Page 5 of Razor
Spade shot Razor a look that told him to back down, and he sighed. Geeze, what was this—pick on Razor Day or something? “You are,” Spade insisted. “Go on.”
“As Razor pointed out, when he rudely butted into my statement, I was taken and sold off four times, but that wasn’t what you originally asked me. You wanted to know where they took me, right?” Spade nodded, and Ella smiled at Razor as though she had just won the game—not that any of this felt like a game.
“I was outside of my apartment building when two men cornered me. I tried to fight them, but they were just too big. It was so late that no one was around to hear my screams. They put a rag over my nose and mouth, and if I’m not mistaken, they used chloroform to knock me out. When I woke up, I was in that God awful cage that they kept me in for six months.”
“I’m so sorry that happened to you. It’s awful,” Spade said. “What happened next? You said that you were sold off four times,” he reminded.
“I was,” she admitted. “The first three times, I acted like a raging bitch, usually hurting my buyers, and they ended up returning me. By the fourth auction, the Devils had caught onto my game and warned my buyer that I was trouble. I had no choice but to have sex with him and make him believe that I wasn’t going to give him any problems. When he finally let his guard down, I stabbed him in the lung and ran.”
“Shit,” Spade grumbled, “so, now we have a homicide to investigate, too. Are you sure that you killed him?”
She smiled politely at Razor, and he knew that she was about to give Spade the same shit that she had given him over the past hour or so. “As I’ve already said, I’m good at my job. Nurses know how to save lives and how to take them, too. I worked the knife in through the guy’s ribcage and hit his lung. I could tell by the hissing noise that I had hit my mark. He’s good and dead by now,” she promised.
“Has anyone called in the murder yet?” Spade asked.
“Let me check,” Razor said. He looked through the incoming 911 calls from that morning, and there was nothing about a stabbing being reported. “Nothing yet,” he announced.
“Good, I’ll swing by there and check things out as soon as we are finished here,” Spade offered.
“Am I in trouble for killing him?” Ella almost whispered. Her tiny voice was almost Razor’s undoing. All he wanted to do was round his desk and pull her into his arms to comfort her—but that wasn’t a part of the job, and right now, Ella was his job. He’d have to keep her safe, and that meant keeping his hands to himself, even if he did have a thing for damsels in distress. Not that she was one.
Ella
“Not if Razor and I have any say about it,” Spade said. She was worried that telling them the entire truth might end up with her being put behind bars, but she had already lost so much—why would time in prison bother her?
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I’d like to go home now,” she said. “I’d like a shower and to sleep for a few days, if that’s possible.” What she really wanted to do was wash the asshole who had raped her off her body. She knew that it would be impossible for her to forget him taking her body without her permission, but she’d at least be able to clean her skin from his stench.
“You said that you might not have a home to go to,” Razor reminded. She was well aware of that fact, but she didn’t want to stay at the police station all day.
“I just want to leave, Razor. I’ll call my dad and ask if I can crash there for a bit,” she reminded. “We’ve already been over all of this.”
“We have, but what you don’t seem to understand is that you can’t go back home or to your father’s place. Your apartmentprobably isn’t yours anymore, and if you tell your father what happened, you’ll be putting him in danger, too. I’m betting that the Devils will find out that you killed their client, and that they won’t let you go without a fight.”
“He’s right,” Spade said, “they will consider you their property, and they won’t waste any time coming for you. They’ll want you back. Hell, they’ll probably want to make an example out of you to keep the other women in line.” She shivered at the thoughts that ran through her head. Spade was right—they’d want to teach her a lesson, and she knew just what that would entail. When she was first taken, she had to watch as about five men gang raped one of the young women in the cage two down from hers. It was terrifying, and she was told that if she looked away, she’d be next. For a long time, Ella had done everything in her power to avoid having any contact with the members of the Devils. But after she realized that she wasn’t going to be let go any time soon, she started coming up with ways to fight for her freedom. Hell, she even foolishly believed that if she misbehaved enough and was returned, the Devils would get sick of trying to sell her off and let her go—or worse. But even death would have been better than having to live her life in a cage or with men who had paid for her body. Her body wasn’t the Devil's to sell, but they didn’t seem to care about logistics.
“If I can’t go home, and I can’t rely on family, what the hell am I supposed to do? If I live on the streets, they will find me.” She looked between the two big, tattooed officers waiting for their answers.
“You’ll stay with me,” Razor insisted. He looked so serious, she couldn’t help but laugh.
“You can’t be serious,” she insisted. “You don’t even know me.”
“I don’t need to know you to keep you safe, Ella,” he admitted.
“But I thought that you said that you have a kid,” she reminded. “Won’t I put her in danger by staying with you?”
“Probably,” Razor said, “but that just means that I’ll have to work extra hard to keep you both safe. Besides, Violet would love to have a sleepover with another girl in the house.”
She sat up a little straighter and stared Razor down. “I’m not a little girl,” she insisted.
“I can see that, but you have to understand that all four-year-old little girls see adult women as they are. To my daughter, you’re going to be a fascination, and if you don’t mind that, then I can keep you safe.” Ella wanted to tell him that she wasn’t any good with kids. She wanted to say that his daughter wouldn’t find her fascinating in any way, but that might blow her chances of staying with him, and the one thing that life had taught her was to never look a gift horse in the mouth. And right now, Razor was a fucking stallion, agreeing to keep her safe.
“Fine, I’ll stay with you, but if things go sideways, I’m leaving. Your little girl doesn’t need to be dragged into my mess. You’re a cop, and are dumb enough to volunteer your services, but your daughter is innocent, and I plan on keeping things that way.”
Razor nodded, “I appreciate that, Ella.”
“Do you know much about the Devils?” she asked. “Because I have to warn you that they are ruthless when it comes to making people pay.” The look on Razor’s face told her that he knew plenty about the Devils.
“I’m familiar with their tactics,” he admitted.
