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Mad Dog, like his daughter, wasn’t one to mince words. Right now, it was my favorite thing about him.
“I couldn’t have said it better.”
“Fine,” Ryder bit out, his eyes narrowing to slits. “Switch, you’re with me.”
CHAPTER 13
STELLA
Bile climbed up my throat as Boris stood behind me, his giant hands spanning my waist, his tongue leaving a wet trail up the side of my neck. Guards stood all around us in the wide expanse between the two rows of prison cells. Even with the dim lighting, there was no mistaking the way they stroked themselves as they watched. The entire thing sickened me until I could feel it like a poison eating away at my soul.
“Manuel, I think it’s time you turn her over. Our guest of honor hasn’t yet had the pleasure of seeing her beautiful tear-streaked face.”
The guard grunted his acknowledgment, and I shut my eyes. This situation was beyond fucked-up. How was I supposed to look her in the eye knowing I stood by and did nothing while this asshole had his way with her in front of everyone?
She would clearly see that I was naked and in chains, unable to help anyone, even myself, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t still hold a grudge. Hell, if I were in her shoes I would. It might not be logical, but nothing about this situation was normal.
My chains rattled with the force of Boris’s shake, his hiss against my ear jolting me from my fucked-up train of thought. “If you shut those pretty eyes of yours again, I’ll tell him to use her ass next, and around here, lube is a privilege.”
“No,” I whispered, the high ceilings echoing my tortured words back to me.
When I opened my eyes, all I could see were the screams hidden in the depths of her dark, haunted eyes. Moisture pooled at the corners, but her tears refused to fall, the sight gutting me surer than any knife.
Her skin was pale, like that of a China doll, which only made the dark smudges beneath her eyes even more noticeable. But it was her face that robbed me of breath. The sharp cut of her jawline, the slightly sunken cheeks with the deep dimple, and the almost oblong shape of her face were unmistakable. She was the thing Jules had been willing to die for.
This girl, however inadvertently, had placed me at the gates of hell. Yet, I couldn’t summon up a shred of animositytoward her. How could I when she was right here with me, her sentence far longer and more brutal than mine?
Which begged the question, if a strong, capable man like Jules could have his family taken, then were any of us safe? Suddenly it wasn’t her face I saw, it was Cherry’s. All the light gone from her hazel eyes the way they’d been leached from this girl’s eyes, and I couldn’t bear it.
The nail I’d been holding on to slipped from my hand and fell to the floor with a barely recognized tinkle. There was no way I could use it now. Not knowing these soulless men would just take another in my place.
Heavy boot falls announced the arrival of another guard. Jesus, how many of these sick fuckers were going to come around the corner and whip their dicks out?
This guy didn’t stop though, instead opting to go the long way around the set of metal benches at the center of the room. When he finally reached us, he didn’t spare a glance for the girl splayed over the bench in front of us. Nor did he seem to notice me, standing in front of Boris, naked as the day I was born.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, boss”—his eyes flicked to mine and then back to Boris’s—“but you know who asked me to give you a message.”
He pulled a small yellow slip of paper from the pocket of his black fatigues and handed it over. Boris waved him off with a flick of his hand, and he quickly left the same way he’d come from.
Behind me, I could hear paper rustling, and I chanced a peek over my shoulder. Boris held the note up, the backside of it disappointingly blank, while he read. When he was done, he crumpled up the paper and shoved it into his pocket.
His smile was positively feral as he gazed down at me from his towering height. “It seems you’re due for a photo op.”
A shiver slid down my spine as he looked over the top of my head at someone behind me. “Manuel, when you’re finished with her, put her back in her cell. Today’s demonstration is at an end.”
Boris then dragged me by the arm, his fingers digging painfully into my flesh, over to the bench at the center of the room. My lungs seized up as I contemplated what sort of plans he had in store for me.
Was this some kind of bizarre buy a girl against her will pinup, or was the purpose of taking my picture purely to antagonize the club? Honestly, with these assholes, it could go either way.
CHAPTER 14
STELLA
The passage of time was no longer marked by the ticking of a clock, but by the sound of approaching boots. Each shift rotated positions at regular intervals, but so far nobody new had entered the mix. After about the fifth rotation, I’d learned to distinguish between the different footfalls of the guards.
The only real guarantee of safety came with silence, but when I heard a sure, quick, flatfooted approach, I wasn’t overly concerned. Outside of double checking the cell doors and bringing us bread or water, the messenger guard frombefore never paid us any mind. I never thought I’d be thankful to be treated as a bothersome chore.
My cell here was like the last one, only far newer. The sink didn’t drip, the mattress didn’t have any stains, and I could pee without wanting to get a tetanus shot afterward. This place was also considerably larger, with enough cells to house thirty girls even though only about twenty of them were currently occupied.
