Page 5 of Biker's Dark Revenge

She had crawled into my lap that first night and rested her head on my knee to sleep. I had wrapped my arms around her, holding her tight and feeling as though I wanted to burst into tears. I couldn’t...I couldn’t believe this was happening. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. How evil must these people be, to keep her trapped here...?

When her mother eventually came to, I spoke to her in hushed tones, needing to get as much information out of her as I possibly could.

"What’s your name?" I asked her softly, as she lifted her head and looked around – she had hollow rings under her eyes, her face drawn and pale. It was clear she was on something. A needle was dumped on the ground beside her, as well as an empty packet of something. I had seen enough junkies in my time to be able to spot one when I saw one, and I was certain I was looking at one right now.

"Hadley," she muttered, as she propped herself up against the wall. She reached for the packet, opened it, and peered inside, tilting it this way and that to get a better look at what was left. She reached her finger in and began clearing it out, emptying it carefully onto a half-burned spoon beside her.

"And what’s her name?" I asked, gesturing to the child who was still sleeping peacefully on my lap. This little girl had fallen asleep on me so quickly, she didn’t seem to have any notion that she shouldn’t have trusted everyone she met. Which might have been a good thing in some situations, but it could also be a very, very bad thing.

Hadley looked at the little girl leaning on my leg, and I saw a flash of sadness cross over her face – as though, for a split second, she realized how sad this was. How wrong it was.

"Kara," she replied, as she reached for a lighter beside her. I grabbed her arm.

"Please, just talk to me before you shoot up," I begged her. "What’s going on here? Why do they have a little girl here? Is she yours?"

She paused for a moment, eyeing me with obvious annoyance, but then, she put the spoon down for a moment, balancing it carefully to make sure she didn’t lose any of the precious brown powder inside.

"She’s mine," she muttered, and she reached out to touch her daughter’s hair lightly. Kara shifted slightly against me, letting out a long sigh. I put a hand on her small back, feeling the rise and fall of her lungs, marveling at how tiny she was beneath my touch. She was so vulnerable, and she didn’t even know it.

"What...what happened?" I asked her. "How did she end up here?"

"She was born here," she replied, her voice blunt, almost cold. "One of my clients...fuck, I don’t even know which one. Years ago, he got me pregnant, and I thought – I thought they would let me out. I thought they would get me out of here, let me go raise her, but..."

She trailed off, shaking her head, her voice suddenly catching at the back of her throat.

"I guess that’s not how it works here."

"What do you mean?" I asked. I couldn’t wrap my head around this. I knew there was darkness in this city, of course, I did, I wasn’t naive, but this...? This was something beyond what I had been ready for. Something beyond what I could deal with.

"I mean, I had her locked up in this room," she told me, gesturing around. "They took me out to the brothel to work during the day and brought me back here at night to take care of her. Gave me the bare minimum to keep her alive."

I shook my head.

"I’m so sorry," I muttered, but her eyes were hard as they met mine. I could tell she had long since convinced herself that she wasn’t worthy of whatever kindness I was showing her right now. I supposed it must have been easier for her to believe that this was what she deserved, that this was what she should have been prepared for and used to.

"Don’t be," she replied. "Be sorry for her. Because what they’re going to do to her when she’s old enough..."

She trailed off. The horror of it settled into my mind now – I got it. They were raising this girl in the confines of this place, grooming her to be nothing more than a sex slave to these sick, twisted men when she was old enough. I felt a stab of agony in my chest as I clutched the girl close to me, the thought of it too horrible to imagine. How could anyone look at this girl and see anything other than a precious little creature who needed nothing more than to be protected? Kara, this sweet little creature, had been raised in these four walls, trapped here with no hope of escape. It was so fucking sick, I could hardly make sense of it, could hardly believe anyone would do something so foul and so cruel.

"Jesus Christ," I muttered, and she nodded, reaching for the spoon.

"I know," she replied. "Why the fuck do you think I’m using this shit?"

She gestured to the heroin as she grabbed for the lighter again, cooking up and sucking the liquid into the needle.

"Do you have to do that in front of her?" I asked, my voice taking on an edge I didn’t mean it to have. Hadley looked at me, her eyes blank, almost distant.

"I don’t have a choice," she replied. "If I don’t use...I’ll go fucking crazy. And if I can’t perform for the clients..."

She trailed off. It was clear that whoever had put her into this, whoever had forced her hand, had made it clear what the repercussions would be for her daughter if she didn’t do what she was told. The entire situation was so fucked, so completely and utterly fucked, it almost didn’t feel real. I had no idea how long I had here before they would ship me off to another city, but the thought of leaving this little girl behind in this mess of a situation was somehow more terrifying to me than anything they might have threatened me with.

Hours passed; I did my best to engage with Kara, feeding her with the food that was shoved through the door now and then. I gave her most of mine when I felt her ribs poking out underneath her tattered, ancient clothes – she was a growing girl, but she hadn’t been exposed to anything of the world beyond these four walls. And, if I didn’t do something about it, she never would be..

I racked my brain for something, anything, I could use to get out of here. I didn’t have any weapons and I would have hardly known how to use them anyway – my father had always kept me away from guns as a kid, but now, I would give anything to know that I was a decent shot. Hadley cooked up and shot up and nodded out opposite us, and I tried to keep Kara distracted, though I knew this must have been normal to her.

Seeing her mother taking heroin right in front of her and passing out before her. It was a miracle she hadn’t jabbed herself on a needle or burned herself with the lighter – or worse. I didn’t know how she had made it this far, but she should never have had to struggle like this just to survive. She should never have had to go through this kind of suffering, this kind of struggle. She was such a sweet little girl, and hell, even if she had been the worst demon child I had ever come across in my life, she wouldn’t have deserved any of this. No kid did.

I rocked her and hummed to her quietly, my stomach grumbling as I looked up at the window above us. It was starting to get dark outside, and I knew it would be night soon – and then, the morning, when I would be moved to another city to start my work for them. Fuck.

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