“The educated ones are always more fun,” Chaplinsky said with a shrug.
“How so?” Cole asked.
“They like to argue with their mouths, but proper discipline quickly shuts them up. It’s quite fun.”
“We have $375,000, will someone bid $400,000?” the host said into the microphone. “Men, she’s worth four.”
Chaplinsky raised his hand once more. The host acknowledged him and called out for the next bid while the girl wobbled on her bare feet, completely unaware of her surroundings.
“How do you acquire your new purchase once you win a bid?” Cole questioned.
“You settle up in the back before you claim your prize.”
“Do you have to wait until the auction is over or could you…begin immediately?” Adam asked.
Chaplinsky wiggled his bushy eyebrows again, a habit that was grating on Cole’s nerves. “Eager, eh? Luis prefers that you settle up immediately. Then you can either stay with your prize or leave at once.”
There it was…a way to get Chaplinsky out of the way so he and Adam could figure out a plan.
“We have $400,000, do we have $425,000?” There was a pause and then the host’s satisfied smile. “We have $425,000, do we have $450,000?” The host said pointedly, staring at Chaplinsky.
The big man tapped his finger on the table. “I do not know that she will be worth that.”
Cole pushed his case. “Look at those breasts. High, firm, very young. I’d be willing to bet she’s practically a virgin.”
Chaplinsky blinked at him as if in shock. “You think so?”
“Can’t you tell? Look at that skin, her face—she can’t even be eighteen. I’d be willing to bet on it.” When Chaplinsky leaned in, obviously interested, Cole continued baiting him. “Think of what you could do with all of that young, tight flesh.” A revolting eagerness practically radiated from the fat Russian’s face.
You seem very knowledgeable on the matter,” Chaplinsky said with a wink.
“We have $425,000, looking for $450,000. Looking for $450,000 gentlemen, for this beautiful and willing young slave. Although we cannot guarantee she is 100% pure, she’s exceptionally close.”
Chaplinsky’s eyes widened. The host had practically just confirmed what Cole had suggested. The Russian’s hand shot up into the air, indicating he’d willingly pay the price.
“Ah, a connoisseur.” The host tipped his head to the Russian, acknowledging his bid. “Are any other gentlemen interested in my beautiful flower? They can have her for the price of $475,000. $475,000 for this nubile, untried slave.” The host seemed to latch on to the growing eagerness in the crowd. He was a master at his game. “Turn, my flower. Let them see how beautiful you are.” The host turned the brunette, who stumbled awkwardly in a circle, following the man’s lead.
Cole vowed right then and there that he’d kill every son of a bitch in attendance at this slavery auction. His team would personally find every single woman who had been taken for this auction, and they would exact justice on their behalf.
Chaplinsky grumbled, “I do not want to pay more than $500,000 for another slave.” Adam must have caught some of Cole’s eagerness. He put an elbow on his knee and leaned in closer to Chaplinsky, as if the two of them were sharing a conspiratorial secret. “Every man will be jealous of you tonight. And I think Luis will too, now that he started the bidding way too low for this particular slave.”
Chaplinsky’s gaze shifted from the slave to Luis’s hand, which now had a tight grip on Tomi’s hair. The pleasant smile had disappeared from his face. Adam wasn’t lying; the proprietor had indeed realized his mistake, and from the painful expression on Tomi’s face, she was paying for it. Cole wrapped his fingers around the edges of his seat and squeezed, needing an outlet for the rage ripping around his bones.
Chaplinsky’s hesitation vanished. “Ha, he is furious. And I, being the kind and thoughtful guest that I am, will make sure to rub it in his face later.” Cole could practically see the wheels turning in Chaplinsky’s mind.
“Do we have $475,000 for my flower?”
Silence reigned. The host glanced into another booth that Cole couldn’t see. The man who’d been bidding against the Russian was obviously hesitant to pay more. “Going once, going twice, sold to my friend for $450,000.” The host pushed the slave off the stage into the guard’s waiting hands and signaled for Chaplinsky to come settle up.
