Page 26 of Sinful Lies
Chapter 15
Dia
The van comes to asudden stop and the hum of the engine quiets. Low voices outside catch my attention. I rise to my feet and press my ear against the side to listen. They might say something that could help me figure out where I am or who took me. I’m not naïve. I know this has something to do with the information I found. Even though I haven’t pieced it all together yet. Reed said a war was coming and Ben was in the middle of it. Now, it appears I am too.
Footsteps move alongside the van. I have two options; I can cower in here or I can fight. I choose the latter. I move toward the back of the van and inhale a deep breath.
The van doors swing open, and it’s now or never. I might not make it far, but I need to fight whatever they have in store for me. I lunge forward, catching my captor off guard. I scratch and I claw at him, putting up a hell of a fight. He lifts his hands to his face when another man grabs me from behind. Gripping my arms to my side, he lifts my feet off the floor and pulls me off the man I attacked. One look around confirms I wasted my energy. They parked the van outside a row of warehouses with two armed men standing in front of it. They haven’t fired or moved toward me. As if they knew I would not get away.
The man I jumped on, lowers his hands and eyes the streaks of blood on his fingers. He cuts his cold gray eyes toward me. With a loud thud, he steps toward me, making me jerk in the other man’s hold.
“You cunt. I should kill you.” His thick accent catches me off guard. He sounds eerily familiar. His accent is the same as Mikhail’s. Now that I’ve looked at him, they could be related. My heart sinks to my stomach. I know there’s no love lost between Ben and I but if his partner Mikhail Vladimir is behind this, then does Ben know where I am?
“You won’t touch her, Pavel. The boss wants this one for himself.” The booming voice behind me is unmistakable. Tension weights my shoulders and hurt settles in my heart. I can’t believe he’d do this.
“Why are you doing this, Sam?” Sam has worked at the docks for the last five years. He’s always been a nice guy, but now I know why he unnerved me earlier.
“It’s nothing personal, Mrs. Cross. The boss wants you and he gets what he wants.” That’s where he’s wrong. For me, it’s very personal. Is there anyone in my current circle I can trust? I sigh, holding back the tears. I already know the answer to that. My circle is only as big as Ben allows it to be, and they all work for him. But why go through this trouble? If he wants me dead, he could have found a much easier way.
“My husband is paying you to do this?” I ask as Sam drags me through an open door. “What are you going to do with me, Sam?” I beg for answers as he drags me deeper into the warehouse.
Sam lets a deep chuckle form in his throat, “Ben only thinks he’s in charge.”
“If it’s not Ben...” the slamming of a heavy metal door cuts my words off. I jump at the echoing sound ringing in my ears and turn my head toward it.
“Someone say my name?” Ben takes large, heavy strides towards me. Rattling the bars of a metal cage as he passes. There are two women and what looks like two young girls locked inside. They cry out from fear. Huddled together on a cot in the center of their prison. The realization of what is happening hits me.Women are suffering because of him.
I swallow hard as his dead stare cuts to me. “What are you going to do, Ben?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.” A sadness I didn’t know he was capable of laces his words for a brief second before his lips harden. “This works out well. No body, no death. I get to keep your money and you get to live. At least for the time being. What he does when he’s finished with you, I’m not responsible for. Put her in the cage.”
I fight Sam’s hold, but his arms tighten around me as he drags me toward the metal prison. Ben draws a key from his pocket and unlocks the chain holding the cage door closed. He stalks inside, eyeing the women huddled together and wraps his fist around the hair of one of them. He tugs it hard enough she lets out an ear-piercing scream and scrambles to her feet. Her hands shoot up, desperately fighting to loosen his hold, but he only laughs. Her tears streak down her dirty face as he pulls her kicking and screaming out of the cage.
“Ben stop. You’re hurting her.” I beg him to show her mercy, although his eyes have now grown dark and cold. Ben stops in front of me, shifting his hand from her hair to pinch her chin. He squeezes, forcing her to look at me. The fear in her eyes sends a chill down my spine. I thrash against Sam’s hold, wanting to help her, but his arms are like led weights pressing down on mine and I can’t break free. “Where are you taking her?” I plead.
He presses his lips to the side of her face, “Trading you in for a younger model.”
Sam shoves me inside. I land hard on my knees on the dirty concrete floor. I scramble to my feet and lunge toward the cell door. Tears sting my eyes as I watch Sam yank it shut and slide the chain and lock back in place.
“You can’t do this, Ben. I’m your wife.” I’m desperate to appeal to the side of him that wants me for his own.
“This was never a real marriage, anyway. Did you forget saying those words, my love? You win. We’re done. Soon enough you’re going to realize being my wife was the best thing that ever happened to you.”
Ben turns away and forces the girl up a rickety flight of metal stairs leading to a room that overlooks the cage we’re trapped in. Windows line the entire length of the room, but they’re tinted so I can’t see inside.
“Don’t forget her picture.” He tosses over his shoulder before disappearing into the room with the girl. Her cries muffled by the door slamming shut behind them.
I study my surroundings, but all I see beyond the bars are four white walls and a door. Even if I could find a way out of this cage, his men are on the other side with guns. Sam comes closer to the cage with a camera in his hand. The flash almost blinds me when he clicks the button, spitting an old Polaroid picture out.
“Sam, please.” I beg. The pit in my stomach grows bigger as bile crawls up my throat.
“Sorry Mrs. Cross. I had no choice, but it won’t be long now.”
“What won’t be long? What is he going to do to me?” I nod my head towards the frightened group of women behind me. “To them?”
Sam ignores my questions and turns towards another man I didn’t notice before. “She’s the last one. Sit tight until transport arrives.”
The other man grumbles, “How long do I have to babysit?”
“Two days tops. I’ll send word when the vessel is ready.” He taps him on the shoulder, “It takes time to earn the boss’s trust, D. Help us deliver them and he’ll know he can trust you.”
Slowly, I turn and approach the other women. The rancid stench makes me gag. I take in the others locked in here. Their torn clothes, bruised bodies and hair matted to their faces in dirty ringlets. They cling to each other for comfort. Defeat settles in the pit of my stomach, and I slide down the bars until my ass hits the floor. Worse than the fear pulling me into the darkness is the thought of Reed thinking, I’ve changed my mind.
The thought draws the tears to my eyes, and I cry along with the others. Through my sobs, I raise my gaze to meet the watchful eyes of a woman about my same age, but she wears a lifetime of abuse on her face. “How long have you been here?”
Her green eyes are empty, and a deep sadness is etched into the creases on her face, but I can see the natural beauty hidden behind her sad smile and disheveled appearance. “Some of us longer than others.”
Even without makeup and clean clothes, they’re all pretty. “I’m Celina and that’s Andrea and Maddie. The girl he took is Jules. Are you really his wife?” She questions with an uneasy tone.
I knew Ben was capable of horrible things, but I never would have imagined this. I hang my head in the palm of my hands, “Not anymore.”
