Chapter Thirteen
Harley
“ I ’m sorry,” he mouths to me right as his father punches him in the face. Blood begins to pour from his nose and mouth, and I jerk in the hold of the fuckers making me stand here.
“What exactly is your plan?” I ask numbly, refusing to feel anything right now.
“I’m so glad you asked, dear granddaughter. I am going to show my son how a real man takes out another man, and then you are going to get your first taste of your new life.” He walks around Gabe and comes to stand in front of me. Gripping my chin, he sneers down at me, “Now be a good bitch and keep your mouth shut, or I really will let my men have some fun while Daddy watches.”
Raining down blow after blow, he beats Gabe until he is barely conscious, his face barely recognizable. No longer able to hold in the fear and pain as it consumes me, a stray tear falls down my cheeks. “Dad,” I murmur.
Even through the mess on his face, I can see his eyes light up. “It’s okay,” I tell him, giving him the words I should have told him months ago. “I love you and it’s okay. Everything is going to be okay.” Hit. “I love you.” Hit. “Please forgive yourself.”
“Someone shut her up!” Killer screams as he stomps over to the table and comes back with a bat. A hand covers my mouth as another wraps around the front of my throat and squeezes tightly, cutting off most of my air.
My dad blinks at me, telling me to shut my eyes, but I can’t. I can’t pull my eyes away. Killer swings the bat at each of his knee caps and then moves on to his stomach, hitting him over and over again until he is barely breathing and can’t hold his head up.
There is nothing I can do in this moment besides watch. I can’t fight off the four other men in the room who are all armed. I can’t scream or go to him. I can’t do anything but watch as my dad’s life is violently ripped away from him in the same way my moms was.
Tears fall freely down my cheeks as a sob works its way up my throat. I try to scream against the man's hand, but the other hand on my throat tightens until I can’t breathe, and I watch helplessly as Killer pulls a gun from his waistband and yanks Gabe’s hair back, forcing him to look up.
Holding the gun to his head, he says, “I’m granting you mercy by taking your life now. But I hope you know it is your fault your daughter will suffer for the rest of her life, just like her mother did. Your daughter will experience what you did to her mother and learn what a monster you really are.”
Bang.
There’s blood everywhere.
I think I’m screaming, but I feel so…so empty, I can’t be sure what’s happening. Hands grab me, and I fight them off. Don’t touch me.
I can’t breathe—I can’t think. This is a nightmare. I’m living the nightmare all over again.
It’s not just my dad dead in front of me—it's my mom too.
My parents.
Dead.
Right before my eyes.
I can’t do this anymore. I quit.
“No penetration.” A voice echoes through my mind as I fall numb.
I’m dragged somewhere else and thrown down onto a dirty mattress. Hands touch me and rip at my clothes until I’m naked. “Fuck me. God, I wish I could fuck your ripe young pussy. I bet it would strangle my cock so well.” A man groans in my ear as he licks along my jawline and cups my pussy with his hand, aggressively rubbing his palm against it.
I shut my eyes and think of my guys. Ryker, Cayden, Grayson. Their touches. The way they love me. Hold me. Make love to me.
Grayson’s soft, caring caresses.
Someone pinches my nose until I’m forced to open my mouth, and a cock is shoved between my lips, making me gasp and try to pull away, but more hands hold me still as they taunt and laugh.
Block it out. Ryker’s playful touches. Cayden’s loving aggression.
Cum explodes in the back of my throat, and I gag and hurl all over the cock still partially in my mouth. Cum and vomit soaks the both of us as he pulls away cursing, and someone slaps me. “Nasty fucking slut.”
The hands release me, and I crumble into a heap on the mattress, still refusing to open my eyes. Keeping them closed means I’m not really here. I’m home and everything is okay. None of this has happened.
“Since she wants to be a nasty whore, let’s assist her.” One of them chuckles as multiple streams of warm liquid cover my entire body, and the stench of urine becomes more pungent.
Seconds, minutes, maybe even hours later, I lay frozen solid on the ground. The tears have long since dried, and I can’t find anything inside me to move or fight, to keep going and figure out what to do next. What’s the point?
My dad is dead. My mom is dead. My life is crumbling all over again. It feels as if I was given those few good years just to have them ripped away from me in one day.
“Oh my,” a soft voice murmurs. “Harley? Can you sit up, please? Daddy said I can help you get ready, but if we don’t move soon, the guards will get impatient and just hose you down.”
Blinking my eyes open, I glance up to find a girl around my age standing at the entrance to a cage where I must be. “Come now.” She smiles gently at me and holds a hand out. When I place my hand in hers, she says, “That’s it, lovely, let’s sit up now.”
