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“Keep your bids high, ladies and gentlemen,” she says. “There will only be four minutes until the girls go beneath ground again. Once the light goes off, the bid is finalised.” Muttering reverberates around the room. “But first, before we move you to the bidding area, we have a little treat for you. Something to whet your appetite before we begin, if you will.” I swallow and stare at the back entrance to the main floor, attempting to keep some sense of disgust out of me. No matter what I am, rape isn’t something I’m down with.
And Miri sure as hell isn’t going to be either.
Some guy walks out of the curtains in the corner wearing a heavy mask and jeans. Never seen him before, but his frame looks just as savage as Cortez does. He waits, then turns at the sound of heels coming. A half sigh of relief comes out of me as the woman parades out onto the floor. It’s not Miri, and whilst I probably should still be as repulsed with this one as I was with a younger version, I’m not.
I glance at both Dragon and Abel on the far side, one of my hands trying to keep an agitated Jamie in her seat. They’re both laughing about something, the fate of these girls and the money they’re about to make I suppose.
“Stay out of it, Jamie. Go speak to our girls quietly. Tell each one of them to leave the second the last woman has been bid on. I don’t want any of ours left in here.” She takes a deep breath, shakes under my hand.
“Our girls? What about the others, the auction girls?”
“I’m thinking about that. Either way-”
“Don’t think. Do, Jackson,” she spits. “None of this is alright, and you fucking know it. They didn’t know why they were coming here. Some of them thought it was work, for God's sake.” I scowl and think back on the only one I’m concerned about. Maybe her sister, too.
She doesn’t back off an inch. She’s as much in my face as she normally is, and this time, much to my fucking annoyance, she’s possibly right.
“Leave the attitude, Jamie. I don’t have time for it. I need you to get everything that’s in the safe in our van whilst the first girl’s being sold. Got it?”
“Okay. I’ll need Heckle. There’s a lot of weight in that safe.”
“Fine.” I turn her away from the floor the second I see the guy start slapping the girl around out there, aiming her at the Mandarin suite.
“What are you going to do?”
“Build a fire, Jamie. Make my point felt.”
I leave her at that and head towards the corridors, swerving through girls until I get to the stairs that lead to the cellars. It’s quiet when I get down there. Unsurprising considering the fact that the girls are probably down at the other end ready to come up into the dance box, but, either way, I need to find Elias.
It’s only when I weave the last of the corridors that I find him in the girls holding room. I peer quietly through the glass in the door, trying to figure out what he’s doing in there, and that’s when I notice Miri shivering in the corner. Blood drips down her cheek, and half her clothes have been torn from her skin.
Fury boils deep down inside me. I let it come this time and shrug my jacket off. Might as well fuck it all up if I’m going to. He’s been nothing but a pain in my arse since he got here, anyway. Laughing at me, treating me like a dog to be whipped. Teasing me with something he knew I wanted.
I open the door and walk in, closing it after me.
He looks up at me, sneers his hatred.
I get it. I’m spoiling his fun.
Don’t fucking care.
“Leave her alone,” I mutter, pointing at the door. “And get the fuck out of here. The merchandise isn’t for touching, and she needs to get ready.”
“Fuck off, Reed.”
“No. Not this time.”
“What are you gonna do? You’ve got nothing, Reed.” He moves closer to Miri, grabs her wrist, and hauls her into him. “You’re worse than low-end pussy to me. And fear isn’t something I breathe often.”
He should.
The repulsion I felt upstairs thinking about her getting manhandled comes racing back. He licks up her neck, goading me into movement. It works. I’m over at him and pushing her crying frame away before he can take his next fucking breath. He shoves at me in surprise, trying to create some room. I don’t let him. One hard punch sent to his guts and he buckles over, giving me enough room to get my arm around his neck.
“Run, Miri,” I mutter, wrangling him to the back of the room. She looks at me, wipes her tears, and makes a beeline for the door. Everything in me – all the rage and vengeance I’ve felt these last few weeks – clamps like a vice around his neck. It gets tighter and tighter as I watch her open the door, and then just becomes more like a death hold as I see Naja run in.
She stops, stares in shock, and grabs Miri to her.
That’s all that’s in my view as I keep fucking squeezing. I’m not even in the real world anymore. It’s just her eyes, the pressure I keep increasing on something that’s pissed me off to the point of no return, and his ragged breaths trying to keep him living. There’s no way back from this, though. For either of us. And there's no way out unless he’s kept quiet.
