Chapter Nineteen #2
Even if we managed to claim our freedom in four months, the amount of abuse these poor souls would endure. The terror they’d feel. The pain—
A sharp gasp ripped my gaze to Mollie. She kneeled beside Roland’s polished shoes, her hands balled on her bare thighs. We just nodded at each other. Our plan had to work. There was no other option.
I couldn’t exist in a world where men like Victor got away with using people like throwaway toys. Even if we got out, I would never stop hunting others like him, doing my best to prevent anyone else from living this awful, awful nightmare.
Henri inhaled sharply, his knee digging harder against my shoulder as if he needed to touch me. Needed that connection so he didn’t do something ill-advised.
Glancing up at him, I flinched.
His jaw clenched so tightly, the tendons in his throat popped like ropes beneath his skin. Sweat glittered on his temples. His slightly longer hair curled a little over his forehead, making his hollow cheeks all the more severe.
“And here they are, gentlemen. It has been a successful hunt, I must say.” Victor chuckled as the nine new jewels all shuffled and sniffled, herded at gunpoint through the ballroom.
Jittery steps, wet cheeks, wild eyes.
The flash of newly fastened collars and cuffs.
The stench of terror and dismay.
All naked.
Clapping his hands again, Victor waited until the sounds of appreciation and wolf whistles had silenced before beckoning the guards to march the new jewels onto the stage.
“Aren’t they precious?” Victor ran his fingers through the blonde hair of the closest girl. “So pretty. So young.”
“Where did you find them, Vic?” asked the brown-bearded guy currently running his fingers over Peter’s hunched shoulder.
“Oh, I’ve been all over, mon ami,” Victor replied, eyeing up each new jewel as the guards ushered them into a trembly line. “I do hope you like them.”
“Pass one here, and I’ll tell you if I like them or not.” An untoned, dark-skinned man laughed.
The cold in my bones turned glacial.
My heart riddled with frostbite.
He’ll die.
And him.
And him.
And him.
All of them.
“Yes, yes, you’re all at liberty to play, of course. But first.” Victor grinned. “Allow me to introduce you to our newest members of my Jewelry Box. I do hope you will make them feel welcome.”
A few men chuckled. “Hell yeah, we’ll make them feel welcome. Very welcome.”
Victor gave the man a tight smile, then prowled along the line and planted his hands on the smallest girl’s shoulders.
Looming over her from behind, he looked like the worst kind of predator.
“First up, this is...what was your name again, my sweetling?” He squeezed her until she winced and dropped her eyes.
With black hair and a gaunt frame, she didn’t look old enough to graduate high-school, let alone be trafficked into this place.
Horror filled me.
Despair followed.
Henri shifted on his chair as my insides crawled.
“Are you squirmin’ because you want a piece, or are you uncomfortable, Henri?”
My eyes shot to the table next to ours.
Henri grunted and swallowed hard. “What?”
An older red-headed man who’d lurked around since the beginning smirked.
Patting Nancy on her head where she kneeled next to him, he grinned.
“I’ve seen you around. I watched you fuck your little tidbit the night of the storm.
Despite the minor misunderstanding of your profession as a cop, I thought you’d slotted right in. ”
Henri gave him a tight smile. “Then what’s your problem?”
The man leaned closer, his eyes mean. “My point is you’re very tightly wound.
I would’ve expected the opposite, seeing as you were the only one allowed to stay.
You’re not the one who had to tame himself back in society.
You’ve been here the whole time, fucking your jewel, being who you truly are.
” He waved a limp wrist in Henri’s direction. “So why are you so...jumpy?”
Henri stiffened. “Forgive me if I still have a shred of empathy. They’re new. This will be overwhelming. I remember how my first day felt, and I was on the opposite side of the collar.”
“Could always shackle one around your neck too, hey? Let you feel firsthand what they’re going through?” He snickered. “Perhaps you’re a cop after all, and that’s why you’re curling your lip at the new merchandise.”
“Can’t help it if they’re not my type.”
“No.” The man narrowed his eyes on me. “Turns out she’s your type, and you’re not the sharing kind.”
Henri went terrifyingly still. “You’re right. I’m not.”
“Pity.” The Master chuckled. “But oh well. Eight new treats to sample. Tell me.” He rubbed his chin and looked at the jewels on the stage.
“Have any caught your eye because I have first dibs on the blonde and would hate to find you being annoying and paying yet another fortune to keep her out of our reach.”
“Nope. She’s all yours,” Henri muttered.
“You bloody bastard,” I hissed under my breath, my rage pouring free.
Peter’s head snapped up across the ballroom. Rachel shot me a wide-eyed look as she kneeled by the stage waiting for Victor.
Oops.
I hadn’t meant to say that.
Henri wasn’t the one I was furious with.
It was this.
This sick energy percolating in here. The rancid lust from horrible men and petrified fear from captives.
Rolling my shoulders, I whispered, “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“Yes, you did.” Henri sighed with stark weariness, not reacting to my fire.
I hated that he didn’t react. If he snapped. If he snarled. If he burned with me...there’d still be a chance. A chance he was still in there...still the one person I couldn’t stand to want and the one man I needed above all others.
“I am a bastard.” He nodded.
I hated the monotone, the dead tone.
Twisting to look at him, my temper sparked again, driven by loss and loneliness. “You know what? You are a bastard.”
He froze.
His grey eyes flared.
The other Master huffed and looked back at the stage.
God, Ily...now what have you done?
But something pushed me, needled me.
He had to snap somehow. He had to wake from whatever misery had drugged him.
Slowly, incredibly, a flare of silver light appeared in his shutdown stare. “You’re agreeing with me now? After trying to come onto me all month?” Bending over me, he breathed into my ear, “I might be a bastard, but I’m the only one ensuring you stay alive.”
“How? By ignoring me?”
“By staying the fuck away from you,” he snarled.
Finally.
Passion.
Pain and passion and spark.
I raised my chin. “So you’re not a bastard...you’re just an asshole.”
God, Ily!
It didn’t even make sense.
I had no idea what I was doing yet...
Henri shifted and speared his fingers through my loose hair. Dragging me closer, he groaned, “Fuck, I’ve missed you calling me names.”
The way he trembled.
The way my heart pounded.
Everything erupted with life.
His eyes dropped to my mouth.
And I let stupidity and instinct rule me. “Fuck you.”
He shuddered. His eyes snapped shut. When they opened again, they blazed. “You have no idea how badly I—”
“Ah, Henri.” Victor chuckled, cutting through our flaming chemistry like a garotte. “Back to your whispers, hmm?”
As if he remembered where he was. As if the weight and blackness of the past month leapt on him in one move, Henri sagged in his chair and let me go. “Je suis désolé, Vic.” He forced a grin. “Please...continue.”
“Do you wish to share with the rest of the class?” Victor smiled at me. “Ilyana...what did he say to you?”
Ignoring Peter’s, Rachel’s, and Mollie’s fearful eyes, I sneered. “Only that he plans on fucking me the moment you finish waffling on.”
For a moment, Victor didn’t say anything. His eyes gleamed as if he knew more than he let on. Finally, he laughed delicately and glanced at Henri. “We’ll catch up tonight, mon ami. We have much to discuss.”
Henri jerked a nod as Victor turned his attention back to the blonde beside him.
“Your name, sweetling. I won’t ask again.”
The poor girl rattled with shakes. “L-Laura.” Tears spilled down her cheeks.
Victor stroked her shoulders. “Good girl. See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Clasping her hand, he raised it in his. “Everyone, please give a very warm welcome to the lovely Laura.”