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“He worked for the guy I was…” I stopped short. Antonio and I weren’t serious, yet fucking, while accurate, made me seem slutty, so that description was out. Finally, I settled for, “Seeing.”
“He was like a driver or something?”
Jolene reminded me of Cherry, and a wave of homesickness hit me like a freight train. What I wouldn’t give for a taste of her sunshine right about now, even if she annoyed the shit out of me with her perkiness.
“He was her bodyguard you idiot,” the other girl shot back.
“Some job he did. She’s in here the same as us.”
Jolene had a point. My eyes strayed to Jules’s back even though I willed them to look anywhere but at him. Memories from the night we were taken came flooding back as I stared at the visual reminder of my nightmare. Every detail of that night, at least until the drugs took effect, was burned into my brain.
His words, though, were what haunted me the most. ‘I’m sorry, Stella. I had no other choice.’ What the hell did that even mean?
Then suddenly all the pieces began to fall into place, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t figured it out before now. He’d gotten us captured on purpose.
“That asshole!”
Hazy memories surfaced from the depths of my subconscious and took shape. The crunch of gravel under tires. A muted grunt followed by the rattling of chains. Lights flickering from above before I felt the chill of a hard surface. A familiar voice in the darkness letting me know he’d wake me when it was time to leave.
“Which one?” the girl asked, bringing me back to the present.
“The one who got me thrown in here.”
My voice sounded small, almost far away, and I wasn’t sure she’d even heard me until I heard her mirthless chuckle.
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. He fooled me too, and I’m not one to be swayed by a pretty face.”
She had to be referring to the douche who drugged and clotheslined me because Jules wasn’t handsome. At least not in the classical sense. Brutally arresting, maybe. Tall, dark, and dangerous with an air of competency, absolutely. Not that I thought Jules made it a habit of screwing women over. No, that privilege was all mine.
And for what? They’d killed him within the first twenty-four hours because he had nothing on the club. Maybe, like me, he’d assumed this was about Antonio. Then he might have had a bargaining chip or two. It fit, but it was still a hell of a gamble. Whatever he’d been after, he’d been willing to die for it.
Damn my survival instincts. Once I knew I was on my own, I’d zeroed in on his instructions. The rest hadn’t mattered at the time. Now, I knew the things I’d dismissed held the key to what got me thrown into this hellhole to begin with. Think, Stella, think. What did he say?
Jesus. Why couldn’t I remember? Every minute detail about being taken was crystal clear in my mind, and yet I couldn’t seem to remember a few measly sentences he uttered right before my failed escape attempt. Maybe that douche had knocked a screw loose with his wrestling moves.
The heavy clomp of boots echoed down the corridor and a hush fell over us. Even I held my breath, waiting to see what new hell awaited me. The last time I’d had visitors in my cell they left a dead body.
Shiny black combat boots stopped at the door of my cell, and I looked up. Wow, the saying really was true, speak of the devil and he shall appear. It was a shame that a douche like Michael came in such an angelic package. He’d probably tricked the girl I’d spoken to, and that made me hate him all the more.
He unlocked my cell door, the hinges groaning in protest as he swung it open. “Come on killer. You’re about to be somebody else’s headache.”
“What do you mean?”
My eyes searched his face, hoping he’d give me some sort of a clue if this was par for the course or a bad sign. His eyes traveled down to the hand covering my tits and back up to myface. He might as well have been inspecting cattle for all the emotion he showed.
“Time for you to be broken in.” His eyes dropped back down to the hand covering the top of my mound. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll have the pleasure of hearing you scream in the next rotation.”
CHAPTER 11
STELLA
We emerged from an old barn cellar just as the sun was sinking below the horizon. A small grouping of trees dotted the landscape in the distance, breaking up the grassy fields that surrounded us.
My stomach did an uncomfortable somersault when I realized that even if I had gotten past Michael earlier, I wouldn’t have made it very far. There was nothing but open countryside as far as the eye could see. They’d have caught up with me long before I found the road out of this hellhole.
Michael prodded me along like cattle, literally, cutting off my internal pity party. Naked and chained, I shuffled toward the two assholes casually leaning against a white delivery van parked a few feet away. How utterly typical of them. If I weren’t so preoccupied with hiding my goodies, or the damn cattle prod grazing my skin that could become electrified at any moment, I might be tempted to ask these two bozos where they hid the candy and puppies.
My eyes scanned the waiting men as we moved closer, committing every detail about them to memory. Good thing neither would be hard to pick out of a crowd. One of them had a dragon tattoo on his neck done in vibrant oranges and reds, while the other had a shock of bright red hair braided down the middle of his head.
