Page 23 of Savage Assassin

Levin beckons to the guard behind me. “Can you bring her forward? I’d like to take a closer look.”

The guard takes my arm with the same loose boredom as before, maneuvering me forward so that I’m closer to Levin, presented to him for inspection. I’m only a few inches from touching him, and I can smell the citrus scent of his cologne, feel the heat wafting off of him, the tension in his body. It sends a jolt through me that I don’t expect, and I fist my hands at my sides. I want to grab him, cling to him, beg him to take me out of here. But I can’t. If I do, it will damn us both.

Levin leans forward as if he’s inspecting me more closely, his gaze roving over my face, my cleavage. The room is loud around us, and as he leans very close, as if he’s breathing in the scent of my hair, I know he’s trying to whisper in my ear. I stiffen, straining to hear him over the noise of the eager buyers all around us.

“Just hold on, Elena. I’ll have you out of here soon.”

I can’t show any sign that I’ve heard him. I know that. I grit my teeth hard, my entire body rigid, fighting against every instinct I have as Levin nods to the guard, and I’m pulled back into line.

And then he’s gone.

I’m trembling all over, from the top of my head to my toes, and I’m grateful that at least that won’t be seen as strange. I hadn’t wanted to be seen as afraid, but it’s almost better now, because I can hide my emotions in that facade of fear.

The last of the men walks away, and the guards start to shuffle us out of the courtyard, just as I hear Diego’s voice coming from the archway, announcing to the guests that the auction will begin soon. I feel my stomach cramp again with fear, the unknowing almost painful.How is Levin going to get me out of here? Is he going to buy me? What if someone outbids him?

It takes everything in me to stay in the line, to keep walking, to not make a run for it. We’re taken back behind the stage that’s been set up, the line reshuffled in the order that the girls will be brought out. I’m the very last one in line, which doesn’t surprise me. I’d suspected that Diego was going to use me as the capstone of the auction, the prize to be won after all the other girls had been sold off. My capture and sale will be his coup de grâce against the Santiago family.

It also means the wait to find out what my fate will be is going to be interminable.

The blonde girl is the first one out. I can hear the sound of the auctioneer describing her, like an animal being sold at the market, pointing out her virtues and attributes that make her worthy of sale.Virginisn’t among the attributes listed, and a wave of chills washes over me at the memory of the show Diego had made the guards put on down in the cells. I have no doubt that she’d been at the mercy of those same guards before.

I can hear the bidding. It’s sparse, the price rising before tapering off, and then the auctioneer calls out the final sale. I can hear the footsteps of her being marched off the stage to her new owner as the next girl in line is tugged forward, out from behind the curtain and out to her fate.

I feel faint by the time the girl in front of me is taken out. It feels as if it’s dragged on forever. I haven’t eaten or drunk anything since this morning, and I hadn’t managed much then, as anxious as I was. I’m exhausted from standing, and I’m beginning to wish it would just be over with, regardless of the outcome. I almost feel relief when the guard takes my arm and pulls me forward, marching me up the steps at the back of the stage and out through the curtains towards the spotlight in the center of it.

It’s bright. I have to blink to look out at the crowd, and I feel a faint shiver of horror at what I see. The girls who have been sold are out there now, with their new owners–some of them kneeling on the floor, others sitting on laps. It’s clear that all of the men are eager to play with their new toys, hands roving over their hair and breasts and thighs, and I swallow back a surge of nausea at the thought that very soon, that will be me.

Unless Levin wins the bid.

“Our last girl for the night is someone very special,” the auctioneer begins, but I hardly hear him. I’m looking for Levin in the crowd, desperately searching for his face so that I have something to anchor myself to, that last bit of hope that maybe tonight won’t be the horror that I’ve tried so hard not to imagine. “For your pleasure, Diego Gonzalez has brought you the youngest Santiago daughter! Look how beautiful she is. Twenty years old and still a virgin. The last jewel in the Santiago vault, and one of you fine gentlemen can have her, for averysteep price. Imagine, defloweringher? What a prize–and worth every bit of money you have left in your pockets, I’m sure–”

The auctioneer’s voice trails off in my ears as I find Levin in the crowd, on the right, seated about halfway back. I can see the grim set of his jaw, the way he watches the auctioneer, readying himself as if he’s going into a fight. And he is, in a way, I suppose. If I’m bought by someone else, trying to get me back will be much harder–if not impossible.

And by the time he does, it will be too late to keep me from enduring at least some of the awful things in store for me.

I don’t listen to the bidding. I hear the starting number, a huge price, and I do my best to tune it out from there. I’ll lose my composure if I don’t, because I can see how frantic the bidding is already, hands going up, numbers called out as everyone vies for the right to destroy the last remaining daughter of Ricardo Santiago.

All I can do is focus onhim. On Levin. On bright blue eyes and that face that has looked down at me reassuringly more times than it should have by now, considering how short our acquaintance has been so far. On that hand, raised in the air to call out another bid, that I imagined on me in ways that I shouldn’t have thought of. I know he’s not here to buy me for himself, and he wouldn’t be a man I could respect if he was, but the feeling of safety that he gives me is all tied up in the fantasies I had since meeting him that first day.

The bidding drops to five men, then four, then three. The amount is ridiculously high now, more than I can fathom anyone paying for the “privilege” of taking a girl’s virginity.What is wrong with men?I think dizzily as I see Levin’s teeth clench, and I know he’s calculating what resources he has left in his head. I don’t doubt that my father is willing to empty every account he has and liquidate every asset in order to get me out of here, but I have no idea what my father’s wealthis. It’s entirely possible that there is someone here with more, someone able to throw more at my feet for the pleasure of ruining me.

Two men. Levin and the very old man who had inspected me so closely in the line, a man old enough to be my grandfather at least, with a lecherous expression on his jowled face as he looks at me from the front row.No, please. I can’t. I can’t.

I feel like I’m going to pass out.

They’re still bidding. Back and forth. I can see a red flush creeping up Levin’s neck–anger, or stress, maybe. His eyes find mine, and I don’t see the same reassurance in them that I did before. I realize, with a flash of terror that chills my blood and makes my knees feel watery, that Levin might not win.

Another bid from Levin. The old man’s hand comes up halfway, his eyes raking over me with a sort of nostalgic lust that makes my stomach turn–

–and then his hand drops back into his lap.

The auctioneer calls out the win, a name I don’t know. For one dizzying second, I think that somehow the old man has won after all, until I realize that Levin must have used a fake name. I see him standing up, walking past the others in his row, and then towards me, and all of the emotion and exhaustion hits me at once as I realize that he won.

He’s going to take me out of here. I’m safe.

My knees buckle, and the last thing I see is the startled expression on his face before the entire room goes black.

Elena

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