by Ashlee Price
She made a whimpering sound. I knew that I was making a bad decision. I had a feeling that this moment was going to dictate what happened next with us. It was going to determine if I was going to lose her or not.
“I just can’t, Mariah. I’m sorry.”
The silence on the other end was deafening. I just wanted her to say something. “Mariah?”
“I’m sorry to have called. I don’t know what I was thinking, Scott. Don’t worry about it.”
She was about to hang up on me, but I wanted to keep her on the phone.
“Why don’t you let me pick you up and we can really talk about this? I hate to do this on the phone.”
“No, I have to go to work.”
“Mariah…”
“Sorry I called, Scott. I won’t make the mistake of doing that again.”
Daddy was no longer my name, and I already missed it. It hadn’t lasted long, but the way she had acted was perfect. Now I felt like I’d just lost everything. If I lost Mariah, I was losing everything.
Frustrated, I hung up and almost called her back. She was upset, though, and I had a feeling that nothing I said or she said at this point was going to help anything. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be the one, but I couldn’t jeopardize everything for one night. Not even if that one night was with Mariah.
***
The night of the auction, I was even more upset than I’d thought I would be. Looking at the clock at work, I knew that in a couple of hours, the woman that I’d fallen for was going to be sold off to the highest bidder. Could I really just sit here and do nothing?
I had to move. Sitting down was just making all of the pent-up energy worse, and I had to get moving. I needed to get out of there. I wasn’t getting anything done, and it was just slow torture to stay and think about what was coming.
Leaving the office, I bypassed my assistant, just because I didn’t want to hear about how much I still had to get done. I had a couple of meetings that I was supposed to go to, one of which I’d called myself, but I wasn’t feeling it anymore. I just couldn’t do it today, not when I was losing the girl I’d waited for for so long. I couldn’t think knowing what I was allowing to happen.
The new thought drove me to my car and then towards my house at blinding speed. Nothing was fast enough. Nothing was going to be the same again. I wanted to see how fast I could go, not caring what happened to me next.
I slowed down as I got to my long driveway. If I was that determined and didn’t care what happened to me, did I really have to give a damn what the board thought about it? Why would I care what those assholes thought of me? What was the point?
For the first time since I’d talked to Mariah, I was feeling like I could smile again. I’d been thinking about it all wrong, worried about my reputation, everything that really didn’t matter. They didn’t matter to me – the public, the board, no one. What mattered was Mariah and making sure that she wasn’t subjected to some strange man’s appetites. I knew that it would be a waste of time to talk to Elie. He wasn’t budging, so the only thing that made sense was to go there and bid on her myself. It wasn’t like I didn’t have the resources to win.
I got dressed, more determined than I’d been in a while. Mariah had weaseled her way into my consciousness and my mind. I couldn’t think a thought without her creeping into it. I had to wonder if the feeling would dissipate when I finally had her. Maybe she was just a challenge to me, the forbidden fruit that tasted so sweet because it was wrong. Was that what Mariah was to me?
It didn’t matter what she was going to be afterwards. Right now she was the one I wanted, and I was a man who got what he wanted. Since it was Mariah, I did what I always did when there was a goal in mind. I started to take actions that would make sure that I got what I wanted.
When I got to the event, it was bigger than I would have thought possible. The auction was on the fringes, as it were, but that didn’t seem to matter. I wasn’t the only one driving a car that was far too expensive for the neighborhood. I started to get nervous when I recognized one of the Astons out front. I knew who it was, and I had a good idea of what he was doing there. The only good thing about recognizing people was that they were there for the same reason. No one was there for charity, after all.
I took a seat in the back and looked around the room. I wasn’t the only man there with a thousand-dollar suit. I’d never imagined that so many people came to the Fetish Club. I looked around again, trying to figure out which ones were there for Mariah. She was a beautiful siren who’d pulled me in. How many more were there for the same reason?
I saw movement up by the front staging area. The auction wasn’t being held at the club, but down the road a bit in a convention center. Apparently Elie had pretty high expectations for this thing. It was already bigger than I’d imagined. The only thing missing, thankfully, was the press. If they got wind of the big names sitting in this room and the reason for it, I was sure that they would be here in droves.
Elie made his way to a microphone on a stand. He was walking slower than usual and he had one of his arms and shoulders bandaged and in a sling. What had happened to him?
“Thank you all for coming. I see that we’ve gotten more of a turnout than I could have hoped for.”
That was an understatement. I looked around and there were people everywhere. At least a hundred men were sitting in the crowd with me, and I knew at least a dozen of them. The girls weren’t out yet, so it was all men paying attention to Elie. He thanked the girls for making this an auction to remember and talked about how it was going to become an annual event. It was the start of something great, to hear him tell it.
The only thing I was convinced of was that it was going to be more competition than I’d imagined. I knew that there were fifteen girls up for auction for the night, including some that were just as young and pretty as Mariah. I didn’t think that everyone was there for her, but I had a feeling that a lot of them were going to be far more interested in the last auction just like I was. I wasn’t the only one there to get the first taste.
