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“My boss bought Romeo’s debt from your boss and paid him for this little disappearing act, not to mention the eighty mill for the movie just to plant the fucking idea.”
“Why?”
“Why do these fools with money do anything, bro?”
The words hit, but the meaning was lost on me. There was nagging at the back of my mind. A screaming, but in that moment, there on the bed with no mental or motor skills, it meant nothing. I don’t know how long I laid there before the door opened and Noah came in. His face appeared above me, his hands cupping my face.
“Give me a moment with her.”
“Dude—” the second guy started, but Frankie cut him off with a palm on his chest and a tip of his head to the door.
Nothing was normal, but clarity was slowly making itself known in small spurts as I watched the top corner of the door appear and disappear in my line of sight.
“Can you hear me, Amber?”
A tear prized itself loose from the corner of my eye, and he seemed to take that as a yes. He swept it away with his thumb, lowering his forehead against mine. He just held me for a moment, unaware that I wanted nothing more than to push him away.
“I’m so sorry, Elmer. I didn’t see it ending this way. I just didn’t have a choice.” He swept my hair back from my face and backed away a little. “They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, and as much as I love you, I had to choose myself and my career first.”
Another tear fell as I stared at him, unable to convince myself to blink as darkness tickled the edge of my consciousness. Words mixed together like soup in my mind, but the theme was clear: Noah had used me to pay off his debts and fund his movie.
“Time to go, man,” Frankie said from the door.
“Everything in place?”
“Your car’s up front. This little lady’s purse and phone are buried in a couch. The cameras at the apartment are in perfect working order, and the rest is up to you. We’re clear on our end, and she won’t touch a holding station with other girls. We’re delivering her straight to Moreno. No time for second thoughts, bro.”
I closed my eyes as Moreno’s name came into play. Part of me felt like I should have known, but who the fuck could have thought something like this would ever happen to them?
Seventeen-year-old me. That’s who.
I’d been so cautious then. So suspicious, and yet I was the one who’d walked straight into this spider’s web without a hint of suspicion.
“I know.” Noah’s voice pulled me from the vortex my mind had been wandering down. The realization that he would let this happen settled inside of me like a block of ice.
“Then get the fuck out of here and follow the fucking script. No deviations, no ad-libbing. You understand me?”
Noah nodded, rising from the bed and allowing his fingers to trail over my cheek as he stepped away. If I could have spit in his face, I would have, but my body wasn’t my own anymore, and my mouth was dry from fear.
Noah Jennings left me alone at the beginning of my personal hell with not so much as a glance backward.
I barely remember the walk of shame through the party, and as promised, the moment I was in the back of the car, another wave of heat washed over me and brought with it blissful unconsciousness. It just didn’t last as long as I wanted it to, and when I finally woke up, I was in a ten by ten cage in the concrete basement of one Artie Moreno.
I felt sick and betrayed.
Cheating felt like nothing in comparison to the shit storm Noah had dropped me into.
He’d sold me.
For his debts.
For his movie.
For his selfish motives.
Over time, while I was locked in a cage in the basement of Moreno’s estate, I would wonder how deep it all went—who had played a part in the whole thing. I would spend hours agonizing over whether Marcus and Eliza Rothman had helped Moreno and Noah pull off their scheme. I would play the entire thing out repeatedly until it made sense or fell into nonsense, once again. Some days it was the only thing that got me through. The only focus that kept me from reality.
I never did figure it all out, though, and I understood I would die never having the answers or justification for the loss of my freedom and my life, and neither would my friends or family.
