Prisoned Series Box Set

by Marni Mann

  That was several minutes ago.

  Now, Huck was gazing at me, and it was my turn to speak. “Can we talk?”

  “What do you want, Arin?”

  I moved to the far side of the bed, so there was plenty of room next to me. “Come here.”

  I was shocked when he walked over and stood beside the mattress. I patted the spot to my right. His eyes roamed over it, but he didn’t sit.

  “Will you tell me something about you?” I took my hand out from underneath the blanket and reached for his arm. I wasn’t sure why. I just knew I had to touch him.

  When my fingers skimmed across the snake’s scales, his stare zoomed in on my grip. His mouth opened, and his tongue darted across his lip. It was the same way I looked at dessert. So, I held him a little tighter, rubbing as high as his elbow and as low as his wrist.

  “Maybe why you chose this tattoo?” Because of the intricate design, I expected the ink to feel raised, almost rough. But I felt neither, only some hair and lots of soft skin.

  And something else.

  This something was inside my body, and it made my heart race.

  The feeling shouldn’t exist. Not for this man. Yet it started in my breasts and was slowly moving between my legs, reminding me of the release I’d had before Huck came into my room. The one my finger had given me, the same finger that was tracing the tattoo on his arm.

  “Do you like snakes, Arin?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “Then, why the interest?”

  “Because I want to know more about you.”

  Even with the silence that passed between us, I could tell there was so much he wanted to say. I saw it on his face; I felt it in his stare.

  Finally, his voice broke through, and he said, “Get dressed. I’ll meet you outside in the hallway.”

  He wants me to get dressed?

  I pointed at the clothes that Lawan had left for me. They were pajamas far too thin and skimpy to wear out of this room. “You mean, you want me to put those on?”

  He walked to the door, stopping before he closed it to say, “Don’t make me wait long.”

  Once he was gone, I climbed out of bed, throwing on the bra underneath the tank top. The panties and shorts went on next. Not having anything else to cover myself with, I opened the door. Huck was standing on the other side of it, holding a white button-down.

  He handed it to me. “Put this on over your clothes.”

  As my arms went through the holes of his shirt, I felt his eyes on my breasts. They moved to my thighs, down my calves, and back to my face. I swore I saw him smile as my face reddened.

  “You ready?”

  I didn’t know what I was ready for, but I felt much more comfortable now that the button-down was hiding some of me. Assuming he wouldn’t tell me our destination, I nodded and followed him to the staircase. It was a long flight down. At least fifteen steps. I didn’t know if I had the energy; all I had in my stomach was some broth and water.

  “Where are your shoes?” he asked as I gripped the banister.

  “I don’t have any.”

  “What do you mean, you don’t have any? Lawan didn’t bring you some?”

  I shook my head, hoping this wouldn’t get her in trouble. But, since I hadn’t been wearing any shoes when she found me outside, I didn’t even have my own pair to slip on.

  “Of course she didn’t give you any. She didn’t expect you to leave…” His voice trailed off, and before I could give him a response, his arm went under my knees, and he was lifting me into the air and pulling me against his chest.

  The last time he’d carried me, the details were a bit fuzzy. I had been coming down hard and full of the rawest emotion. But here, I was fully awake and sober. I could appreciate his strength and the muscles that were wrapped around me. I could take in the smells that wafted off his skin—the soap and citrus cologne that was stronger now that I was much closer to him.

  That also meant, I could get a better look at the tattoo on his neck. The detail was so impressive. Each scale was perfectly outlined and shaded. It was true to size and so realistic. The artist had done the most unbelievable job.

  I grazed my thumb over the side of his throat and got another small smile out of him. I wasn’t sure why I had touched him that way, and I immediately stopped.

  “It won’t bite,” he said, referring to the snake.

  We rounded the first landing, and he began our descent on the last flight.

  “Unless you want it to.”

  This man made me question my sanity.

  I shouldn’t want anything from him. I especially shouldn’t want his teeth anywhere near my flesh.

  But a part of me did.

  I hated myself for that.

  “You don’t have to give me an answer,” he said. “Your body’s already doing that for you.”

  “My…” I cut myself short when I saw the hardness of my nipples and felt the sweat on his arm where it rested against the backs of my knees.

  If there were a blanket nearby, I would pull it up to my eyes because I knew my face was giving me away even more, and I was sure Huck was loving it.

  When we got to the bottom of the stairs, he carried me to a set of locked doors and used his thumb to punch in a code. Once they opened, we went down a long hallway, and at the end, in front of a single door, he set me on my feet and said, “Wait here.” He went in and closed it before I got a chance to see what was on the other side.

  It was so silent and lonely in the hallway. I hated it. Fortunately, he returned a few seconds later with a pair of flats.

  “I don’t know if these are the right size, but I want you to put them on.” He set them in front of my feet.

  They were about a half a size too large. Still, they were comfortable and worn in, and I knew I could easily move around in them.

