. 22

This time, they were making the trip back to Rio accompanied by Cora and Trace. Apparently Cora's compound was close to Rio and she needed someone to help manage the security so she and Trace could concentrate more fully on the colony ship and the fuel compounds. Although Trish had known both the move and the new job were coming, she still felt a little pouty over knowing it wasn't a complete retirement from the compound for Jordan.

She didn't show her pout though - as usual, Jordan had her on his lap while he talked with Cora and Trace over what they needed at their lab.

They were slightly concerned with attempts by the Moon or the Moon's few allies left on Earth trying to get in and see what they were doing and, or sabatoging their plans. The Moon was definitely aware something was going on.

When Trish had tried to send messages to Alex and Bella, they hadn't been returned. Bryant - who was a civilian but also a computer genius - had hacked into the system and discovered the Moon's government had flagged the message and pulled it from the system. It had never made it to Alex and Bella.

She hadn't even put anything damning or important in it, she'd just wanted to make sure they had arrived safely and were okay, and to let them know she was okay.

That the Moon didn't even allow that much communication didn't bode well.

So she reminded herself not to pout. It wasn't that Jordan didn't want to pay attention to her. She was on his lap, his hands touching her as always after all, it was just that he was also focused on larger picture things. Besides, she shouldn't pout anyway.

It was weird how quickly she'd gotten used to having all of his attention and decided she liked it. Then again, she'd never really been the center of anyone's attention before. Jordan had given her more attention than anyone ever had before, and by the time they were in Rio and she'd had his complete attention, she'd found she craved it.

Trish still occasionally wondered if she was the victim of Stockholm Syndrome... but it seemed to matter less and less whether or not she was. She was happy. She was cared for. She was pampered and cossetted and given everything she could possibly want.

Jordan had even asked what she wanted when it came to staying on earth or going to space.

Although, he'd also been very relieved when she'd told him she wanted to stay on Earth. He hadn't brought up kids again and neither had Trish. All she knew for sure was she didn't want them right now and she wasn't sure if that would ever change. Right now she didn't think so... but then again she'd never thought she'd feel okay about being taken by Jordan, raped, and now kept constantly by his side and occasionally dressed up and treated like his little girl. It sounded so wrong when she thought about it that way, so mostly she didn't think about it.

******

Back in their home in Rio, Jordan was making dinner while Trish sat at the counter, idly watching the news vids when another report about Ken and Lisa being missing came on. She tilted her head to the side; the reporters seemed almost angry rather than star struck when they talked about people being taken by the Wolf. That was new.

Their focus seemed to be a lot more on Ken than Lisa. Maybe that was why they were mad too. The son of such a powerful man? He'd probably thought his own family was safe and the clips they showed of him were seriously angry, talking about the egregious conduct of the Wolf, how no one was safe while the Wolf was still in operation, and how the man needed to be stopped.

Gee, if only he'd cared before it effected him personally. Trish snorted. Self-centered jackass.

Although, next to the Wolf, Ken Sr. was definitely not much of a threat. She'd never gotten an up close look at how the Moon's government ran things, but from her seat at the Wolf's compound and their opinion of the level of threat the Moon posed... well she would have put her money on earth. Even now, with Jordan coming to help with security, it was more because the leaders on Earth put stock in being over prepared and anticipating every scenario - even the unlikely ones. They didn't believe the Moon or its allies knew what they were up to and they didn't think any attempts on Cora's compound would succeed, but with Cora and Trace needing to focus their attention, the leaders weren't taking any chances either.

It was just another example of how differently things were done on Earth, where they'd had to fight and scrabble to survive and rise to the top, with the losers often dying. Power struggles on the Moon had stakes, but none of them were life and death they like had been on Earth.

"Are you worried at all about this?" she asked Jordan, gesturing at the vid screen where Ken Sr was ranting about the continued dangers of the Wolf's presence on Earth and making what sounded like a call for the Moon to go to war with the 'dangerous crime lord.'

He didn't even look up. "No."

