32. Grace
32
GRACE
M y arms barely fit through the bars of the cage as I held the underwire of my bra as tightly as I could in one hand while holding the lock in my other.
“All of us should try,” Eve urged the other girls.
“I’m not wearing an underwire bra,” Laura said, nervously playing with the long sleeves of her shirt.
Several other girls parroted Laura.
I swallowed thickly. “It’s best if you don’t try this. I’m afraid, if you get caught, the punishment would be severe.” I couldn’t care about my own demise.
The underwire of my bra bent at an awkward angle between my fingers. As much as I’d prepared for this day, my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. I forced a slow breath, steadying myself until the tremors stilled.
Silence dropped over the barn like a heavy blanket. The only sounds I heard were my heartbeats competing with the howling of the wind and rustling of trees outside.
Time wasn’t on my side, and neither were my nerves. My arms were beginning to swell between the bars as I worked the wire against the lock, feeling for that sweet spot where the mechanism would give.
Duke’s voice echoed in my head —“slow and steady.” He was the one who’d taught me how to pick a lock. Dillon and Denim knew how as well, but Duke was the master at it.
As I drove the wire deeper into the lock, I felt the girls watching me, their hope and desperation urging me on but at the same time rattling my nerves even more. They were counting on me. Fran was counting on me. She was living my worst nightmare, and it was all my fault.
I wasn’t going to cry. I wasn’t going to break down. But the thought of Brian’s green eyes filled with disappointment made my chest ache. I couldn’t afford to think about him and how he made me feel—protected, special, a queen.
Daylight was waning, and the barn was growing darker.
“Feel the process,” Duke had said.
Closing my eyes, I tuned out all the noises and steadied my hands. My arms were throbbing, almost numb. One slight turn of the wire…
I held my breath, and click .
The sound was barely audible, but in the heavy silence, it might as well have been a gunshot—at least that was how I heard it.
That was only the first pin. The padlocks usually had at least five pins. The way I was going, this would take me all day.
“Grace?” Eve whispered. “I think I heard the door open.”
My heart stuttered, but I kept working.
The jangling of keys filtered into my ears.
“It’s not Harris,” Eve said. “He always gets his rocks off by announcing himself.”
It didn’t matter who was coming. I couldn’t retreat even if I wanted to because my arms were stuck.
Then silence ensued before a collective gasp reverberated through the barn.
I could feel his stare burning through my skin, but I kept working.
“I have to admit”—Josh’s voice, calm and amused, sliced through my concentration—“I was wondering how long it would take you to try this.”
My fingers stilled on the wire, but I didn’t look up.
He squatted down and gripped my wrist. “Fran, as well as others in here, will pay for your disobedience.” He snatched the wire out of my hand.
Laura let out a choked sob. The other girls shifted deeper into the shadows of their cages, their movements sounding like the rustle of dead leaves in winter.
Slowly, I lifted my gaze to meet his cold, dark eyes, so like his father’s that I spat in his face. “I’m not the scared little girl your father knew.”
His smirk was half-cocky and half-evil. “And I’m not the bastard my father was.” He wiped the saliva from his face. “I’m worse.”
“I doubt that,” I retorted with steel in my voice. “Where’s Fran? You better not have touched her.”
He rose to his feet like a predator uncoiling. “She’s waiting for you, actually.” His excitement made my skin crawl. “Sabine is getting her ready for the show, and you’re going to have a front-row seat. Now, step back.”
“You’ll have to cut the bars. My arms aren’t moving.”
He unlocked the cage and pushed in the gate, along with me. Then he pressed against me from behind, his chest hard against my back as he yanked my arms free. The manure scent in the air mixed with his cologne made my stomach turn.
Pain ricocheted up to my shoulders. No matter. I turned and kneed him in the balls. He doubled over with a grunt, the keys clattering to the dirt.
“Lock him in,” Eve said, sounding panicked.
I dove for the keys as Josh tackled me to the ground. We grappled in the dirt like two mud wrestlers, my fists striking anywhere I could reach. I headbutted him, which did nothing to slow him down.
“Come on, Grace. You can do better than that.” His fingers crushed my windpipe as he straddled me, his weight pressing me into the packed earth. “I should end you right now, but I’ve worked too hard leading up to this day.”
My fingers clawed through the grit and hay, searching for metal as darkness crept into my vision.
