Page 7 of Cruel Promise

“Look at what we have here, gentlemen,” Sleazy man says. I almost scoff at the word “gentlemen.” No gentleman would buy another human being. “A beautiful young woman. Only nineteen. And a virgin.”

My skin breaks out in goosebumps. The air changes after he says “virgin.” There’s a crackle to it. I can hear murmuring from the people in darkness. The people who want to bid on me.

“We’ll start the bidding at one million dollars.”

I almost faint. Onemilliondollars? To buy me? I almost wish I could pass out again. It would make all of this easier.

“There will be no bidding,” a man says from the audience. He has a feeble, small voice, but it carries.

“Little man, don’t test me,” Sleazy guy says. “We’re having an auction.”

“And this woman is already bought. So, hand her over to me, and you will receive compensation for five million dollars.”

Who is this man who wants me? Is this the Mafia man my father was talking about?

Sleazy man shrugs. “All right. But only if no one out bids you. Will anyone buy this woman for more than five million dollars?”

“Need I remind you,” the man from the audience says, “that Nikolai Petrov wants her?”

Sleazy man’s face goes white. “I … did not know that. Well, yes, of course he can have her. Come, take her.” He rushes to my side and unlocks me from the chair before leading me off the stage and into the audience.

I can finally see again, and what I see is something I never wish to see again. Only five men are in the audience, but each and every one of them screams wealth. Dirty wealth to the point it’s sickening.

They’re the type of men nothing bad ever happens to. The type of men like my father.

A small man stands in the walkway. With bushy white hair and red eyes, he looks more like a cartoon than a real man.

And he’s the one who bought me.

“Here,” Sleazy man says. “Here she is.”

The other man nods. “Good. Now, come along, Ava.”

I startle at my name. But, of course, he’d know my name. My father sold me to him.

I don’t move quickly enough, so the old man gently grabs my arm and guides me along. I’m surprised by his touch—it’s not as forceful as I’d thought it would be.

He doesn’t say a word as we leave the theater and enter a den of sorts, one filled with couches with lots of men sitting on them. And sitting on the men are women in skimpy black dresses.

“Come along,” the old man says as I avert my gaze. Nothing terribly inappropriate is happening, and yet it feels so intimate.

We leave the club house altogether, and he walks me to a car parked on the street. It’s a Porsche that must have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Get in,” he says in a surprisingly nice tone.

“I … don’t want to.”

He sighs. “Dear, you have to. You belong to Nikolai Petrov now. I’m sorry.”

“So, you’re not him? The man who bought me?”

“No. I’m just his butler sent here to collect you for him. I’m Edmund. I won’t hurt you.”

“But … you’re bringing me to a man who wants to hurt me. Why else buy me?”

“You father made a deal with my employer. It’s unfortunate, and I honestly don’t agree with it. But Nikolai Petrov is not a man you argue with. So, please get into the car. I don’t want to have to force you.”

His words draw me up short. Edmund and I are close in height, and he’s obviously older than me, but if he works for a powerful man, then he must have some tricks up his sleeve to get me to comply, and I don’t want to see what those tricks might be.

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