by Janie Crouch
She struggled to get away, which just caused him to grope her a little longer before letting her off his lap, chuckling with his friends. She scurried off to get their alcohol.
A pâte sablée crust for a miniature pie would work well. The shortbread-cookie-type texture would pair well with the multiple types of chocolate. But would it be too sweet?
She refused to let reality back inside her mind. She had no idea how many hours she had left with these people, or if, at some point, each of them would take her into a back room to do whatever they wanted. Would she be killed if she fought? Was she a coward for allowing this to happen to her without screaming and telling them all to go fuck themselves?
Violet had never said those words to anyone in her life. Maybe now would be a good time. Would Randy rush over and stop her if she told the sadistic group of monsters to go back to hell where they belonged? Would he throw her back in the cage?
Just survive.
She heard her brother’s voice in her head. That was what Gabe used to say to her after their parents had died, and she’d been so overwhelmed by grief and guilt. After all, they’d been out shopping for a present for her when they’d taken a curve too fast in their car and flipped over the median.
In those hard times, Gabe had pulled her into a hug and told her to just survive that day. They would worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.
If staying inside her mind and baking were how she just survived this, Violet would take it.
It was better than the alternative.
She retrieved the glasses of wine from the bar and allowed herself to remain wrapped in her own head as she walked back, not really seeing or hearing anything around her. She was handing them out to the monsters when Gold Mask spoke to someone standing behind her.
“Want us to send her back for another glass, Aiden? You can sit with us for a while.”
Violet’s head jerked around so fast she nearly toppled her entire tray. She would have if Aiden hadn’t reached from behind her and steadied it with calm, sure hands.
“Don’t want you to spill that,” he said.
The monsters laughed. “Oh, I don’t know. I’d like to see her clean it up on her hands and knees,” Gold Mask said.
That got another round of laughter from everyone. Aiden’s eyes narrowed just slightly, but Violet was the only one close enough to notice.
What was he doing here? Oh God, was he here to buy a person like everyone else?
Evidently, she wasn’t the only one with that question.
“I didn’t think this was your scene, Teague. Thought you were only into weapons sales,” one of the men said.
“I am. I’m just here as a favor to my friend Angel to set up a meeting for a different sale.”
Aiden squeezed her elbow as he said the word angel.
Angel, as in her brother Gabriel? That had been his call sign as a Navy SEAL. Was Aiden trying to tell her he was working with Gabe?
And would she survive if she allowed her hopes to rise only to have them dashed again?
Aiden grabbed the two remaining wine glasses and gave them to the people waiting, then sat down in an empty chair and pulled Violet into his lap. “Firefly and I made each other’s acquaintance last week. I promised her we would see each other very soon and have been quite upset that I haven’t been able to keep that promise. When I saw her over here with you, I wanted to come over and say hello.”
Was he trying to tell her something again, or was it just her mind’s attempt to protect her?
“Well, obviously you have a connection with her that we didn’t have,” Blue Mask said, one of the men who’d been pinching and tormenting her for hours. “I’m a little perturbed that you’re taking away our entertainment. Scaring the little red rabbit has been the highlight of my night.”
She felt Aiden’s fingers tighten on her waist. Not enough to hurt her, but definitely enough for her to know he was angry at the monster’s words.
But Aiden’s voice was calm. Friendly. “I’ll be happy to pay whatever you guys spent on her. I’ve been thinking about this sweet thing all week. There’s no way I’m letting her get away this time.” Aiden snuggled her closer. She made no attempt to get away. She still wasn’t sure he was trying to signal her with his words, but she would take him over any of the rest of them. Aiden might be a criminal, but at least he wasn’t here to buy humans.
Aiden had had ample opportunity to abuse her and he hadn’t. So if her choice was to stay close to him or to the people who had been taunting her all night, she would take Aiden every time.
“The auction will be starting in the back soon anyway,” the woman muttered, looking at Violet with cold eyes behind her mask. “Shame she’s not up for auction. It would be a pleasure to break her.”
She felt Aiden’s grip tighten on her again, but his face remained neutral. “Not for me. There are so many more pleasurable things to do with someone like her than break her. You know what I would do? I’d keep her in purple lingerie all the time.” His eyes met hers. “A deep violet color.”
Violet’s breath caught in her throat. He knows who I am. The clues he’d been dropping were real. The relief was almost staggering.
“She’d looked terrible in purple with that red hair,” someone said, but neither she nor Aiden was paying them any attention.
Aiden was working for Gabe or with Gabe. Or hell, maybe he was even working against Gabe but just hated Randy more. She didn’t care as long as he was getting information about her to her brother. There were so many questions she wanted to ask but couldn’t because of both the people and the damned necklace Randy had put on her again.
“Aiden, didn’t expect you here.”
Speak of the devil.
“Hey, Randy.” Aiden didn’t get up. “I saw Red here from across the room—who can miss that hair?—and thought I’d come say hello for old times’ sake.”
“Yeah, well these people have paid for her services tonight, not you. Plus, the auction is about to begin so she’ll be leaving. Don’t want her to be sold by accident.” He grinned.
