Page 97 of For a Price

There was a subdued pop that I recognized instantly as the silencer of a gun.

Edik dropped at my side. Alive one second, dead the next.

I screamed as my pulse exploded and I looked up to find myself on the receiving end of a 9 millimeter Beretta.

“JC?” I croaked, stunned at the twist of events.

“See that break in the fence? Head toward it. You’re coming with me.”

He was cold, impersonal. No sign of life in his eyes.

It was like we had never been partners in crime. We had never even been friends.

When I tried to talk to him, he reacted as if I were his enemy.

“Keep going,” he snapped. “You think you were going to leave us hanging out to dry, Kat? You think we wouldn’t pay you back for what you’ve done?”

“I didn’t do anything. I swear I don’t even know what you’re talking about!”

“Fozzil’s dead because of you. Yeah, I know all about what you’ve been up to. You and that Russian boyfriend of yours.”

“Wait… JC… please… you’ve got it all wrong.”

“Don’t think so,” he said, giving a hollow laugh. “But you’ll get yours, Kat. Where you’re going, you’ll suffer every moment.”

It’s as the appointment with Grossman ends and I’m carted off to the next place that it truly dawns on me what’s going on.

That my disturbing new reality really sinks in.

I’m shoved into another room, this one with a panel of men seated behind a table. They’re each dressed well, in suits and ties, and wearing aloof expressions on their faces. It’s more like I’m a nuisance to them than a captive held against my will.

The woman pushes me so hard I pitch forward and fall to my knees. “The next product’s ready for sale. We need to determine for what price.”

CHAPTER 28

Katerina

“Hmmm,”hums the first man at the panel. “She is not the usual type.”

The second man half-shrugs his shoulders. “But there are customers who like different looks. Black ones and Brown ones. There is a market for it.”

“We have enough products for that market,” snaps the first man. “She is too thick. And that hair…”

“We can dye the hair,” says the woman who’s made my life hell over the past few hours. She digs her fingers into my curls and tugs hard. “We have a stylist who can fix it. Straighten it. Make it more presentable.”

“Hmmmm,” the first man hums again. “And what of her body, Diana? She is thick.”

“Some customers like that,” says the second guy, his tone almost agitated. “She is thick, not fat. It is acceptable. Customers will pay.”

“Please,” I choke out. “Whatever it is you’re talking about, I don’t want any part in it. I just want to go… I just want to… to…”

I’m so upset, so on the verge of breaking out into sobs that I can’t even speak. I’m silenced a second later anyway when thewoman named Diana brings the cattle prod down on me and makes me writhe in anguish on the floor.

I’m panting once she relents and pulls the prod away.

No one else in the room bats an eyelash.

It’s nothing to them that I’ve been electrocuted for speaking my mind. I push myself up onto my knees and peer at the men seated behind the table.

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