Page 186 of Come Back To Me

Womb-less. No family. If she survives, where will she go? Will there be people waiting for her? My mind spirals, whirling with frustration and apprehension. I check my watch, lower my hand, then check it again.

I feel Travis’ eyes on me, silently telling me to calm the fuck down. “Dean,” he says, when I obviously don’t.

All eyes swing to me. It’s only then I realise my fists are white knuckling, the pain absolutely nothing in comparison to what this woman will face.

With a heavy heart, we sit through six more live bids. I can’t say I watch them all because I don’t. Can’t. Sending my glass through the opposite wall, I can’t watch a poor boy no older than eight, stand there whilst monsters bid for his eyes.

Hisfuckingeyes. And the most tragic element to his being there? Clearly his father following after him, knowing he’s signed them both up. Wherever he’s looking to get them, for shelter or for safety, he considersthisworth the risk?

White hot rage burns me to my core trying to wrap my head around it. I stand, unable to momentarily quieten the shouting voices behind my skull.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

“Fuck,” Jack whispers.

I turn, knowing by his tone that Legs has come on to the screen. I move around to see, but refuse to sit. God knows howmany more we have to sit through before we can move. I’ve just about got a grip on my ability to stay put, but I’m itching, clawing at the exit, ready to pounce.

I bite my tongue tasting the copper tang when I see him being made to stand. We know what’s coming before it even happens. His shirt is discarded, our feed to the GPS on him, momentarily lost.

Jack keeps his phone open, but the screen is blank. “Ten bidders already in the feed.”

Fuck.

“Do we know what for yet?” Len asks, standing furthest away from the screen.

Answering our question, one bid for fifty thousand pounds is placed. For his lung.

I just about swallow the putrid taste of bile before another bid for his liver comes in. “More than one?” My voice shakes as I point out the obvious. No one that we have watched to this point has had more than one organ bid for. It’s always been one. “Why are they bidding on more?”

Legs is turned like the woman, his arms raised out to the side.

The man wearing black must have an earpiece. He muses, nodding, clearly being told how toshowwhat the bidders want to see.

He’s spun around again, and when the bright light hits his eyes, there’s nothing. Legs doesn’t react. Not even a wince or a blink. He’s withdrawn himself. Cut off his emotion to be able to endure this.

Seeing his detachment, a cold sweat prickles at my brow and the back of my neck. My blood turns to ice as fear and confusion manifest in my head like an infection, slowly multiplying and spreading through my veins.

My sanity is plagued by panic. My vision blurs as a thick fogdescends before me.

“Deano,” Jack says worried, but I don’t hear him.

My feet carry me as far away from the screen as they can. I hear someone follow me, but I don’t stop until I’ve made it to the bar. I grip the wood, my fingers curling painfully into it.

“Deano.” I can’t look up at Jack as I battle to contain the attack. He waits.

Silence presses my ears. The ticking of my watch the only thing I can hear. It’s isolating, caging me in darkness.Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.It goes on and on and on, mimicking the rhythm of the first time this happened.

Breathe, you fucking idiot. Now is not the time. Breathe, breathe, breathe. I suck in strangled breaths as the room rocks around me. I’m going to pass out if I don’t get a hold of myself.

A hand’s placed on my shoulder, a showing that he’s still here. Still with me.

My next breath reaches my lungs a little easier, and I feel the oxygen start to steady the galloping rate of my heart. Shakily, I open my eyes, seeing my feet. A deceptive calm leaves me hollowed.

More feet pound the floorboards, edging closer. “Dean?”

I wearily stand, looking up to Travis.

His face casts a shadow over the slight relief I feel. “We have a fucking problem.”

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