Page 100 of No Mistakes
Educated. Speaks three languages. Healthy, certified. Untouched. Trained for discretion.
The numbers climb higher with every paddle that rises, and with each sale, the weight in my chest grows heavier. I tell myself to breathe. To wait. To hold it together for them until it’s time for the brothers to strike.
But then the next girl walks out.
She’s younger than me, but not by much. Maybe Twenty-five. Her hair falls in dark curls around her pale face, and her eyes… her eyes make my stomach sink into the floor. Wide, frantic, and filled with a fight she hasn’t let them take from her yet. She looks like someone who still believes escape is possible.
The host’s words blur. All I can see is her fingers trembling as she clasps them together, the way her chest rises and falls against her dress. She doesn’t belong here any more than I do. None of them do.
“I’m doing it,” I whisper, just loud enough for the earpiece to pick it up. My hand moves before my head catches up. The paddle lifts, wood cold in my grip.
“Number ninety-one,” the host announces smoothly. “Fifty thousand. Do I hear fifty-five?”
Axel’s voice cuts into my ear, sharp as glass. “Mandy. What the fuck are you doing?”
I ignore him, my eyes never leaving the girl.
Another paddle rises across the room. The price climbs. The voice in my ear keeps barking, Flynn adding a curse. But I don’t listen to them. Not now, because that girl is staring straight at me, pleading silently, and I know-I know-if I let her slip through my fingers, I’ll never forgive myself.
Another paddle shoots into the air, and the masked man claps, pointing towards the bidder. “Fifty-five. Thank you. Sixty?”
I lift mine again before I can stop myself. My stomach twists as every eye in the room flickers my way.
“Sixty to the lady in red. Excellent.”
“Mandy,” Axel growls through the earpiece. “Stop. Right now.”
Another bidder smirks at me across the aisle, his paddle raised lazily as though this is a game he’s already won.
“Seventy,” he shouts, his eyes never leaving mine.
The masked man turns his head towards me, “Do I have a seventy-five?”
“Are you out of your mind?” Flynn hisses in my ear. I hear Eva’s voice faintly in the background, her voice raised as she tells the brothers to leave me alone. “You blow our cover, you’re dead before we even get a chance to save her.”
I lift my paddle, locking my eyes on the girl.
“Eighty,” the man across from me calls, his voice confident.
The girl on stage flinches. Her eyes keep darting to me, like she somehow knows I’m her only chance. My throat closes, but I raise my paddle again.
“Ninety,” I say firmly, shocked by how steady my voice sounds. Whispers ripple through the room. The host beams like Christmas has come early.
I clench my jaw, my heart slamming so hard it hurts. If I stop, she’s gone. If I keep going, I’m fucked. But I can’t look away from her, not when her knuckles are white from how tight she’s gripping her own hands, not when every inch of her screams for help.
“One hundred thousand.” My rival shouts, leaning back in his chair, a smug look on his face as if he’s daring me to challenge him.
I don’t hesitate, locking eyes with him while raising my own, the brothers swearing through the earpiece.
“One hundred and thirty,” I say calmly.
“Oh, this is beautiful.” The masked man says. “One thirty, thank you. Do I hear one forty?”
The man across from me tilts his head, lips curling into a smirk. He raises his paddle, then pauses. He’s testing me, enjoying the power he has over the girl trembling on stage.
The silence around the room stretches, every person on the edge of their seat waiting to see what he will do. He lowers his paddle slowly, shaking his head. The host’s smile widens.“One thirty, going once…going twice…” His gavel slams against the podium, the sound cracking through the ballroom like a gunshot. “Sold! To bidder ninety-one!”
Applause breaks out across the room, polite, almost mocking. A few people glance my way, curious, assessing, but none linger long. I let my paddle drop into my lap, my hand trembling so violently that I have to grip the edge of my seat to steady myself.
