5. Leona #2
“Enough,” Buzz Cut said as he pulled a gun. The sound of the hammer cocking had us both freezing. He pointed the gun at me. “Step forward.”
Fear and anger coursed through me in tandem. What were they going to do to me? Would he kill me if I didn’t comply?
Cas’s face flashed in front of my eyes. Obi. Ryu. Ciel. Wynn.
I couldn’t die here. I had to get home.
With my head held high, I stepped forward. Max stood beside me.
“Wherever you’re taking her, you’re taking me too,” Max said.
“I promised you a trip to the cargo hold.” Buzz Cut grinned while he jerked his head. “Grab them both. Let’s show them what happens when they disobey.”
The two men grabbed each of my arms. I tried to jerk away, but their fingertips dug into my skin. Max moved to stop them, but Buzz Cut pointed the gun at him and tsk ed his tongue.
“Let’s go.”
They dragged me out of the cell despite my feet digging into the ground.
Buzz Cut turned on his heel and his men followed, pulling me along.
We stumbled back up and down the stairs, but this time my head wasn’t swimming even if the rest of my body was still screaming.
My eyes tracked every step, every room we passed.
The engine room. The crew mess. Hallways flickering with lights.
Crew quarters. The deeper we went into the ship, the colder it got.
Finally, they shoved us inside a vast room filled to the brim with wooden pallets wrapped in plastic and stacked multiple stories high.
My shoulders howled in their sockets as they pulled us down rows and rows, organized almost like a maze.
Finally, we reached a clearing. Metal cells were welded into the walls, each with a door and a massive padlock.
The men pushed Max and me to our knees in front of the cells. Four of them in a tight row, each no bigger than a bathroom stall in a public restroom. Eight pairs of lifeless eyes stared at me from within the container. Two women in each cell.
Trafficking victims. I scanned each, wide-eyed, as I tried to get a handle on what was happening.
The women were haggard. Most watched me back with glassy eyes and expressionless faces.
Some huddled in the corners of their cells, as far away from the door as they could get.
Some barely moved at all, numb to whatever had put them in these cells.
Was Buzz Cut going to keep us in here now? What did he mean by punishment?
My body shivered, and I wrapped my arms around my chest. It was so fucking cold in here.
“Little bitch,” Buzz Cut said as he patrolled in front of each of the cells. He stopped in front of the third one. “You need to fetch a higher price than this product here, so if you can’t behave, I’ll have to take your punishment out on something less valuable.”
My eyes widened. “Wait?—”
He tapped the barrel of his gun against the metal cell door. It echoed through the cargo hold. Not one of the women inside moved. “You. Red head. Come out.”
I froze as the woman stumbled forward. She was slightly taller than me, and her face looked nothing like mine, but her hair would have been close to the same color if it wasn’t grimy. He chose her on purpose.
He tucked his gun into the waistband of his pants. “My men and I need some entertainment. You know long boat rides. They get boring.”
Go fuck yourself , I wanted to suggest, but I was locked in place as Buzz Cut stared at me. Max tried to grab me, but the other Albanians yanked him back. It was just me and the other redhead while Buzz Cut circled us both like a predator about to devour its prey.
When I was a kid, my father had told me in vivid detail what happened to women taken as trafficking victims. He’d described how their bodies were used, raped, and eventually killed.
He’d used those stories to keep me from arguing with him about having a bodyguard, or letting my father’s men protect me.
Ever since then, I’d feared the day when it happened to me.
That was a huge reason I’d made Cas follow that van in Philadelphia.
That was how we ended up meeting Wynn and Claire.
And now, despite wanting to be brave enough to fight my way free of whatever was about to happen, I was trembling.
I flinched when Buzz Cut’s hand curled around my neck.
“Your resistance gets you nowhere.” He circled behind me, pressing his cheek against mine while he forced me to look at the redhead.
“Whenever you step out of line, I’ll punish her instead.
You think you’re strong enough to escape here?
” His stubble scratched my cheek while he shook his head.
“That you can fight back and we’ll just let you?
No, little bitch. Your actions affect every other woman on this boat.
This is your fault. After I’m done with her, I’ll come for you next, price on your head be damned. ”
His tongue dragged up my neck, and I withheld the urge to vomit.
The hand on the back of my neck squeezed until spots darkened my vision before shoving me forward.
My hands twinged in pain as they caught the full weight of my body.
He stalked over to the redhead. She didn’t look at me.
She didn’t look at anything. She just stood there, motionless and empty.
“Wait,” I said as I tried to clamor to my feet. “Don’t.”
My hands balled into a fist, and my thumb pressed against my engagement ring. Rough hands pushed me down to the cold metal floor. A weight settled over my body, digging into my back, as my eyes locked on the redhead.
I couldn’t let this be my fault.
“Fucking bitch,” one man spit as they dragged us back up to our cell. I groaned in pain. Tears wet my cheeks. My mouth was bloody and raw from my teeth gnashing the tender skin.
I felt outside myself.
Like none of this was really happening, and I’d wake up in the penthouse after a horrible dream, pressed warmly against the bodies of my men.
But the blood in my mouth betrayed the reality.
My brain tried to latch onto the truth I could control.
I had to get out, but I was about to fall apart. I couldn’t get out if I imploded.
The only way for me to survive this was to separate the pain and shove it away. I squeezed my eyes shut for just a moment, burying everything that had just happened. It was over. I could let it be over.
“Leona.” Max had been trying to get my attention ever since they’d dragged us out of the cargo hold. I glanced in his direction. A gun trained on the back of his head while they pulled open our cell door and shoved him in first.
My vision caught on the flashing red dot of the camera watching our cell. I squinted, trying to make out the device mounted on the wall right next to it.
A box with sticks coming out of one end.
I blinked, trying to understand how I recognized what it was, but my brain felt like a scrambled mess. My thin grip on reality was tenuous at best, and I was still trying to bottle up the images of that cargo hold so I could file them away and pretend it never happened.
They pushed me inside the cell. I tripped over my own feet, falling directly into Max’s outstretched arms. The touch sent a lightning bolt of fear rushing through my body. I shrieked, pulling away from him while the Albanians locked the cell door behind us.
“Quiet,” one commanded, slamming the barrels of their guns on the metal bars of our cell. The sound reverberated through my bones. When neither of us said anything, both men left. And then we were alone.
I choked on the fear. Max reached for me again, but I bolted backwards, slamming my back against the metal side of our cell. My breaths were so quick, I went dizzy.
“Leona. Piccola ,” he whispered, reaching for me. “I’m here. It’s going to be okay. Talk to me. That was?—”
“Stop,” I hissed, squeezing my eyes shut. “Don’t say it.”
“You… what happened?—”
“No.” I shook my head, eyes still closed, while I slid down the metal until my butt hit the ground. “It’s over. Let it be over. Please.”
He didn’t respond, but I felt him sit next to me. My body leaned into his, our shoulders pressing together. He was warm.
Bury it.
Lock it down.
Control it.
I had to, or else I’d never get out of here.