Page 6 of Stolen

My mouth stayed silent for a moment, but my eyes did nothing but confirm his assumption. He was correct, of course.

“Naturally,” I replied, earning myself a little bit of my dignity back. I would not be stunned into silence. Not if I could help it.

His eyes darkened. “What’s your name?” he asked, his deep voice thrumming through my ears, smooth and demanding.

“Jaden,” I replied, keeping my voice clear.

He still didn’t look impressed.

“Jaden what? I want a last name.”

I groaned internally, not really seeing why it mattered what my last name was anyway, but the more information they had on me, the more they could use it against me. I figured they probably already had my damn ID anyway.

“Jaden Wilder,” I finally told him, my brows furrowing from my admission.

That made him smile a little.

“Well then, Ms.Wilder, I’ll get straight to the point.”

Oh, good. I was worried he might doddle.

“You’ve been selected to participate in a very exclusive auction where you’ll be sold to one of our most competitive bidders to serve whatever purpose they desire of you. Once payment is received, you will officially belong to them, be released into their custody, and move on with the next phase of your life, however long or brief it may be.”

I blinked in confusion. He was so damn straight to the point I nearly missed it. Like he’d shot the arrow so fast over my head I hadn’t even had the chance to catch it.

Still, my brain rebelled at his words, internally misfiring and sending out several signals of extreme denial. There was no way this was real. No fucking way. Yet here I was, naked with no memory, kneeling on the floor in a random office, surrounded by dangerous men with guns and bad attitudes.

And even while my mind continued to struggle with the mental cartwheels, this guy kept fucking talking.

“So for the time being, you can consider this facility your new temporary home.”

Bullshit. This was total bullshit.

“During your temporary stay at our facility, we really only have one rule you need to follow—do as you’re told the first time you’re told. I happen to have a lot of sadistic men on staff here for a reason. I suggest you not tempt them with defiance.”

The warning was clear, albeit somewhat obvious. I doubted they’d reward me with cupcakes if I kicked their balls into their stomachs for simply looking at me.

“Until you’re sold, you’ll do well to remember that I own every single one of you, which means you are wholly dependent on me for anything and everything. So for obvious reasons, it would be in your best interest not to bite the hand that feeds you.”

Bitch, I’ll cut your damn hand off and eat that if I want to.

“With that being said, the better behaved you are, the more likely you’ll be sold to someone with less violent intentions. The more you misbehave, the more marks you’ll end up with, and the more likely you’ll attract someone still hoping for a fighter. So, think hard on what you want to reveal about yourself when you’re standing on that block.”

How nice of him to put things in such a simple perspective. I wasn’t stupid enough to expect I could influence my buyer with unblemished skin or not. Nothing about what he just said was a guarantee, so I wasn’t going to dwell on it.

“But the most important thing you need to understand is that whatever life you had before is now over. I know that’s difficult to accept now, but the sooner you come to terms with it, the easier things will be for you. Do you understand everything I’ve said to you so far?”

“Yes,” I replied dismissively, ready to end the damn conversation. It was pointless to continue. He intentionally provided vague details, just enough to placate me, but they contained nothing of real value. The only thing he did do was confirm the potential duration of time. If there was nothing else to offer, then there was no point in lingering.

He narrowed his eyes at me for a moment, observing my turn to be unimpressed by him. “Good, now stand up.”

Holding tight to my self-confidence, I stood and revealed the rest of my naked body. I didn’t want to give anyone else in that room more power over me by trying to hide myself from them. Now was the time to show strength in the hopes that I might get one raindrop of respect. It’s hard to gain respect, though, now that I stood at my full puny height, but at least it gave me a better idea of how tall and big my new adversary really was.

His damn shoulders reached above my head, which meant he was probably six-foot-five, and judging by his sheer size, I was willing to bet he was well over two hundred pounds, probably a lot more. All that muscle mass would allow him to take a lot of hits without much internal damage. If I wanted to make a single dent in his iron frame, I’d have to go for the smaller, weaker spots, which meant I would have to get so much closer to him than I wanted to.

Stepping up to me, he crowded my space with his impossibly large body, making me feel far too insignificant. He took my shoulders in his ridiculously large hands and led me off to the side, facing me in front of him. The moment his hands grasped my skin, I wanted to shrughim off and bolt. It sent strange vibes into my belly as heat inflamed my skin under his touch. Still, I fought the urge and allowed him to direct me where he wanted me. But God help him if he tried to hurt me. He then stood back and looked at me.

Slowly, he started to circle me, like a lion studying its prey before the kill. I stood as still as I possibly could, my ears listening intently for all of his movements, my heart beginning to pound hard enough I was afraid he could hear it.

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