Page 174 of Devil's Bargain

“Did you enjoy humiliating and hurting my friend? Did you get hard when she cried but begged for more?”

Before he can answer, she stabs him in the thigh.

His hoarse screams echo through the trees. Dallas squeezes my hand.

When he stops screaming, Steph fingers the handle. “Did you know that your femoral artery is located on your upper thigh near your groin? If I pull this knife out, you’ll bleed to death.”

The sound of rain seems deafening. I watch the unfolding scene with my heart pounding inside my chest.

“So I’m asking you again, where is she?”

He’s breathing through his teeth. “We sold her! She’s gone!”

You could hear a pin drop despite the heavy rain.

“You sold her?” Steph asks.

“I was hired to groom her and get her ready for the sale. She had a bid on her before I even approached her to begin with.”

I press a palm over my mouth.

He is starting to look pale.

“I don’t understand?” Josh mumbles under his breath.

“Fucking explain!” Steph growls, sinking the knife in deeper.

He screams in pain. “Fuck! Okay, okay! I’m not a teacher. I work for an agency that finds girls for men with unique sexual interests. They pay us to seek out and groom young women. Especially teenage girls. Our client wanted a girl who likes pain and humiliation, so I got Jared in on the case. We groomed her together. I knew the minute I saw her that she was perfect!”

A sob rips from my lips.

Dallas pulls me in for a hug, whispering, “We’ll get her back!”

“What else?” Steph asks, unmoving.

“It was all a setup. The eviction notices—”

“She wasn’t getting evicted?” Josh asks as realization dawns. They faked the whole thing. They put her in a vulnerable situation to make her feel like she had no other choice.

“How did you know she would respond to the violence?”

How Steph can be so calm is beyond me? I’m a crying mess in Dallas’ arms.

His speech is mumbled thanks to his broken jaw. “When you’re in this business, you learn to spot these things. I just knew. Of course, she’d never done anything like it before, so I groomed her slowly over time. Little by little until she begged me to hit her and hurt her. At first, it was a hard smack on the ass, a slap on the face, and a bit of choking until one day, she responded with pleasure to being backhanded with force behind the blow.”

I feel sick.

Behind me, Ben has turned green.

“Who did you sell her to?”

The blood is still streaming down his forehead. “Take me to the hospital, and I’ll tell you!”

I clench my jaw, my hands fisted as I try to tear free from Dallas’ arms, but she holds me to her.

Steph tuts, sliding her fingers around the handle. “I’m going to count to three, and you’re going to tell me who bought her. I want a fucking name!”

“This thing is so much bigger than you! What the fuck are you going to do? Just walk right in and take her back? You’re so fucking naive!” he spits.

---