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“You’re a fool, Ashley.” He left the kitchen, and I rushed to catch up with him.
I wouldn’t forget about the cinnamon rolls, but they were the last thing on my mind right now. All I wanted was to know if I could save more women.
“Don’t walk away.” I reached out for his arm.
He grabbed me roughly and pressed me against the wall. “No.”
“Please. The money you’re paying me. There’s no way you would be getting that much in a shipment of girls.”
“In one shipment, no, but you’re meddling in shit you have no right to.”
“Please.”
“No.”
“Earl.”
“No!” The word was final, the sound echoing around the walls. I couldn’t help but feel the tears flood my eyes because I knew it was useless in fighting.
“You need to stop trying to save everyone and think about yourself every once in a while.”
“What is so wrong with me wanting to help people?” I asked. I didn’t get it.
Where he held me hurt, but I didn’t ask him to stop.
“Do you think they’d give a shit if the roles were reversed? That they’d even lose sleep knowing someone was hurt and they could do something about it?” he asked.
“I don’t care if they would do the same or not. I’m not doing this for any other reason than because I want to. If I can help, then I will. What is so wrong with that?”
He moved so fast, his lips right next to my ear. His body pressed against mine, and it wasn’t erotic. It was a threat.
“You’re a naïve fool, Ashley. This world is full of monsters and beasts. We don’t pander to you. Left out in the world, someone would come and hurt you. They’d eat you alive and spit out your carcass.”
“Do you think you’re scaring me?” I asked. He was, but I hoped he didn’t know that. Emily had said many the same things in the past seven years. She told me I was too trusting. Too open. Too vulnerable. I cared too much.
If all of that was true, and I guessed it really was, why did it have to be such a bad thing? I cared about people. In a cold, hard world, I tried to offer some kind of hope, and yet, according to Earl and Emily, it made me a fool.
At that moment, I was angry.
“You’re terrified. You’re shaking.”
“Don’t mistake my anger with fear. I’m not afraid of you.” I pushed against him.
“I haven’t given you any true reason to fear me, sweetheart. You want to push those buttons, last night was a walk in the fucking park. I can make you do things that will have you on the edge of your fucking seat. Now, that money is yours. The women are saved, and don’t ever fucking test me again. You won’t like it.”
He let me go. His grip had been holding me up. Now I sank to the floor.
He was right. I was terrified.
I wanted to help people.
I was tired of those closest to me seeing that as a weakness rather than a strength.
****
Earl
“Women are a tool. They’re there to be used and taken. It’s why they’re the weaker sex. They’re not strong. Our cocks are hard. We’re designed to take.”
Running a hand down my face, I poured myself a large brandy. One of my grandfather’s many little speeches, pertaining to the differences between men and women, ran through my head. At the time, I had no choice but to listen. To my grandfather, women were put on this earth to be taken by men. To be used by them. They didn’t have a mind. They had no right to think for themselves. The only uses they had were their mouths, assholes, and pussies. Everything else about them was useless.
Even with all that teaching and attempt of brainwashing, I didn’t believe it.
I’d learned to close myself off.
Business was exactly that, business.
It couldn’t be changed.
I adapted what needed to be done.
Now, as I drink the brandy, a luxury in life, I knew the fifteen women from the shipment that would have brought in a pretty penny were all back with their families. I’d kept my word. Followed through with my agreement, and I couldn’t stand the tightness within my gut.
I’d lost count of the number of women I’d sold. They were nothing more than numbers. Tallies on a piece of paper, numbers in the bank.
They weren’t supposed to matter. I’d resigned myself to them being lonely, runaways, lost. Women who’d been easily led astray, who had a shit life to begin with.
I didn’t have to see Ashley’s dare through, but for some fucked-up reason, it was important to me to show her that I kept my word. I had. Apart from the renegotiation I’d done with the Monsters, I’d never lied. I’d manipulated the truth.
The women had been waiting in the usual location. A warehouse with each room locked and bolted. A single mattress with a bucket in the corner for them to use for the toilet, giving them nothing. The lives they were purchased for, some were good. I knew that. Some of the men even fell for their products. Others, I didn’t imagine the life was as good.
