“Get your hands off me.”
“Aw, that’s no way to talk to your uncle.” He pretends to pout. He snatches me by the hair and yanks my head to the side. “You’re just as annoying as I remember you to be.” He cleans the blood from the back of my neck, then shoves me away when he’s done.
“And you’re just as slimy as I remember you to be,” I retort, which earns me a backhand across the face.
Fuck. That hurt.
The taste of blood crawls across my tongue. I spit it on the ground right next to his boots and he grips me by my shirt, lifting me to my feet.
“You’re going to the cage now,” he says, lifting me from the floor of a disgusting house that is clearly abandoned. With a tight hold on my arm, he drags me to a rotted door. It looks like it used to be painted white. The color is dull from being ignored for so much time but the bottom of the door is gone, sharp spears of wood hang from the body of the slab that’s still holding together.
He opens it and flips on the light and I fight him, trying to get out of his grasp before he pushes me. I teeter over the edge before he grips my shirt, leaving me hanging over the staircase.
“If you don’t want to die, you’ll follow the rules, Harlow. Don’t fight me. You won’t win.”
I nod, giving in all too easy, but I have a baby to think about now. I can’t risk falling down the steps. He guides me down and I hear whimpers and cries, screams of other women as they beg for help. I don’t bother hiding my fear.
Tears stream down my face when I get to the last step.
“No,” I breathe out. “Please, I don’t know what you want, but Grizzly will pay you. Please.”
“I’m doing this because of Grizzly.” He opens the cage, a large cell with iron bars reminding me of a prison. He pushes me inside with the other women, then locks it closed with a key. “I’m tired of him thinking he’s better than everyone else. I’m going to be king. I’m going to take over the territory. I’m going to do what he isn’t willing to do. This is what the MC life is all about. Do you know how much money we’re going to make off you ladies? Especially you, Harlow.” He laughs evilly, then begins to whistle, spinning the key ring over his finger as he climbs up the steps.
He slams the door behind him, leaving us in filth and a dim light. I can barely see anything. Sniffles surround me followed by heavy sobs.
“Can someone tell me what is going on?” I ask anyone and everyone, hoping someone can get their emotions together for two seconds because I’m barely hanging on to my sanity.
A beat passes and a sweet, mousy voice replies, “Welcome to a sex ring and auction. If you’re taken, you’ll be thrown in one of those rooms.” I barely see where she points and can only see the shadow outlining her arm.
In the corner are curtains that hang to the floor. They are filthy at the bottom, and I hear a man grunting.
“Oh my god.” The words come out shaken, and terror is the only thing I feel. My entire body trembles as if I’m cold, but I’m afraid.
I don’t want to go behind the curtain. That poor girl.
“If you don’t go behind the curtain, you go to the left to the other room. That’s where the auction happens. You’ll get sold and go who-knows-where. You won’t ever be seen again.”
“I have people. They will look for me. Dangerous people. There’s hope.”
“We all have people,” she says sadly. “I’ve been missing for weeks.”
“I’ve been here a month,” another says.
I get impatient because I don’t like the doubt I hear. I can’t blame them. They have been here for far too long. Alto, Colt, and Bane will find me. They wouldn’t ever let anything happen to me.
“My people are the rival MC that the guy running this place hates. My people will come for me because they don’t play by the laws.”
“Whatever you have to say to make yourself feel better,” the girl says.
We all stop talking when the curtain jerks back. A guy zips up his pants and grabs the girl from the ground, dragging her back to the cage. She can hardly walk.
She’s high.
He tosses her in the cage and the girl readjusts her dress, places her head against the bars, and shuts her eyes. Her tears are wet from old tears but she’s no longer crying. No, she’s checked out. She’s given up. She’s realized her fate.
“Don’t give up just yet,” I say to everyone. “My people will come.”
Someone else comes down the steps and the girls begin to cry.