"He's calling for troops to invade Earth," she said, feeling a little aggravated at Jordan's complete lack of attention.

After all, wasn't he supposed to be in charge of security for the ships?

Jordan snorted. "He has no real power. If it starts to look like things might actually heat up - despite what the Wolf has on him, the Prime, the Secondary Prime, and the Prime Commander, we'll start to release what we have on him. I'd be surprised if the Prime lets him live for a full day once he recognizes the warning for what it is."

Utterly ruthless.

That was the first thought that popped into Trish's head. Jordan didn't sound pleased by what he was saying, he didn't sound worried, he was just completely matter-of-fact. If it came down to it, the Wolf would not care if Ken Sr was killed, even as he fucked and sexually tortured his son, and neither would Jordan.

She frowned. While she understood WHY Jordan had become so ruthless, that didn't mean she liked it.

The reminder of his ruthlessness brought up a whole host of other feelings and thoughts, ones which had been in the back of her mind lurking but not coming out until now.

Killing people was wrong.

No matter that she'd felt a bit of Schadenfraude at Ken and Lisa finding themselves in the same position Alex and Bella had been in, setting a man up for death still didn't sit rightly with her. And no matter that she felt a bit of justification at Ken and Lisa's abduction and current positions, as if karma had come by and hit them in the face, it still wasn't right.

Neither had her abduction and rape been, even if right now she was happy.

The frown on her face was rapidly turning into a scowl.

As if sensing the change in her mood, Jordan looked up from the tomato he was currently slicing. "What, little girl?"

Crossing her arms over her chest and feeling rather huffy, Trish's scowl deepened. "You don't care at all about giving him a death sentence?"

"About as much as he does about giving the Wolf and everyone at the compound a death sentence," Jordan said with an indifferent shrug.

While he had a point, especially considering Ken Sr was just one man while all of Jordan's friends and acquaintances, all the men and women he'd been leading and fighting beside, lived at the compound, Trish's ire didn't lessen. It didn't grow either, since he was kinda justified in his view, but she still didn't like it. She realized that in some ways she wasn't really making an argument about Ken Sr, but she wasn't ready to talk about her real issue yet.

"How does that make you better than him then?"

"It doesn't." Jordan went back to slicing the tomato, completely unbothered.

Trish felt like jumping over the counter and grabbing up the innocent piece of fruit and smushing it in his indifferently bland face.

"Why don't you care? Why don't you want to be better than him?"

"I don't care if he dies. He's calling to harm people over a situation he didn't care about until it involved his son. I already think I'm better than him."

"You don't just not care if he dies, you also don't care about Lisa or Ken or Alex or Bella," Trish argued hotly.

"Why should I?"

"Because!"

"Did they care about me? Or anyone else on Earth?" To her complete frustration, Jordan seemed more amused by their current argument than anything else. He was also being more communicative than usual, but every word out of his mouth just served to further infuriate her. "Or were they just here to enjoy themselves, not caring about the state of the planet they were visiting or anyone on it?"

"And what about me?"

The expression of amusement on his face dropped away, a slight furrow appearing on his brow. "Of course I care about you. You know that."

"You care about me NOW, but what about before? You kidnapped me! I wasn't doing anything to anyone! I was just here for school and to put myself in a position to make a life for myself. Was that too selfish?"

Jordan now looked more concerned than anything else, which - incongruously - just made her feel more upset with him.

"You can finish school. I told you I want you to finish school."

"That's not the point!" Trish smacked her hand down on the counter between them. She wasn't entirely sure where her anger was coming from. Had it been pent up, hidden down where she didn't want to think about it? Or was she just trying to start a fight? Did she want his attention? A spanking? Or to make him feel badly? Or was the answer somewhere in between all the possibilities and maybe a little bit of everything? "You took me from my life! I know, I know you are all okay with it, I know it's better than what used to happen when your dad was in charge, I know all of you even expect it might happen and we get a choice on whether or not to stay, but the choice doesn't happen until AFTER! And I didn't grow up here, I didn't know what to expect, I didn't know it was a possibility!"