“I’m heading out in a little while too. I buy weapons, not people.” He grinned at the masked group around him. “But hey, no judgment toward you freaks. You do you.”
There were a few chuckles, but most of them had already turned their full attention to the stage where the auction would take place.
Randy grabbed Violet’s arm and pulled her away from Aiden. “Time to go.”
Most of the people not wearing a mask were exiting. Randy propelled her forward into the hallway. She didn’t dare look to see if Aiden was behind them.
“Randy, hold up.” Aiden stepped in front of the smaller man to stop their progress. “I wanted to see about booking another few hours with Red here.”
“She’s not currently booking any sessions right now, but I’ll get back to you. Or I have quite a few other options if you’re interested.”
Aiden slipped off his jacket and wrapped it around her naked shoulders. “You should take better care of your girls, Randy. Won’t do you any good if they get sick from being out in the cold.”
The jacket was big and warm and smelled like Aiden. A clean scent. Everything else she’d smelled since being taken had been dirty one way or another. But his jacket was warm and clean and wonderful.
It covered her nakedness, but more importantly, it almost certainly contained whatever tracking device Gabe was going to use to find her.
“Jesus H. Christ.” Randy laughed. “What are you, in high school, giving her your letter jacket? Let me know if you want to talk about some other girls. This one won’t be available.”
What did that mean? Was he going to kill her? Planning to ask for a ransom from Gabe?
“That’s a crying shame. Firefly here is talented and beautiful.” Aiden glanced at Randy. “Want to make a quick fifty bucks?”
“Sorry, Teague, the no-sex rule is still in play. There’s not enough time for that or . . . other stuff anyway.”
> Aiden ran his thumb across her bottom lip. Violet couldn’t help her slight shiver.
A good shiver. She’d forgotten she could even do that.
“I just want a kiss, Randy. If I’m never going to see Firefly here again, I just want one kiss. We never got around to it last time.”
“Whatever floats your boat, man. Fifty bucks.”
Aiden pulled out his wallet and gave him the money, then grabbed the collar of his jacket and pulled her to him. He obviously didn’t care that Randy was standing there blatantly watching or that there were other people in the hallway.
His lips were soft on hers, wiping away all traces of the masked monsters who had kissed her throughout the night, bruising her mouth in their roughness.
He coaxed, nibbling at her lips before easing them apart with his. She expected his tongue to thrust into her mouth, but it never did. The kiss was almost chaste. Like what she would expect at the end of a first date where both of them hoped to see each other again.
His hands slid up from the collar of the jacket to frame her face, just as gentle and softly intimate.
“Okay, Romeo, time’s up,” Randy said, boredom all but dripping from his tone. This obviously hadn’t been the kiss he’d expect someone to pay fifty bucks for.
Aiden’s fingers pressed against her face and scalp once more, his thumbs trailing across her cheeks before he stepped back from her.
“Worth it?” Randy asked.
Aiden didn’t look away from her. “Every penny. I hope to see you very soon, Firefly. Don’t think that I’m going to forget about you.”
Randy rolled his eyes. “Later, Aiden. Want your jacket?”
“Nah. Let her keep it.”
“Whatever.” He grabbed her arm and yanked her down the hallway. Violet glanced over her shoulder and found Aiden watching them before Randy snatched her around a corner.
The rest of the women were waiting in an obedient group by the door that led out to the garage where the truck was parked. They looked at Randy in anticipation, all of them barely able to hold still.
“Good,” Randy said. “You all get the prize when you get back to the house.”
That was the news they’d all obviously wanted to hear. They followed behind him like ducklings as he led them to the truck.
“Take the jacket off,” he said as he opened the cage door and she crawled in.
“No, please, just let me keep it. I’m cold.” She couldn’t give it up.
“Sorry, nothing comes back to the house except what left with us. Standing rule.”
She slid back in the cage. She wasn’t giving up the jacket. “Go fuck yourself, Randy.”
Well, now she’d said those words to someone.
She knew she was in serious trouble when he didn’t say anything back, just set his keys down. She slid as far back as she could go, pulling her legs up, knowing that wasn’t going to help in the long run but doing it anyway. When he reached in to grab her, she kicked at him, feeling a sickening joy when her foot connected with his face and he howled in pain.
The joy didn’t last long. This time when he reached inside the cage, he had something in his hand. A moment later when her body seized in agonized shock, she knew what it was.
A Taser.
She couldn’t make her legs work this time when he reached inside, but she let out a sob when he used the Taser on her again.
Then he grabbed her by the calves and dragged her out. She tried to pull up her arms to protect herself when he got her far enough out of the cage to backhand her, but she wasn’t nearly fast enough. The building spun as his fist crashed into her stomach and she retched to the side.
One of the other women must have moved because he turned his focus to them for a moment. “If you move, you lose your prize.”
Evidently that threat was enough to stop any of them from trying to help Violet.
He ripped her head up from where she was lying against the floor of the truck, trying to get her breath, and yanked her backward. “I’m the boss, bitch. Nobody else. You’ll do good to remember that.”
