Page 41 of Auctioned Surrender

In less time than is legal, we are pulling up outside Party Haven, and I start to open the door. “Hey, you have to pay first! Then I’ll wait for you!”

“Fine, but if you take off I’m going to turn your crazy ass in for driving like a fricking lunatic, got it?” I say, giving him my best glare while swiping Damian’s card through the credit card machine attached to the back of the passenger seat.

“I’ll be here. The clock is running, so get a move on before I change my mind and go make some real money,” he growls as I get out and head into the little store.

The boutique is an absolute treasure trove, and I immediately see just the type of wear that I need toward the back. The real dresses, not the little paper things that most people buy for a quick costume party, but the real stuff that the escorts buy. Long, slinky dresses and high heels, and yes, exactly that mask! In less than ten minutes I’ve managed to squirm intothe long pink dress that exposes my left leg right up to my hip, and have slipped into the strappy silver sandals and white mask adorned with silver. I turn to give myself one cursory glance in the mirror. I’ll blend right in, and they’ll never see me coming!

In another five minutes, I’ve convinced the sales clerk to cut the tags and let me wear the merchandise out of the store. I swallow slightly as I use Damian’s credit card again to pay for my extravagant purchases, before heading to the shop next door where I’m betting you can get whatever you need for the right price, including a gun with no ID or background check.

The cabdriver’s eyebrows lift when I slide into the back seat of the car. “Damn, girl, you sure do clean up nice,” he says with obvious appreciation.

I can’t help but smile at the man. “Eyes on the road,” I scold as he veers into traffic, getting us honked at again while my seat belt pulls me back into the cold vinyl seat of the cab for the ride across town.

It takes less than twenty minutes, a trip that legally probably takes double that, if not more. As soon as we stop, I decide that someone needs to know I’ve been here in case something goes wrong with my plan, and having a ride at the ready would not be a bad idea either. “Hey, tell you what. If you wait half an hour for me, I’ll give you two hundred bucks. All you have to do is go around the corner of the building, out of sight, sit there and wait for me.”

“You got it, but you pay first, and if I don’t see the whites of your eyes in thirty minutes, I take off.”

“No, if you don’t see the whites of my eyes in thirty minutes, you remember my face, what I look like what I was wearing, and you go to the police and tell them my name. It’s Bryanna Foster. Got it?”

He turns to look at me real good and nods. “You better not be getting me into something crooked, little lady. I don’t need noheat! I’ve been clean for more than five years, and I ain’t looking to tangle with no cops.”

“I’ll be back; nothing’s going to happen to me,” I say, closing the door. He pulls away and turns right at the corner. I wait, and the lights go out as he parks. I take a deep breath and head toward the front entrance, feeling better that at least someone knows where I am, and even guiltier that I didn’t tell Damian before he left.

At the end of the day, he is paid to protect me, and there is no way he would allow me to walk into this bar and do what I have in mind, and perhaps I should heed that little voice, but it’s far too late for that, and I don’t.

The bouncer at the door is big and makes me cringe. I’ve seen him back at the club in Chicago, and I know for a fact that he doesn’t mess around, but he’s never seen me. When the girls told me to steer clear of him, I took that advice straight to heart and hightailed it out of there whenever I even saw his back.

“You gotta invitation?” he asks.

“Bee from Bee’s Massage said that I wouldn’t need a pass to get in, just to give you her name at the door. I’m a gift,” I say, swiping my tongue seductively against my lips.

“Fuck, too bad she didn’t send you to me, honey. Get your ass in there, maybe we’ll meet up later,” he says.

“Perhaps,” I say, opening the door to enter.

The room is already starting to fill up with masked men, and the little hairs on the back of my neck tingle with trepidation, making me thankful I had the foresight to get dressed up and wear a mask. The security in this establishment are lined up against the wall, all wearing black suits and crisp white shirts, and have automatic Uzis at the ready.

I put an extra little sway in my walk, making my way past the entrance and letting my eyes adjust to the dimness of the lighting as I scan the room. The entire hall has been decoratedin the masquerade theme, and it takes me less than ten seconds to find the traitor son-of-a-bitch who everyone but me now calls my brother.

Chapter 29

Damian

It takes me thirty minutes to get to the hotel we’re planning to use as a communication station and to get dressed for the night. The last thing I need is for Bryanna to question where I’m going for the evening and worry about its impact on her family.

“You know Bryanna’s brother may not know who you are, but your bidding opponent’s going to recognize you the minute you walk into that damn room,” Cole says, leaning against the door frame of the bedroom as I shift my tie and then fasten my cuff links.

“Can’t be helped. I was going after him on his yacht anyway; no time like catching the bastard in the act. You know as well as I do, the girls in these auctions aren’t up on those stages of their own free will. Fucking coercion, plain and simple. We need to get pics of every girl in that place. I’m glad you had the foresight to have Brian give you guys a few extra invitations. If we don’t help all the girls tonight, we’re going to wish we did, once Marenah gets through with us,” I say.

“Yeah, Matt has his hands full with Wildcat,” Cole says, and he should know. He spent the entire night guarding her when we were tasked with keeping her away from the Chicago Mafia and before she and Matt became a thing.

I laugh at the nickname she was given, and rightly so, after the men saw her in a bar fight, helping to save Matt’s life. She can definitely hold her own against the best of them. “If you don’t get what she wants, you’re not going to be laughing tomorrow,” I counter, and he has the good grace to shut up. He knows she’ll harass his sorry ass until she has a picture of each and every one of those girls so she can cross reference them in the database that her division uses to find victims of trafficking.

“Yeah, she sure would. That’s no lie. Now quit primping, pretty boy, and go find our man,” Cole says.

I laugh to myself at his humor, but it’s short-lived as he turns to answer an incoming call. This is one of those times that we have to prevail. There is absolutely no room for even the slightest of errors, because these fuckers have billions of dollars on their side. There are tons of these deviant bastards out there, men who want a virgin who will do what they want without question. Or even worse, an unwilling virgin, someone who will put up a fight and that they can hurt as they take her innocence. The thought that Bryanna could have easily become one of these women sends a cold chill down my spine and steels me for the night to come.

“Let’s get this party started,” I say, walking past the men in the living room and heading down to the sleek, dark limo that Brian has had provided for us. I climb into the back seat, Matt and Cole slide into the middle, and Keith hits the gas.

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