Chapter 23
M y heart beats wildly in my chest. I lost control of the tears the moment my front door shut—his front door. Using big black trash bags, most of my stuff is shoved in carelessly. Halfway through, my tears dry up and I burst, punching the wall with a guttural scream. My old memories are clashing with my new ones and it’s too much for me. I can’t take this.
Slipping on more comfortable shoes, I tuck my knife back in place not bothering to change out of my dress yet. As soon as I open my door, possibly the only face I want to see right now is the one I’m greeted with. Ace follows me through the vacant woods down to the cliff, cuddled close to me as my legs dangle over the ledge. The moon is out, but she isn’t shining as bright as she usually does—or maybe it’s just me.
Before I ever got a chance to truly process what my parents told me, I lost those memories. I wonder about how my life would have turned out if my birth parents were never brutally murdered. But there is still one thing that doesn’t entirely add up. If this was the big secret, then why did my dad— uncle— push me away all these years?
What were they like? Who would I act more like?
When the pieces in my head click together, a single tear rolls down my cheek. I met my birth mother in my coma. Her voice was the one echoing in my head. Estelle.
Even though my parents didn’t give birth to me, they still raised me. They are technically family regardless. The love I have for them will never change.
Shit, my parents. I haven’t heard from them since that night when I crashed, nor have they heard from me. That’s the first place I need to go.
My heart falls to my ass when strong hands start to haul me backward, silencing my yell with a heavy slap over my mouth. Ace is already on his feet ready to attack my attacker and disappears behind me. The cloth material on my face has my instincts kicking into overdrive and I hold my breath while flailing as hard as I can to get loose.
Freeing an arm and blindly swinging upwards has the man loosening his grip on me enough for me to tumble forward. I don’t dare breathe yet, knowing there’s something wet on my face and my vision is already hazy.
Where the hell is Ace and why isn’t he barking anymore or attacking?
I don’t make it two steps away when my body jerks backward from a yank of my hair. Before I regain my balance, both of my arms are being pinned behind my back and shoving me onto my knees, where two heavy thighs squeeze my legs together.
“This one has some fight in her,” the man holding me says out loud, before leaning down to my ear, “I like that.” His gravelly voice makes me want to puke out my dinner, but it rings a bell in my head.
“She sure does.” Another voice sounds from behind me and my struggles are growing weaker with my muscles. I know I need to suck in a breath soon. My exercises can only help for so long.
“Will you hurry with the syringe?” the man behind me says. My eyes widen as both his words and the realization clicks.
The man from the party.
My head whips around as far back as it can to commit both faces to memory.
Dark hazel. Black hair. Tall with muscles and a bit of weight to him. Chipped right tooth.
His friend with light blue eyes and dirty blond hair. Also tall, but thin and has a bumpy nose, like it’s been broken once or twice before. I’d like to be the one to break his nose before watching him bleed out next to Hazel Demon behind me.
“Get fucked,” is the first thing I say upon taking in a sweet, toxic breath.
There’s no use. Limbs and eyelids are heavy, and when that sharp needle punctures my neck, it’s only seconds before everything fades to black.
The pain. The fear. Possibly my freedom. All washed away.
It takes effort to open my eyes and I experience a sense of déjà vu as they finally flutter open. There’s one light in the center of the ceiling, but the smell is what I notice first. Mustiness and something rotten. When the fog clears from my eyes, I take in a large, dirty room with hay scattered all over the floor. My heart starts racing and my body is reluctant to respond to my commands. A groan escapes me as I battle with the ropes holding my hands together to sit myself upright.
Terror washes over me, freezing me in place with widened eyes to confirm I’m not hallucinating. I’m not alone here. Scattered around the floor are a bunch of different women of seemingly varying young ages, either sleeping or sitting up and looking around in shock or fear, like myself. All of them are in a nice dress, as if they were sleeping off a wild night out.
I know that isn’t the case.