Once she helps my tired and sore body stand on wobbly legs, she guides me to a door only a few feet away. It’s an all-white, sterile looking room with an open shower stall, a counter, toilet, and a small bed.
Glancing at the girl as she guides me to the shower stall, I take in her features that look oddly familiar. She has long, wavy auburn hair, with large hazel eyes and a heart-shaped face. Her features honestly couldn’t be more perfect. She doesn’t look like any of the victims we have saved. She seems so calm and content.
“Who are you?” I whisper, never taking my eyes off her as she swiftly moves, almost floating through the room, moving on her bare feet, in a light blue dress that ends above her knees.
As she looks for something in the cupboard by the sink, she says, “You may call me Zero. I will help you whenever requested.”
She turns back around and brings me a plastic water bottle that I chug down while she starts the shower. As I finish, I ask, “But what’s your real name?”
“Oh, well, I don’t have one like you and the others who come here do. I wish I did. Sometimes, I dream about what I would like to be named. But Daddy calls me girl or Zero.”
“Who’s Daddy?” I ask her as she guides me under the spray.
“Well, he’s my daddy, silly.” She chuckles. “Okay, you need to shower and get your dress on so we can get you settled. It won’t be long before the goons come to rush us along, and I'm sure you won’t want to shower with them around.”
“And if I don’t want to?” I narrow my eyes, becoming more suspicious of her kind act. It has to be an act, right? Why would she be so kind to me as she helps me for whatever twisted shit I’m about to enter?
She freezes at my question, and her eyes dart to the camera in the corner of the room before she looks back at me. “Well, they won’t appreciate that very much. Please, just take your shower now while you can without other eyes on you.” Her eyes plead with me, so I go ahead and shower. I can only imagine she is being forced to do this and could get in trouble if I don’t behave. I have already watched one person get hurt and killed today. I don’t want to see another.
Blinking away the tears, I finish getting myself clean and then step out of the shower, where Zero helps me dry off and tugs a light pink slip dress over my head before she brushes out my hair and braids it. “Why are you braiding it?” I ask her, remembering how all the girls at the warehouse had braided hair because Oakley had done theirs.
She hums softly. “It keeps your hair from getting really tangled, especially if you get in trouble. You won’t be allowed to come shower in here, so it could be days before you get to brush your hair again. And it’s pretty.”
“Why do you seem so happy? Is it just a cover? Can you tell me what happens next?” I ask her.
Her eyes glaze over before she clears her throat and smiles at me through the mirror. “Being happy makes Daddy happy. I want to keep Daddy happy. We should get you out there and find out what your number is.”
“My number?” I question as she guides me back out, but through a different door than the first one. My stomach drops as we enter a room with cages only as tall as my waist lining the walls, girls in them. A man in a ski mask approaches us, his dark eyes narrowing on me before he speaks directly to Zero. “Put Six in her room and then go see your Daddy.”
She drops her chin with a nod. “Yes, sir.” Guiding me farther down the hall, she opens one of the cage doors with a small sign above it that reads SIX. She nudges my back, but I keep my feet planted, not moving.
She makes a sound of distress from the back of her throat before murmuring, “Please don’t fight. The others will explain after lights out. Just behave. Please.” The slight panic in her voice is the only reason I drop to my knees, willingly putting myself in this cage, even though every instinct inside me is screaming to fight and run.
It’s not that easy, I remind myself as tears well up in the corners of my eyes, but I blink them away, refusing to let myself cry right now. As soon as I’m in the cage all the way, Zero shuts and locks it and then walks away without one of the guards guiding her, as if she has free will.
Is she just a trick to make us behave? Her sweet side and than the vulnerable side she barely shows… Is it fake? A trap to make us behave enough to get here?
Who the fuck is she?
Pushing my anger down, I take the time to glance around the room, taking in everything. There are at least twenty cages total. About half of them have girls in them. Some are curled in such tiny balls, I can’t even see their faces. A few are watching me cautiously, but no one speaks. Glancing through the cage, I lock eyes with the girl next to me, who looks to be a few years older. When I open my mouth to speak, she shakes her head and holds a finger to her mouth and then points at the guards standing on each side of the room.
Scooting back against the far wall, I pull my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around them. Taking deep breaths, I try to keep myself from spiraling out of control. This is not the time or place to think about everything and break down. There’s this little but loud voice inside my head screaming at me to just give up, to accept my fate and stop trying. Let the darkness consume me and the first chance I get just end it all because what’s the point?
But then, they come to mind. My men. My family. The way I am not the only one who just lost the person we all love and depend on. They need me just like I need them. I have promised the guys over and over again that we would do this together. We are a team, and I have to remember that now more than ever.