Chaplinsky shoved up from his chair, having to wedge his fat frame out of his seat.
“Will we see you again tonight? Or should I plan on a phone call from the home country sometime next week?” Adam said.
“I’ll be back,” Chaplinsky straightened the lapels of his tuxedo, a feat that should’ve ripped the strange material in two. It was a testament to the fine woven quality of the suit that it didn’t bust at the seams. “I may be a few minutes though.” He did another maddening wiggle of his brows. “I would like to sample my prize. I bid you gentlemen goodbye for now.” And with the eagerness of a toddler on the cusp of opening a much-wanted Christmas present, Chaplinsky waddled from the thick velvet curtains, which swished shut behind him.
The minute they were alone Adam rounded on Cole. “Want to tell me why the hell you just did that? He’s going to ride that girl, and we’re not ready to stop them. I haven’t seen Tara.”
“Luis has my ex-girlfriend. That’s her, kneeling at his feet.” Adam nodded in Tomi’s direction, allowing the bitterness and hatred he’d worked so hard to mask to rise to the surface.
“Jesus Christ.” Adam fell back in his chair. “I’m guessing you weren’t expecting she’d be here.”
“Nope, and I’m guessing she wasn’t planning on it. Adam, I can’t leave her.” But Cole sure as hell didn’t know how they were going save both Tara and Tomi. As a matter of fact, he had no fucking clue about anything right now. Their entire plan for recon and trapping had been completely demolished.
“If I alert our backup, it’s going to trigger their internal alarms. El Oscuro isn’t stupid. He’s got scanners on this place, and if he doesn’t have scanners, he has disruptors…which will keep our signal from ever reaching backup,” Adam said. He grabbed the scotch and downed his entire drink. Then he reached for Chaplinsky’s and finished that too.
“Look at the menu,” Cole tapped the fine parchment paper. “All the slaves so far have matched their descriptions. None of them sound like Tara. I don’t think she’s here tonight.”
Adam’s fingers flexed on the paper, crushing it in a firm grip. The man might move with sensual grace, but there was undeniable power in every part of his body. “So, you want me to risk my submissive’s life on a hunch?”
“No, I want you to think with your mind and not your heart.” Exactly the opposite of what Cole himself was doing right now. “She’s not listed on this menu. Sounds like El Oscuro has multiple auctions. He’s probably hoarding his stock—I mean women—for the next auction.”
Adam stared at Cole with an expression of incredulous fury. “We stick to the goddamn plan.”
Desperation took hold of Cole. No matter how bitter he felt toward Tomi, he couldn’t leave her here. Not like this. These women weren’t anywhere close to being willing submissive’s wanting to take the next step; this was outright human slavery and rape. It had made him ill to think of Tara being in the grasp of these men, but the sight of Tomi kneeling at that monster’s feet made him want to kill someone with his bare hands. Specifically, Luis.
“There has to be a way that we can bid on them both. Why else would we fucking be here? We can figure out how to beat them.” Cole shoved his head into his hands, bracing his elbows on his knees as he tried to wrestle his brain into submission. He couldn’t look at Tomi and think, not with Luis touching her. Not with every man’s lustful gaze locked on her. Not with his own gaze locked on her.
“We can’t do it without help,” Adam said quietly. “We have to contact your brothers.”
Carter and Clint were waiting jus
t on the other end of their microphones, along with the rest of men of Fury Security. Some of the ex-Navy SEALs and Special Forces operatives wouldn’t have a problem getting their hands dirty if that’s what it took to get the mission done. But most of them were a mile away, waiting in the wings. If they swooped in now and Tara wasn’t there, they’d risk losing her forever. “We have to bid on Tomi. Finish the auction. Chaplinsky said she’d be the last.”
Adam jerked in his seat, “And let Chaplinsky rape that child? That’s what she is, a teenager. Hell, he’s probably back there right now…”
Cole paused, letting the thoughts in his mind take shape before he spoke. “If we can get a message out to Clint, we won’t have to.”
“How?”
