Page 40 of Auctioned to the Prisoners

“My sister.” She stares down at the phone again. “She’s had to run.”

“From who?”

“Her boyfriend.”

“Does she have someplace to go?” Kinkaid asks.

Lory shakes her head and swipes at her tears with her knuckles, sucking in a deep breath and holding it tight like it’s the only thing that’s going to keep her upright. “She’s found a refuge.”

“That’s good,” I say. “They’ll help her.”

“You don’t understand,” Lory says. “He won’t stop looking. She’s not safe if she stays close.”

Grady holds his hand out for the phone, and I want to punch him. “I can’t stay down here for much longer,” he explains. “I have a meeting.”

Lory powers off the phone and hands it back, wiping away more tears.

Grady strides to the door, leaving us staring after him as he exits.

Then I gather Lory into my arms and let her cry.

She told us she was here because of family stuff. I’m guessing her sister’s relationship issues are behind her decision to enter the auction. She sold herself to help her sister escape.

The realization tears at me from the inside.

This situation is fucked, but isn’t that what happens when we do wrong? It snowballs until everything’s out of control. It doesn’t matter how much Whitaker deserved what we did. His stain runs through everything that’s happened since. The world is fucked up when a woman’s only option is to sell her body to rescue her sister. It’s just plain fucked up.

She clings to me, panting softly with each stifled sob, and Hyde and Kinkaid crowd us, resting their hands on her body.

“It’s okay, Lory,” Hyde whispers. “It’ll be okay. She’ll be okay.”

Kinkaid meets my gaze, shaking his head as he grits his teeth. He’s thinking the same as I am. It’s fucked that we’re in here and are powerless to help. If we were free, we’d all get in a car and drive out to that refuge. We’d find a safe place for Lory’s sister and help Lory in whatever way we could. In here, all we have is our bodies and words to offer comfort.

It’s not enough.

15

KINKAID

WARMING UP

After Grady is swallowed up by the corridor, he doesn’t return for three days.

On the first, I watch the door, waiting for everything to go wrong. If Wilson comes back, it won’t be to chat or mess with our stupid fucking board games. We won’t take him by surprise again.

After the second, I can’t concentrate on much outside of turning over all the ways Wilson could hurt us or, worse, Lory. When she leaves this place, we won’t be able to protect her. Even in here, I’m worried he might get to her.

By the third, I’ve bitten my nails to stumps, and sleeping has become an issue, even after sex.

Yeah, I still find the headspace for that. I’m a man, after all. A fucking desperate sex-starved man wants to bury himself in the pretty girl who gazes up at him like he’s a warrior, not a low-down perp.

We’ve been together for five days, and each has been sweeter than the last. Lory isn’t just a convenience for me and my friends. She’s managed to become a part of our group. After Grady left, she closed in on herself for a while, staring into space and twisting her hands in her lap like she could wring her sister’s boyfriend’s neck from a distance. We did our best to provide comfort with soft words and gentle touches. Her tears stung like salt in a fresh wound, and the powerlessness I felt left me aching and frustrated.

In the end, sex became the best distraction, and Lory lost herself in that, burying her worry because she had no way ofdoing anything else. When her anxiety lifted a little, her laughter returned, and so did the peace she brought us all. Hyde’s like a different man. He’s gone green and stayed that way. Last night, when I checked on him and Lory, I found him sucking her tit like a baby in its mother’s arms. It hurt to look at him that way, all weak and childlike, despite his rippling muscles and fearsome size, except I know it’s healing him. What I don’t know is how long the healing will last. Is it a temporary fix or one that could remain after she leaves?

We have twenty-five days to go but only if the warden has sorted Wilson. He must have done it by now. That’s what I keep telling myself, except nothing in this place ever works out how I expect it to. Disappointment is a bitter pill I’ve gotten used to swallowing.

Lory emerges from the shower and drifts to where we’re all watching TV. It’s a stupid film set in some dystopian future that’s a lot like the present in this place. She goes to walk by me, but I pull her into my lap, enjoying her little squeal.

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