Chapter 1
Present Day
“A date?” my sister asks, sitting in the only armchair of our small room.
I can feel her anxiety radiating in waves. Amber is even more suspicious than I am, but I’m tired of being so cautious. I just want to live a little.
“It’s not a big deal,” I answer, trying to calm her down. “We’re having dinner at a restaurant, and then he’ll bring me home. You know I’d never take a risk if he weren’t a perfect gentleman.”
“I don’t know, Elodie. When something seems too good to be true. . .”
“Stop. Can’t you just let me relax this one time? We’ve been running for too many years, Amber. I’m exhausted. I need some fun.”
“Will you sleep at home?”
“Yes. And tomorrow we’ll laugh about all the silly things I did at the fancy restaurant.”
She doesn’t smile like I expected, and for a moment, I almost reconsider. Maybe I should just stay in, eat ice cream, and watch TV with her. But then I shake the idea off.
I’ve been a coward most of my life, allowing myself fun only on rare occasions. I want change.
Three hours later, back at our apartment, I’m grinning like a fool, still giddy from the incredible evening.
The date turned out so much better than I expected. I felt like a princess, and I can’t help thinking how my sister worried for nothing.
I walk into our room and find her leaning against the headboard, reading.
She immediately jumps up and runs to me.
“You’re back,” she says, hugging me tightly.
“Hey, did you think you’d get rid of me?”
“Don’t joke about that. It’s not funny. You’re my whole world, Elodie.”
“And you’re mine, little sister. I’ll always come back. We’re a team. No one can separate us.”
“Swear it.”
“I swear. I’d never leave you alone. I’ll protect you at any cost.”
Only two days later, I realize how wrong I was.
We escaped monsters in our teens, but there are many more scattered around the world.
Bells.
Yes, the sound feels like bells ringing inside my head, and when I try to open my eyes for the first time and can’t, I know what happened.
Someone drugged me.
I want to cry in anger for being so stupid. I should have known better; I’m not a little girl anymore.
How could I believe a man like him would be interested in me?
A man so much older, experienced, and wealthy? What an idiot I was!
And the worst part is, it wasn’t even real on my side. I didn’t truly want him. What I wanted was to live a little. To forget, even for a night, that my sister and I are eternal wanderers with no one in the world but each other.
I don’t mind being a drifter. More than Amber, I appreciate not having a fixed home.
The problem is that our freedom isn’t voluntary. We can never stop. What should make me feel like the mistress of my own destiny is nothing more than a pair of invisible shackles. Whether I admit it or not, my little sister and I are still chained to those bastards.
We escaped, but we’re not free.
“She’s already been sent. And she knows we’ve got the older sister. She’ll do whatever we want, hoping to save this delicious Romani.”
Even with my mind fogged by the drugs they gave me, I know they’re talking about Amber, and I’m instantly on alert.
“But she won’t succeed, right? I mean, even if the little sister follows through with everything we planned and hands us that bastard Carmouche-Leblanc[1], we’ll never give this one back.”
I hear Angelo’s disgusting laugh. He’s the man who pretended to be interested in me.
“No. I’ve got plans for her. With that body and face, she’s worth a lot on the market.”
“She’s already a woman, not a teenager. They prefer the younger ones.”
“There’s a refined clientele for the exotic ones. With those golden eyes and black hair, bastards will claw each other’s eyes out to own her. And the best part is, she’s tame.”
Tame, me?
If I weren’t so dizzy, I’d laugh, because nothing could be further from the truth. Give me a chance and I’ll claw his face open.
“In fact,” the bastard continues, “I want both. The little one, too. They’re gorgeous, and I’ll make a fortune off them. Refined slaves, not clueless teenagers who don’t even know how to please a man.”
Take Amber? They’ll have to kill me first.
I breathe slowly, pretending to still be unconscious.
I’ll need to act carefully until I figure out how to escape.
I don’t know who they are—human traffickers, from what I gather—and that’s the only reason they’ve managed to deceive me. But I have one advantage: they have no idea who Amber and I really are.
I didn’t survive hell and spend years moving from state to state with my sister just to end up a victim of human trafficking. I’ll die before I let them force me into anything.
For now, though, I’ll let them believe I’m just a defenseless woman.
Days Later
“Want some water?” asks the man who’s been the only one to feed me.
On the first day, they took turns, and all three of them terrified me, though I pretended otherwise. I studied each one carefully. If there’s one thing I’ve learned during our years on the run, it’s that I have a strong pull over men, and right now, it’s my only weapon.
Of the three who came, I noticed this one not only looked at my body and face but also paid attention to my needs.
The monster really thinks he’s better than the others just because he doesn’t say vile things to me.
They can’t touch me, I know that much. I overheard that traitorous bastard Angelo Brambilla warning them. But that didn’t stop them from telling me what they’d like to do to me, and more than once, I had to swallow back the urge to vomit.
“Could it be cold?” I test him to see how much he really cares. “Room temperature water makes me nauseous, and I doubt they’ll question you if you say I need cold water. They all seem to get nervous when they look at you. They respect you.”
I feel proud of myself when I see his chest puff up like a pigeon before he answers:
“You can have cold water, my girl. I’ll make sure you always get it the way you like it.”
Yes, I chose right. He’s the weakest link in these damned chains holding me. Now I just need to figure out how to break him away from the rest.