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Who knew that speaking could hurt? Not me, that’s for sure. For every word that scrapes from my raw throat I want to stop once more. But Dom has the floodgates open and I know I need to tell him the whole story.
“Water?” I ask. He quickly hands me a sealed bottle from the small fridge he had put in my room the week after I arrived.
I don’t know how he knew but if the bottles aren’t sealed, I won’t drink from them. It’s how I ended up here in the first place.
“We need your boss,” I say. At his confusion I continue. “I’m only telling this story once in my life.”
He nods but I can see he isn’t happy to have someone else as part of this conversation. I’m not comfortable with anyone else, hell, some days I’m not even comfortable with Dominic, but I am not going through this twice.
He takes my hand and leads me out of the room. It’s the first time since I came here that I’ve left what has become my safe space. As we walk down the hall, I take in everything around me. Dom’s boss clearly has a lot of money if this part of the house is anything to go by. The gilded frames of what look like real oil painting and the plush carpet beneath my feet speak of opulence and wealth.
We descend a set of stairs in silence. At the bottom, a large man in a dark suit stares at us, curiosity clear across his features. I don’t even realize I’ve moved but in the next moment all I see is the back of Dom’s suit, my hand gripping his tightly.
“Back the fuck up,” he orders the man and a moment later I hear footsteps across the tiles. “It’s okay, Thalia. He’s gone.”
It takes me a moment to get my racing heart back under control and release the kung fu grip I have on his hand before I step up to his side once more. Dom smiles softly at me and something akin to pride shines in his gaze. He doesn’t say a word as he leads me to a closed door. He knocks and we wait until someone calls from inside.
I see his boss, Rafe, seated behind a monstrosity of a desk, his features a mask of irritation. When his gaze lands on me, he looks shocked before frowning.
“Dom. Thalia.” He gestures to the seat in front of his desk. “To what do I owe this visit?”
“Thalia wants to tell her story,” Dom grumbles.
Rafe stares at me. “If that’s what you want, I would appreciate it. We need to know what we are dealing with.”
Silence descends on all of us. The men are waiting for me, trying to be patient, although I am not sure it is entirely in their nature. I’m trying to work through all my memories and find the right place to start.
“I was twenty-two and working my way through nursing school. I met a nice guy that worked at the coffee shop I frequented and we started dating.”Is that my voice? Why do I sound like a robot?“We dated for a couple of weeks and I really liked him. He took me on a hike for one date. The last thing I remember was drinking from a bottle of water before I got dizzy and everything went dark.”
The next part is where it gets hard. Sitting upright, I square my shoulders before continuing.
“The next thing I remember is being tied to a bed naked, three men with masks hovering over me. I pulled at the ropes, I screamed for help. But no one ever came. We were six girls in the first place but we were moved after a while. At the second place there were ten of us. The last place is where I was held the longest. Just about a year and a half. There were lots of girls. Every day new ones, but very few of the girls I started out with were there for long.”
“Do you know anything about any of the locations you were held at?” Rafe interrupts, but I shake my head.
“Each time before they moved us, we were drugged. I didn’t even know what the outside of the buildings looked like. All I know is we went from a warehouse, to a farmhouse, to something like this.” I gesture at the house we are currently in. “Lots of money and opulence.”
Rafe nods. “So, someone with money was the last location. That makes sense, you can’t pull off something like this without a substantial amount of money. And influence.”
“I would imagine there aren’t many people with that kind of clout?” Dom asks.
Rafe nods, already deep in thought. I watch as he grips his cell phone, sending a message before focusing his attention back on me. Rafe signals for me to continue.
Now for the hard part.
“I didn’t understand what was happening in the beginning. There were so many pregnant girls. They would go off at one point and reappear a couple of days later without the baby. The one time I was in that situation, I found out the truth.”
My entire body is shaking as the first tear escapes down my cheek. I hate crying, being weak, but this is the hardest thing to remember.
“They took my daughter and I made a scene, screaming, yelling, even trying to attack my captors. Eventually after being punished, I found out the truth. We were trafficked not only for the sexual needs and deviant obsessions of the men, but for our reproduction capabilities. These sick fuckers were raping us, using and abusing us daily, in the hope that we would get pregnant so they could sell our babies.”
“Jesus,” Dom mutters.
Rage unlike anything I’ve ever seen is painted across Rafe’s face. A moment later his cell phone shatters against the wall where he threw it. Instinctively, I curl in on myself.
“Shit,” Rafe curses before leaving his chair to move around his desk. On his knees in front of my chair, he gently takes my hand in his. “I’m sorry for that. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“I know,” I say, my voice once again weak. “I hate that I react that way to the smallest things now.”