  I tried not to wonder whom they belonged to, and I took a step forward. “They’re fine. Thank you.”

  “When we go out there”—he pointed with his head toward the door he’d just come through—“I want you to keep your head down. No eye contact with anyone. Do you hear me?”

  “Sure, but can I ask—”

  His hands gripped my face, and I stopped breathing.

  “On the other side of this wall is a brothel, Arin. Men buy my women to fuck them. No woman in this building is off-limits, except for you. But, if a client sees you out there, wearing what you have on, he’s going to think you’re for sale. Just keep your fucking head down and your hand locked in mine, and I’ll take care of the rest.” His hand clasped around my fingers.

  Suddenly, a door opened, and we were moving through it. My breath returned after the third or fourth step when I realized where we were. This had to be the main room where the men hung out before they found girls to purchase. Huck’s website had called it the lounge, and even though my head stayed down, I was able to catch short glimpses of the things we passed.

  I was shocked by how stunning it all was.

  Everything was so damn sexy, down to the velvet furniture and the silky wall coverings and the phallic-shaped chandeliers. It was all done in different shades of red and gold. Somehow, it even smelled sensual in here.

  We weaved around the outer rim of the room, past all the chairs and tables and smoke, and the museum where all the women sat and waited to be plucked. His website described that section, promising a collection of girls. It certainly delivered.

  He moved me through another door and stopped. “You can look now.”

  Although I’d been stealing glances, I lifted my chin all the way up. It took me several seconds before I realized what I was staring at. Once I did, I couldn’t move my eyes away from it. I couldn’t take a step back either. I was completely frozen. “Oh my God.”

  In front of me was another museum—this one, the size of my bedroom back at home—but this one was filled with snakes. There had to be at least fifty of them in all different sizes and colors. I knew nothing about them, so I couldn’
t even guess what types they were. I just knew they were everywhere. Some were coiled at the bottom, some were hanging from plants at the top, and several were resting on the shelving units on the side. He had a pool for them. Bowls of water. Lamps to create what looked like sunlight. Tons of vegetation and nests for them to sleep in.

  “Now, you know more about me,” he said.

  His hand was still clamped around mine. I released it, so I could move closer to the glass, and I placed both palms against it.

  There were several men standing on the other side of us, and I could see them through the snakes. When I thought one was pointing toward me, I pushed my face back.

  “He can’t see you.”

  “He can’t?” I asked.

  “No, but they can.”

  I followed the direction in which he turned his finger, and I made eye contact with a few of the girls. They were dressed in only bras and panties. Some looked like they’d just started getting ready, and others were almost done.

  “These are my girls, Arin.”

  I felt his words on my neck.

  “The ones who sell their cunts for a living. Their asses. Mouths.”

  I knew what they did. I just thought he liked saying those words to me to see if he could get a reaction. I was sure I gave him one as I gazed around the room. There were makeup desks, hair-washing stations, showers, benches, and lockers. And he had carried the red and gold in there as well, using furnishing and amenities that were nicer than any of the spas I’d been to back at home.

  “Mr. Huck,” one of the girls said, bowing at him before she walked by.

  A few others smiled when they saw us watching them.

  They weren’t being flirtatious with Huck. They were showing respect.

  I faced him again and waited for his stare to return to me. “How do I know more about you by looking at a pit of snakes?”

  He seemed more focused in this room, even a little calmer, like the snakes were his service animal and they caused him to act differently.

  “You’re not listening, Arin.”

  His body was almost pressing against mine, the sides of our faces now so close to the glass. He’d said I wasn’t listening, so I closed my eyes and tried to hear what he was referring to.

  There was a faint hissing-like sound. A rustling.

  I thought I even heard a rattle.

  It felt like they were on top of me.

  Goose bumps covered my skin.

  “Do you hear them?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “They’re telling you what they want.”

  I opened my eyes, and as I was about to speak, he said, “I’ve been around snakes for most of my life. They’re to be enjoyed, not feared.” His glare connected with one, and he waited for it to turn before his attention moved back to me. “If you touch them, feed them, really listen to them, you’ll know they’re much more like you than you think.”

  I doubted that.

  “The picture in my room, is that one in here, too?” I smiled as I asked the question. I couldn’t stop myself.

  “No.”

  There was so much emotion in that one word. More than I’d ever heard from him, which told me the snake must have meant a lot.

  I didn’t understand.

  I probably never would.

  My hand went to his arm, and I expected it to feel smooth and flat, like it had upstairs. And it did, but it felt hot and a little clammy, too, as though he’d been sunning under the lamps in the museum.

  “Why the snake tattoos?” I asked.

  “It’s who I am, Arin.” He lifted a chunk of my hair. “You have all of this.” Then, he rubbed a finger underneath my eye, extra gentle, as though he knew the skin there was still sore. “And makeup and whatever else you use to hide. I just choose to cover myself in snakeskin.”

  “But why snakes?”

  “Enough questions.” He clenched my fingers, and we were moving again.