“Tell him to freeze Chaplinsky’s bank accounts, even if it’s just for an hour. It’ll keep him from getting his hands on the girl. You’ll have to fluff up your account some too—make yourself look super rich. You have to be able to make the bid on Tomi without blinking. Otherwise, they won’t let either of you leave this place alive.”
“And how are we going to do that? They’ll be able to track the signal to our table.”
“Look, there’s an intermission after the next girl. If it’s like any other intermission, the bathroom will be flooded. We’ll transmit from there. It’ll take them too long to pinpoint the signal. By the time it’s over, we’ll be out,” Cole said.
“You better fucking hope so. I don’t want to die tonight, not in this place.” Adam was pissed off, and Cole couldn’t blame him. It was a FUBAR situation. Neither of them wanted to risk that the other girls would be whisked away before their back up could arrive.
“They’re moving on to the next girl. Listen, if Tara comes out, you have to bid on her for me. No one will ever believe you’re buying the grand prize for your bodyguard.”
“And they’ll believe I’m buying two slaves in one night?”
“They will if we play our cards right. A bored sadistic oil billionaire has lots of extra cash to throw around, and we’ve done our job planting the story on Chaplinsky. He’ll back up our story.”
“You better be right about this,” Adam said quietly. The threat in the man’s voice was as clear as if he’d shouted.
“We’d both better be,” Cole answered in a voice just as solemn. These women’s lives depended on it.
4
Tomi knelt on the hard, cold floor at Luis's feet. Darkness crowded out more light than it let in, while the stage a few feet from her glowed with ample light to showcase the merchandise for sale.
Women.
Women she'd not seen before tonight, but that wore the same terrified expression mirrored on her face. Tomi's view at the feet of Luis afforded her a decent look into the curtained off cubicles stacked out from the stage. Men in business suits and middle-eastern clothing filled the tables. All of them eager, practically radiating excitement to purchase their slaves.
She choked. All her efforts to escape her little one-bedroom prison had failed miserably. No one had spoken to her. No one had even unlocked door once. They'd slid her food through a slot at the bottom once a day and left. And then today, a massive guard jerked her from her room and delivered her to two equally large women, who’d forced drugs on her. She’d lost consciousness, and when she finally surfaced, she found herself like this. Washed and made up and wearing this nothing piece of lingerie and the chains on her wrists and neck.
Luis wanted to get rid of her, but he wasn’t going to kill her, although after what she’d witnessed at his party, she might wish for death.
Now, forced to kneel at his feet in front of a crowd of leering men, watching as they auctioned off naked women off one by one, she waited for her turn. Tonight, she’d become one of those nameless, faceless missing women.
Her father had died years ago, and she worked here, so there would be no one to even file a missing person’s report for her.
Oh, sure, her friend, Carrie, would…if Luis didn’t kill her first. Her employer knew all about Tomi’s ruined vacation plans, and he’d already proved just how ruthless he could be.
The only other person in her life who had ever loved her no doubt wished she were dead. She hadn’t spoken to Cole in over ten years. Tomi closed her eyes and imagined him as he’d been the day she’d sent him off on his first tour of duty. So handsome. So strong. If only she still had him on her side, she’d never have to worry about Luis again.
But regrets wouldn’t help her now. Nothing would.
The stark reality of her situation was made even sharper by the fact Luis had purposefully allowed her to sober up before the auction. She was hyperaware of the male gazes attached to her breasts and her body. Of every single pinprick of pain on her scalp whenever Luis yanked her hair. Even worse, she was aware of exactly what her fate would be. She’d witnessed it over and over, as woman after woman was auctioned off like a worthless piece of flesh. These women would never be seen or heard from again. They would suffer unspeakable pain and suffering.
And so would she.
“You have done wonderfully tonight, gentlemen.” The host clapped his hands in appreciation, standing up tall to the microphone as if he were an Olympian about to hand out a gold medal. “I’ll call a brief intermission before we present our next set of beauties for your consideration. The auction will resume in fifteen minutes, so feel free to wander about at your pleasure. Special requests are available for any of you who are in need of assistance. This will be the last break of the evening.” The host bowed.