A baby blue dress catches my eye on a sleeping girl in the corner. That dress was at the party. Looking down, my green dress looks back at me and I desperately wade through my molasses-covered field of thoughts, gradually trying to piece together how I ended up here and where I am.
Emerald green.
Careful there, emerald.
The woods. The attack. The man from the party.
Shit.
One more scan of the room confirms it’s only us in here, the women who I’m sure were all taken against their will. This vast room looks like the inside of an old barn. More of the girls are waking up and my body is kicking into overdrive as I push myself to stand and walk over to one of the girls who was awake when I awoke myself. She’s wearing a long, pastel yellow dress that, under different circumstances, compliments her blonde hair and sad, green eyes.
Kneeling beside her, I cautiously reach for her bound hands whispering, “Hey, I’m Amaris. I don’t know what’s going to happen to us, but maybe if we help untie each other and the rest of the girls we can find a way out of here quicker.”
She’s fighting back tears and shaking at my hands, but she nods and lets me work on her knot in silence. It took a long minute, but when she’s finally free she goes for my hands next and shuts her eyes briefly, letting a tear slip from each eye.
“Thank you.” Her voice is soft and broken, but she clears her throat and wipes a stray tear before continuing with my binding. “My name is Bailey. I’m not supposed to be here.”
“None of us are,” I say, looking in her eyes.
“My best friend, Nina, and I got invited to a party by her boyfriend. I didn’t even want to go, but I did and at the end of the night we were shoved in the back of a black car and that’s all I remember. I have a family I love, I can’t abandon them.”
Party? Why do I feel like she’s referring to Renato’s party?
The whole party was a fucking set-up.
My eyes shut on their own volition, pushing away those emotions. Now is not the time, we have bigger issues. She keeps her eyes focused on the task at hand while she speaks, and by the end of her rant, my hands are free. I rub my raw wrists as I mull over her words.
Guiding her to stand with me, I whisper in a broken voice of my own. “We will get out of here. We have to.”
The look in her eyes tells me she doesn’t fully believe me. Fuck, I am trying real damn hard to believe it myself, but I refuse to give into my doubts. I’d die before ever giving up my freedom.
We make our way to the other girls and as I’m helping the third girl I see, tires pulling into the front of the place pull my attention to the large double doors on the far wall. Several car doors slam shut and it acts as an unspoken cue for us all to get back in our places.
Bright sunlight momentarily blinds me as the doors open wide and men start piling in one by one, each with at least two guns on them. There’s eight of them total, all but one of them start walking towards a different girl. Presumably the leader is the one who stands in the middle and speaks.
“Rise and shine, ladies. It’s time to go.”
My eyes are scouring the ground near me for any sharp object, but I come up short. As swiftly as possible, I grab the rope that held my hands together and loosely tie my hands together again, or at least make it appear that they’re still bound.
“How the hell did you get loose?” Sweat breaks out all over my body. My heart hammers in my chest as my eyes track the voice to find the main man from the middle walking towards a guy hovering over Bailey.
Fuck.
His dark eyes sparkle with malicious intent. The fucker is genuinely is enjoying this. The leader lowers his voice, but it still carries through the silent barn, dark and foreboding. “That deserves a punishment, don’t you think?” Silently, she shakes her head slowly. “You girls will learn how to do as you're told. I find examples are the best way to really learn something. We’ll start with you. Stand.”
All color drains from her face. On shaky legs, she stands, pleading once she’s face to face with the ringleader. “Please, please don’t do this. I-I can give you money if that’s what you want. You can take every last penny, please. Don't…do this.” Her voice shakes with her words.
A rough voice calls from my left. “Boss, there’s another one here. Bitch probably helped the girl out.”
The owner of said voice shoves forward the girl in the blue dress. Nina. She looks even more shaken up than Bailey does, turning her head down and closing her eyes as a stream of tears falls down her cheeks.
Ringleader turns his attention to the friend and laughs darkly. “Ah, now it makes sense.” He walks over Nina, pulling her chin up. “Open your eyes. There we go. Your fear and tears look beautiful on you.”
