Stolen Innocence (Becoming Elena #1)

by Melody Anne

  He gripped her arm again and dragged her forward. Finally her feet shuffled the tiniest bit, tingling shooting up her legs. None of the other men were around. She was somewhat grateful for that. But then again, what might this man try if he were the only one with her? She didn’t want to find out.

  “You’re late.”

  The voice speaking wasn’t one she’d heard before. It was almost formal, not as cruel as the other voices, but just as cold.

  “I’m sorry. We had to wait until we knew the roads were clear,” her captor said. “They put out a search on this one real quick.”

  “The boss doesn’t like excuses.” Then the man stepped forward and gave her an assessing look. “She’s been beaten.”

  “She got a little out of hand, and I was forced to correct her,” the man said.

  “You know better than to touch the merchandise. The boss won’t like this.” A shiver traveled down Mary’s spine as the new man looked her in the eyes for the first time. He circled around her, and the other man’s hand fell away.

  Mary thought for a moment about running, but as if the man knew, his lip turned up the slightest bit.

  “Running will only get you injured,” he said, his tone almost gentle. She found herself wanting to plead with him, beg him to let her go. He seemed as if he would understand.

  “Please . . .” Her voice cracked on the one word.

  “I’m just doing my job, little one. I can’t do anything about it,” the man said, his tone still soothing.

  He then handed her captor an envelope, which the man opened before giving the well-dressed man a grin.

  “It’s a pleasure as always doing business with you,” he said before he turned and walked away.

  “Am I going to have trouble with you?” the well-dressed man asked.

  Mary shook her head as she looked around. They were in the woods. Another van — this one much nicer — was parked about fifty feet away. It appeared as if it were only her and this new man. She was wrenching on the ties binding her hands. If she could just get them loose, she had a fair chance of getting away. She was sure she could outrun this man who appeared to be in his forties.

  “I want to go home,” she said when the ties didn’t loosen.

  “You are home now,” he told her.

  It was just the two of them, or so she thought.

  “What in the hell is taking so long, Leo?” another voice called out.

  “We’re just getting to know each other, Rico,” Leo responded, not taking his eyes off her.

  The other man, Rico, approached, his eyes deadly cold. Mary found herself taking a step closer to Leo, who seemed to be the lesser of the two evils.

  “She’s trouble. I can always tell the troublemakers,” Rico said with a grin, as if he enjoyed conflict. “Leo, get her secured. We still have a long way to go.”

  Mary’s shoulders sagged. There was no way she was escaping both of these men. It didn’t mean she wouldn’t try if she had the chance. It just meant she was going to be hauled into another vehicle for now.

  Rico grabbed her arm roughly and began tugging her toward the van.

  “Please . . . I have to go to the bathroom,” she said as he opened the back door.

  “There aren’t facilities out here,” Rico said, his tone giving nothing away as to what he was thinking.

  “I really have to go,” she pleaded.

  “Let her go. But I wouldn’t let her out of your sight. This one’s a runner. I can feel it,” Leo said with a smile.

  “Got it, boss,” Rico replied. She was surprised. She’d thought Rico was the boss by the way he was acting.

  He pulled her twenty feet away to a tree, in view of both men.

  “Can I please just have a little privacy?” she attempted.

  “You have one minute to get this done,” Rico said.

  “But my hands are tied. I can’t get my pants down.”

  “Then I guess you’re out of luck. You now have fifty seconds.” The man looked at the watch on his wrist.

  She knew he wasn’t bluffing. She wiggled out of her sweatpants, doing the best she could with them both watching, humiliating herself even more. She quickly relieved herself before she pulled her pants back up, feeling disgusted.

  “Let’s go,” Rico said as he glanced at his watch.

  Leo gripped her arm again and moved her to the van. Inside the back was a bench. The driver’s area was caged off. She couldn’t see past the wall separating it from the back.

  Leo pushed her inside and then sat her on the bench. He reached for her ties, and Mary thought this might be the moment she could run. But before the thought was halfway out of her brain, the back doors sealed them in, and as soon as her ties were off, Leo grabbed one hand, threw a handcuff on it, and clipped it to the bar.

  “We have a bit of a ride, so I wouldn’t pull on that arm,” Leo said as he leaned back, looking as if this were no more than another day at the office.

  “Thanks,” she sarcastically replied.

  She knew it could earn her another slap, but she was furious.

  Instead of the man striking out in anger, he laughed. “I think the boss will really enjoy you,” he said, grinning at her.

  “What does your boss want from me?” she asked after several minutes of silence. She wanted to know, yet she didn’t. Although she would much rather be informed than not.

  “It’s what he does,” Leo said with a sigh as he ran a hand over his face.

  “What does he do?” she asked.

  “He likes young girls,” Leo said.

  “What kind of monster is he?” she gasped.

  “He’s a very wealthy man who pretty much gets anything he wants,” Leo told her. “If you don’t fight this, just do what he wants, it’ll be a lot less painful for you.”

  “Fight what? I don’t even know what I’m fighting,” she screamed.

  “You know what this is about. The sooner you accept it, the better off you’ll be,” he told her.

