AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Let’s go, ladies,” one of the men shouted at them.
“Where are we?” someone from the back of the truck asked.
“You keep your fucking mouths shut, and no one will get hurt,” another man warned. Amelia didn’t quite believe that their silence would guarantee their safety, but she also knew when to keep her mouth shut. It was a skill that she learned at an early age.
Her father wasn’t the easiest man to get along with. He drank too much and when he did, he was mean. He liked to slap her mother around, and when she finally took off, leaving Amelia with her alcoholic father, he decided that she’d do in a pinch. She became a punching bag for her old man and took his punishment until she was old enough to high tail it out of there. That was when she learned that silence was golden, even if it didn’t always stop her father from hitting her.
“Now, I’m going to say this one more time, ladies,” the first man spat. “Let’s go.” She stood, knowing that he wasn’t going to give her or any of the other women another chance to comply.
Another truck pulled up next to the men holding guns at the women, and two more men jumped out. The one driving looked to be the one in charge. He started barking orders as soon as he got out of the old truck. The second guy looked the women in the truck over and seemed a little bit green by the whole scene. If she wasn’t mistaken, she noted a hint of pity in his dark eyes and that surprised the hell out of her. None of the other men looked at the women that way. They seemed to look straight through them, not really even seeing them. Maybe it was easier for the men that way. They wouldn’t have to think of the women as human beings, but as objects that needed to be moved at any cost.
“Where are you taking us?” another woman asked as she stepped down from the truck. One of the guards backhanded her and she yelped, falling to the concrete ground.
“Anyone else have a question?” he asked the group. Of course, no one else spoke up. No one dared after the woman was helped up from the floor, holding her jaw, whimpering in pain. The other women were smart enough to keep their mouths shut.
“Good, let’s move,” another guard shouted. The women filed into a single line and walked into the warehouse silently. Wherever they were going, Amelia was pretty sure that none of them were going to like their final destination.
They lined up the women in front of cages and she was sure that she had correctly guessed how much she was going to hate what came next. “In,” the third guard shouted. Some of the women cried and shook their heads, but Amelia knew that none of that would help save her from the inevitable. She was going to have to get into the disgusting cage behind her, just like all the others.
Amelia stepped into the cage and the guard with kind eyes looked in at her and nodded, as if actually thanking her for her compliance. She shrugged, “No use in fighting,” she whispered more to herself than to him. “You do have a gun.” She nodded to the semi-automatic he was holding, pointed in her direction.
“Smart girl,” the guy drawled, walking over to the next woman in line, and demanding her compliance. She didn’t give it as willingly as Amelia had. He forced her into the cage next to Amelia’s and she fell to the dirty concrete floor. He shouted at the woman that she needed to learn her place as she scooted across the floor to the back corner of the cage. Amelia wasn’t sure how they had all landed in this hell, but she was sure of one thing—it was going to get worse, and as much as she didn’t want to admit it, no one was going to come to their rescue. They were lost women now and no one would be looking for them.
Spider
Spider had to spend the rest of the day at the warehouse when all he wanted to do was go home, shower, and sleep in his own bed. The women that they had brought in were scared out of their minds, and rightfully so. He wished he had the intel that he needed to bring the Ghosts down, but that was going to take time and a hell of a lot of luck. For now, his job was to stick close to the warehouse, keep an eye on the women, and move them when Hangman gave the order. His new boss just wasn’t going to like where he moved them to, because there was no way that he was going to deliver them to be sold at auction.
Spider stood over the warehouse, standing on the second level where Hangman’s office was, watching the women in their cages down below. He hated this part of the fucking job. He wanted to call in a raid and have the whole damn operation torn down, giving these women a fighting chance to get back to their lives, but that wasn’t how things worked in the CIA. No, his higher-ups would want him to wait until they had all the major players in town to order a raid. With Butch missing, he knew that shutting down the Ghosts would be pointless. He might be able to put Hangman behind bars, but Butch would eventually take over and his job wouldn’t be over. In fact, the vicious cycle would just start all over again, just as it had before.
When he was a young agent, he thought that bringing down at least one of the key players in a trafficking ring was good enough, but he soon learned that wasn’t true. He would just have to go undercover time and time again, watching one kingpin fall only to be released by another. Some days, he really hated his job but then, they’d bring in another shipment of women and he’d remember why he did it. If he could save just a handful of those women, it would make it all worth it.
Most of the women were sleeping except for the one in the last cage—the one who was smart enough to comply without asking any questions. She was the one who did as she was told and even said that it wasn’t worth fighting because the guards all had guns. He was right to call her a smart woman—she was, but he could also see the fight she still had left, staring back at him in her dark eyes. He knew that if given the chance, she’d fight like hell for her freedom, and he had to admit he admired her for it.
He watched her as she raised her hand, almost the way a kid in grade school would do to ask a question.
“What?” one of the guys on the floor growled at her.
“Um, I need to use the bathroom,” she loudly whispered. “I feel sick.” The guy sighed and looked up at Spider as if asking him what he should do.
“It’s fine,” Spider shouted back. “I’ll come down and take her to the bathroom so that you won’t have to leave your post.” The last thing any of them needed was to clean up both a cell and the woman after she got sick. It was easier to just give in and take her to the bathroom than to deal with that shit.
The guy nodded back up at Spider as he started down the metal steps to the warehouse floor below. He’d run the woman to the bathroom and then, hopefully, she’d be able to settle down and he could get some shut eye. He unlocked and opened her cage and she stood from her cot. “Let’s go,” he ordered.
“Thank you,” she whispered, breezing past him. She was dressed as though she had spent the night before out at a club. Her dark eyeliner had smeared down her face, letting him know that she had been crying at some point in this ordeal and why wouldn’t she? This had to be the worst thing that ever happened to her. She tugged at the short, tight, black leather miniskirt that she wore, and he noted that her stockings were torn in a few different places. She had to be freezing in her tank top and short skirt, but Hangman didn’t offer the women a change of clothes or even a warm blanket.
The woman walked in front of him as he barked directions at her as to where the bathroom was. The warehouse was an open room but once off the warehouse floor, the hallways became mazes, and he had trouble finding his way through them on his good days.
“I’d love to say that I’ll be quick, but I’m afraid that this might take a minute,” she said, not bothering to turn back to face him.
“Just hurry up,” he grumbled. “If you take too long, the other guys will wonder what the hell is going on and come to find us.”
“Does that happen often?” she asked. “You know—guys taking women to the bathroom and taking too long with them?” He knew what she was asking, and he wasn’t about to give her an answer. If the women knew that the guards weren’t allowed to touch them, they’d find some way to rebel knowing that there would be no ramifications.
“Just go to the bathroom and hurry the hell up,” he ordered. She nodded and walked into the ladies’ room. Hangman had the door removed, worried that the women would spend time hiding away back in the bathroom and Spider wouldn’t blame them. It had to be hell knowing that they were going back to a cold, damp cage, and an unknown future. Most of the women knew that they were being trafficked, but some were so young, they had no clue as to what was about to happen to them.
Spider leaned against the wall and pulled his cellphone from his pocket, wanting to check his work emails. He knew that the internet was spotty in this part of the building, but it was the safest place to check-in. There were no prying eyes on him, and Hangman wasn’t looking over his shoulder to make sure that he was doing what he was supposed to do.
“You about done in there?” he asked, realizing that he wasn’t going to be able to log into his work email account. He’d have to wait until he had a few minutes of privacy in his bunk to log in. He turned to find her standing next to him, holding what looked like a stump of wood in her hands.
