Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
VIOLET
“Wake up,” I say, as I work on my hands. “Please Gianna, open your eyes and tell me you’re all right.”
She’s breathing, but beyond that, I don’t know.
The ropes on my hand rub and burn my skin as I try to get my hands free. I bite my lip and pull hard, swallowing the scream of pain as the rope cuts into my flesh as I manage to yank one hand free.
Warm wetness is on my skin, but what’s a little blood if I can get my hands out?
Now I can get the other out, too, and I scrabble up onto my hands and knees.
I go to Gianna. Her pulse is steady under my fingers. Maybe she got hit with what I did.
Whatever they injected me with had me groggy there for a little too long. I sort of lolled about until reality really sank in.
“This is bad,” I whisper, carefully pushing myself to my feet as I look around. “Very bad.”
The door is locked on the other side, and it seems to be made of metal painted white. The floors fucking cement—there’s that word again—and this time, there’s no cot or water or anything. Just us in an empty, cold room.
This is beyond bad.
It’s terrifyingly fucked up.
I don’t know what’s waiting for me on the other side of the door, but whatever it is, I know I’m not going to like it.
Maybe this is the equivalent of night before the dawn of my execution. I don’t know.
Suddenly, I laugh.
They’re not going to waste female flesh.
More likely, I’ll end up for sale or one of the girls used and abused in the rooms that Macy says she and the others never go into.
A fate worse than death.
My vision wavers, and my chest goes tight. It’s got nothing to do with the drugs and everything to do with the panic of my situation.
I sit, butt hitting the ground hard. And I shiver in the cold and from the fear.
“At least…” I breathe in. “At least I hope Cade has what he needs.”
For comfort it isn’t much, but it’ll do.
A soft groan grabs me, and I turn to Gianna.
“Gianna?” I ask anxiously. “Gianna, are you okay?”
The girl groans again and sits up, like a new-born lamb, trying to find its legs. “My head….”
She looks around, then it seems to register someone spoke to her, and she whips around to me, her arms almost giving way. Her gaze hits me, and her eyes widen. “Who are you?”
“I’m Violet. We met…sort of…”
“You’re bleeding.”
I glance down. It’s not much, more of a burn from the rope, but there’s blood where I broke through the skin trying to get free.
“I’m fine. We spoke,” I say gently. “A few weeks ago. You were in the cell next to me. Ivan?”
Her lip trembles. “I never knew the man’s name. Just that he was Russian. I was so drugged up. I…” She looks at me. “That was you?”
I nod.
And Gianna bursts into tears. “Did they keep hold of you, too?”
“No. I got rescued. I came back to get you, but they’d taken you. I told you I’d come for you if I got out, and I didn’t rest until I found out who you were. Gianna Walsh, right?”
“You…came back for me?”
I touch her arm. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“Why?”
“Because I promised you.” I gently squeeze her arm. “It didn’t matter if you heard me or not, I wasn’t about to not find you. And it’s not just me. There’s a team.”
She stares at me, starting to shake. “Are you a cop?”
“No, just another girl with a great boyfriend who has a certain skillset.”
Gianna nods, sniffling, as she crawls up to rest her back on the wall next to me. She’s still crying, silently, and it hurts my heart. She’s been alone so long. And her father…
I shudder.
He must know she’s here. He was the last person I spoke to…the person I was speaking to when I got knocked out by that drug. So… God. What a monster.
One so perfectly hidden in plain sight that he even fooled me until Cade uncovered the truth.
“I’m just used to everyone lying to me. They drug me, tell me if I’m good I can go free, but it’s all a lie.”
“Hey.”
I touch her arm again, this time keeping my hand there, like I can send her silent strength and support. But she doesn’t pull away, and I think she needs human contact. Kind human contact.
Something that doesn’t ask for anything in return.
I don’t try to hold her hand or do more than I’m doing. Not yet. Small steps are needed. I just let her get used to me.
“What happened?” I ask her gently. “How did you end up in this situation? You’ve been gone so long.”
She doesn’t speak for long moments, but finally, Gianna speaks.
“You know, I’ve been drugged for so long. When you spoke to me I thought…I thought I imagined you. I was still out of it, coming down from whatever they gave me.” She looks at her arm where the marks are. Marks that make her look like a hardcore addict.
