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I jerked back when she turned to exit the alley. I fumbled around the corner of the building, waiting for them both to leave before racing toward my pickup. I’d follow India to where Josie was, and if she was lucky, I’d let her live.
Maybe …
Chapter Thirty-One
Josie
Hope slowly disappeared as the minutes turned to hours. Never in a million years did I think I’d be in a situation like this, but who does? The girls across from me didn’t, or the other girls he had chained to some dingy basement elsewhere.
My wrists began to burn from the cuffs of the chains, and my shoulders cried out in agony from their position. I didn’t feel like someone that needed to complain considering the shape of the girls across from me. So, I kept my mouth shut and listened for any activity outside of the room.
“Do you think he’ll call the police?” Melody asked.
Rain pelted against the roof suddenly, causing my nerves to grow, and my heart rate to spike. “I’m not sure,” I said softly. “If he catches wind of the cops he’ll—I don’t know what he’ll do.”
Melody sniffled. “Do you love him?”
I smiled despite the feeling of dread in my stomach. “Who Maverick?” I asked. “I do.”
Melody shifted, the heavy chains rattled when she moved. “I’ve never been in love,” she whispered, her bright eyes moving up to mine. “What’s it like?”
I couldn’t stop laughing. “I don’t know if my love story is the one you need to hear.”
“How come?”
I shrugged. “It’s no fairy tale, Melody.”
“Life’s no Disney movie,” she whispered. “Tell me anyway.”
Isn't that the truth?Disney characters weren’t sold into sex trafficking. Thirty minutes later, I had Melody flabbergasted with the story of Maverick and me. “So he bullied you and now you’re in love with him. That’s morbid, sis, butI guessI get it,” she said. “He hated you for a stupid reason, but to him, it was a legit one.”
“Yeah,” I said, blowing my hair from my face. Sweat began to gather at my hairline, and the realization that Maverick may never find me slithered into my veins. “I was supposed to meet him today after class, right when I got snatched.”
“Do you know the guy that took you?” she asked.
“It was Keith King who drew me in and Derek blindsided me. King—I don’t know how he was tangled up with Derek, but I’m guessing it’s the drugs. Does he give y’all drugs?”
Melody nodded. “Yeah. It’s how he controls the ones that won’t let men touch them.”
I screwed my eyes shut. I couldn’t imagine being thrust into a room with some random man so he could do whatever he liked to me. Repeatedly. “Does it get easier?”
Melody looked off into space, her emotions a blank canvas. “I block it out. At first, it was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced, after several times, and knowing that he’d drug me if I didn’t do it, I just put myself in a different position mentally. I think about volleyball practice or the Europe trip I’d planned for the week after graduation. I’m not me when I go. Not anymore.”
I blinked back the tears in my eyes. “We’ll get out of here,” I whispered.
One of the girls across the room chuckled humorlessly. “We’re not going anywhere,” she said in a spiteful voice. “You are. He’s been looking for a young Asian, and now he has her, he’s shipping you off to some old geezer that’s going to pay big bucks for you—,”
“Shut up,” Melody hissed. “Her boyfriend is coming to get us.”
The redhead—or at least her dirty hair looked a little reddish—rolled her eyes. “No one is coming, Melody. You heard her, you've been in here for years. How is some kid going to save us!” her voice hit my bones like fire.
The defeat that laced her tongue made me sad for her—for them—for me, because what if Maverick couldn’t find us?
“At least he knows who took her,” Melody countered. “No one else did.”
The redhead shook her head and turned to face the opposite direction.
I sat up straight when footsteps started from down the hallway and stopped in front of the closed door. Melody backed into the corner, her bottom lip trembled, and I swallowed all my emotions, to tuck them away.
