Page 1 of Pet

Chapter One

Cara

I couldn’t believe what had happened to me.

As soon as the masked men shoved me into a dingy hotel room, I scurried into the bathroom, sank to my knees on the floor, and started bawling.

How could this have happened? How could my father—although he hardly deserved to be called that—have done this to me?

I looked down at the clothes the masked men forced me to put on. Itchy fishnet tights, a tight black tube dress, and sky-high stiletto heels. I looked like I was wearing a hooker Halloween costume.

I took some deep breaths, remembering what had just occurred and trying to calm myself down.

Just hours before, I had been sitting on the sofa at my father’s house reading a book. I even dared to text my college roommate to complain about how bored I was visiting my dad over break and how I wished I was at my mom’s house and could see my friends. Ha! How I wished that was my only problem now.

Suddenly, three huge, burly men wearing all black and ski masks to cover their faces barreled through the front door.

I didn’t know what to think. At first, I thought perhaps it was a prank, until one of the men took out a gun, held it to my head, and said, “If you make so much as a peep, you’re dead. Do not speak until we tell you. Got it?”

I nodded, huddled in fear on the couch. The men grabbed me and dragged me out of my dad’s house.

They shoved me in the backseat of a black SUV, tied me up and blindfolded me, and drove for what felt like hours. I both longed for the ride to be over and never wanted it to stop, because I had no idea what these men had in store for me at the end of the trip, but I was fairly certain I wouldn’t like it.

Once the car stopped, the men led me into a building, still blindfolded. When they finally removed it, I was in a small, sterile-looking room, like I was at a hospital or something.

“Wait here,” one of the men said gruffly. “We will be right outside the door, so don’t try anything funny, you hear?”

And with that, they closed the door. I was all alone in this weird, windowless room. But only for a moment, because then a doctor came in. Or at least, I assumed he was a doctor, because he was wearing a long white lab coat.

That’s when I noticed the tray of gynecological tools on the counter.

The doctor didn’t speak a single word to me; he merely gestured for me to take my jeans off and get on the exam table. Afraid of the men outside the door, I did as I was told.

He spread my legs, roughly, for the most painful and uncomfortable pelvic exam of my life.

I should mention at this point that I was a virgin.

The doctor took a little device off the tray, which I recognized from commercials as an IUD. Why were these men giving me a birth control implant? I shook with fear throughout the whole ordeal. I was cold, humiliated, and so afraid I thought my heart would pound out of my chest.

When he was done, he snapped off his rubber gloves, discarded them in a little bin in the room, and left.

I had just managed to pull my pants back on when the three masked men quickly filed back in. One handed me the black dress, fishnets, and heels.

“Put it on. Now,” he commanded. I took the bundle of clothes with trembling hands. To my surprise, the three men turned around to face the wall as I changed. But they were still blocking the door.

I had no choice but to pull on the horrible clothes. When I was done, one of the men handed me a mirror, hairbrush, red lipstick, and black eyeshadow and eyeliner.

“Make yourself look pretty,” he leered. I thought I was going to throw up.

I ran the brush through my long blond hair. My hands were so unsteady that it took several tries to apply the garish red lipstick and much too dark eye makeup, but finally I managed it. The men looked me up and down approvingly.

“Think that’s enough?” one of them questioned the other.

“She looks good to me. I think she’s ready.”

That’s when I fainted.

When I woke up, the men were carrying me into the hotel room.

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