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A woman is screaming. The sound echoes off the walls, drowning out the pulse of the music, and everyone freezes.
Except for me.
I immediately pull away from the birdman’s greedy grasp and push my way through the crowd.
10
Eve
The guests are backing away from the center of the room, and when I push my way past another woman in a red dress, I see a shaking figure in the center of the room.
She is dressed in purple—according to Kari, that means she is a virgin—and she is curled in the fetal position on the floor, rocking back and forth and screaming.
“I don’t want to be here! I don’t want to do this. Don’t make me do this.”
The man who was dancing with her, Fox-Face, steps back and shrugs his shoulders like he can’t imagine what led to her breakdown.
But I see a smile pull at the corners of his mouth. He is enjoying this.
Luka is frowning towards the woman, and when he sees me moving towards her, he shakes his head once quickly.
I want to listen to him and not get involved. I know it is better not to draw unnecessary attention to ourselves. However, when I see armed guards rushing from the corners of the room towards the shaking girl, I can’t stop myself from running towards her.
I kneel down beside her and drape an arm over her back.
“Hi,” I whisper in her ear. “My name is Eve.”
The woman doesn’t look up, but she stops screaming.
Sobs wrack her thin body. I can feel the bones of her back through her dress, and I wonder how long she has been held prisoner. For me, it was only a few days. But any longer in the Morrison house, and I would have been all skin and bones, too.
I run my hand down her spine and shush her the way I do Milaya when she wakes up in the middle of the night. “It’s okay. It’s okay, dear.”
The guards break into the inner circle, but they stop when they see me next to the woman on the floor. I look up into their grim faces, hoping to find some level of humanity there, but there is only annoyance.
They look at one another, trying to decide what to do, and one of them nods his head towards the bar. They need to distract the guests because right now, they are all watching me and the woman intently, and this is not the kind of thing the Cartel wants to advertise.
Right on cue, Edgar steps forward and claps his hands to draw everyone’s attention.
“Technical error,” he laughs, ushering the crowd towards the bar. “These things can happen. Why don’t I show you all to the house bar? It has a larger selection than the minibar, and our bartender can make anything you want while we deal with this.”
Deal with this. As though the sobbing woman on the floor is nothing more than a computer bug.
“You have to pull it together,” I say as gently as I can in the woman’s ear.
Luka lingers as everyone begins to follow Edgar towards the exit, listening to him explain that there is a pool table and a secret vault full of “adult toys” they can peruse.
The woman shivers at the idea and presses her forehead against the tile floor.
“Things will be worse for you if you make a scene,” I say, hating that I sound like Kari.
I want to tell the girl to fight. To scream and run and do whatever she can to get out of here, but I know that won’t help.
She is shivering and weak and scared, and the guards would dispose of her in an instant.
“I know this is horrible, but if you want to live, you have to play their game.”
The girl looks up at me, and I’m struck by her beauty.
