Page 6 of Entangled in Them

“Rue,” I replied, my voice small.

“Rue?” he echoed back at me. “Rue what?”

I shrugged, but it wasn’t a nonchalant shrug. It was just another response to huddling myself into myself, to compressing myself into nothing. But, also, a shrug to lift my shoulders higher, to protect my neck and jaw, should feet come flying toward me. “I don’t have a last name.”

Kodee spoke next, his voice deep. “How can you not have a last name?”

“No one ever gave me one... Or maybe they did, but I’ve forgotten it now.”

I sensed the men exchange glances.

I wanted to give them more, to say something that would please them. Clearly, they weren’t happy about having me here. “Sometimes, a man likes to give me their last name.”

“Ugh.” The blond shook his head at me. “She’s a fucking sex slave or something.”

“Don’t act like you’re so much better, Ryan,” Dillon snapped. “What do you think a lot of our work gets used for?”

“Not always this. People trafficking.”

“Is that what happened to you?” Kodee asked.

I didn’t know what to say. My memories of ‘before’ were so faint it was as though I could have dreamed them. I didn’t know much more than my life now. Of being owned by men until they grew bored of me and sold me on to someone else. I was one of the lucky ones. I’d seen plenty of other girls killed before they’d had the chance to be sold again. I guessed the men who’d owned me had seen my value—even if it was only in what was between my legs, and my mouth, and my hands—and realized that killing me was like burning up their own money. I’d done a good job of keeping my head down and going unnoticed.

Until recently.

“How old are you, anyway?” Dillon asked. “You don’t look much more than eighteen.”

“I’m older than eighteen,” I said, unable to hide the defensiveness from my tone. “I mean, I don’t know exactly when my birthday is or anything, but I think I might be around twenty-two.”

His lips twisted as he frowned. “Well, you don’t look it.”

“That’s not my fault.”

I clamped my mouth shut, sensing that getting into an argument when I was surrounded by three hard-looking men probably wasn’t a good idea. Just knowing they were associates of the Capellos was enough to make me realize they weren’t a group of God-fearing, law-abiding citizens.

“She doesn’t even know when her birthday is,” the blond, Ryan, muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.

Shame swamped over me, and I ducked my head, not wanting to make eye contact with any of them. It wasn’t my fault I couldn’t remember when my birthday was, but that didn’t stop my cheeks from heating. I must have known once upon a time, though I didn’t remember any from my childhood. No birthday cakes or presents, or anyone singing to me. Perhaps I’d simply blocked them out, though why I would have blocked out something that surely should have been a happy memory, instead of all the hundreds and thousands of very unhappy memories of my life, I had no idea.

Kodee exhaled a long sigh. “You know we can’t just let you go.”

“I don’t have anywhere to go, even if you did.”

His brown eyes narrowed. “Don’t you have family? Friends, even?”

I shook my head. “I’m property. I’m not allowed any of those things.”

His forehead furrowed. “You’re not property. You’re a human being.”

“No, I’m your property now. That’s what Duncan said.”

Ryan stepped in. “Duncan? Is that the guy who brought you here?”

“Yes.”

“What if we don’t want you?” he said.

I tried not to let his words sting. I wasn’t used to being unwanted, at least not in that way. Most men were happy to be given a little fuck-toy to do whatever they wanted. Wasn’t that most men’s dream? A young, pretty thing who’d do anything they asked.

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