She panted, her breathing almost ragged, feeling slightly wrung out by everything she'd just thrown at him. Jordan stared back at her, looking both confused and a little taken aback.

Trish wondered if she'd just challenged his world view the way he'd challenged so many of hers and part of her felt like laughing. But if she started, she was afraid she might become hysterical. Because it wasn't actually funny. So she just clamped her lips shut, clenching her jaw against any further words or hysterical laughter until he responded to what she'd already said.

The silence stretched between them, her glaring and him staring at her with that little furrow still wrinkled on his forehead.

"I don't know what you want me to say," he said finally.

The urge to smush tomato in his face grew stronger. "I want you to say you're sorry for taking me!"

"But I'm not sorry for taking you." His explanation was matter-of-fact, maybe even a little smug.

"But you shouldn't have kidnapped me, right?"

He raised an eyebrow. "What should I have done instead?"

"Asked me out for coffee?"

"Would you have said yes?"

She opened her mouth... and then hesitated.

Tried to imagine a situation where huge, intimidating, Jordan could have approached her to ask her out for coffee and receive a positive response. She would have been terrified of him on sight. Even now he intimidated her sometimes.

"That's not the point," she insisted. "You could have tried. You could have worked on getting to know me so I would feel comfortable around you and then asking me out for coffee or dinner."

"Is that how things are done on the Moon?" he seemed genuinely curious.

Trish hesitated again. "Sometimes. With some people. Not everyone. Is everyone here kidnapped into a relationship?"

"No. But I knew what kind of relationship I wanted," he said, picking up a new tomato, apparently feeling that she was now calmer and so he could focus on making their meal. "I just needed to show you how it could be. I do not think you would have agreed to the kind of relationship we have now, do you? Not without knowing how it could be."

"Fine," Trish snapped. Mad, because he had a point. She would never have agreed to trying, she admitted. She was still sometimes surprised she had agreed to being in a relationship like this, even already knowing how much it fulfilled her. But she still had a point too. "That doesn't make it any less wrong."

"Fine," Jordan said, slicing into the tomato. "Taking people is wrong."

"Are you sorry for it?"

"No, because that would mean I'm sorry for having you. I will never be sorry for having you."

Sweet. Frustrating. Infuriating. The answer was so very Jordan and yet so aggravating as well.

Feeling rather disgruntled, because she didn't think she would get any more of an admission of guilt or any kind of apology out of him, Trish slid down from her seat at the counter. Even admitting what he'd done was wrong, he wasn't going to be sorry for it, because to him the ends justified the means. She wasn't even sure she could truly argue with him, not when she'd chosen to stay with him anyway. It was hard to claim any kind of moral high ground when she'd been complicit in making him feel as though the outcome had been worth it.

"Where are you going?" he asked, pausing in his work and looking up at her.

"Outside."

"No. I'll go out with you after we eat if you want. Sit back down, little girl."

Calling her little girl was a warning, one which Trish ignored. She was feeling restless and unsatisfied by their argument.

"Fuck off. I'm going out." She started to turn to go, but out of the corner of her eye she saw Jordan start to move at the same time she heard his low growl and instead of the stately walk she'd planned, with her head held high, she squeaked and bolted.

Not for the doors to the beach - they were closer to Jordan than they currently were to Trish - and not to the front door because it was farther away than the option she DID take, which was the stairs.

Which was so not the right option.

There was nowhere to go but up.

She was kind of shocked when she reached the top and Jordan hadn't caught up to her. It had to be deliberate. Jordan was bigger, stronger, and faster than her. If he'd wanted to take her down in the middle of the staircase, it would have been easy for him. But for some reason he'd let her run all the way up.

Probably because she was now trapped unless she wanted to jump out a window.

Pausing at the top of the stairs, she looked down behind her. Jordan stood on the bottom landing, blue eyes blazing, arms crossed over his chest, feet planted in a wide, threatening stance.

"Run, little girl," he said softly.

Trish ran.

Down the hall to her room. What she thought of as her room. Where she felt safest. Even though it was also where Jordan liked to play with her and do wicked things to her and punish her. It was like she had anywhere else to go.

