Page 110 of Spooked

“She doesn’t need a dress or a pair of shoes. She needs to be rescued.”

If she was still alive. Ihadto believe she was still alive. The alternative was too horrible to contemplate.

“No, you don’t get it. We’re trying to buy Meera.”

“What? What are you talking about?” It was too early in the morning for this. “I need caffeine.”

“There’s coffee in the pot. Chase got the good stuff.”

But was it made with Hawaiian Kona beans and served at 140 degrees exactly? Someone had left mugs lined up on the counter, so I nudged two closer to the machine and poured.

“What do you mean, trying to buy Meera?”

“She’s up for auction. The top bid is only fifty thousand bucks, but it’ll probably increase.”

“Oh, it definitely will.” Alexa’s voice came through the speaker. “The last girl went for two hundred and seven thousand, and she wasn’t as pretty, in my opinion.”

“I…I…I don’t understand.”

Jerry turned the laptop around to face me, and I peered at the screen. And saw Meera. Meera, looking thinner than I’d ever known her. She was wearing heavy make-up and a green sequined cocktail dress, but no amount of gloss could hide her misery.

And that was only the start of the horror. A countdown ticked beside the picture, showing three days and nineteen hours. Did I want to place a bid? The mug slid out of my hand and smashed on the tiled floor, coffee splashing everywhere.

Jerry took another sip of her drink. “Good news that she’s still alive, huh?”

“Good news?Good news?A vile brute is trying to sell her like a piece of meat. Wait, is this a sick joke?”

I mean, it had to be, right? This was the twenty-first century. Slavery was illegal. A woman couldn’t just be auctioned off on the internet. My chest seized, and I fought to control my ragged breathing. This couldn’t be real. This couldn’t behappening.

“Relax, Brax will pay whatever’s necessary to get her back.”

“Good thing Carissa’s out of the picture,” Tulsa added as Chase silently appeared and began mopping up coffee. “Could have been awkward if she’d taken him to the cleaners.”

I was still dreaming. I had to be. My friend wasn’t being sold on hell’s version of eBay, and these two lunatics weren’t calmly discussing that fact over coffee. No, it was impossible.

“What happened?” Brax asked from behind me. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t even know anymore.”

“We found Meera,” Jerry told him. “Well, kind of. Apparently, she’s fun, feisty, and available for delivery worldwide.”

If looks could kill… Brax glared at Jerry with the fire of a thousand suns, but she didn’t wither. Meanwhile, I felt quite sick.

“We’re not meant to be discussing this,” he said through gritted teeth.

“What, you think it would be better not to tell her? Indi’s stronger than you think.”

Was that meant to be a compliment? I tried to hide the fact that my knees were trembling.

“Did you know about this?” I asked him. “About this…this…”—there weren’t adequate words to describe what had happened to Meera—“this horror?”

“No. Not any of the details. I was aware that we were following up a lead related to the dark web, that was all.” He leaned past me to look at the screen. “It’s an auction?”

“Yup.”

“Alexa, bid whatever you have to in order to get Meera back.”

“See?” Jerry mouthed at me.

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