by Julia Sykes
“I’m okay,” she assured me before I could express my concern. To be honest, her black eye was the least of our worries.
“Where are Clayton and Reed?” I managed to ask, my voice small. Surely they should have come by now. How long had I been out?
“I think the Russians moved us. This isn’t the same warehouse. I don’t know how far we are from where we were. I’m not sure how long we were out. We could be miles away. But I know they’ll find us,” she amended quickly. “I’m going to get you out of here. I promise.”
“What’s happening? Where are the Russians?” My stomach turned. “Dimitri said something about a buyer. That’s not… That doesn’t mean…” I couldn’t get the words out. But I wasn’t an idiot. Dimitri had said he wasn’t going to kill me. He was going to do something that would make Javier come after him.
Human trafficking. The Westies hadn’t taken part in it, but I knew other organizations did.
“Breathe, Charlotte. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
I sucked in a breath. Clayton and Reed knew we were in danger. They would know something was wrong. They would find us. Before…
I immediately shut down that line of thought. Nothing was going to happen before they got here. It couldn’t. The Russians weren’t even anywhere to be seen. They had left us alone for the moment.
My stomach clenched when deep, male voices drifted through the door. It creaked as it swung open, and I again recognized the man who had been at the shootout. He was the man who had held me, who had drugged me. Ivankov.
Two other men followed him in. One was nearly as heavily built as the Russian, with a dark buzz cut and a scar carved into his cheek. The other was slight in comparison, although a more apt term might be gangly. He was young, maybe in his mid-twenties, and his mop of sandy hair only added to that image of youth. But the sharp cut of his suit screamed wealth, and the way the heavy-set man flanked him let me know who was really in charge.
“If you want both, my boss is willing to cut a deal,” Ivankov was saying.
“I’m only in the market for one, but I’ll take a look,” the young man’s voice was soft, genial. It wasn’t right that he could talk about buying women in that sweet tone.
“You have been taking a look at the merchandise for weeks now, Vance. I am beginning to think you only want to look. My boss will not be pleased.”
The young man – Vance – shot him a disdainful sneer. “You haven’t shown me anything worth buying.” He stopped in front of Clara, and his lips twisted further with distaste. “This one is damaged.”
“Fuck you,” Clara spat. “You can go straight to hell, you pathetic bastard. What kind of man needs to buy a woman?”
“She is spirited,” Ivankov remarked, not even looking at Clara. “A man could take great pleasure in breaking this one.”
Vance reached out a hand to grip Clara’s chin, and she gnashed her teeth together in an effort to tear into him. “Don’t you fucking touch me,” she seethed.
His frown deepened. “I would have to scar her before she broke. I like my slaves intact.”
“Fine,” Ivankov snapped. “The other one, then.” He jerked his head in my direction, and three sets of pitiless eyes turned on me. I tried to shrink into myself, to curl up into a ball and close my eyes until all the awfulness went away. But the way I was bound kept my body stretched taut, and all I succeeded in was making my chains rattle.
Vance smiled, his pale green eyes sparking as they fixed on me. He stepped away from Clara.
“Don’t you dare,” she seethed, twisting against her bonds. “You leave her alone. Do you hear me, you sick fuck? I’ll kill you! I will fucking rip your balls off and shove them down your throat until you choke on them.”
Vance turned back to her with a scowl.
“That’s right, motherfucker. I’m the one you should be worried about. Come deal with me.”
“Can you do something about that? Is this how you conduct business?” Vance asked Ivankov, regarding Clara as though she was something disgusting on the bottom of his shoe.
Clara’s stream of vitriol was cut off when Ivankov dealt her a vicious backhand. While she was stunned, he shoved a black ball gag between her teeth and secured it behind her head.
The annoyance dealt with, the men turned back to me.
He doesn’t like angry women, I told myself. Scream at him. Tell him how depraved and fucked up he is.
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Terror gripped my windpipe, and it was all I could do to draw in sharp pants of air. I wasn’t brave like Clara. I was scared. Scared and alone. My body began to tremble.
