Page 34 of Lacey's Fight

“You spoil me,” she said softly. Of its own accord her hand lifted to cup his cheek, tenderness flowing through her. Something seemed to arc between them. She wasn’t sure what it was, she had never experienced it before.

“Nothing more than you should have.”

The moment seemed to linger, they stared into one another’s eyes. Slowly it looked like Ben’s gaze was softening, opening, but then all of a sudden, they shuttered again, and he returned his attention to the catalog.

Lacey did too.

As unpleasant as it was, they had to play their roles, which meant accepting the catalog handed to them at lunch. Instead of taking it back to their room as some of the other guests had done, they’d settled in a quiet spot in the library and begun to flick through it as though they were enjoying pouring over it and making selections.

According to their cover story, Diana was looking for young girls, tweens, and very early teens that they would use to start an exclusive and specialized brothel for their wealthy friends. They’d bypassed any of the older girls and those too young, focusing on the ten to fourteen age range. So far, they had seven girls marked that they would bid on tomorrow night.

Prey was funding this op so they had a limitless supply of cash. Hopefully, they would be able to purchase all seven so those girls would be safe until the raid. Those bought by the other guests would still be rescued in the raid, but their new owners would be permitted to use them right away if they so chose.

The girl who had been beaten in front of them yesterday was in the catalog, and although they couldn’t bid on her since she was sixteen, Lacey’s heart had ached at seeing the girl’s picture.

All the images in the catalog were heartbreaking.

It was practically pornographic. All the girls and women, including the infants, had been photographed in a number of positions.

Sickening.

Bile had churned in her stomach and burned her throat, and it had taken all her well-learned constraint to keep it down and a smile on her face.

Broke a piece of her soul though.

Was that what had happened to her?

Had she been put in some auction catalog that sick freaks had perused?

There were no records of how she had been sold, how The Master had come to purchase four infant girls. It hadn’t ever really been something she’d thought about before. The Master had bought them, taken them to his compound in Alaska, and trained them. The technicalities of how it all occurred had seemed irrelevant.

Now that she was sitting here, flicking through a catalog and feigning delight, she did wonder.

It didn’t make any difference. Didn’t change anything, and the only way to get those answers was if The …

Her thoughts trailed off, falling into a deep black hole.

There he was.

Him.

The monster who haunted her relentlessly.

Like no time at all had passed, she was eighteen again, back in Alaska, fighting to get through each day. Enduring horrific torture on a daily basis, covered in bruises and gashes at various stages of healing, malnourished and dehydrated.

A walking zombie.

Because of him.

Of course, Ben noticed the change in her instantly. An arm came to wrap around her shoulders, and he turned her so she was facing him, tucked against his chest.

“Was that him?” he whispered against her ear.

All she could do was nod.

How could she do this?

Lacey knew she wasn’t as strong as her sisters. Ivory hadn’t flinched when she’d come face to face with The Master, she’d fought to save those little girls. And Pearl had been beaten by the man just a few months ago, and she hadn’t succumbed to his mind games.

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