Cassie
A man walked up to the cage. He grinned over his shoulder at one of his fellow guards.
“Those the two GRMC bitches?”
“Yeah.”
Both men looked us over. My skin crawled at the lust in their eyes. Liz paid them no attention.
The newcomer leaned against the side of the cage and smirked at me.
“Hey, Sugar! Why don’t you come over here and use that pretty mouth of yours.”
I grimaced in disgust.
“Fuck off,” I hissed at the man.
“She’s got a mouth on her,” the man joked to his friend, “but it’ll be even better when it’s got my cock in it.”
The men laughed. I glared at them and looked away.
They came to the cage door and unlocked it. Fear lanced through me. Liz stood up defensively, and I stood with her. One man of the men stepped inside. It was the one with the cock that wanted sucking. I as far away from him as I could.
“Come on! Let’s party,” he said with a grin. “I wanna see what the Ghost Riders thought so highly of.”
“I’d rather die,” I said firmly.
Liz nodded at the other guy. The man outside the cage held a gun on us. The other girls in the cell whimpered and cowered as far back in the cage as they could. Liz walked over to the man who had come into in the cell.
“You want some fun?” She looked at the man and smiled. “Fine.”
I couldn’t believe what she was doing. My mouth fell open as she reached into the man’s pants and began fondling him.
He grunted in appreciation. He looked over at me.
“You too, Honey.”
Liz looked over at me and gave me a wink.
Hesitantly, I walked over. The man put his arm around me and pulled me against him. He kissed me. His mouth tasted stale and salty. I almost gagged at the stale cigarette smell that lingered on him.
Suddenly his eyes bulged and he squealed in alarm. Liz had wrenched the man’s balls. She shoved him back, hard against the cell bars, making sure she kept him between us and the guy with the gun outside.
“What the hell are you doing?” the man with the gun demanded.
I helped Liz shove the man. He hit the side of the steel cage with a thud so loud that it echoed around the warehouse. He gurgled a bit, then slumped to the ground.
Liz stepped back as the man with the gun opened the cell door.
“Get back!”
He swung the gun up at us and we staggered back away from him and his friend on the ground.
“Louis?”
Louis appeared to have passed out. The man reached down and shook his shoulder, then straightened up again.
“Hey, I need some help over here!” he shouted.
Liz shifted from foot to foot. I wondered if she was going to jump the man, but his gun swung wildly between us. I reckoned that, if we all rushed him, we could take him. But the girls behind us didn’t seem eager to do so. Soon enough, the other guards were dragging the unconscious man out of the cell.
There was a heated argument between some of the men outside the cell, and I watched it intently.
“They killed Louis,” the man with the gun growled. “Busted his neck. I’m gonna kill those bitches.”
We’d killed him? I didn’t know how I felt about that. I’d never killed anyone before. I felt sick to my stomach and my knees felt weak. Liz put her hand on my sleeve.
One of the other men caught Louis’ irate buddy by the arm.
“You can’t touch them. Those are the boss’s girls.”
The man shook his head and spat.
“Fucking bitches.”
“You shouldn’t have been messing with them,” another man said as he walked up. “You can’t take chances with those GRMC bitches. They are a tough lot.”
The men walked away, still talking. I was barely listening anymore. That’s all I was, just a GRMC bitch. I sank to the ground. Liz sat down next to me.
“Don’t let them take away who you are.”
I looked over at her.
“What does it matter?”
“It matters a lot,” Liz sighed. “That’s what these warehouses are for. They train the girls here. Break them, condition them. By the time they leave, they’re less than people. They’re just objects, fuck-toys.”
Tears brimmed in my eyes. I’d seen the girls in the other warehouses. I’d heard of the abuse they’d suffered. But experiencing it first hand was different.
“How do you keep it together? How do you hold onto yourself?”
“Well, I got my reasons. Unlike most of the girls here, I chose to auction myself.”
Liz gave me a compassionate look.
“I gather you didn’t choose this.”
I shook my head. “No. Mason sabotaged my car, and the rest is history.”
“But Mason bought you back at auction?” Liz looked curiously at me. “Seems an odd thing to do. Not very smart. Mason is usually smart.”
I shrugged.
“I think he just didn’t want Ruiz to have me.” I sniffled and wiped my eyes. “Why did you choose to auction yourself? I can’t imagine making that choice.”
Liz eyed me for a moment. She took a deep breath and edged closer to me. Her voice was low, as if she didn’t want to be overheard.
“I had my reasons. I can’t go into them because, if Ruiz found out, he’d hurt people I care about.”
I nodded. I wouldn’t pry.
“I get that. Mason and I were hiding out. The GRMC’s been hitting the Cartel pretty hard, so we’ve all been underground.”
“I heard something about that. The guys tend to talk like we don’t have ears. I guess they get to use to thinking of us as animals.” Liz laughed softly. “I’m glad the GRMC finally got the balls to cut ties with the Cartel once and for all.”
I took my chance.
“So, you left the GRMC?” I asked.
“No. Not exactly. See, Noah got sent to jail on some trumped-up charges. Mason wanted to fight it, but Noah decided it would be best for everyone if he just rode the sentence out. I didn’t agree. Noah and I had a falling out right before he got sent off. He told me to go home to my family.” Liz shrugged. “He always was a hard-headed asshole.”
Despite the situation, I giggled at Liz’s words. Or maybe it was because of the stress of the situation. Whatever the reason, Liz and I ended up laughing together quietly for some time. The man outside the cage eyed us suspiciously, but we ignored him.
“You still love Noah, don’t you?”
I watched the woman’s face as I asked the question.
Liz let out a long breath and then nodded.
“Yeah, maybe,” she grinned. “What happened between you and Mason that you ended up here?”
“We had a falling out too,” I said softly.
I thought back to that night and, compared to sitting on the floor of the cell, it almost didn’t seem so bad. Maybe I really did have Stockholm Syndrome?
I laughed.
“I thought I was in love with him. I thought he loved me too. But I don’t think there’s any room in that man’s heart for anyone but Dana.”
A look of sadness passed across Liz’s face.
“Dana would be a hard act to follow. But you don’t strike me as similar. So, if Mason fell for you, then… well, it was probably you he fell for and not some shadow of Dana.”
“Maybe,” I mumbled. “I just know that I fell for him.”
I hated admitting that. It felt like telling the world how big a fool I was.
“Who does that? Who falls for the guy who sells and buys her?”
Liz shrugged.
“Life is crazy, Cassie. Not everyone is what they appear to be when you first see them though.”
I nodded, agreeing with her sentiment.
Liz’s words had made me realize something about myself. Even on this cell floor, I couldn’t quite dampen down the urge to trust. Despite everything that had happened to me and all the lies I’d been told, here I was still looking for the best in people.