Page 21 of Dark Knight

"That's the idea," I tossed over my shoulder with a smile and a wink, all bravado, of course.

"I'm not sure what to say." Hudson's voice startled me, and I looked at him just in time to see him rake his gaze over my form as he rubbed his lower lip. "I'll take you to the cage."

He didn't give me time to respond before heading out. This time he walked in front, as though he wanted to block me from people’s view, but I was sure I was reading too much into it. He was probably just shielding me from the crowd to make it easier to get to the cage I was going to be dancing in.

When we got to the cage, he swung the door open. I climbed up the two little steps that were on the edge before moving into the enclosed space. He swung the door shut behind me, pushing a latch down, and my heart jumped in my chest. I knew I could get to the latch and undo it myself, but just the idea of being closed in somewhere again was unpleasant.

Tentatively, I looked around at the other dancers in the cages, watching their movements for a few moments until I was comfortable enough to start swaying to the beat on my own. One of them gave me a friendly smile and a nod of encouragement, while the others just ignored me.

The feeling of people watching me was unnerving. It reminded me of the few days before Sampson introduced himself and kidnapped me. I had felt like somebody was watching me then as well, though I obviously had no idea it was Sampson.

I felt on edge. My movements were jerky. My chest tightened as my heart beat an unsteady rhythm in my ribcage, my panic swelling. I focused on the beat of the music, trying to drown the emotions I was feeling until there was nothing left.

It almost worked until somebody grabbed my ankle. With a yelp, I fell, my head cracking against one of the bars at the back.

As I crumpled to the floor of the cage, my foot was pulled out through the bars toward the gentleman in question. "Let me see you up close," he drunkenly slurred.

If it wasn't for the tape holding my dress in place, I would have flashed everybody. As it was, he probably got a good view up my skirt…if you could call what I was wearing a skirt.

I tried to kick him with my free leg, but he just grabbed that one as well, using it to pull me through the bars until I was pressed up against them. If he knew where the door to the cage was, could he take me and make me disappear like Sampson did?

A high pitched whistle went out, and I frantically searched the crowd for any sign of the bouncers that worked there. There was some movement at the back of the crowd, but that wasn't what caught my attention.

The flash of steel winking in the light was what had me holding my breath. At first, I thought it was the man who had grabbed me, and I waited for the pain from him stabbing me. I was wrong.

Hudson stood just behind the man’s shoulder with a grin on his face. "You're going to pay for touching her." I heard his words clearly as the music had come to a halt. The knife was at the base of the man's throat, pressing in enough that it probably hurt but didn't draw blood.

I sat frozen in the cage that I was now straddling as everyone stared in this direction. Hudson quickly put the knife away and jerked the man away from the cage by the collar of his shirt.

The man looked as though he was on the edge of tears, and suddenly all the fear I felt subsided. Fear lived in him now, not me, and it was put there by the man with a murderous look on his face standing in front of me.

Hudson shoved the man in the direction of the bouncer who had just parted the crowd. "Take him out back and show him what it means to touch what's ours."

Dylan was there a second later. They stood next to one another as they looked at me, and I could feel tears choking me, but I didn't want to cry in front of everybody. I wasn't sure my body would give me that choice, though. Hudson was the one who came around the back, opening the cage and pulling me out a second later.

"Wait," Dylan said looking at the two of us. "Just stand up there in the cage for a second."

I did as he asked, though I wanted to run,cry, and hide in a corner. Dylan moved through the crowd like a shark cutting through the ocean as he went and stood on the bar, taking his time and making everybody watch in silence. "This woman is mine," he said as he pointed to me. "You see her out on the street, you see her in a club, you see her in a store…you don't touch her. Nobody touches what's mine. Not unless you want to pay with your life. Go and tell all of your little friends, all of your bosses, and all of the other families. I won't let anybody take her from me."

I stared at him with wide eyes, my jaw slightly dropped. The display he made was unexpected and somewhat unreasonable, but at that moment, I didn't care. All I could think about was the fact that he was protecting me once again, and I had no idea why.

He gave me a nod and then looked at Hudson behind me, giving him one as well. I felt Hudson's hands on my back as he turned me toward the door of the cage once more. He hopped down and offered me his hand, which I took. I expected him to walk me back to the dressing rooms.

As soon as I was even partially out of the cage, though, he swept me up into a bridal style hold before he walked me out of the club straight toward the car. There were whispers on the way, people murmuring and looking at me, trying to figure out who I was and why Dylan cared so much…and probably why Hudson cared that much as well.

These men didn't know me, and I didn't know them, but they were willing to protect me. I had to trust in that, at least for now. As soon as Hudson closed me into the back seat of the car, my resolve to not cry broke. Now that I had the privacy of the tinted windows, tears streamed down my face.

Dylan was next to me a moment later, and Hudson slid into the driver's seat. I felt the engine purr to life and the car pull away, but I was barely aware of any of it.

"Come here, sunshine," Dylan said as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close. He unbuckled my seat belt and pulled me onto his lap, seemingly unhappy with the distance between us. I snuggled into his shoulder, grateful for the comfort as I tried to control my sobs.

It wasn't so much that a stranger had touched me, but it triggered memories that were still too fresh. The ghost of Sampson taking me had come front and center, along with the feeling of his cold, hard grip on my shoulder as he walked me out of the dorm. The memory was quickly followed by the one of being locked in that basement room in the dark where I sang to myself to try and ease the silence. As though those two weren’t enough I was drowning in the memory of him taking me to the auction house, of being bound and gagged and treated like nothing more than a sack of potatoes and a hole to fuck.

My whole life, I'd been passed around, given from man to man for one reason or another. I wasn't sure that would ever change, not unless I did something about it. The only thing I could think to do was to try to get away, but I was finding that I didn't mind Dylan or Hudson. In fact, they were some of the nicest men I'd met in my life. If I ran, that would be the same as spitting in their faces, which I wasn't about to do.

All I knew was that in the back of that car, with Dylan's arms wrapped around me and knowing that Hud was in the front seat, was the safest I'd felt since I was a child. I wasn't about to give that up, but that meant I had to come up with some other way to repay them so that I could know I was by their side because they wanted me there, not because of a debt.

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