Chapter 14
Zoya~
I’d drawn number four, and even without the earlier encounter with Kasimir, I’d still be the nervous wreck that I was now.
Even though I knew that I couldn’t back out now, I was mentally questioning what in the hell I was doing as a girl named Regina Parker was wracking up bids, her worth currently at twenty-three-thousand dollars.
I also couldn’t stop thinking about how Kasimir had chosen to let me participate in the auction.
I’d been sure that he’d wanted to take me out back to shoot me dead, but he’d hadn’t, and I still couldn’t make sense of it.
Plus, what was with that damn singing of his.
While a lot of it had been a constant mumble of hums, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear that he’d been singing The Wheels on The Bus, but the very idea that a man like Kasimir Korolev would be singing a child’s melody was ludicrous.
Another collective applause snapped me out of my thoughts, and blood rushed through my ears as Stephanie announced Montana Hughes’ name, and there was something comforting about my real name not being used.
Montana and I did resemble each other enough that I could feign ignorance if anyone here recognized me later.
Outside this hotel, I was Zoya Orlova Kuzmin, and only Marcelle and Kasimir knew it.
Doing my best to steady my breathing, I passed Regina as she exited the stage, leaving me as the newest prize under the spotlight.
Once I was standing next to Stephanie, I looked out into the crowd, but I couldn’t see anything.
The lighting had been designed for the men to have the visual advantage, and it made sense when you thought about it.
“Gentlemen, let me introduce Montana Hughes,” Stephanie announced. “Please refer to her profile card that is identified as the number four and take your time getting to know the lovely Ms. Hughes as we will be opening the bids in one minute.”
Now, while a minute might not seem like a long time, it really was when you were waiting to be fed to the sharks, though that wasn’t exactly aligned with the truth.
I was standing up here voluntarily, so I could hardly blame any of the men in the audience for my predicament.
In fact, there was only one man responsible for all this, and it was my Uncle Armen.
I could accept that, even if my mother couldn’t.
Then, exactly one minute later, Stephanie spoke again, and it wasn’t anything like I’d been hoping for. “You may begin bidding, gentlemen.”
Before I could even process that this was really happening, a man called out the first bid, surprising me. “Fifteen.”
What in the hell?
“Sixteen,” another man called out.
“Twenty,” came a third man, and my mind began to unravel with how unbelievable this was.
I thought back to how Marcelle had suggested that I check missionary to make me appear boring, but that’s not what was happening right now. For whatever reason, these men were bidding on me like I was some sexual goddess, and I just didn’t get it.
“Twenty-three...”
“Twenty-five...”
“Thirty...”
“Thirty-two...”
“Thirty-four...”
“Forty...”
I felt sick to my stomach as the bids kept rising, and it wasn’t because I didn’t need the money.
There was no way that these men were bidding this much money for something as simple as missionary, so I felt duped.
I’d been given the impression that this auction was a safe place for women who were desperate for money, but it didn’t feel like that at all anymore.
Fear gripped me as I wondered what was really going to happen in the rooms upstairs, but I also knew that the Korolevs would murder me where I stood if I tried to run off this stage now.
“Fifty...
“Fifty-three...”
“Fifty-five...”
“Eighty...”
There was a collective gasp from the girls waiting near the stage, and even Stephanie seemed a bit flummoxed at the rapid pace of bidding.
“One-hundred...”
My arms wrapped around my waist as the bidding raced out of control, but I did my best to keep the fear off my face. If I ruined the experience, then there’d be an unimaginable hell to pay at the hands of Kasimir Korolev, and even I wasn’t that far gone yet.
Then, as panic began to grip my soul, a loud, clear, strong, and very familiar voice said, “Five-hundred.”
Half a million dollars.
The entire room fell silent, and I could swear that everyone could hear how violently my heart was beating against my ribs. Kasimir Korolev had just pledged a bid of half a million dollars to spend one night with me, and I felt a little dizzy with how my lungs seemed to no longer be working.
“Uhm...uh...I’m sorry,” Stephanie stammered. “Just to be clear...is that...that five-hundred thousand?”
“Yes,” Kasimir answered as he stepped out of the shadows, and now I knew why he had allowed me to participate in the bidding.
He was finally getting his revenge.
“Oh...uhm...well...okay,” Stephanie muttered, trying to shake off her shock. “Gentlemen, we have five-hundred once-”
“Just know that the next bid better be one-million dollars to best me,” Kasimir stated, addressing the rest of the room. “Anything less, and I will max the bidding out.”
No one said anything, and while I was certain that a few might be tempted to bid just to get even with Kasimir for this stunt, no one wanted to get a late-night visit from the psychopath later on.
While a million dollars might not mean much to Kasimir, everyone in this room knew that he’d never tolerate insolence from anyone.
Not knowing what to do, Stephanie stuck with the script. “Five-hundred going twice...five-hundred going three times...? Okay...uh, congratulations, Mr. Korolev. You’ve...won yourself an evening with the lovely Ms. Hughes.”
The entire room was silent as I turned to exit the stage, and my arms tightened around my waist, doing my best not to throw up everywhere.
The girls were also all looking at me like I was contagious or something as I passed them to head towards the dining area where all the paperwork was to be signed.
Once I entered the room, Dehlia was motioning me forward, but my feet wouldn’t move.
I couldn’t believe that this was happening, and worse, I had no idea how to stop this insanity.
Kasimir had played me, and I really should have seen it coming.
He’d given in too easily, but I’d been too happy to have gotten away with my duplicity that I hadn’t questioned his motives as much as I should have.
“Montana, are you okay?” Dehlia asked, and that’s when I realized that she was no longer sitting at the registration table, but standing next to me.
“Oh...uhm...yeah,” I lied as I lowered my arms. “I just...I’m still trying to figure out what happened in there, I guess.”
She gave me a sympathetic nod. “I can see how it could be a bit overwhelming.”
I just nodded back as I finally followed her to the table, but all I could think about was how the math added up to three-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars, and the very thought made it hard to breathe.
Of course, that was dependent on if Kasimir was really going to pay or not, because I could see him not paying me just to entertain himself while killing my dreams in the process.
Very kindly, Dehlia pulled out a chair for me once we got to the table, and that’s when she handed me what looked like a consent form of some kind.
“What’s this?”
“Just another added layer of protection,” she answered.
“The final bid amount has been added to the form, so that there are no misunderstandings.” Pointing to the left side of the page, she added.
“See there? The math has been calculated of what the auction will receive from your bid and what you will receive personally.”
My stomach felt sick again, but before I could throw up everywhere, that deep tenor that I heard in my nightmares was whispering in my ear, “Sign the form, lepestok. I’d like to be on my way as soon as possible.”
Refusing to look at Kasimir, I grabbed the pen with shaky fingers, then signed Montana’s name, though it might as well have been my own because there was no way that I was getting out of this.
I knew this.