Vance’s smile returned. “Who’s this frightened little rabbit?” He asked with obvious delight. When he reached his hand out to stroke my face, I didn’t snap at him like Clara had. I couldn’t seem to move at all. The fear flooding my system was debilitating.
His touch moved lower, trailing down my throat, tracing the line of my collar. I couldn’t bear the sensation of him touching it. That was private. It was mine.
I managed to flinch away. “Please.” The soft plea was barely more than a strangled whisper. It seemed to thrill Vance.
“So polite, little rabbit,” he said with pleasure. “Why is she already collared?” He addressed Ivankov, but his eyes never left me.
“I thought her new Master might like to be the one to remove it. Can we talk price?”
Vance let out an irritated grunt. “You are a brute, Ivankov. Have some patience, or I’ll walk right out that door. You need to sell this one fast. Don’t pretend you don’t. I’m very good at reading people.”
“Then make me an offer,” he demanded.
Vance shot him a level look. “Do you think I’m going to buy before I inspect the merchandise? I told you; I like my slaves intact.” His attention returned to me, and suddenly he gripped my breasts in both hands and squeezed. I drew in a shocked gasp. “Very nice,” he praised.
His touch left my breasts to stroke down my sides, caressing the curve of my waist.
Wrong. He shouldn’t be touching me. No one but Javier was supposed to touch me like this.
“Stop,” I forced out. “Please, stop.”
Vance paused his downward progress to peer into my eyes. Whatever he found there obviously pleased him. “You’re halfway to being broken already, aren’t you rabbit? Who hurt you? Your boyfriend? Your father?”
A shudder ran through me. Frightened little girl.
“It doesn’t have to be that way between us,” he practically cooed. His fingers trailed over my abdomen, toward my sex. The first tears spilled from my eyes. His touch danced across my clit before stroking lower, exploring the shape of my folds. “I can be a very kind Master, if you behave. You’ll be good for me, won’t you?”
I bit my lip hard to hold in the terrified scream that was building in my chest.
He leaned forward and gently kissed my tear-streaked cheek. “You’re very pretty when you cry, rabbit,” he murmured against my skin.
He removed his hand from my sex. I started crying harder. I felt violated, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
“Fifty-thousand dollars,” he said more loudly, addressing Ivankov again.
“Be reasonable,” the Russian growled. “She young and beautiful and submissive. Make me a real offer.”
“Seventy-five. Cash. That’s my final offer, or I’ll walk out and leave her here with you.”
Ivankov muttered something under his breath in Russian. “We have a deal, Mr. Vance.”
Vance waved negligently at the man who had been shadowing him. “See to the details, Cary.”
Cary rummaged in a satchel he had strapped across his chest, producing large stacks of bills and passing them to Ivankov.
“Let’s get rid of this, shall we?” Vance breathed into my ear. His fingers found the buckle at the back of my neck.
My fear was obliterated by wild rage. My collar. He was touching my collar. He wanted to ta
ke it from me. It belonged to me. I belonged to Javier.
I twisted and tried to jerk away from him. “Don’t touch me!” I screamed out the words that had eluded me when he handled my body.
His eyes widened in surprise, but he continued his progress. Bound as I was, I couldn’t escape his determined hands as he eased the leather through the buckle. The feel of it loosening around my neck made my heart twist, and I screamed in wordless fury at the loss.
I jerked at my restraints, snarling like a feral animal as I watched him slip my pretty red collar into his pocket. He removed a short length of glittering gold chain from the other. The links were as wide and heavy as the thick chains that kept me hanging from the ceiling. The weight of them around my neck was crushing when he looped the chain around my throat, securing it in place with a small golden padlock.
My screams burned up my throat. They wouldn’t seem to stop, and I lacked the will to try. Stark, raw terror and rage had mingled into madness.
“Do you want me to put her down for transport?” I was vaguely aware of Ivankov speaking.
“No,” Vance said, shaking his head at me indulgently. “I like them conscious for the journey home. I have my own drug.”