  “Please don’t do this. I made a promise to my brother. I need to get back to him,” she said, finally caving in to the tears again.

  “I’m just doing my job,” Leo told her.

  “No, you’re not!” she screamed again. “You’re kidnapping and abusing.”

  “Most people don’t enjoy their work. They just do it,” he said again.

  “You’re just as big a monster as your boss,” she told him.

  “I can be.” The look in his eyes frightened her. She’d thought for a moment she had an ally in him. But it appeared she didn’t. She had no one.

  She didn’t say anything else. What good would it do her anyway? Terror was sealing her throat.

  She would escape. Mary was sure of it. She wouldn’t let these people destroy her. She had a promise to keep. When the drugs they gave her kicked in and she began fading into sleep, she was grateful. She would get away from this reality any way she could.

  Chapter Five

  A blindfold was thrust over Mary’s eyes, and she didn’t even fight it this time. During the entire drive, which had been hours upon hours, she’d nodded off a couple times with her head hitting the back of the van and causing her to wake up in a panic, unable to move her arms.

  Leo stopped talking to her, and she refused to look at him, even when the van stopped and the men pushed her out to relieve herself again. She wasn’t as mortified this time with someone watching her. Maybe she was just growing numb to it.

  But when the blindfold slipped off just as the sun was rising in the sky, she knew they’d reached their destination, wherever that might be. She was terrified, but she also realized this wasn’t going to be an easy escape.

  Did that mean she wasn’t going to try to get away at the first opportunity she got? Of course not. She would do anything in her power to keep the promise to her little brother, to go back home.

  But she also knew the choice wasn’t hers right now. The situation was completely out of her control.

&nbs
p; “This way,” Leo said.

  She stubbornly planted her feet and refused to move. It was like asking a mouse to run into the cat’s mouth. How foolish did they think she was?

  “Come on, little girl. You’ve been such a model prisoner so far,” Rico said with a laugh as he nudged her back.

  “Go to hell,” Mary told him. She spit in the general direction she thought he was standing.

  When he cursed, she knew she’d hit him. The slap against the side of her face, setting her ears ringing, also let her know he didn’t appreciate her act of rebellion.

  “Get this bitch inside before I knock out a few teeth,” Rico growled.

  “Calm down. That’s not the worst substance you’ve had on your shoe,” Leo said with a chuckle.

  Mary was hefted into the air, and her breath rushed out when her stomach connected with Leo’s massive shoulder, her head now dangling behind his back.

  His hand trailed along her butt before he gave it a pat that infuriated her all the more.

  “Be a good little girl,” he said, the humor still in his voice.

  “You can go to hell, too,” she said, wishing she could be a lot more creative with her insults.

  But even if she were acting tough, she was terrified. She didn’t know what awaited her inside the walls of wherever they were taking her, but she knew it wasn’t anything good.

  Struggling against Leo’s back only earned her another slap on the butt, this one harder, her cheek stinging beneath the cotton of her pants. She clamped her teeth together to keep from screaming out and earning more punishment.

  When she was finally set down, she didn’t move an inch. Her hands were still cuffed and the blindfold remained in place. She wasn’t sure if she wanted it taken off. That would thrust her into the reality of all that was going on.

  Mary wasn’t sure she was ready for that.

  She kept her eyes tightly closed as the blindfold was removed. She was in denial. If she refused to open her eyes, then the situation wasn’t really happening to her.

  “Open your eyes, little girl,” Leo said.

  “My name is Mary!” she finally screamed. She was sick of being called little girl.

  “Not for long it isn’t,” Leo said.

  Her heart stopped in her chest before resuming frantically. What was that supposed to mean? One thing she knew for sure — she wasn’t ready to find out.

  Chapter Six

  This time when Mary woke up, the new room wasn’t musty or as dark. It was slightly bigger but no more luxurious. She was once again on a cot, but this one had a sheet on it.

  And there was an identical cot right across from her, within touching distance, but it was currently empty. As she pulled herself from her grogginess, she looked down.

  She was horrified to see she was wearing a nightgown. The smell of shampoo hung in the air and, as she reached down and felt her legs, she could tell the grime was gone. She’d been cleaned. Someone had bathed her.

  The tears she’d refused to shed earlier instantly filled her eyes and spilled over. She had been violated. She didn’t know how far it had extended, but someone had stripped her, seen her naked, touched her.

  The thought was terrifying and demoralizing.

  Before she was able to put thoughts to words, the door opened. She cowered in the corner of the bed as a new man filled the entrance, stepped aside, and a young woman walked through.

  Her hair was down, but clean, her clothing the same type of pajamas Mary was wearing. There was a decided slowness about her approach, and she didn’t make eye contact with Mary.

  “See you tonight, Patty,” the man said before shutting the door. The distinct sound of a lock clicking echoed through the small walls of their prison.

  “Where am I?” Mary asked. She was still cowered in the corner of her bed, holding her legs.

  The young woman sat down and assumed the same pose as Mary, hugging her knees tightly to her chest as she looked over. Mary was barely able to see the girl’s expression; the room was so dim. But what she could see was terrifying. It was almost as if an endless void rested within her eyes.

