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I gasp, my mouth bobbing open and closed as I try to think of something to say, but she just waves me off and continues. “The reason these men pay so much money for time with a whore like you is because there are no rules. They can hurt you, torture you, permanently scar you, and nobody will stop them. The only thing they can’t do is kill you, but other than that, everything is free game. In fact, before the men started bidding, I made it clear that I have certain expectations of the winner.”
“What?” I ask, though I clamp my mouth shut straight away, regretting that I just gave her a fraction more power over me.
“Well, there are only two reasons that Finn would choose someone like you over me. The first is your pretty face, the second is your tight cunt. So I simply made it clear to whoeverwins that when you do leave this room, neither of those things will be a problem anymore.”
Her words hit me like a tonne of bricks, and my panic escalates. I can’t quite catch my breath, despite my chest rising and falling rapidly as I gasp for air. Even though I know it will do no good, I yell and I scream again, pulling frantically on the ropes around my limbs.
The rope burns and chafes against my flesh, not loosening even a little, but I still keep trying. I have to try something. I can’t just sit here.
Mel’s words echo around my mind as I think about what she means. She wants the winning bidder to ruin my looks and destroy my vagina. That means they plan on sexually assaulting me, as well as physically. That thought alone is crippling, and I can’t hold back the sobs that rip from my throat.
I can hear the distant sound of Mel laughing beside me, but the more I struggle to breathe, the quieter she sounds. My ears are flooded with the pounding of heart as the edges of my vision start to darken. The fear is starting to overwhelm me, and if I don’t claw back a bit of control soon, I’m going to pass out.
Maybe being unconscious is a good thing?
As I take in a short, sharp breath, desperate for the air that burns my lungs, Mel leans over me. She’s so close now that I can smell the strong floral scent of her expensive perfume, and the vicious glint in her eyes makes me so fucking angry.
“Have a good time, McKenna. And while the winner is using and abusing you, like the cheap slut you are, make sure you remember that this is only happening because you messed with the wrong person. Nobody makes a fool out of Melanie Whitlock. You will regret the day you ever met me,” she drawls, sounding evil and poisonous.
I don’t know how I find the strength, but with what feels like the last drop of courage I possess, I make sure to have the finalword. “No matter what you do to me, you will always have to live with the knowledge that Finn chose me, not you.”
The door slams, though the light remains on, and I’m left alone once again. Only now I have fear and dread to keep me company.
My thoughts flick to Finn, as they usually do. By now, I’m sure he’s figured out that I’ve been taken, and his family will be helping him to locate me. They will find out it’s Mel who has me, and then they can work out where I am.
Finn won’t rest until he has me back. I just hope that when he gets here to rescue me, I’m still the same girl. I can’t bear the thought that he might get here too late. That the girl he saves isn’t the one he loves. If Mel goes through with her plan, there may only be a shell of my former self left to find.
As soon as we have McKenna’s location, I want to run. Every fibre of my being just wants to get to her, but it’s not that easy. Now that we know Mortimer Whitlock is involved, and that Shane’s cover is potentially blown, any move we make needs to be completely strategized and well thought out.
I’m no fucking use during the planning process, because she’s all I give a shit about. I don’t care that my selfish actions could have a massive impact on my family’s future—I’ve put them before McKenna for far too long. I don’t even want to think about the future, or how the decisions we make now may affect what happens moving forward.
So what if we start a fucking war? I really don’t bloody care, as long as she comes home to me without a single hair out of place. We can sort the rest out later. This time, she’s my priority.
As the discussions continue, going around in circles, it’s clear my family is becoming more exacerbated with me. I can see their side of the argument. We have no fucking clue how deep this shit with Whitlock goes, or how dangerous he really is.
Under no other circumstances would we ever rush into starting a war. Not without knowing how many people he has backing him, or who will stand with us, for that matter. This is stuff we haven’t had time to investigate.
Whilst I know all of this, I can only see my own side of the argument. None of that shit matters because McKenna is in danger. I will do anything, take on anyone, to get her back.
If any one of my family members were in my position, I know for a fact that they’d launch in to save their loved ones, with a barely held together plan and a shitload of hope. And all of my siblings, myself included, would be by their side. We’re a family, and the people that we love, that love us, they’ve become part of our family, and no matter what, we look out for our own. We have to rescue her.
Liam drags his hand down his face in frustration and his brow furrows when I finish explaining my side of things. “Finn, we all care about McKenna, and you have our word that we will help you rescue her, but there’s a much bigger picture at play here that we have to think about.” He sounds so fucking tired, like he’s trying to explain something to a child who is refusing to listen, and it just makes me more angry.
“I fucking know that,” I snap, jumping to my feet to begin pacing around the room again, as all eyes follow my volatile ass, wondering what the hell I’m going to do next. “I know that any move we make against Whitlock will be seen as an act of war,and that we shouldn’t make a decision like that on a whim, but this isn’t…not really.
“We’ve been planning to move on him for ages. I’m just asking you to move up the timeline. We know he’s dangerous, but we don’t really know what he’s capable of. Mac has been with him for several hours now, and I can’t leave her in his clutches any longer.”
Everyone starts talking at once, and I can’t tell who is backing who. It just drowns into one large bubble of noise, and the pounding in my head that’s been present since McKenna left grows more insistent. My skin prickles, like millions of tiny ants wandering around just below the surface, making me itch and feel sick. My brain, when it’s not thinking of stupidly heroic ways to rescue her all on my own, keeps reminding me that this is all my fault.
McKenna would roll her eyes at that, reminding me that it was her decision to jump in the deep end with me. That she knew the risk she was taking, but she felt it would be worth it. That I’d be worth it.
Even if that is true, I should have stopped her. I should have been stronger and pushed her away again, like I knew was the right thing to do. My selfish desire to have her has put her in danger, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive myself, even if we do bring her home unharmed.
A loud whistling cuts through all the noise, and everyone falls silent. Bree is standing beside me, looking every bit as fierce as she does in these sorts of situations. All traces of the sleep deprived young mum are gone, she’s all warrior now.
Red places her hand on my arm to get me to stop pacing, giving me a small smile as she does. She looks like she’s about to talk to me, but then her eyes flick directly to Liam, and something passes between them that I can’t quite read, but heunderstands it. My brother’s shoulders deflate as he waits for his wife to speak.
“Not too long ago, Liam, you led pretty much the same group of people into what would have been called a suicide mission. You had no real plan, and you definitely weren’t thinking about the consequences. All you could think about was freeing me. Same with you, Kellan, when Mia was taken. And when Kian was kidnapped, too.