Chapter 23 – Mariah
“Everything is going to be okay, Mariah. I promise that it’s not going to be as bad as you think.’
“How do you know, Sasha?”
“Because Elie has done something like this before, when I first started with him. It wasn’t as big as this has turned into, but there’s going to be a lot of money thrown around. I made so much last time. That’s why I told you this could maybe be my last night.”
I looked to Elie and asked her if she’d told him that yet.
The look she gave me told me that she wasn’t that stupid. It wouldn’t be hard to guess what he would have to say about everything. He was not going to let Sasha go, just like he didn’t want to let me go. I knew from my last meeting with Elie that he was not above threats and possible violence to get his way. He’d made that clear with how he’d handled Greg. I knew where I stood, and although Sasha still talked like she might stay around, I hoped that she wanted to leave the area, because I would go with her. Kimmie was getting closer with her boyfriend and might want to stay, but I was thinking that getting out of New Orleans was the best thing for the two of us. That was because of Elie. We both needed to get away from Elie.
“When you’re ready to get out of here, Sasha, I think I will be too. I don’t think that New Orleans is really the place for me. I’ve tried it here, but I need a change.”
“I don’t want to go back home, Mariah.”
“Neither do I. Not after what happened with Greg and everything else. There’s no way that I’m going back home. I don’t have anything else there.”
“We should wait for Kallie. She’s going to be here next week or the week after.”
I hadn’t heard that, and I asked Sasha when she’d talked to her last.
“She called a couple of days ago, but it slipped my mind. With everything going on around here and Elie getting more demanding than ever, I just forgot all about it.”
“Is she coming to stay or what?”
Sasha shrugged. “I don’t even think she knows. She broke up with that guy she was seeing, so I think she’s ready for a change.”
“What would it be like to get us all back together for a while, get out of here?”
“It would be nice, but Kimmie likes it here.”
She did, and I knew that her coming with us might not be an option. She was at her boyfriend’s house more than she was home these days. I knew it was only a matter of time before she moved in with him officially. Sasha and I didn’t have that option, or that much time. We’d gotten wound up with the wrong sort of people and now we had to leave. Elie wasn’t someone that I wanted to tangle with any more than I had to. Look what a couple of months had brought me.
The girls were departing the back room one by one, but we were far enough away from the stage that I couldn’t really hear what was going on. I hadn’t had time to go down to the stage and look out, see what was going on. Most likely that was a good thing, because I’d seen the full parking lot.
“This is going to be the last time I do this kind of thing, Sasha. I think I’m getting out too, and when you do, I think we should just go. If the other two want to go, great, but one way or another I’m getting out of here. I think you should too. Elie scares me.”
“You don’t even really know the half of it, Mariah. You should feel that way. Elie was a guy that I thought the world of, but everything changed a couple months in. Since then, I see him for what he is.”
“Then come with me, or let me come with you. I don’t want to keep doing this, and I can tell you don’t want to either. There are tons of places to set up a little store. I’ll have enough saved up to go anywhere. If tonight is good, then I’ll be ready for it.”
She looked around like she wasn’t sure if we were being listened to or not. Knowing Elie, I assumed that he would if he could, but I doubted there was any way that he could do that sort of thing here. It was too big and it was only a rental.
“I don’t know, Mariah. We can talk about it tomorrow when we get back. I don’t like talking about it around here. There’s a lot of little ears around that you may not know about.”
Elie had a way of getting information, and a lot of that was because he paid people for information. When somebody heard something that might be of interest to him, that person would go directly to him. He didn’t have to do much more than throw a few dollars their way. This left him far more informed than either one of us would have liked.
“I know. I’m just nervous, I guess, and I don’t know what to do with myself. Look, the room is thinning out, and I know that they’re going to call my name soon. What if I can’t do it? What if I pass out right there and I don’t even know who’s bought me? Oh Sasha, I don’t think I can do this!”
I was working myself up. The more I thought about it, the more I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it without passing out. Why was I even here? What could Elie really do to me?
“You have to, Mariah. Do you see Bruno and Lex standing over there by the door? They’re there for a reason, and it has nothing to do with helping us to the stage. They’re here to make sure that nobody freaks out and takes off. You’ve brought in a crowd, and he’s not going to lose the money or the reputation. Do you know what it would look like if you didn’t go on the block? It would look like he was a liar, and trust me when I tell you that Elie will never go for that. He won’t let himself look bad.”
The men we were talking about looked our way, and I was afraid they somehow knew what we were saying. We were basically whispering, though, so our words wouldn’t have carried that far.
“What do we do?”
Sasha kind of shrugged. She had accepted it, even though I didn’t know if I could. I didn’t want to go through with it. I shouldn’t have to. This wasn’t fair.
“There’s nothing that we can do. Did you call Scott and see if he was going to be here to bid on you? At least then you won’t have to be with a stranger.”