Luis’s smooth fingers threaded through Tomi’s hair and jerked her head back with a merciless power that wrangled a cry from her lips. How could she have ever thought him kind or gentle or caring? “You see that? You are the grand prize tonight, Tomi. Every man here wants to buy you.” His calculating tone sent a new wave of terror racing straight to her heart.
Tomi lifted her hands to grab his, but the chains kept her shackled. She could only stare at the metal weighing down her wrists.
Luis chuckled. “Quite constricting, aren’t they?”
“Please, please let me go. I won’t say a word about any of this,” she begged, hating herself for how weak she sounded.
“I can’t do that, Bonita. I need you. You should be grateful. I could’ve had you killed on the spot. This way, you’ll get to live a little longer.”
The soft sob escaped her lips. Tomi balled her fingers into fists on her lap, rage working uselessly through her body, expelling energy she didn’t have. No one here would help her. As a matter fact, every man in this room wanted to hurt her.
Luis’s grip eased on her hair and she drew in a shaky breath, thankful for that one small mercy. “I would tell you not to worry, but I won’t lie to you. Francois is a known sadist. He’ll hurt you.” Luis kneeled down so his cheek hovered next to hers. His minty breath fanned across her face in a way that made her skin crawl. “But that will make it easier for you to kill him.”
The small sob trapped in her throat escaped. “You’re a monster.”
In a show of violence she had never seen from him, he gripped her chin and forced her head around so that she had no choice but to stare at his hauntingly beautiful face. “It’s business, Tomi. I can’t have you threatening my business, and while I regret whatever suffering you may incur after tonight, you’ll take it. You shouldn’t have returned. This is your fault. Not mine.”
Luis released her jaw so abruptly her head snapped to the side. Tomi panted, trying to catch her breath, so scared and angry she didn’t know what to do. What could she do? He had her shackled at his feet. After tonight, she would be someone’s property.
Tomi dropped her chin and stared at her clenched hands and the manacles locked around her wrists. The thin chain that Luis had strung from those cuffs up to her neck shifted and shimmered with her every shake and tremble. The white chiffon material covering her torso did nothing but draw attention to her breasts. The makeup artist had dressed her as the innocent seductress.
>
Luis leaned down close to her ear, so that she could smell his sweet tequila laden breath, and held out her phone so she could see the screen. “Tomi, I can’t believe you lost your passport. You’re totally missing out.” Luis emphasized totally, as he mimicked Carrie. “Your friend looks like she’s having a lot of fun partying in my home city. Look at this picture.” He held the phone out for Tomi to see the selfie of Carrie with a very handsome local kissing her cheek. Luis continued, “Manuel can be so convincing. Right up until he slits your throat.”
Tomi trembled, her terror a living, breathing monster. “Manuel?”
“Si, Manuel works for me. He’s my insurance policy for you. Do you want me to tell you what he will do to your friend if you don’t comply with my plans?” Luis’s voice was so silky smooth for such a vile creature.
“What if he figures it out and stops me?” She couldn’t help the break in her voice.
“Then Carrie dies…after Manuel and his friends finish with her. And believe me, by the time they are done sharing her, she’ll wish for death.”
“I-I’ve never killed anyone.”
“It’s easy, especially when you don’t have a choice. I’ll ensure you have the poison strip. All you have to do is place it on his body after you’re in France. It can’t be in the U.S., or I’ll be under suspicion.” Luis typed out a quick reply and then pocketed her phone, reaching out a hand to stroke her bare arm. “Which means you will have to put up a with a little pain, Bonita.”
She choked, fighting the urge to vomit. He didn’t care in the least about Francois defiling her body. If she didn’t give in to the rape, and something prevented her from carrying out Luis’s plan, he’d have Carrie gang-raped and murdered. “How can you do this?”
Like a whiplash, his hand fisted in her hair and yanked her head back with enough force to bring tears rushing to her eyes. “It’s business, and I will do what it takes to succeed. Do you doubt me?”
He tightened his hold to a point she thought he might rip out her hair. “No,” she gasped.
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