Chapter 18 #4
Eli places his hand on my knee to stop me from rising out of my seat. “Not yet. If we go barging in there now, we’ll fuck this up and she could die.”
“She’s already fucking dying, look at her. Look at what the fuck he’s done to her.”
“I know Dean, I know. But we have to do this right, you know we do.” He says with a stern tone.
I know Eli is right, if I go striding up onto that stage now, I’ll ruin everything and people could die because of my careless actions. Inhaling a sharp breath, I sink back into the chair again and grab the numbered plaque that was placed on my seat previously and wait.
The auctioneer flies through the first couple of women, numbers flying in the air to add to the grand total. Thousands, probably millions of dollars made in a single evening. All of it spent by sleezy fucking men.
“Up last, gentlemen, we have our diamond. Now who wants a piece of her?”
The audience seems to grow bigger and louder as Ana is ushered to the front of the stage, the harsh strobe light beaming down on her painted face. I’ve never seen her like this, and I’m desperate to take a warm cloth to her face to wipe away the mask that I know is covering her beauty.
“Let’s start the bidding at.. what shall we say, forty thousand?” He asks, his eyes scanning the now silent room. “Anyone?”
Lifting my hand, I raise the numbered plaque in the air. “Here.” I say with a sharp tone that has everyone turning in their seats to face me, almost shocked that I placed a bid on a woman that never sells. The auctioneer almost looks confused as his gaze lands on the plaque in my hand.
“Well then, forty thousand it is. Anyone for fifty?”
Silence envelops the room like a thick cloud, like everyone is waiting to see who will outbid me. Where the fu-
“Here.”
A thick Russian accent echoes around the room and immediately my eyes land on the white plaque that’s in the air. In the corner of my eye, Ana wraps her arms around herself and sways on her feet. I haven’t got much time to wrap this shit up.
“It seems we’ve got a little bidding war on our hands, gentlemen.
How exciting!” The auctioneer says with enthusiasm.
“Eighty thousand?” He offers and I fire my hand up in the air until it becomes a vicious war between us, the total skyrocketing.
Over and over me and the Russian battle with each other and I have no intention of stopping, no matter how much money it fucking costs, no matter the mountains I have to climb or the glass I have to crawl across to get Ana back, I’ll do it.
I keep my eyes on her as her gaze bounces between me and the Russian who’s sitting on the opposite side of the room.
She’s probably terrified, wondering who she’s going to end up with.
I’m desperate to shout out to her, to tell her that it’s me, that I’ll be the one taking her home but I can’t blow this up yet.
I have to fucking win this.
“Hundred thousand? Going once..”
The Russian lifts his plaque again and everything seems to freeze, time and space no longer existing in this room and I watch in slow motion as the auctioneer sends his gavel down onto the podium. “Going twice..”
“One million!” I yell with my hand in the air.
Bang!
“Sold! For one million dollars to the gentleman in the back. You can collect your winnings in a short moment.” He says, then turns to face the audience.
“Once again, thank you for coming to Selection Day, we hope everyone is pleased with their prizes. Please make your way out of the main doors to your designated cars once you’ve collected your goods. ”
The moment he finishes speaking, Ana is pulled off the stage and the urge to run to her is strong but Eli wraps his hand around my arm and pulls me out of the room before the audience comes piling out.
“We need to move, now. They take the girls to the back. I’ve already informed Cecilia to get the vans ready. ”
I nod and stride out of the room, straight towards the double doors that are now empty of guards and pull them closed, sliding the metal bar across and securing the padlock that some douche has left hanging there.
“What are you doing?” Eli asks in a hushed tone.
“Locking everyone inside. Anyone whose involved in this sick fucking scheme, doesn’t leave here alive.” I say whilst grabbing my mask out of my jacket and slipping it on, feeling its dark aura sinking into my bones.
Eli tips his mouth into a sinister grin and follows my movements, slipping his own mask on.
“You take the left, I’ll take the right. Every fucker dies tonight.” I say.
Wrapping my hand around the gun that’s sitting in my waistband, I pull the heavy weapon out, check the magazine again and flick off the safety before backing into the dark corners of the room.
My breaths are heavy against the thick fabric of the mask, bated breaths filtering in and out of my lungs as I wait for the first lot of people to exit the room.
Laughter and small talk fills the space and they’re completely unaware of the hellfire I’m about to bring on this place.
Yeah, we might be outnumbered by guards but there’s nothing that can stop me from getting what I want.
The crowd of people stride towards the door and it only takes them a few seconds to realise it’s locked, then panic begins to set in.
“Hey! The doors are locked!” One of them shouts which causes alarm to ring through the rest of the people, and that’s when I make my move. Lifting my gun, I aim at the man who is closest to the door.
“End them all, Storm.” I say through the earpiece.
The moment the words leave my lips, bullets begin to fly, piercing through the mass of bodies that quickly begin to land like sacks of shit on the floor.
Screams and wails of pain echo around the room and it quickly becomes a blood bath.
Brain matter and crimson liquid spray across the walls as we slaughter every single fucking disgusting bastard in this room.
“You good, Viper?”
“All good. No doubt the gunfire will alert the guards so we better move.”
Ducking out of my dark corner, I check for any oncoming guards, hearing no footsteps, I step over the mass of bodies that have practically exploded all over the room.
Various body parts hang on by a thread from bulletholed torsos, faces mangled with holes where blood spills out onto the filthy floor.