  Mary shivered as the young girl trembled in the bed next to her.

  “Please talk to me,” Mary whispered.

  The girl finally turned her head, making eye contact. Her eyes were deader than Mary had originally thought, devoid of all emotion.

  “I’m Patty,” she finally whispered.

  “Patty, what is this place?” Mary asked.

  “Hell,” Patty replied.

  “How do we get out?” She was feeling more panicked by the minute.

  “We don’t.” Then there was a spark in her eyes as her gaze bored into Mary’s. “Don’t fight them. It will only make it worse.”

  Her words sent terror through Mary’s body. She hadn’t thought it was possible to feel more frightened than she already was, but those words had done it.

  “Where am I? What do they want?” Mary finally whispered.

  “You’re here for the master of the house,” she said then shuddered. “He wants you. He wants us all. One is never enough.”

  At the end of her sentence the words trailed off into almost nothingness. What had been done to this girl to make her talk this way? Mary couldn’t imagine the horrors that were coming her way.

  “I don’t understand.”

  The girl in the bed next to her continued to tremble as she looked at her with a sad knowingness that Mary didn’t want to see.

  “You can’t possibly understand. I didn’t. None of us did.” She said this with so little emotion that a chill rushed down Mary’s spine.

  “Please just tell me. You’re frightening me more than I already am,” Mary pleaded.

  “I shouldn’t have asked. It didn’t help to know. I think that’s why they room us together for a little while though. I think they want us to tell each other. They say to only speak positively. They say they are always listening, but really, there’s nothing else they can do to us that they haven’t already done,” she began.

  “What do you mean?” Mary wanted to scream, but somehow she kept her voice quiet. “How long have you been here?”

  “I’ve been here four years.” There was barely any inflection in her voice. “Four long years.” Then she looked up, her eyes suddenly alert. “What’s your name? How old are you?”

  The intensity of her words made Mary flinch. She’d been showing such little emotion up to that point.

  “I’m almost seventeen. My name’s Mary,” she said.

  The girl gave an almost smile as she looked at Mary.

  “I’m nineteen now. I was fifteen when I was brought here.” Then her eyes went intense again, and she reached over and gripped Mary’s arm.

  Her arm was still sore from the first man who had pawed her, but she didn’t tug against the hold. It was almost soothing to have this girl touch her, just to know she wasn’t alone.

  “Don’t forget who you are. They will try to make you forget but don’t. Remember,” she whispered harshly. “Tell yourself every single day who you really are and when your birthday is. You will lose track of time. You will get sick and you will hurt, but don’t forget. It’s the only thing that will keep your feet on the ground — that will keep you from going insane.”

  She finished her impassioned speech and then let go of Mary and sat back again, her eyes going back to the lifeless slits they’d been when she’d first entered the room.

  “What are they going to do to me?” She hadn’t wanted to ask that question, but still, she had to know.

  “Anything they want,” she replied before taking a deep breath. “Some girls have it easier than others and some — the ones the master chooses, the ones like me — we have it the worst.”

  “What does he do to you?” Mary asked as she pushed back her newly formed tears.

  “Everything!” she whispered harshly. “He’s cruel and gets off on that,” she said as a single tear tracked down her face, and she angrily wiped i
t away. “But if you fight them, it’s worse. Don’t forget who you are, but make them believe you’ve forgotten. The torture will stop being so harsh once they think they’ve broken you. But don’t give in too quickly or they will know. They will punish you for lying to them. They don’t allow us to lie to them. They don’t allow us to think. They only allow us to do their bidding,” she finished.

  “I’m scared,” Mary told her.

  “I can’t tell you not to be. Just pray the master doesn’t want you right away. Hope and pray you have some time. I had a year before he took me. He was satisfied with the last girl before that. But then one day he wanted me.” Another shudder passed through her.

  “What happened to her?” Mary asked. She was trembling as she sunk down on her small cot and curled into a ball while still looking at Patty.

  “I don’t know. She was just gone one day.” Patty lay down and faced Mary.

  “Do you think they let her go?” Maybe Mary would get out of here.

  “I have to believe that. She did what they asked of her. She truly believed she was who they told her she was,” she said, her eyes bright. “Maybe they let her go.”

  Patty didn’t sound as if she truly believed that. Mary couldn’t fathom never seeing her family again. She couldn’t believe how petty her thoughts had been when she’d last left her house. She’d do anything just to rush into her mother’s warm embrace right now and tell her how much she loved and appreciated her. She’d really love to hold her little brother, smell his sweet fine hair. She’d never defy her stepfather again if she got to go home. She made all of these promises and more to herself in the hopes of escape.

  “I really want my mom,” Mary finally said.

  “You can’t think that way. It will slowly kill you if you do,” Patty told her.

  “How long were you with the other girl?” Mary asked.

  “Only a couple months. They usually only put us with the new girls for a few weeks. I think they believe it will make us more cooperative. The more you make them think you’re coming around to their way, the more rewards you will get,” Patty told her.