And she’s skinny. Too skinny.
But she’s still beautiful. She takes after her mom, I think. More than her dad, but even too skinny, she’s lovely, and the silk dress she’s in is short, and it makes her look like a supermodel in her build. She’s taller than me, and I don’t even want to think what they do with her.
I can see her being sold, because there are men who want a girl like her, that young girl look with a skinny body, but long limbed and…
I stop.
Because I don’t know if she’s a virgin, and I’m not even sure how much that matters, but I’m sure she’s been used and abused by men. And I’m thinking if any of the guards she’s been in the hands of have had her. I’m thinking they won’t go for her pussy.
That’s prime real estate.
“I’m glad for the drugs. There were times when…let’s say I prefer the dream like state. I prefer being out of it for when I’m the star.” She closes her eyes and swallows hard.
The bile shifts and heaves in me, along with my stomach, and acid burns my throat.
“But I don’t want to be here at all. I want…I want to be free.” Now she opens her eyes and looks at me. “Do you think that’s going to happen? I don’t know how much I can take.”
“What happened for you to end up here?”
She grits her teeth. “I discovered my father…” Gianna shakes her head as her voice grows hard.
“I discovered he had some very disturbing kinks. The kind that would end his marriage and his career. It’s why I went to the club…
I can’t remember the name…with my friend, Macy, all those months ago.
I wanted proof. I didn’t care about his career. I cared about my mom.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why? It’s not your fault. My dad apparently owed a fortune to a Russian mobster…the guy who most likely had me when we spoke. I’ve changed hands a few times, so…” She shrugs. “The Russian was there that night. And he took me as appropriate payment.”
“And what? Your dad’s trying to get you back?” It’s lip service. I know that.
Her father’s a monster, but if I can spare her that for now, I’ll do it. Happily. Let her think her father let her down by being crooked and having wild and destructive kinks. I want to ask what, but I also don’t want to know.
“I think it’s pretty obvious my father decided to save himself and his reputation and career and marriage to me. He kept the truth to himself. Or else why wouldn’t the FBI have broken the city apart to find me? We’re still in New York City, aren’t we?”
“Yeah.”
“But here, in this place specifically? I don’t know where I am. I was with…some man…last night? Today?” She looks down. “I was wearing this and then everything blurry, I don’t remember what happened.”
I reach for her hand now and take it. Gianna flinches but doesn’t pull free, and I give her what I hope is a reassuring squeeze. “I think it’s okay not to remember, just like I think it’s okay if you do. And it’s okay not to be okay.”
“Violet? It’s Violet, right?”
“You can call me Vi.”
She offers a watery smile. “I like Violet. Vi’s nice, too, though.”
“It’s what my friends call me.”
“Vi.” She breathes in. “I just feel so weak. Like this is it. I keep thinking what I did wrong. What did I do to deserve this?”
I link our fingers. “Nothing, Gianna. You did nothing wrong. And you wanna know something else? I think you’re strong. And amazing. It’s been a year, and I would be mess if I was you. Also…I promise you something else. We’ll be getting out of here. My boyfriend, Cade, is working on getting us out.”
“You don’t know that,” she says. “You don’t.”
“I do, I believe in him enough for both of us. He’ll save us both.”
The moment I finish speaking, the door clanks, like a key is turning in a lock and it swings open. Two men stomp in, and they ignore me and grab Gianna.
I’m on my feet fast, running at them, screaming. “Stop, let her go. Stop!”
One turns and slaps me, knocking me down, and the door slams, a crying screaming Gianna suddenly silenced by the clang of that door.
Then it opens again, and Thomas appears.
He crouches down, hand on my leg, this time travelling all the way up to my pussy where he pulls the panties aside to push a finger into me.
I kick him, hard, hitting him in the face, and he falls, getting up and kicking me hard.
I turn, managing to get up into a sitting position. “You’re regret that.”
“No. you will. I know you and your owner planned this. What, I don’t know. Yet. But I will. And now you’re my fodder to lure him out and into my hands. You and Cade betrayed me.”
“Good.”
“Bad. Do you know what happens to people who betray me?”
I glare at him but don’t answer.
“No?”
I still don’t answer.
“Well, little lying cunt, you’re about to find out…”