The heavy tread of his feet coming up the stairs, slow and implacable, had her heart pounding her throat.

Why had she told him to fuck off?!

She NEVER said anything like that.

She didn't think she'd ever said anything like that to anyone before EVER.

So why him and now, knowing what the likely consequence would be?

A psychologist could have a field day with her. Trish was too panicked to really self-examine her own motivations, but that didn't stop her from yelling 'whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy' at herself in her head.

All of the doors along the hallway were shut, so she didn't think he would immediately know which room she'd gone into. A quick look out the windows convinced her there was no real escape there. Even if she could get the windows up and herself out in time, the fall from one would be onto hard concrete and the other had some plants made up of as much branch as they were leaf. Running from Jordan was not worth being even a little impaled.

Trish didn't even want to think about what he might do if she hurt herself. Of course, he'd take care of her until she was better - she absolutely believed and trusted in that - but once she WAS better...

So not worth the punishment.

Hearing his footsteps coming down the hall, heading inexorably for the room and apparently passing by the others (since she didn't hear a single other door opening), she knew she didn't have much time. She took the only fast option there was and scooted under the bed. As a hiding place it was awful and she could feel her heart pounding faster, her breathing becoming more like panting, and she squeezed her eyes shut as the door to the room opened.

She didn't know why she did. It was just an instinct, an urge she had, as if there were some part of her brain insisting she was safer with her eyes shut.

That part of her brain was completely wrong of course.

She shrieked as hard fingers closed around her wrist and ankle, pulling her out from underneath the bed with a hard, fast yank. The expression on Jordan's face was torn somewhere between exasperation and amusement.

"Let me go!" It came out as a squeaky shriek instead of an order, and Jordan ignored it completely.

"I've had enough of your mouth, baby girl," he said, shaking his head at her.

A moment later, Trish was biting down on what looked and felt like a baby pacifier, except it strapped around her head and she couldn't spit it out.

She hated it.

But as she was bent over what had seemed like a padded leather lectern, with her wrists and ankles secured to the based, it wasn't like there was a whole lot she could do about it. She knew the pacifier gag was a punishment for telling him to fuck off. Even now she didn't know why she'd done it. She was already regretting it.

Jordan didn't care if she asked questions, he wasn't bothered when she disagreed with him or yelled or even threw a tantrum, but any time she became disrespectful it provoked an immediate reaction. Just like it had today.

"What do you think the punishment should be for ignoring a direct order and trying to go outside, hmmm?" he asked, almost musing as he ran his hands up her legs from where he'd just finished cuffing her ankles. He palmed her ass, squeezing the soft globes and readying them for whatever torment he'd decided on.

She made a whining noise behind her gag as he tapped the base of her plug.

"I think we'll start with this."

The plug slid out easily but the emptiness only made her more agitated because he hadn't said what he was going to do instead. She doubted it was anything as easy or enjoyable as just shoving his cock in. Which, yes would hurt initially if he was rough about it, but would ultimately not be a punishment.

The sound of the door chime sounded throughout the house and Trish squealed behind her gag, tugging on her bonds.

Chuckling, Jordan patted her bottom. "Stay right here, little girl, I'll be back once I've seen who it is."

She whined again, but he ignored her and left the room.

Which only gave her anxieties and imagination more time to grow. If she hadn't known better, she might have thought he had planned this... having the time to think about what he MIGHT do was sometimes almost worse than what he actually DID do. She wriggled against the padded leather, trying not to think about what an easy target the position put her bottom in, since she was bent over the higher portion of the stand. With her legs slightly spread, it also meant her pussy was wide open and accessible, another easy target for both punishment and fucking, depending on how Jordan felt. The support only reached as long as her breasts, ending just underneath the base of each mound as if it had been made for her - and maybe it had. Her breasts and head hung down along with her arms, and she was sure it was done so deliberately.

She strained her ears trying to listen for whoever was at the door - and to her horror heard the noises of people talking coming up the stairs!