Page 1 of Beautiful Sight

Chapter One

“I’m sorry, Sonny, I don’t have your money. But hey, I know, you can take my mom for your next auction. She’s into all that kinky shit. Just because she’s older and blind doesn’t mean some of your customers won’t want her to fuck her or beat her or whatever. She doesn’t have to see to be a good whore. And she’s blind so she won’t be able to run away.” Theo Dubois sounded like he was selling an old, used car to an unsuspecting buyer.

Tessa Dubois gasped as the meaning of her son’s words sunk into her sleep-fuzzed brain. The persistent ringing of the doorbell had woken her. After taking a moment to dress in an oversized t-shirt and leggings, she approached the living room, curious to see who was visiting.

A check of her wristwatch told her it was 11:27, but living in the dark as she did, Tessa wasn’t sure if it was morning or night. It wouldn’t surprise her if it was morning. She’d been sliding into a deeper depression lately, causing her to sleep longer and longer.

But if it was morning, why wasn’t Theo at work?

After listening to her son basically sell her to a stranger named Sonny, she took two steps backward. She knocked into the hall table, causing something to fall and roll off the table. From the crash, a bottle of some sort hit the tile floor and broke. Probably one of the beer bottles Theo had been leaving around the house more and more.

“Shit,” Tessa muttered as she took another step back. It was a good thing she always wore slippers since something crunched underneath her heel. The last thing she needed was broken glass in her foot.

She was so busy trying to come up with a way to escape Theo’s plan that she did not realize she was no longer alone. She gave a squeal when a large hand grabbed her upper arm and pulled her. She ended up with her back pressed against a large, hard body that smelled of sweat and alcohol.

She sucked in a breath when hard fingers pinched her chin before turning her head left, then right, then left again.

“This is her? Your mama?” Tessa could not place the soft voice with a foreign accent. A chill of fear raced through her and she had to fight not to jerk away.

“Yeah, that’s her. So, do we have a deal?” Theo’s voice came from the left and farther away.

Tessa tried to work out exactly what was going on. But when the hand holding her chin began to stroke the skin of her jawline, she could no longer hold her silence.

“Theo, what’s going on?”

“Silencio, puta,” the man in front of her said. He slapped her left cheek. “You speak only when I tell you to.”

The big man holding her arms tightened his grip until Tessa cried out from the pain. He then loosened his hold slightly but did not release her.

“So?” What do you think, Sonny? My mom to clear my debt?” Theo asked in a pleading, almost whining tone.

Tessa frowned, not understanding why her son was doing this, but afraid of worse reprisals if she asked again.

“Half,” the man named Sonny answered. “She’ll cover half what is owed. And give you another thirty days to come up with the rest.”

“Agreed,” Theo said without hesitation.

“Theo? What are you doing?” Tessa asked as she struggled against the hands holding her in place.

“Get her out of here,” the stranger called Sonny ordered.

Tessa continued to wiggle and try to free herself, but the man behind her shifted his hold from her right arm to around her waist, trapping her arms by her sides, and then she was airborne. At five feet three and one hundred forty pounds, Tessa found herself unable to fight him off any longer.

A moment later, she felt the air moving past as he carried her from her home, the only place she felt comfortable. Tessa opened her mouth to scream, but the man’s hold tightened around her middle, leaving her unable to draw a full breath.

“Don’t even think about it,” he rumbled in a voice that sounded like boulders rolling down the side of a mountain.

Before she could fully comprehend what was happening, the man rearranged his hold before dropping her. She did not have time to scream before she landed in a small, carpeted space. Before she could pull in a full breath, something over her slammed. Reaching out, it only took a few seconds to realize she had been put in the trunk of a fairly large car.

Still in shock at her son’s actions, Tessa wasn’t sure what to do. Whatever happened next, she vowed that once she regained her freedom, she would go back to school and no one would stand in her way. She needed to rebuild her life without anyone supporting her. She needed to become independent in a way Theo had dissuaded her from since her sight had gone dark.

Chapter Two

Three days later, Tessa stood frozen, afraid to move. It had been seventy-two hours of fear-filled terror that had ended when a group of men entered and ended the auction of a dozen stolen women in a most violent manner.

Apparently their guards had been killed or captured in a noisy, chaotic free-for-all. She and the other women on stage had dropped to the floor when bullets began to fly.

Once the bullets had stopped flying the women had been unchained and fled. The blood and gunpowder drowned out the other scents of dust, stale air, fuel oil, and expensive men’s cologne.

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