Page 12 of Sweet Possession
When I reached it, I raised my hand to unlock the door when fearchurned in my gut, and something in my head told me not to fall for the ruse. I stared at the door, indecision weighing heavy.
If I didn’t eat now, when would I be offered food again? And if Ididn’teat now, and an opportunity arose later for me to escape, would I regret not eating to keep my energy up?
“Okay, well, I’ll leave the food and clothes out here, and you canget it when you’re ready,”she said, a hint of disappointment in her tone.
Common sense won out. I needed to eat. I was already feeling shaky.Before I could second guess my decision, I was unlocking the door and pulling it open.
The woman standing with a tray of food in her hands and a big bag ofclothes down by her feet was beautiful. Her kind voice matched her kind face, and she wore a bright smile, her brows pulled up in surprise, probably because I’d opened the door.
She could have only been a few years older than me, but as I took inthe tray of food she’d brought, a horrible thought popped into my mind.
Was she a victim too?
Oh god. What if Mr. Fox had bought her too, and we were both toserve him as his sex slaves? What if we weren’t the only ones, and he had a whole house of women he used whenever he damn well pleased?
Bile began to creep up my throat, the hungerthathad reared tolife at smelling the aroma emanating from the tray instantly vanished. What if this was me in a few months? Standing on the other side of the door smiling as if everything was normal, while I tried to coax Mr. Fox’s next victim out of her room.
“Cora, right?”Savannah said, still beaming at me.
I opened my mouth to reply, but the words lodged in my throat.
“I’m Savannah,”she repeated, suddenly sounding flustered when Istill didn’t reply.“Fox told us what happened, he’s downstairs with Nash, that’s my husband. Fox called Nash and we came straight over, he didn’t know what to do.”She trailed off as she chuckled.“I’m sorry, I’m babbling. I guess it’s not every day your husband’s best friend phones to say he’s rescued a girl from being sold at an auction and has no idea what to do next. He’s going out of his mind worrying about how he can help you.”
Rescued? Is that what he’d told her?
I supposed in a way he had rescued me. At least, from the hellhole Iwas being kept in.
“Well, I guess I’ll leave you to it,”she said after a few seconds of megawking at her, debating if I could trust her.Evenwithout the events of the last few days, trust didn’t come easy for me.“We’ll be here for the rest of the day, and we only live down the road, so if you want to talk…”She trailed off, pushing the tray in my direction with hope still in her eyes.
“Did Mr. Fox buy you too?”I blurted, unable to stop the question fromfalling out.
I knew she’d said she was married to Nash, whoever he was, butmaybe Mr. Fox had bought her first andthensold her on. Maybe they werebothinvolved in buying women, like the two men who my dad sold me to were.
Her lips pulled into a relieved smile.“It’s a long story. Any chance Icould put this tray down? It’s quite heavy.”
“Oh, sure,”I replied, hoping I wasn’t making a monumentalmistake as I opened the door wider and stepped aside to let her in.
“Thanks. Would you mind grabbing the bag of clothes?”she said asshe placed the tray down on the table.
Doing as she asked, I picked the heavy bag up before peeringout into the hallway to make sure danger wasn’t lurking.
To my relief, no one was there.
Savannah gave me a grateful smile as she stepped into the room,and I shut the door behind her, double checking the lock was firmly back in place.
“I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I bought a selection for you,”shesaid, waving a hand to the tray.“Hopefully there’ll be something you like.”
“Thank you,”I replied, my mouth watering from the delicious smellsnow filling the room.
Stepping over to the tray, it was to find a portion of mac ’n’ cheese,tomato soup, two bread rolls, a bowl of chopped fruit, and a sealed bottle of water. Although I was ravenous, I grabbed the bottle and chugged down several large gulps. For the past few days, I’d only been allowed a small cup of water with my meals.
“You can sit down if you want,”I said, my throat finally feeling a littleless scratchy.
“Thank you.”
Savannah perched on my unmade bed. After drinking anothermouthful, I sat down on the other side, maintaining a gap between me and her. She watched me cautiously but her eyes held nothing but warmth and reassurance, and I found a hint of tension eased from my body.
“How are you doing?”she asked, her concerned gaze landing on thebruise Dwayne gave me.“I can’tevenbegin to imagine what you’ve been through.”
