Page 2 of Bullet

“Step out of this trailer, and you’re fucking dead.” The rough demand sent chills over my heated flesh. He ripped the cut from his body and pointed to the top rocker on the back.Crawlers.Below the word, there was a large patch of a snake and skull. “When the cops ask who’s responsible, you describe this.”

We were all too terrified to reply.

“Do you speak English?” he asked us.

“I do,” I said, trying not to let my voice crack.

“Listen, brown eyes,” he said to me. “Trust no one. Wait for the police.”

“We need to go,” a man hollered behind him. He also wore a cut, only this one had wings and a devil on the back.Heller Raiders.

We stared at each other, a silent war between us.

“Stay down,” he finally said. “It’ll be okay.”

Veins roped his corded forearm as he pulled the roll door down, locking us in again.

It was pitch black inside the trailer. Heavy breaths filled the silence. Sweltering heat suffocated, sweat soaked my shirt, and I couldn’t control the painful thumping of my rampant heart.

Eight girls clustered together in the corner of the trailer. More gunfire exploded behind us, from the cab of the truck.

“Get down. Lie flat.” My words were harsh because I was scared out of my mind. Sniffles and tears tore at my heart. To my detriment, I’d always been impulsive. I didn’t think I’d ever been as terrified as I was right now.

“Are they going to kill us?” a small voice whispered from the darkness.

No, what they’d planned for us was worse than death.

“You heard the scary biker with the tatts,” one of the older girls spoke. “The cops are coming.”

And these girls couldn’t trust the cops any more than they could trust the men who’d lured them to the motel, forced them into this trailer, and considered them merchandise.

Maybe these girls had terrible home lives, addictions, or they were just unlucky, but they were better off dead than what was planned for them.

I knew. The men who traded in skin were wealthy, powerful, and untouchable. They were mafia. They were men like Emerson. Only I’d willingly given myself to him. I just hadn’t realized I’d never be able to leave.

The girls quietly sobbed. There was a pause in the gunfire. If we got out of this, we were getting off lucky.

“I want my mom,” one of the younger girls whispered. “She doesn’t know I snuck out of the house.”

“I know you’re scared. So am I. Listen to me. I’m going to forget about everything that happened in that warehouse. When the cops get here, I’m going to tell them we’ve been locked up in this trailer. It’s not a lie. It’s just not the whole truth.”

“Why?” another voice from the darkness asked.

Because Emerson knew men on the force. But there was no time to make these girls understand.

“Let the cops figure it out,” the older girl spoke again. “I was supposed to get a couple hundred bucks to let some guy smell my feet and suck my toes. I have a warrant out for my arrest. Once the doors open, I’m going to run. The rest of you can do what you want.”

I didn’t scold the girl. Like her, I had nowhere to go. I’d become too entangled with the men who’d done this. They would be looking for me.

“You can’t trust anyone more than you trust your instincts,” I said. “If you have a family, go back tothem. I don’t know how you got here, but whatever you were promised was a lie. Everything they said was a lie.”

I’d had moments of brilliance in my life, like the time I’d landed an audition for Juilliard when I was sixteen. Not that I was accepted, but it was still a defining moment in my life.

My dream to be a dancer.

Another defining moment was meeting Emerson Barras. I thought I’d attracted the attention of a wealthy and devastatingly handsome businessman, and I had. I just hadn’t realized his business was with the mafia.

He’d become a nightmare I couldn’t escape.

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