Page 25 of Seductive Secrets

“No,” she whispered. “Me and a couple of the other girls weren’t shipped out for dates or parties. But one night, I overheard someone say that the auction night was coming. So I decided to break out.”

“Good!”

She laughed. “Not good.” She sniffed and pulled away. “On the night of my planned escape, several of the girls came back from a party. They were badly beaten, their faces covered with blood, their bodies covered in bruises.” Angela inhaled slowly and reminded herself that she wasn’t in that hovel anymore. She’d escaped. She’d won!

“I’d been working on the back door every night while the others slept. It was made of really old, rotten wood. So, on the night of my escape, I finally got the door partially open. I convinced three of the others to come with me. We made it out and ran. We just kept running. Never looked back. Just ran. Towards an old warehouse a few blocks away. I’d remembered the warehouse from the day of my arrival and we all ran for it. We weren’t allowed shoes so our feet were torn up and bloodied from gravel and broken glass, but we kept going. We got away.”

“That’s where you met your guys.”

She nodded. “Yes. Marco, Dash, Kasim, and Callum were hiding out in that warehouse that night. They helped us. They cleaned our feet and bandaged our wounds. But Beth…” she stopped, thinking about that night. “Beth had been too badly beaten that night at the party.” Another slow, deep breath. “We didn’t know it at the time, but she had a lot of internal injuries.”

“She died?”

Angela nodded. “Yes. Marco risked his life by taking her to the hospital. But she was too wounded. The doctors couldn’t save her.”

“I’m so sorry.”

She shook off the memories and looked up at James. “It was a long time ago.”

“That’s why you sponsor fundraising events for human trafficking events,” he said. It wasn’t a question. “And why you’re so skittish around men.”

She shrugged. “Not with you.”

Okay, she really hadn’t meant to say that! Her shock showed on her face and he took her free hand in his. “I won’t use that against you, Angela. I feel it too. There’s something about you…I can’t really define it. But you call to me. You draw me in. It’s like there is a magnetic force, pulling us together.”

She stared for a long moment, then nodded. “Yes.” The one word was a whisper, but they both understood that word’s power.

“We should keep going.” Neither moved.

She shook her head to clear the memories away and nodded. “You’re right.”

“But can we talk about this more, later?”

Another nod, then he squeezed her hand. Slowly, they moved back onto the sidewalk and into the stream of passersby.

They were walking for several minutes when Angela thought of something. She pulled him off to the side and looked up at him.

“What?” he asked, eyebrows raised.

“It just occurred to me that we might be going about this all wrong.”

He frowned in confusion. “How so?”

“Well, we’re going into these places and asking if they recognize the key. But most of the people are just glancing at it and saying no, they use codes, not keys.”

He cocked his head to the side. “You think we should…?”

“Well, I think we can dismiss hotels. They all use key cards now.”

“I agree,” he replied.

“However, the apartment complexes and storage facilities are still viable options. Even though, most storage facilities use codes too.”

“Notallof them,” he countered. Then his eyes lit up. “They use codes to get through the security gates, but each person brings a personal lock to secure their storage unit!”

“Oh no!” she whispered, understanding the problem.

He rubbed a hand over his face and sighed. “Let’s keep going. We’ll worry about it when we get to the storage facilities.”

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