CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Cat
A hand wrapped around my arm. I knew it wasn’t Seth’s because I’d watched his feet walk away from me. I didn’t think it was the man that he’d left standing with me because I hadn’t seen their feet move. As the person tugged me back, I looked up even though I wasn’t supposed to. I saw Seth standing on the stage with the pepper colored haired man that had come into the warehouse as we stood in a line and he gave us the rules.
“All right, whores. It’s time. It’s time to make me some money.” The man chuckled slightly. We were standing in nothing but our bra and panties. Some of us had neither on. Some of us only had one piece on. “All of you are going to walk into the next room, heads down, without uttering a fucking word. If you do, you’ll meet more than Alex’s hand.”
“What do you want us to do?” a woman behind me cried out.
The grey-haired older man smirked and walked passed me. “Are you deaf?”
“No.” I heard the woman say. “I mean, why did you kidnap us?”
He laughed and that caused the other men to snicker. “This cunt wants to know why I kidnapped her!” He cackled some more. “Isn’t it obvious, puta? You’re gonna make me money.”
“By …?”
I closed my eyes, fearing he was going to hit her.
“Whatever the fuck my boys want you to do.”
I heard cries from behind me, and I fought everything inside me not to cry. I couldn’t show fear. If I showed fear, then they would win. But how was I going to be a sex slave and be fearless? Did those two things go together?
“Now,” he continued, “usually you’d get a fresh slap in the face for asking stupid questions like that. But seeing as I want you all sold, I can’t mark you up. That doesn’t mean someone out there won’t. So be the good little whores that you are and keep your fucking mouths shut!”
The older man walked passed me and nodded to whom I’d learned was Alex, the man who had hit and drugged the woman earlier in the day. Alex moved to the door and then we were walking into Hell.
“What are you doing?” a man asked, and I looked up out of habit to see a younger version of Joss.
Bryce?
We stopped moving, and I noticed Paul was right with us. A little bit of relief washed over me knowing that I could be saved. However, a hand was still wrapped around my upper arm and starting to get tighter.
“Since when do you get to tell me what I do with my tricks, Martinez?”
“Did you pay for her?”
“Are you saying I’m trying to cheat your father? And who the fuck are you?” The man pointed at Paul.
“Doesn’t matter who the fuck he is,” Bryce returned.
The hand on my arm squeezed more, and then we were moving backward again, my bare feet dragging on the floor.
“Fuck off, Martinez. I’m square with your old man.”
As I was pulled away, I saw Bryce look at Paul and then they turned to look where Seth was. I stared at Seth as I moved backward. He was waiting for the older man, and just as he turned around to look to the spot where I’d been standing, I was dragged through a door and into the warehouse, then through another door, no longer able to see Seth or anyone for that matter.
A tear slid down my face as I realized no one was coming to save me.
I closed my eyes, not wanting to see where we were going because, in the pit of my stomach, I knew. I was bought, and now I was going to have to have sex with this man. This man I didn’t know. This man who was hurting me. This man who was going to make me walk the streets of Vegas.
Faintly, I could hear footsteps, but they weren’t coming fast enough. Before I realized it, I was shoved onto a soft surface. I kept my head down, doing what I was told to do because I didn’t want to be hit or beaten. And more importantly, because I didn’t want to see this guy’s face. I couldn’t look at him and see the evil that thought it was okay to buy women to have sex with—to sell for money. I slightly opened my eyes, only a slit, only enough to see I was sitting on a black leather couch.
A hand wrapped around my throat, and I was being forced to lie on my back while another hand pulled my panties down. I squeezed my eyes shut again. “If you do what I say, chica, then we won’t have a problem. You feel me?”
I started to shake but nodded my agreement.
“Speak!” he roared and grabbed a fistful of my breast.
“Ye—yes,” I cried out.
“Good. And I take care of what’s mine. You want to get your hair and nails done? I’ll pay for it. You want a new dress? I’ll get you that too. But you obey me and only me. From this point forward, everything you want in life will be provided to you by me and only me. You understand?”
I nodded again.
His grip around my throat tightened, and then he was palming my pussy, squeezing it. “When I ask you a question, you answer me!”
“Ye—yes,” I stuttered again the best I could with his palm closing some of my wind pipe. There was a loud bang, like a door being opened and hitting the wall at full force. I kept my eyes closed, not wanting to know how many more men had come in to rape me.
“Get off of her!” a guy roared, and the one who had his hands on me was gone. I slightly recognized the voice, but I was too scared to register it.
I balled my legs up to my chest, and as I rocked in the fetal position sideways on the couch, I covered my ears trying to block what was happening around me. Even as I pressed my palms hard against my head, I could still hear everything.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Crash.
“I’m your worst fucking nightmare.” Seth? I’d know his voice anywhere.
Bang.
A body wrapped around me from the back and I jolted. Against the hand covering my ear I heard, “Shh, it’s Paul. I’ve got you.”
Finally.
The floodgates opened, and I drowned in my sobs. I kept my eyes closed, not waiting to see what or where I was. If I opened then, the room, the scene, the situation would forever be burned into my brain, and I didn’t want that.
“What the fuck is going on?” I jolted again at the loud boom of a voice, a voice I quickly recognized as the older man.
Then Paul was gone, and I was back to shaking, fearing he had been ripped away and I was going to be next. More crashes and bangs echoed in the room. Things—bodies maybe—hit walls, and noises I didn’t recognize radiated through my hands and to my eardrums. Then I heard the click of a gun. A sound I’d only heard in movies.
“Drop it!” Seth shouted. “Drop your fucking gun, old man!”
The man laughed. “I knew you weren’t a businessman. You Metro?”
“I’m Special Agent McKenna, and I said to drop your weapon!”
“You know I run this town, don’t you, boy? You think you can just come in here and wave your gun around and I’ll drop to my knees like a pussy? Cops like pussy too, and that’s why you’re all workin’ for me.”
“Tony, I said to drop your weapon.”
The old man, who I now knew as Tony, laughed. “You’re outnumbered, son, and I suggest you take your ass out of here before you get in trouble.”
Seth snickered. “That’s where you’re wrong. Karma has caught up with you.”
Tony chuckled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Twelve years ago, you made a mistake. Hell, you’ve been making them longer than that, but now, this one has caught up to you.”
“What? Your mother was one of my girls? You think that you’re getting payback now by putting me in jail?”
“No!” Seth shouted. “You sold my best friend’s virginity, and now you’ve tried to sell my woman.”
A hand wrapped around my arm and I was being hauled off the couch. It was then, and only then, I opened my eyes. When I did, I was staring into the emerald eyes I wanted to wake up next to every morning. Except he was on the other side of the room with Paul, both of them with guns pointing toward us, and there was a gun against my head.
“This your woman?”
Seth’s face became red, and he jerked his gun as though he was gripping it tighter. “If you don’t let her go, I will blow your fucking head off!” The cocking of a gun caused me to widen my eyes, and tears started to roll down my cheek.
I stared at Seth because he was the last person I wanted to see before I died.