My brain didn’t quite register the threat posed by the syringe until the needle pierced my neck. Vance stroked away the spot of blood. “Calm down now, little rabbit.”
My scream choked off to a croak as the muscles in my throat stopped convulsing. A strange, disturbing weight spread through my limbs, and the tension began to ease from my body. Fear continued to ride me hard. This man was going to take me. I was going to disappear, and no one would ever find me. If Javier came for me, the Russians would kill him.
Javier...
Gunshots rang out, cracking through the silence that followed the death of my screams. Men shouted in Russian outside the warehouse, and more shots popped off.
Vance turned fearful eyes on Ivankov. “What’s going on?”
The door to the warehouse burst open, and Javier let out an inhuman roar. Ivankov and Cary went for their guns, but Javi already had his drawn. The two men went down in seconds. More men flooded in after him. I recognized some of them as the remaining members of Los Muertos. Others I didn’t know, but they shouted back and forth in Spanish as they ran into the warehouse.
Javier’s handsome face was twisted with a ferocity I had never seen before, and he launched himself at Vance, taking him crashing to the floor. He grabbed the lapels of his expensive suit, lifting him up before slamming his head back against the concrete. A sickening crack split the air, but it was quickly drowned out by the confused shouts of the Kings who had followed Javier in.
I spotted Clayton and Reed among a new group of people entering the warehouse. They were wearing Kevlar vests emblazoned with FBI lettering. Guns clattered to the ground as most of the Kings dropped their weapons. The few who didn’t fell to the ground themselves, bleeding onto the concrete.
Javi’s face filled my vision. He cupped my cheeks in both his hands and whispered my name against my mouth. I wanted to say his in return, but my lips wouldn’t form the letters.
He reached up and unclipped my cuffs, and I fell limply into his arms. My head lolled back. I wanted to cry out the fear that beat at the back of my throat, but I couldn’t move a muscle.
“Charlotte?” Javier shook me. “Charlotte!”
“They drugged her,” I recognized Clara’s voice. “You need to get her to a medic.”
It’s the drug. Vance drugged me. I’ll be okay. He wouldn’t have wanted to kill me.
That knowledge wouldn’t have been enough to ground me, but Javier’s strong arms lifting me up helped me find my calm. He cradled me to his chest and started running for the exit.
“It’s okay,” he told me. “I’ve got you. You’re going to be okay.”
I knew it was more than a pretty lie. I was with Javier; of course everything would be okay. He would take care of me, just as he always had. I finally let go of my crippling fear and found my strength in his arms.
Chapter 24
“Get the fuck out, Santiago.” I recognized my big brother’s low growl.
“Make me,” Javier challenged.
“You think I haven’t been dying for a chance to tear you to pieces? I’ll show you what happens when you hurt my sister.”
“You think I did this?” Javier snarled. “You think I would have allowed this to happen? If I had known what she planned to do, I would have tied her down and not let her leave the apartment.”
“Don’t talk about my sister that way,” Derek snapped. “I should have killed you the first time you touched her, you son of a bitch.”
I opened my eyes to find Javier standing in front of my hospital bed, his large body mostly blocking my brother from view. I leaned to the side and peered around him. Derek filled the doorway, his fists clenched at his sides.
“Derek,” I said his name sharply. “What are you doing?”
His golden eyes shifted past Javier to find me. Most of the rage drained out of them, replaced with relief. “How are you feeling?” He asked gently.
“I’d be better if you weren’t trying to fight Javi,” I said lightly, glossing over the terrible memories that stirred in the face of his concern. I would deal with them later. Right now, I had to stop my brother from punching the man I loved. “He didn’t do anything wrong,” I insisted.
Derek’s lips twisted as his anger returned, and he pointed an accusatory finger at Javier. “They told me he was keeping you safe, not… Fuck, Charlotte, you know what I’m getting at. He never should have laid a finger on you. I’m your brother. It’s my job to protect you from creeps like him.”