Then he pushed his tongue into my mouth as my fingers closed around the keys. I leaned into his vile kiss, and in one swift motion, I plunged the jagged metal into his neck.
“Bitch!” Blood oozed out as he reared back.
I shoved him sideways, scrambled up, and bolted. He caught my ankle and pulled. My body twisted as I fell, my temple cracking against the hard ground. The world tilted and blurred around me.
Shrieks echoed through the barn.
Josh fisted my hair, jerking my head back. “Get up, bitch.”
I swayed, acid creeping into my throat as pain pulsed through my skull.
“Ready for more?” Crimson trickled down his throat, the wound shallow enough that the bastard would survive.
“I won’t stop until you’re buried six feet deep. I enjoyed killing your father. But you… Your death will be even sweeter.”
He chuckled and secured my wrists with plastic zip ties, which bit into them. “Bold words from someone at my mercy.”
“For now.”
He shoved me forward, his hot breath on my neck. “Such spirit. Let’s see how long it lasts. Move.”
I straightened my spine and took deliberate steps as he marched me into the darkness.
Once we were outside, a spotlight on the barn lit up the thick wooded area, highlighting the fat raindrops that began to fall as the trees swayed from side to side.
“Keep going. You won’t find anything out here, and no one will find you.” Josh pushed me toward a path beneath a tunnel of trees with muted lights hanging from the trunks.
An armed guard stood watch at the base of the path, stiff and robotic as we passed him. There had to be more guards, but I didn’t see any. About ten feet in, I stopped short and turned to face Josh, hoping to slow down time.
The longer it took for us to get to where we were going, the longer Fran had to survive. More importantly, I needed to think. This was my chance to map out a plan to free all of us.
But the encroaching darkness was my enemy.
He yanked me by the hair so hard my neck almost snapped off. “You really are going to be fun to break to my will.” Running his nose along my neck, he inhaled deeply. “You smell delectable. Instead of you watching the show, I’ve now decided that you’ll be part of it.”
The second he released me, I headbutted his chin. He stumbled backward, laughing.
A guard came running up to us. “Sir.”
Josh waved off the guard. “Go back to your post. I got this.” His eyes darkened with delight as he rammed me against a tree trunk.
My head connected with the bark, and air whooshed out of me.
Despite the pain, he wasn’t going to break me.
He pressed his hard body into me and guided my tied hands to the bulge in his jeans. “Feel this? The harder you fight, the harder I become.”
I rolled my eyes. “Seems kind of small to me. You sure you can please a woman?”
Shut the fuck up, my inner voice supplied. But I couldn’t help myself, and I had to stall with any tactic I could. Maybe then help would arrive, although the skeptic in me didn’t believe anyone would find us.
He nipped at my chin. “Oh, Grace. You sure are so sweetly feisty.”
“Boss,” someone called. The word, followed by heavy breathing, caused Josh to jerk in the direction of the voice.
Harris ran up. “What’s taking so long? My mother is about to have a nervous breakdown.”
“Get her in line,” Josh growled.
“I’ll tell you like I told Drew.” Harris didn’t seem to care that Josh was poised to slice his throat. “She adores Fran. My mother should’ve never been coerced into this entire scheme.”
Josh got in Harris’s face. “It’s too late for her to grow a conscience. Either she obeys or her sister’s medical debt won’t be paid.”
Fascinating revelation. Maybe I could convince Sabine to free us all.
Harris held up his hands. “She understands that, but our clients are growing restless too.”
“Their cocks can wait,” Josh said with derision. “They’ll thank me when their dicks are buried deep inside their prizes.”
“You’re a bastard,” I tossed out as Harris darted off. “Both of you.”
“I am. My dad would be proud that I’ve picked up where he left off. He would be especially proud of how I have you in my grasp. You know, when Drew took me to see my father’s cold, dead body, I vowed that day at the age of thirteen to learn the sex trade, to plan my revenge against you, and to make sure I buried you beside him.”
His arrogance oozed like pus from an infected wound.
The more I taunted him, the more determined he became. And I couldn’t stall him any longer. Harris just might throw Fran to the wolves without Josh’s permission.
I marched in the rain like a good soldier going to war in the direction that Harris had gone. “Then let’s get this show on the road.”
Whatever happened next, I was prepared to suffer the consequences. Because whether I made it out alive or not, I knew that my past would finally be put to rest once and for all.