Page 36 of Babydoll

He catches my disbelieving look and snorts at me. “You think you’re the only one we threatened for the information? Nope, you just held out longer. Pretty little nurse we grabbed in the parking lot of the hospital squealed like a pig.”

There’s a split second where I’m relieved they got their intel elsewhere, that maybe Jeff’s safe now, but then I picture some young nurse, her face twisted in fear and probably anguish over what they were doing to her or threatening her with, and my stomach knots with shame.

“Well, I don’t know where he is.” My words come out more confident than I feel. “We went over a decade without contact before the night Python picked me up. I barely know him. And he’s not going to call me up.”

His brows raise before his look turns bored. “I think you’ve got a few heroes willing to die for your safety. Including one with plenty of information on Gage.” His mouth curves up slowly as my brow wrinkles in confusion. “And on you.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I demand. But he only smiles wider.

“We put word out we have you—that we're going to enjoy hurting you if we don’t get Gage.” He cocks his head, his cold dark eyes boring into mine, bringing a cold shiver to my skin.

“Word out to who?” I swallow. “If you know anything at all about me, you’ll know no one gives a shit about me.”

“Pfft, you’ll see,” Preach says, cryptically.

“Gage may not give a fuck, but that security dude does,” Slash adds with an icy chuckle, his knife flicking,thwick, thwick, thwick,again.

Preacher shoots him a look, his hand flying out to smack him in the head. “Don’t ruin the surprise.”

I keep still as if moving will provoke them to attack me instead of each other.

“What? Who?” I ask, playing dumb.

“He agreed to hand over all his information in exchange for you. Guess you’re not as unloved as you think,” Preacher says, mockingly, in a childish voice.

Then he walks to me, looking me up and down as if I’m a car he’s interested in buying. He smiles cruelly, reaching out to run the back of his fingers over the spot of my cheek that Slash hit. His touch burns but I hold back my hiss of pain, my insides quivering

“Look at you. You’re practically a skeleton, Lu.”

Anger roils up inside me. “I can’t afford to fucking eat because I give you every penny to pay my debt. But mark my words, as soon as I can, I’m going back to my old life. And I can’t wait to be rid of you.” I jab a finger at the air in front of him with each word. The words are so angry, they surprise even me.

Preacher and Slash laugh. I look around for Python, but he isn’t there. And then the slap hits and I see stars again. It lands on the same spot and I can’t help but fall to my knees in agony. Christ, it feels as if it shattered. I peek up to see Preacher adjust the skull ring on his finger and gag knowing my cheekbone is quite possibly broken.

“Thing is, Lu, we lied. We’re not giving you up. And we’re going to have to kill your boyfriend.”

More laughing. It reminds me of the jocks in high school making fun of my Walmart clothing.

“You belong to me. Your life is what I say it is. And from now on, that’s living here,” Preacher says. The pain of his slap, compounding Slash’s, hasn’t even worn off when Preacher grabsmy jaw between his hand and squeezes, forcing me to look at him. Tears spill over my lids and burn as they roll down my face.

“Python will feed you, fatten you up, and then you’re going to start working for us. And when a buyer comes along…” He smiles and my gut roils.

I don’t have to ask what that means, especially as Slash leaps up, walks out of the room and returns with a box of condoms. He uses his knife to slice open the box and tears one of the condoms off the strip, dumping the rest in my purse.

“You’re going to need those. We pride ourselves on having clean merchandise.” Holding up the single condom, he says, “Quality control inspection first.”

I can’t swallow the fear-filled saliva in my mouth with Preacher’s hand clamped over my jaw, but I try anyway.

“Test her out, mark her as ours, but don’t fucking scar her face. I’m going to meet up with the security fucker.”

Preacher throws me back and I stumble to the ancient carpet. Slash smiles, pocketing his knife.

I paste my eyes shut and think of Jeff. Big Daddy Grizz. How safe he makes me feel. How he flirts and how gruff he is when he’s trying to take care of me. It makes my chest ache because I want more than anything to see him one last time. And I want him safe.

When I open my eyes, Preacher is gone. I actually hear a car drive off. Slash, back in his chair, lovingly caresses his knife as he eyes me.

“It’s gonna be a long night. I have plans for that body.” His smile adds to the trembling his words have started. “How I’m going to mark it and how I’m going to use it.” When I don’t make a sound his brow furrows and he snarls, “Get me another beer, bitch!”

I rise from the floor on shaking legs and turn to the kitchen, my body, mind, and heart suddenly numb again. I feel nothing and that’s how I’ll survive this.

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