THREE

I WANTED TO GO STRAIGHT to the dressing room, see if the note was still there. It had been left in a card according to the file but the card itself wasn’t included which suggested it was still here. But I didn’t get chance, being funnelled through the reception without a moment’s privacy.

“Glad to have you signed up,” the middle aged woman with too much make up was saying as she hustled me through, leaving Rex Coppack back at the entrance, paying for his admission with that smirk still fixed on his face.

I’d found out a bit about him during the journey. His name, the fact that he was rich. I wasn’t sure how rich but he had a driver so he had to be worth a fair bit. He was cagey about what he did for a living, probably nothing. He’d inherited it, no doubt, never had to work hard, it would explain his manner. I’d asked him where he learnt to fight but he changed the subject to talk about me. I had to think hard to remember the back story the file had set up for me. Maddy, no kids, no family, moved here a year ago, work in finance. Looking to let my hair down at the club. I didn’t need to flesh out the details, we’d arrived at the club.

When I told the doorman I wanted to sign up, he pointed to the woman in the hallway behind him. She was sitting behind a tiny desk, typing on a laptop. When I told her the same story, she grabbed me and began leading me with her arm round my shoulder, talking nonstop the entire time. “You’ll have such a good time,” she said. “And we needed to make up the numbers for the auction so this is perfect.”

“The auction?” I asked, managing to squeeze a sentence in while she paused for breath.

“First thing we do with a new girl. Auction off her first time. You are a virgin, right?”

“Course,” I lied. “Why do you think I’m here?”

She laughed. “Exactly. Well you’ll know all about the auction then.”

I didn’t but it wasn’t hard to work out. She thought I was a virgin. I was to be auctioned to the highest bidder who would then take my virginity. She said it happened to all the new girls. Was that what happened to the three who went missing? Someone had gotten a bit obsessive, thought buyer’s rights extended beyond the auction?

She shoved open one door after another, leading me down poorly lit corridors and then stopping by a door marked ‘Stage.’

“You ready?” she asked, pushing me up the steps.

“Yep,” I said, managing a smile. “Couldn’t be more excited.”

“I’ll take your jacket,” she said. “Don’t want to hide the goods do we?”

“No,” I replied through gritted teeth, liking her less and less. “Of course not.”

“Go on then,” she said eagerly. “Good luck.”

I pushed open the door and stepped through, finding myself in pitch black. I could hear voices, people talking behind a thick curtain which began to rise as I stood there. Before I had a chance to move, a figure stepped out next to me, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me forwards. The audience was revealed, a room filled with men and women, barely visible beyond the glare of a bright light shining directly at me.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the figure next to me said, turning to look at me, grinning from his ancient face. He had to be at least seventy.

“I give you Maddy. What will you give me?”

“Two hundred,” a voice shouted.

“I am offended, Sir,” the man next to me replied. “She is offended too. And with good reason.”

“A thousand.”

“Two thousand.”

“Five thousand.”

“Six.”

“Ten.”

“Fifteen.”

“Twenty.”

“Twenty-one.”

“Twenty-one fifty.”

“Twenty-two.”

Then a new voice. “Fifty thousand.”

A murmur from the audience. I stood feeling everyone’s eyes on me. The worst part of all this was the fact that I liked it. I liked them all looking at me. I liked the thought that they were bidding against each other for the right to touch me, to strip me, to fuck me. I’d fantasised about a situation like this so many times, never thinking it would really happen. But woe betide whoever won because I had no intention of being fucked by a stranger. This wasn’t why I was here. I was here to find the missing girls. It didn’t hurt to enjoy the moment though, the feeling of being so in demand they were fighting it out over me. Made me feel pretty damned desirable.

“Fifty-five.”

The voice again. “A hundred thousand.”

More murmurs. “Anyone else? No? Then to you, Sir, I say you have a bargain. Maddy is yours for the next hour.” He turned to me to whisper. “Go off that side and through the door on your left. Go on.”

He gave me a little shove and I stepped back into the darkness. I found the door by feeling my way along the wing, heading through it into a corridor. The woman from the reception was waiting. “This way,” she said, beckoning me. “It’s down here, third door on the right. It’s unlocked ready for you. Oh, to be your age and with such a handsome man. I’m really quite jealous.”

She had her arm round my shoulder as she talked, guiding me towards the room where a man was waiting. A man I recognised. “It’s you,” I said as I stepped inside, pushing the door closed behind me on the face of my guide who was still grinning in at us both. “You bought me?”

“Indeed I did,” he replied.

“But why?”

“Because you’ve got a secret and I want to know what it is.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Ah, keep lying for now. It’ll make it more fun.”

“Look, I don’t know what you think you know but you’re wrong. I haven’t got any secrets.”

“Well, we’ll soon find out, won’t we?”

“There’s nothing to find out.”

“If you say so. Shall we get to it then?”

“Get to what?”

“I bought you. I get to fuck you.”

I froze on the spot. I should have slapped him. I should have told him he was under arrest for soliciting sex. I should have done many things that I didn’t do. What I did do was feel my body suddenly heat up as he said the word ‘fuck.’ That body of his was doing things to me, making it impossible to think straight. “Okay,” a voice said from far away. It took me a moment to realise it was me.

“Close your eyes,” he said, taking a step towards me.

I did as he said, gasping as a second later, he pounced.