“Scott won’t be here because of his business. I don’t think he wants to be publically linked to me and the club. I guess I can’t blame him for it, but I don’t want to see him again. I’m done trying to be something I’m not. He wasn’t for me anyway. You were right. All he would want to do is own me so he could have me all to himself. I fell in love and he fell in lust.”
The last girl besides us was called and I looked at Sasha. She didn’t look as nervous as I felt. The idea that Scott wasn’t going to be there to save me scared me. What if I ended up in the arms of someone that I couldn’t stand? It was only for a night, but what I was supposed to do in that night was too much to comprehend with anyone but Scott.
“It’s your turn next, Sasha.”
She smiled a little and smoothed out the invisible wrinkles in her dress. “I know. I’m just going to see it as a night that’s going to let me leave. You have to figure out how to make it right in your mind too, Mariah. It’s happening, whether we like it or not.”
Her name was called seconds after she finished speaking. I wished that I could look at it like she did. I knew that I was going to have to make it okay somehow. There was no point in making it any worse than it already was. I would do this and pay back Elie once and for all. I wasn’t going to be around for him to ask anything more of me. This would be it, so maybe that was how I had to look at it. This was just a means to an end. That was all it was.
As Sasha left, I had to hope that some of the parking lot had cleared out by now. I imagined that there would only be a couple of people left and it wouldn’t be so bad. I just had to get through the next few hours and then I would be able to make a change. With or without the other girls, I was getting out of here.
I heard my name and I jumped. All of the self-talk in the world was not going to help me now. I suddenly knew that the only thing that was going to make this better was to just leave. Maybe Sasha was right and I couldn’t leave, but I felt a sudden urge to try. She was just being paranoid. Surely they weren’t going to make me stay. They couldn’t do that, could they?
“I’ve decided that I’m just going to sit this one out,” I told the men who were standing vigilant by the door.
Lex smirked and shook his head like I didn’t have a clue what was going on. “Elie said you might say that, but you’re going up on that stage like every other girl.”
“What if I refuse?”
“Then I’ll tie you up myself and you’re still going up on that stage. You know what kind of men are out there, and we both know that if I tie you up it’s just going to drive the price up even higher.”
He was right. This wasn’t a regular auction, and if I was tied up as Lex described, there was no way that anyone would help me. They would most likely see it as some kind of act, and it would create a bidding frenzy. Even if they did think that I was there against my will, I knew no one would come forward to help me. I was in this on my own. Sasha was right about just going with it. Why make it any harder than it had to be?
I gathered up as much courage as I could muster and I followed him out the door and down the hallway. As I got closer, I could hear Elie’s voice and a crowd cheering. My heart was pounding so hard, but somehow I could still hear through it all. What the hell was going on?
The door at the end of the hallway opened and bright lights blinded me for a moment. It was finally time to face the truth, no matter how impossible it seemed. Before I got to the stage, I was stopped and handed a drink.
“What’s this?”
“Just something to chill you out. It’s from Elie. He said you were going to need a drink.”
I needed it more than I could say. I didn’t want to be there, and instead of worrying about what was in the drink, I just drank it. I needed the alcohol before I walked out on the stage to accept my fate. I still wasn’t ready for it, but I didn’t have a choice. This was happening.
Chapter 24 – Scott
The auction was winding
down, but the seats around me weren’t emptying out as fast as I would have hoped. Sasha had just been auctioned off, and from her demonstration on the stage she’d racked up a higher bid than anyone else so far. It was almost over, but there was one prize left to bid on. I wasn’t the only one waiting for Mariah.
Elie came up after Sasha was sold off and talked about Mariah for a moment. It was clear that he was pushing her innocence. That’s what the other men were here for. I couldn’t blame them, of course. I was here for the very same thing. I would like to say that it was because I was close to her and I loved her. That was true, but more than anything else I wanted to be her first. That was what kept me up at night. I was still convinced that it was the fact that she was untouched that drew me to her. I wouldn’t know until I’d had her, and this was my moment.
When she came out, the lights seemed to bother her eyes because she kept blinking. She didn’t seem like herself; she was a little off and she stumbled onto the stage. Someone had to hold her up and I caught myself getting up. Something was not right.
“Well, as you can see, Mariah is ready for this auction to be over. She has been waiting a long time for this, and you can see how eager she is.”
A chuckle ran through the remaining members of the crowd. It was clear to anyone that was looking at her that she was on something, or drunk. Guilt washed over me. I had to think that she was in that condition because I’d told her that I wasn’t coming. Had she had to get that way to deal with it? Or had Elie given her something?
“Let’s start the bidding at ten thousand. Do I hear ten thousand?”
It was a nominal fee considering what was for sale. Sasha had left with five times as much, and it wasn’t but a couple of minutes before the price was surpassing her friend’s number. I hadn’t even put my hand up yet. I was letting the rest of them battle it out for a while. I had more money than everyone else in the room put together, and I knew that I was going to win. I would top whatever number the rest of them came up with. I didn’t have a choice, because I couldn’t lose her. I would lose my mind if I did. Still, getting into it too soon might just make the price rise for no good reason.