She used her last bit of strength to fight as he pulled the jacket off of her, but it was useless. She watched as he dropped it to the ground after ripping it from her body.
Then he used the Taser on her time after time until she could no longer scream or cry. When he finally stopped and pushed her back in the cage, he didn’t even have to lock the door to keep her in.
As Randy pulled the door to the truck shut, the last thing Violet saw was Aiden’s jacket lying in a heap on the dirt.
Chapter 7
Aiden had to wait an agonizing three more hours before the first private vehicle left to escort people away from the auction. Time passed with excruciating slowness. And since everyone wore masks inside this truly fucked-up masquerade, identifying Stellman in the crowd was impossible. Asking someone to point him out would be a death wish.
This party was very different than the low-class get-together at The Barn. The criminals here, most of whom, ironically, wouldn’t consider themselves criminals at all, had power that came from money and prestige rather than weapons and violence.
Aiden collected as many details as he could about as many people as possible. They wore masks, but that didn’t mean there weren’t identifying clues about them from their actions, words, and conversation.
A blond woman calling herself Sabrina who collected rare red wines. A man nicknamed “Munich” who wore a Harvard class ring. An Asian bragging about his summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro last year on Christmas Day.
Aiden filed away all the information in his brain, using tricks he’d perfected in the army. Each person got their own room inside the house he built in his mind. When he opened those mental rooms later, he’d be able to retrieve the information.
None of his memories would be usable in a court of law, but they would be a start. They’d give law enforcement something to go on. Because Aiden was damned sure not going to let these people get away with what was going on here today.
But that was tomorrow’s problem. Today they would save Violet.
That kiss. Good Lord, that kiss had damn near made him forget about everything going on around them. Made him forget that some of the worst atrocities known to man had been happening in the next room. Made him forget that Randy had been standing there, leering. Made him forget he was kissing her in order to place the small tracking device just behind her ear.
He’d just wanted to keep kissing her.
Violet had understood what he was telling her about her brother, about knowing who she was, about the rescue. She would be as ready as she could be.
Once he could finally leave, and the sedan with blacked-out windows was thirty minutes away from the party, Aiden’s phone was returned to him.
He immediately turned on Violet’s tracker with it. By the time he met up with his team, they should have her location.
Another thirty minutes later the car stopped to deliver him at the same place that it had picked him up in downtown Reddington City. They’d driven more than an hour, which meant the auction could’ve been anywhere from a half a mile to fifty miles away.
Aiden got into his own car and drove around for ten minutes just to make sure no one was following him. Then he drove directly to the warehouse Gabriel Collingwood had secured as their home base for this operation.
The familiar faces of his Linear Tactical partners—men he had and would trust with his life—were hard at work when he walked in the door.
“They crossed into Fremont County,” Zac Mackay said. He’d been their team leader in the Green Berets and would resume that role tonight. “Tracker stopped about ten miles east of Dunoir. Heavily forested area, no residential houses, so it’s off the grid.”
“Good,” Aiden said as he loosened his tie and prepared to change into his mission fatigues. “No civilians around to worry about.”
“How did Violet look? Was she okay? Did you have any problems getting the tracker on her?” Ga
be was pacing back and forth, his fists clenching.
Aiden changed clothes as he talked. His team had seen him in less than his boxer shorts, and Gabe and Kendrick didn’t strike him as being overly shy.
“Physically, not bad. No broken bones, limp, or anything to suggest internal injuries. Minimal bruising. She was being used as a sort of waitress at the event.” Details about the people inside the private party, what they were doing there, and even Violet’s exact situation, would have to wait. They weren’t pertinent to the mission of liberating Violet. “I gave Violet my jacket but decided to put the tracker on her skin just behind her ear instead.”
“Why did you give her your jacket?” Gabe asked. “And why did you plant the tracker on her neck? It had to be difficult for you to place it there undetected.”
Aiden pulled a long-sleeved shirt over his T-shirt, then strapped on his Kevlar vest. “Suffice it to say, giving her the jacket worked in the situation. As did the tracker. Overall it was better than putting it on her arm or somewhere it might be detected.”
“But how did you get it there, Teague?” Gabriel demanded. “So help me God, if you’ve been taking advantage of my sister in this situation . . .”
Aiden stepped up so he was face-to-face with Gabe. Fighting was not going to help now, but damn, it was tempting. “Your sister is strong. She is surviving under circumstances that would mentally cripple most people. She was able to pick up on my cryptic clues.”
He hadn’t been able to say Gabe’s name outright, and saying the word “violet” had been a bigger risk, but he’d had to make sure she understood help was coming.
“That’s because she’s got an IQ higher than Einstein,” Gabe muttered. “Definitely higher than mine. I’m not surprised she figured it out, even under duress.”
“She did.” Aiden nodded. “And hopefully, she’ll be ready tonight and won’t be scared when this all goes down. But the details about what’s happened to her this week are her choice to tell or not tell. I did what I needed to do in the situation, and it worked. Now let’s get her out.”
Gabe obviously wanted to argue more. He probably wanted to rant against the world and beat the shit out of someone.