I thought I’d feel some kind of remorse for what I’ve done, but I don’t. In fact, I feel nothing at this moment except rage. Pure blinding rage.
Eli comes to step to the side of me and we keep our guns aimed as we move throughout the auction room and into the mill where a sour, pungent smell hits me like a ton of bricks. The smell resembles a men’s toilet that hasn’t been cleaned in years, the acidic scent of urine is rife here.
The belly of the mill is empty and quiet, almost too fucking quiet for my liking, like it’s waiting to for us so it can eat us whole and the silence is deafening, until it isn’t.
Gun fire rains above us as we quickly move to hide behind wooden crates that are no doubt packed with cocaine.
Splinters of wood fly all around us and the moment there’s a break in the bullets I take my shot.
Pushing my finger down on the trigger, I fire a single bullet straight into a guard standing on the upper level of the mill, then into another one standing just off to my right as Eli clears the left side.
Each of them groan and land with a heavy thud to the floor.
Silence quickly floods the room again and I pause a moment, waiting for any sign of life.
“I think we cleared those ones.” Eli’s voice rings through the earpiece and I reply, flexing my hands around the gun. “I’d say so. Let’s move, there’s gonna be more of them.”
We both step out from behind the wooden crates and follow the trail of bodies left behind, retracing their steps until we come across a long hallway with a staircase that leads down underground, and I waste no time in striding down the hallway and into the darkness.
The pungent smell from before hits even harder down here and I have to refrain from heaving the contents of my stomach up the further we head underground.
Taking careful steps down, we land in an underground bunker of sorts, filled with cages.
Holy fucking shit.
Several women and girls are packed into the cages, all of them trembling with fear.
“What the fuck is this?” Eli whispers in disbelief as he enters the room behind me. I don’t even have the answer for him, all I know is that it looks like hell. Small cries fill the space and I take a slow, deliberate step into the room which has all the women shuffling further back in unison.
“We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to get you out, but you need to keep quiet.” I say with a soft tone. I know my words aren’t enough to convince them but I can only hope that they can trust me enough to find out that I’m speaking the truth.
A small voice speaks from one of the cages.
“Who.. who are you?” Right in the corner of one of the cages sits a woman with short blonde hair, her fingers wrapped tightly around the iron bars.
Taking another step closer, I raise my hands, aiming my gun away from them and crouch in front of the woman.
“I’m Dean.” I tell her, immediately her eyes widen. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Ana,” she starts. “Ana has spoken about you before.”
My voice catches in my throat at her words. I was scared to death that she’d forgotten about me, or that maybe she was too far gone.
“She never stopped, you know.” The woman says softly.
“Stopped what?”
“Fighting.” She simply says. “Not once did she stop, everyday she fought these bastards, even when there was nothing left to fight with.” The pride that shimmers in this woman’s eyes almost knocks me on my ass, everything she’s said is Ana to her core.
She’s been fighting her whole life and she’s still doing it now.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
She turns her head to the others in the cage for a moment, probably apprehensive of disclosing her name. “It’s Lacy.”
“Lacy, I’m gonna need you to trust us.” I say, turning back to face Eli who’s guarding the door. “There’s other people I need to get rid of before I can get you out of here.”
“We’ve been caged up for months, what’s waiting a little longer.” She says with a small laugh. Even in this absolute shit hole of a place, these women are fucking fighting to survive and I’ll be damned if I don’t get them out of here.
Rising to my full height, heavy footsteps begin to ascend towards us through another corridor.
“Everyone get down, now!” I yell as three guards burst through a door on the opposite side of the room, guns blazing.
Immediately the women huddle together for protection, keeping their heads in their hands as Eli and I work together to end these fuckers.
Bullets whizz past our heads and we quickly scramble into a corner, keeping low until we have the perfect aim.
“Fuck. How many are there?” Eli shouts over the continuous shots.
“No idea! I can’t see shit.” I reply, trying to tuck my head around a corner to get a better visual.
The bullets continue to rain, firing off the walls until they come to a stop and that’s when I make my move, trained to kill people within seconds.
Aiming the gun, I fire one singular shot into the guard standing in the middle, it sinks straight into the meaty flesh between his eyes and the force sends him dropping to the floor, then Eli fires his gun, sending a bullet into the guard’s neck on the left.
Blood sprays like a leaky pipe, covering the guards face in thick liquid.
I lift my gun again to take out the last guard but he’s quicker than me this time, firing his rifle, his bullet grazes my bicep and I huff through gritted teeth at the stinging pain.
Burning metal slices straight through my jacket, leaving a spray of blood behind in its wake but I refuse to let it stop me, instead lifting my gun again I press down on the trigger, watching the bullet split the air before landing straight in the middle of the guards forehead.
His eyes widen in shock and I watch the life drain out of him.
“Are you hit?!” Eli says, pulling my jacket off.
“I’m fine, it just grazed my arm. I’ll be alright.” I say, assessing the wound on my bicep. There’s a lot of free flowing blood, it’s not enough to kill me but I’ll definitely need stitches on it.
I grab the knife out of the jacket and grip the gun in the other then rise to my feet, my eyes gazing over the room.
“Everyone alright?” I ask, making my way over to the cages. I get a few mumbled ‘yes’s’ in response along with some fearful whimpers.
“Will you come back?” Lacy asks, stopping me in my tracks.
“I’ll be back, I promise.” I say, giving her my word before striding over to the other door where the guards came through, gun aimed.