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I press my eyes closed to ward off the tears pooling in them as I listen to the door slide shut. I should have gone in with them. Surely Everett isn’t so involved in this that he would put me at risk. Surely some of what he said he felt was real. But it’s too late now, the voices are growing closer, and I quickly slide the drawers back into place and duck down behind them. I have to have been in here for a reason and hiding seems like as good a reason as any.
The moment the lock clicks shut, I allow the breath I’ve been holding from the moment I heard the first gunshots out. At least they’re safe. That’s all that matters.
The relief is short-lived when the wardrobe door swings open and I curl up as small as I can behind the drawers, holding my breath to avoid making any noise. The sound of my own heartbeat feels too loud in the small space, and if I could stop it, even for a few moments, I would to keep myself safe.
“Why hello there, little thing,” one of the men says, his voice velvet honey.
My eyes dart up and I’m faced with a sick smile looming above me, a gun aimed at my face. Perhaps the sight should scare me, it would most women, but for some reason the gun almost puts a barrier between us, at least for now. “Please,” I whisper, my eyes wide and filled with tears. It’s a tactic Rayne taught me when he was first teaching me how to protect myself. Lure them into a false sense of security that I’m not a threat, and then there’s a better chance of escaping because they’ll underestimate me.
“Sorry, sweetheart, gotta do our job.” The taller man pushes past and pulls me to my feet.
“It’s okay though, little doll. I’ll take real good care of you once this is all said and done,” the first man says and my skin immediately pebbles with a revolted shiver. His yellowing teeth are barely visible in the dim light, his crazed brown eyes enough to make me stumble over my own feet.
Okay, so maybe I don’t need to pretend to be scared. Maybe Iamscared.
“Shut the fuck up, Simon. Boss didn’t pay us to creep the poor girl out,” the tall man snaps. His large hand wraps around my bicep and he tugs me out of the bedroom and down the hallway. The thought of struggling crosses my mind, but what would be the sense in that? I’m not strong enough to take down both men, and not willing to risk it while they’re both holding guns. The best thing I can do right now is play along until I can find an opportunity to strike.
“Where are the other two girls?” he asks.
“They’re not here,” I lie. “They both snuck out a couple of hours ago when my brother left.”
“Snuck out?” He raises his eyebrows, scanning my face for the telltale signs of lying.
I nod. “Yeah. We’ve been cooped up in this house for weeks, and my sister Snow is a bit of a wild child,” I explain.
“Why didn’t you go with them then?” the other man asks from behind us.
“Cramps,” I reply immediately.
They don’t ask any questions after that, instead leading me down the stairs in silence. At least I’ve won one battle tonight. Now it’s just time to win the war.
60
Everett
Every moment that passes that I’m not able to check my phone feels longer than the last. I need to check the cameras at the estate. I need to make sure the girls got into the panic room safely and turn off the override switch in the control panel. We only keep it on because Snow likes to lock herself in there and drink herself into oblivion on her particularly bad days, and now I regret not just letting her wallow in her own self-pity.
I didn’t have to talk myself into being able to stay at the farm while the others went to hide out at the club because Angelo suggested I oversee the delivery. It’s a test I won’t pass and one they won’t be around to see my fail.
The problem is they have an army of fucking men here with me and if I so much as think about pulling my phone out of my pocket, they’re going to start asking questions. Every time I try to sneak out someone has a question for me, and I don’t have any answers because this is not my ballpark. My area of expertise is computers. It’s building shit and creating things that didn’t exist before. Not human trafficking.
“Hey boss,” a short, stubby man says. “How should we split the girls when they arrive?”
I stare at him for a moment, because how the fuck should I know how to separate women who have been torn from their lives and sold like livestock? But I have to have an answer. “This is my first shipment,” I tell him honestly. “Do they come with papers? Names? Ages?”
He nods, his brows pulled together with confusion. He’s wondering why my uncles would leave me in charge when I have no fucking clue what I’m doing, but I can’t tell him they’re testing me.
“Okay, good. I want them split by age.” There. That wasn’t so bad. I mean, if I can separate the fact these are human women I’m talking about, that is.
“You got it.” He walks away quickly, and I lean back on the banister of the porch. Tommy and Rayne should be here soon, but I have no clue how I’m going to communicate with them with so many guys around. I have no idea how tonight is going to play out at all, and honestly, all I can think about is Wynter.
The hurt and disgust in her eyes when she believed every word my uncles fed her makes me feel sick to the stomach even thinking about it. But it’s the imminent danger she’s in right now because of me that has nausea rolling over me, and for the first time in years, there’s nothing I can do to protect her. I can’t follow her around on her date and threaten the guy in the bathrooms not to so much as touch her. I can’t leak photos of the girls bullying her on the internet. And I sure as hell can’t wrap her in cotton wool like I always wanted to.
“The trucks will be here soon,” Dennis tells me. The man was one of my father’s men who jumped ship when the Saint James family overthrew him and has nothing but hate for the people I consider family. The few times I’ve been around for conversations about them, he’s made his distaste for them perfectly clear and it took everything I had not to pull my gun out and shoot him right between the fucking eyes. Wouldn’t be the first time and certainly wouldn’t be the last.
“Thanks.” I give a tight smile and push away from the house, striding toward the three barns that have been built since the last time I was here. I declined a tour of the facilities earlier, deciding I don’t have enough control of my anger right now to see the fucked-up stuff hiding behind those doors.
I briefly glance over my shoulder to make sure no one is watching me before quickly pulling my phone from my pocket and sending a text to Storm.