Shoving her face away, he stands up straight and addresses his men. “Round them up and take them all to the car, sedate them if you have to just get them there.” Making his way back to Bailey and the man beside her, he announces, “Yellow is coming first. The rest will follow.”
A shorter, stocky Hispanic man approaches me and yanks me up by my upper arms. “Let’s go, puta. Walk or I’ll make you,” he sneers. Some of us file out like prisoners heading to sentencing while others wait for more men to return. There’s more of us than there are of them, I think I counted ten.
I’m three girls behind Ringleader. He walks behind Bailey and his friend walks next to her. At just a few feet from the four waiting cars, she pivots and takes off as fast as she can. But she doesn’t make it far before Ringleader shoots her backside, near the center of her chest.
Unadulterated fear threatens to paralyze me at the scene. Crimson red is quickly spreading over the innocent yellow of her dress, as the last of her life bleeds out. All she wanted was to go home to her family.
Get it together, Amaris. We have to stay strong and play smart if we want to make it out of here alive. My chances of being found or escaping are getting even slimmer by them moving us to a different location. Dread twists in my stomach, my panic spiking when the thought that no one will even look for me surfaces.
It’s very possible, I’m basically already missing. After the way I left things with Kylo, he’ll likely think I’m just mad at him and left him. Unless…He was in on the whole scheme, too?
No. I refuse to believe that. He is an asshole, and a liar, and a manipulator, but this is low, even for him. Right? Either way, he might be my only hope. Who knows if he’ll be able to find me in time. That gives me all the more reason to fight my way out of here. I’m the only person I know I have.
What I won’t admit, is how much a part of me hopes Kylo does save me from this nightmare.
Ringleader only looks bored with a hint of annoyance. “And then there were eleven. Damn, I was gonna have fun with her.” We all stopped walking, waiting. Turning to Nina, he winks. “More for you, my dear.” Then, he’s back to addressing the men. “You know what to do, we’re going back for the rest of them.”
Three of us get in the backseat of each car. I commit any detail of this place to memory before they cover our heads with old sacks. “If any of you move a muscle or try to take it off, I will shoot,” one of them says.
Anxiety forces me to focus on my breathing during the ride, the only thing I have control over. A bump in the road has my hand grazing something solid on my leg. Papa’s dagger . Relief and hope spark in my chest. I have a weapon and as long as I play my cards right, this can be my one way out.
The car comes to a stop after some time, I tense when the front doors open and close. Both back doors open a second later and the harsh voices are back.
“Get the fuck out. Watch your step, let’s go.”
They steer us inside somewhere with the sack over my head, I can’t smell and can hardly hear anything to provide a clue as to where we are now. We walk for a while until I’m told to stop. Moments later, the sack is ripped off my head. Bright lights take a minute for my eyes to adjust to and when they do, I’m looking around the room at the rest of the girls.
We’re standing side by side, equally confused and terrified, some masking it better than others.
Heels clicking on the marble floors steal all our attention creating a domino effect. To my surprise, it’s a woman older than me, yet young. She can hardly be thirty, but with all that makeup on her face, who really knows?
Golden blonde hair in perfectly styled curls frame her thin, full face of makeup, completed with ruby red lips. Contrary to the rest of us in dirty, stinking dresses, the woman is donned in a fresh and classy, navy blue jumpsuit with a sheer skirt tail, long, dangly silver earrings, and the silver heels that grabbed our attention.
“Ooh, these are for me?” she asks Ringleader in a thick Russian accent.
He chuckles. “They’re all yours to play with, little sis.”
Is that a joke? They look nothing alike.
She claps enthusiastically at the door with a gleeful smile and a wicked glint in her eyes. “Aw, you are the best! Now, let’s see what we have here.” Walking down the line steadily, she points out a feature on each of us. “Face. Chest. Chest. Hips. Good weight. Long legs.” Analyzing me casually, she comments, “Hips.”
