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“I hope she’s all right,” I told him, clinging to the cart a little tighter and hoping he couldn’t see my hands shaking. If there was one thing I knew about Vince and men like him, it was that they fed on fear. It made them feel strong and powerful.
It was why they were in the business of whoring out women because they saw women—especially young, vulnerable women—as easy to control with fear.
Fear of being alone. Fear of being beaten. Fear of withdrawal.
He saw women as weak, and when a woman stands up to him like I’ve done more than fucking once, he doesn’t know what to do. He’s unsure of how to act or react.
In his mind, if he can’t break me, I must be destroyed.
“Oh, she’s fine,” he answered finally with a shrug. His dark eyes looked straight through me for a minute before he finally blinked and focused back on my face. “I plan on making sure she lives the rest of her life happy, however long it may be.”
My heart pounded a little harder.
Sarah hadn’t escaped at all. He was going to hunt her down and probably kill her simply because she managed to evade him.
Sounds familiar.
My stomach churned, and the sounds of my past began to invade my senses.
Walk away, Shay. Don’t give him the satisfaction.
Vince was looking for a reaction. He was looking for a reason to hurt me. Something he could justify to his father.
“Well, if you see her, tell her I said hi,” I commented, managing with some astonishment to keep my voice calm, no cracking, breaking, or tightening, though what I really wanted to say was, I hope you rot in hell, you disgusting—
“You stupid fucking bitch,” he hissed under his breath, pushing my cart and forcing me to shuffle backward. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
I dug in my feet, jolting his body to a hard stop. “We’re done here,” I snapped, growing increasingly irritated. I was sure that was what he wanted, for this back-and-forth to build to dangerous levels.
Not only for him and me but for everyone surrounding us.
I tried again to go around him, but this time, he stepped around the cart, getting right in close and forcing me to stumble back into some shelves. “I have clients waiting. They need concubines, and now, because of you, I have to go to them and tell them the women they have bought are no longer available.” You could almost see the steam blowing out of his ears.
Suddenly, the pieces fell into place. He was picking up girls off the street and selling them off.
It’s why he hadn’t just let Alice get away the first time, why he’d gone after her. Because someone already owned her. It’s why he had already found Sarah.
She wasn’t free.
No. Far from it.
I raised my eyes, looking up at this piece of shit standing over me like he was so goddamn intimidating. He wanted me to cower. He should have learned by now.
“That’s really unfortunate,” I whispered, even leaning in a little. “Maybe it’s time for a change of business, huh?”
Furious was not even the right word to describe how his eyes changed, and his entire face darkened—a hard feat while standing under fluorescent lights bright enough to rival the sun. “Or maybe it’s just time for a change of plan.”
“Ma’am, are you all right?” an older woman wearing a store uniform asked, glaring at Vince. “If you want, I can call the po—”
“We’re fine,” Vince cut in suddenly, the mask switching back as he pulled a smile onto his face and finally stepped away from me. “Sorry, we just got a little carried away. Shay, it was so good to see you again. Maybe we’ll catch up soon, yeah?”
The switch had been flipped, and I reached for my neck, rubbing at it to try and ease away the emotional whiplash.
There were no words.
Nothing came out as he strolled off down the aisle with almost a skip in his fucking step. That was when I knew I wasn’t dealing with some egomaniac who just got off on pimping out girls. Nope.
Vince was a complete psycho.