“He’s not a creep,” I said firmly. “He did keep me safe. You didn’t let me down, Derek,” I assured him, needing to assuage the guilt that obviously weighted heavily on him.
His eyes gleamed. “I should have gotten you out. Clayton told me you were fine staying with Santiago after Jonas was killed. But you were still in it. You were still with the Kings. I never should have allowed that.” His voice was hoarse with emotion. “And now you’re in here,” he gestured at the sterile surroundings. “You could have been…”
I was grateful that he trailed off. It was all I could do to not flinch away from the rising memories. Javier left his post at the foot of my bed to stand beside me, taking my hand in his and giving it a reassuring squeeze.
“I’m right here, muñequita,” he murmured. “You’re safe now.”
The corners of my eyes burned, and I blinked rapidly to clear them. I wasn’t ready to face it all.
“Javi had nothing to do with me going to the Russians. He didn’t know,” I told Derek. “It’s not his fault.”
“No. It’s mine.” The soft voice came from behind Derek, and he stepped through the doorway to reveal Clara. Her straight black hair was in disarray, falling around her face in a way that softened her sharp features. She seemed to have lost several inches of height, but she squared her shoulders when her eyes met mine. Well, one of them. The other was swollen shut from her fight with the Russians.
Javier’s hand tightened around mine, and a raw, dangerous sound rumbled through his clenched teeth. “I don’t hit women, but you should leave now unless you want another black eye, Peterson.”
Derek didn’t show the same aggression, but he regarded Clara as though she was something repulsive. “If I hadn’t known you so long, I might be tempted to follow up on that threat. As it is, I never want to see your face again. You’re not welcome at Decadence anymore.”
She winced, but kept her gaze fixed on me. “I’m going. I just wanted to say I’m sorry. It’s my fault you were in there, and-” She cut herself off, and her expression went from remorseful to fierce in an instant. “I’m going to make sure those fuckers pay, Charlotte. I swear. Dimitri is going down. I’ll kill him myself.”
I just stared at her, at a loss. Getting rid of that sick man would do nothing but good for the world,
but it wouldn’t erase what had happened to me.
But I had to acknowledge that I was the one who had insisted on getting Javier out. Clara simply made the plan to help me with that.
“I don’t blame you,” I said quietly.
“Well I do,” Javier hissed. “Leave. I won’t tell you again.”
Clara sniffled and turned, walking away quickly. The sight of her almost breaking down brought out my own grief. I was about to snap, and I didn’t want my brother here for that. He would just get upset, and there was nothing he could do to change what had happened. But I couldn’t bring myself to let go of Javier’s hand. I needed his strength, or I would lose what was left of my own.
“Can I be alone with Javier, please?” I asked Derek, my voice wavering.
He frowned and opened his mouth to protest, but then his eyes fell to where my fingernails dug into Javi’s hand, and he relented.
“I just remembered. I have to punch Reed Miller. I’ll be back later, Charlotte.” He shot a significant glance at Javier, as though that last was a warning to him.
I held on until I was certain he was out of earshot. Then the first sob clawed up from my chest. Memories I had been resisting flooded up. I could feel Vance touching me, his eyes raking over me. Residual terror gripped me, and I started trembling.
“Who’s this frightened little rabbit?”
The weight of the gold chain pressed into my throat. I couldn’t draw in air. Tears blurred the world out of existence.
A strong hand closed around my fingers, stopping me from clawing at my neck.
“Breathe, Charlotte.”
I took in a deep breath and inhaled Javier’s unique scent. I needed him so desperately. They had taken his collar from me.
“I want it back,” I whispered. “Give it back.”
“What do you want?” He asked, his voice deep with concern.
I blinked until he came into focus. “My collar. They took it. But I belong to you. I’m yours.” The words shook with my tears. He had to understand. They had stripped me and sold me. They had taken the symbol that tied me to him, that marked me as his. But without him, I couldn’t survive this. “I need it. I need you.” The sensation of his long fingers stroking through my hair was so sweetly familiar. It made my soul ache. “I love you. I’m yours.”