What the hell is she doing? Rating us?
At the end of the line, she takes one last, long look at each of us. Standing center in front of us, she speaks like she’s giving a presentation. “Welcome, my babies. I’m here to help you with your obedience and lady etiquette, then we can find you a new home. These men are filthy rich and filthy in bed, who wouldn’t want that? You will have anything you dream of.”
Sure. Except for freedom, respect, happiness, a life of our own. Shall I go on?
Keeping her eyes on us, she addresses the men still lingering in the room. “Boys, do you have anything to say before we get started? Pol ves’ tvoy .”
Ringleader steps forward, hungry eyes raking over Nina’s baby blue dress. “Actually, Sasha, these girls still need to learn a lesson. Ain’t that right, sweetheart?”
Eyes trained on the floor, she doesn’t move a muscle. Aggressively yanking her forward, a whimper escapes her. “You make eye contact when spoken to,” he demands with a fistful of her hair, holding her face close to his. At her nervous nod, he says, “Good,” then pushes her backward when releasing her hair, causing her to stumble backward with her high heels.
Sasha trips Nina so she lands flat on her ass, cackling as if she was a villain in a movie. In my movie, I guess she is.
Ringleader kneels over her tense body, the tears she’s been fighting breaking free upon his belt coming off. Slipping his gun from his backside, he uses it to tilt her chin up.
“Shh, shh, shh. Don’t make this difficult. I promise if you fight back, I’ll enjoy this more,” he coos, caressing her face.
My ears grow hotter than they have been this whole time at his words. These people are fucking sick. Him, his friends, and his weird ass sister, or whatever she is to him. Not only is he forcing himself on her, but also forcing us to watch him do it. The girl to the far right end vomits in sync with the first ear-piercing scream from Nina.
My teeth grind together as I recite affirmations in my head, focusing my sight anywhere but in front of me and tuning out the cries gnawing at my heartstrings.
Don’t give them a reaction, that’s what they want. Play your part. Be smart. Play your part. Be strong.
“Something got you distracted? Eyes on your friend unless you want to be next.” The hoarse voice brings me back to a disdainful glare.
Despite the growing inferno of rage inside me, my expression betrays no emotions. Schooling my features to remain impassive, I stare back at him, hollowly. A reaction is what they want and one thing I shouldn’t give any of them.
When he turns away, I glance up and what catches my attention isn’t the gruesome actions from Ringleader. No, it’s the way Sasha watches them both with sinful glee and a twisted fascination. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this is arousing her.
As the thought pops in my head, she bites down on her lip softly, practically salivating over her brother.
That same hoarse voice finds me again. “Don’t worry, emerald. You look like you won’t plead as much. I’ll be sure to show you the best time of your life.” He winks and that alone is enough to make me want to puke all over him.
There goes that nickname again. Emerald .
I hate everything about my once favorite color, now.
“Doubtful,” I mutter under my breath.
His brows furrow and his body fully turns to face me. “What was that?” At my lack of response, he continues talking. “My dick is so good, bitches beg for it all day long. You’ll see.”
“Oh, is that why you guys needed to take us against our will and force us? Because it’s so good?”
My eyes widen a fraction at my own sudden outburst, and he looks more pissed than anything else. Must have hit a sore spot for him. In the next blink, he swings out abruptly, catching me squarely on the lip. The unexpected blow has me stumbling backward, both hands reaching for my mouth instinctively.
Some blood from where my lip split marks my fingers, and I spit onto the floor, taking my place back in line silently. Some eyes are on me, but luckily the man is storming out of the room as Ringleader zips his pants back up.
Nina looks paralyzed, broken. Completely shattered as a person. She curls in on herself and stares blankly at the ceiling. Meanwhile, Ringleader is sporting a smug grin on his face as he walks away to grab a water bottle for himself.
Eyes so dark they look black, pinning each of us in place while he chugs his drink. “That was only the beginning, ladies. I’m just getting warmed up.”