I can get through this because I know they are fighting tooth and nail to find me right now, so how would it be fair if I just gave up?
After doing my best to stay disassociated from reality and focus on my men and the club, the door at the far end finally opens, and someone walks in. Well, actually, someones.
Unable to stand, I straighten my shoulders and glare up at the face I haven’t seen in over a year and hoped I wouldn’t see again.
“Hello, sweet daughter.”
I don’t speak.
“What, nothing to say to your mother?” She raises one of her drawn-on brows before she squats down in front of my cage. “You ruined a lot for me, but I think I can forgive you. You are finally going to where you belong. I knew once I found out you were in Killer’s hands I could come home again. You see, I had a deal with Killer and your buyer, but then you had to go and ruin that. When I found out Killer was back in Jacksonville, I knew I had to leave. I hadn’t finished my part of making sure you were ready. Luckily, you walked into his open arms.”
She smiles at me even as I don’t respond to her. Instead, I digest everything she is saying, attempting not to panic. “When your little friend called me in tears to let me know you were missing, I knew it was finally time to come out of the shadows. So I guess I should thank you for having such gullible friends and for giving me my life back. Now that your dear daddy is dead and you are going to be long gone soon, that club will be in shambles. It will be such an honor to bring them down piece by piece until there is nothing left.”
She slowly rises before looking down her nose at me, “You started this war, my dear, but I will finish it. You lose.” With a bright smile on her face, she turns and walks back out the door she came through. The second the door shuts behind her, my chest expands, and I gasp, not able to breathe. Hunching over, I lay my forehead on the cold, hard ground and crumble.
How could things get so fucked up all over again? When will it end?
“You are a force, little flame.”
“You’re unstoppable.”
“You’re courageous.”
Their voices from the day I went into the basement at Tammy’s float around in my mind. It’s not her taunts or torture anymore. They gave me something new down in that basement: strength. Strength because I have them and I have to trust in them.
The thoughts in my mind push and pull me in different directions, but there is one thing clear as day: I did not make it this far to give up now, even if everything feels hopeless.
The lights above us suddenly turn off, and the entire room falls dark as the doors on each end open and shut. Loud locks can be heard sliding into place. Sitting up again, I glance around, but just like the last room, I can’t see anything.
“What’s your name?” someone whispers from the cage next to me—I think the girl who held her finger up and told me not to speak earlier.
“Harley.”
“I’m Nicole. You’re new, right?”
“Yes,” I murmur back.
“Behave. Do what they ask of you. The better you are, the better you get treated. If you get in trouble, you will be beaten and humiliated and won’t get any special treatment. Just do as they say, and things will be easier. Crying is okay, but don’t scream.”
I ask the one question that has been on my mind. “Who is the girl, Zero, who helped me in here earlier?”
“Don’t talk about her,” she hisses. “When lights go out, they guard from outside the room so we can speak quietly, but during the day, do not speak to anyone. You will get in trouble.”
“How long have you been here?” I ask her.
“At this place? A month. But I’ve been transferred around prior to that. I was sold when I was young by my family.”
I suck in a breath. “That’s awful.”
“Most of the stories here are. Don’t get close to anyone. It makes you care about them more so when they get in trouble or taken, you may risk acting out. That wouldn’t be good for anyone, trust me.”
I want to give her some kind of hope, but I can only imagine how little that would actually help, so instead, I stay quiet and take everything in. I need to lay low as much as possible, which I have a feeling won’t be easy to do.
The door closest to me opens, and someone in all black comes in, heading straight for my cage. Ripping the door open, he bends down and grabs me by my braid, yanking me out of the cage, pulling me out of the room and down a long hall. He moves so fast, my feet can barely keep up, and I don’t get a chance to look around, my eyes having adjusted to the light before I am shoved into another room and the door is locked behind me.
I feel a presence behind me before an arm wraps around my waist, a hand around my throat before I even have a chance to react.
His voice is deep and raspy as he whispers in my ear, “Did you miss me, fighter?” Using the hand he had wrapped around my throat, he grips my chin and turns my head to the side so he can inhale against my skin and then run his tongue down the scar on my face. I try to cringe away, but he has a tight hold on my face. “Mmm, I am so glad you had this beautiful scar for all these years to remember me by.”
A tear leaks out of the corner of my eye before I can stop it at the memories of his men brutally raping my mother as I watched.
Her terrified voice yelling for me to fight, to run, the pain of the knife slicing my face before I ran for my life and left her to die.
My knees give out, and he lets me fall onto the ground but comes down after me, straddling my thighs as he laughs. I let my eyes fall shut and try to remember to breathe.