Page 29 of Captivated with Them

Of course, physically, they looked nothing like her—one was blonde and curvy, and the other was tall with light brown hair—but the way they held themselves was identical to when Rue had first been brought to our apartment.

My heart twisted with pain.

“Do whatever you want with them,” one of the men said. Then he exchanged a smirk with his colleague. “If you can manage it.”

I didn’t know if he was talking about the fact I was in a wheelchair, or if it was because we were two men living together. I guessed it didn’t really matter either way.

They backed out and shut the door behind them, though I doubted they would be going far. We’d proven we weren’t to be trusted, since we took off with the last girl they’d left with us, and they wouldn’t want the same thing happening twice.

“Don’t worry,” Kodee told the two young women, “we’re not going to lay a finger on you.”

The girls glanced at each other but could barely bring themselves to look at us.

We didn’t need to touch them to hurt them. Just creating passports for them to be transported with would be hurting them enough. They wouldn’t be allowed to keep the passports when they got wherever they ended up. They would be taken away, so the girls would be stranded in a strange country, with no identification or place to go.

I pulled Kodee to one side, jerking my chin toward the kitchen and wheeling myself enough of a distance away to ensure we wouldn’t be overheard. “We can’t allow these girls to be taken to another country. They’ll be lost.”

Kodee nodded. “We stick to our plan and make a mistake with the passports, something that won’t be noticeable from just looking at them. Passport control should pick up on it and not let them into the country.”

“What if they miss it? Something not being right with the passports might not be enough.”

“That’s all we’ve got, for the moment, anyway.”

“It’ll come back on us that we didn’t do our job right. The Capellos won’t let us get away with it.”

“Hopefully, we’ll have Rue and Dillon back by then and be long gone.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Hopefully? We’re making plans based on hopefully. And how are we going to get Rue and Dillon back? The Capellos aren’t going to just hand Rue back over. Once she’s played her role in court and done what they needed to get Nettie sent down, she’ll be sold on, just like these two.”

“We’ll figure it out. One step at a time. Let’s do what we planned with the passports, then we’ll figure out what to do about Rue and Dillon. We know Rue is going to be in court in a matter of days now, and that might give us options.”

“And Dillon?” I asked.

“I think he must be being held at the Capellos’ restaurant. Did you notice how, when they took them away again, they were each led in opposite directions? That tells me they’re not being held together.”

“We don’t even know where Rue is being held, though.”

“No, we don’t.” He glanced over at the two girls. “But they might.”

“You think they’ll tell us anything?”

“It’s worth a try.”

He was right. I’d learned over my time with him, Kodee normally was.

The two girls were still standing together, not even daring to look at us. I imagined how they’d been treated before, when coming into contact with strange men, and they clearly thought we would be the same.

“It’s okay,” I told them. “You can relax. We’re not going to hurt you, I promise.”

Again, I was brought back to that time when Rue had first arrived. She’d assumed we’d all want her for sex. It had left me uneasy when that was exactly what had ended up happening, but then it had become apparent that sex wasn’t the only thing Rue had wanted. She’d also wanted love and kindness, and a place she could call home, and, for a short while, we had been able to give that to her.

“What are your names?” Kodee asked the girls.

Neither of them answered.

“We’re going to have to know for the passports, so you might as well tell us.”

“I’m Skye.” The blonde lifted her blue eyes to us and gestured to the other girl. “She’s called May.”

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