  This time, we went through the room with the girls, and I saw one getting her hair done and another having eyelashes put on. There was a woman dressed in nursing scrubs, and her job seemed to be restocking all the items on the vanity—adding toothbrushes to the bin along with razors, hair ties, and little bottles of fancy-looking lotion.

  These girls were treated better than I’d ever expected.

  When we reached the far side of the room, we went through a door that also required a code. He punched in the numbers, and we were suddenly outside. With my hand still in his, he hurried us past the short sidewalk and into an alley where there was another door about halfway down the building. He used a key this time, and inside was a long staircase.

  “I don’t think—”

  “I know,” he said, cutting me off as he lifted me into his arms. “Hold on to me.”

  I followed his order, and two flights later, we were in his apartment. He didn’t set me down until we got to my room where he put me on the bed. Then, he walked back toward the door.

  “Huck?”

  He halted and turned around to face me.

  “You still haven’t told me what you want me to do for food.”

  Or why he was inked in snakeskin and not the coat of a different animal or why he had such a love for snakes. Or why he was staring at me right now with eyes that looked as lonely as I felt.

  Something told me I’d never be getting those answers.

  “How do you feel, Arin?”

  I thought about his question as I sat on the end of the bed and glanced down at my legs, which felt too weak for stairs but well enough to walk on a solid, level surface. “I’m better.”

  “Then, I’ll give you that answer tomorrow. We’ll start…slow.”

  When he began to close the door, I said, “You’re right. I do know more about you now.”

  “Yeah? What’d you learn?”

  What I’d learned had nothing to do with snakes and everything to do with the girls downstairs. If Huck were a monster who sold women, whether they were trafficked or not, he wouldn’t have given them a room to shower and bathe in, cosmetics to use, someone to do their hair and makeup. Their smiles definitely wouldn’t have been genuine, like they had been. He’d have given them a dungeon to change in and sent them straight out to the men.

  Deep down, beneath his layers of scales and his sharp fangs, was a man worth knowing.

  If circumstances were only different.

  But they weren’t.

  “That you’re not the guy I thought you were.”

  The corner of his lip lifted, and he gave me a small smirk. It was the sexiest look I’d seen from him.

  I squeezed the edge of the mattress to steady my body, as I was slipping off the edge.

  “What were the snakes trying to tell me?” I asked.

  “That they want to be fed.”

  I wondered what they ate.

  He shut the door before I had a chance to ask, so I looked at the picture of the snake on the wall. So, it was a special one. An animal he cared about enough to sound emotional when I’d asked about it.

  Too bad it was gone.

  Fourteen

  The Kid

  Before

  I’m not good at math.

  I struggle with it in school. I always ask my teachers if I can use a calculator, and none of them let me.

  It’s so stupid.

  Every year, I end up passing but just barely because I can’t figure out the equations they make me do. I don’t understand why they insist I learn them. It’s not like I’m going to use them in the real world anyway, and there’s never a time when I can’t whip out my phone and find the answer to anything I need.

  I suppose that’s a bit harder for you, but I’m sure geometry isn’t needed where you live either.

  I’m much better at reading, language—subjects like that.

  I’m saying all of this because I didn’t do the math in your last letter or the one before that. You know, when you told me about you and Toy and me, my mom, and Beard
. It looks like one giant equation with how long you and Toy were together, minus the time it took you to get my mom pregnant, minus the time I was in her belly, equals something that sounds like you cheated on Toy.

  So, my question is, why did you do it?

  Or maybe the more important one is, if you hated my mom so much, why did you knock her up?

  Fifteen

  Shank

  Before

  So, the kid wasn’t good at math. I didn’t see that as a problem because his old man wasn’t good at it either. At his age, the only things I’d cared about were how many milligrams of oxy I was transporting and how long of a prison sentence I would get if I got caught.

  What the kid was really leading to was how I’d gotten his mother pregnant, especially since I’d been with Toy at the time.

  I was sure he didn’t know the whole story, and the version he’d been told was toned down.

  I had no problem with telling him the truth. I just didn’t know if he could handle it. Even Toy had had a hard time with it, and Toy had handled almost all of my shit. But, when everything with Tyler had gone down, Toy had started using more and mixing drugs to get a stronger high.

  Eventually, he’d OD’d.

  Regardless, if the kid wanted an answer, I’d give him one.

  Not the basics. He’d get every goddamn detail.

  Some of the inmates in here, the ones who had found God, would get on their knees right now and pray. With their fingers clasped and their eyes closed, they’d ask that their written confession be forgiven. For it not to ruin the relationship with their child.

  I wasn’t like my fellow inmates.

  I’d done nothing wrong.

  Still, I couldn’t help but laugh as I looked down at my lap. The hand that had wrapped around his mother’s throat was the same one that was going to write him a letter, explaining how he had been conceived. Now, that was fucking irony.

  To tell that story, kid, I would have to back up a bunch of years, so you could hear it all from the beginning.