Page 7 of Auctioned to the Convicts
HANNAH
Embarrassment and dread filled Hannah as she pulled the neckline back up from where Dresden had yanked it down to expose her like a piece of meat at a market. She forced herself to raise her eyes, to show no fear, even though her knees felt ready to buckle.
“The Company imports one woman a year here,” a man in the crowd shouted.
The man who had won the auction barreled his way through the crowd. No matter how much Hannah tried to push the fear down, she couldn’t stop shaking. Griggs shoved men aside, left and right, to get to her. It wasn’t that he was twice the size of many of the others. After all, most of the men here were miners; they all had muscles on top of muscles.
Every aspect of Griggs, however, waswrongwith a capital W. The way his narrowed eyes darkened and latched onto her, as if he’d do more than bend her to his will, scared the crap out of her. He’d use her. He’dbreakher. And then he’d give her to his unit; three men whose overconfident bearings made them just as frightening.
What the fuck had she done in her life to deserve beingsoldto this beast of a man?
“Anyone can issue a challenge to Griggs. If you defeat him, you win her,” Dresden said as Griggs leapt onto the dais.
“Render Griggs unconscious,” Dresden continued stirring up the crowd as he lifted her dress, exposing her lower body. She swiped at her dress, to free the fabric from Dresden’s hold, but a guard pulled her arms behind her. Her entire body shook as Dresden looped a finger through her panties and began lowering them.
Men continued shouting, bidding on her, even as Griggs yanked her from Dresden’s hold, gripped her chin hard, and forced her to look into his cold eyes.
“You’re mine now,” Griggs said as rough, steel-like hands pushed her down on her knees.
Shock numbed Hannah’s entire body. She no longer felt the wood planks cutting into her knees as the brute fisted her hair and rubbed his hard length through his pants.
“Open,” he ordered as he unbuttoned his pants.
Dresden glanced over, arching a brow. “Payment first, Griggs. No sampling the goods,” Dresden said calmly as if raping her was akin to touching a piece of candy before paying for it.
Without letting go of her hair, Griggs reached over, placed his thumb on the datapad, and signed over his credits to complete the transaction.
“Can’t wait to fuck you raw,” Griggs said as he pulled her to her feet.
“No challengers?” Dresden asked as Griggs’s hand snaked up her dress and into her panties.
“I challenge!” Hannah yelled so loud that every man, past the crowd to where the guards lined the edge of the clearing, would hear her.
Silence swept through the crowd.
Hannah shoved Griggs away from her. That steel wall didn’t budge, not a single inch. She was so screwed. She would never survive a challenge. . .
“Women do not challenge the men here,” Dresden informed, his expression stoic.
“You said anyone can challenge, including new arrivals. I’m a new arrival,” Hannah said, struggling to keep her voice from shaking as she spoke as loud as she could. Witnesses. . . If everyone heard her, then maybe Dresden would give her a chance at challenging Griggs.
“Only a unit leader can challenge.”
“You allow men here to live alone without a unit. I would be my own unit.”
“Against the rules.”
“Your rules or The Company’s?”
“You’re too valuable for us to lose in a battle.”
“How am I valuable? A challenge is a challenge. Griggs has already paid. The outcome does not affect The Company’s profits. Even as a resource, I’m not worth much. I doubt you plan to place me in the mines. You were going to randomly assign me to a job that anyone can do. I’m only an extra pair of hands. As a resource, I hold no value.”
* * *
REN
“I hold no value,” the woman said.
