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“No,” Maddie argues, eyes widening in desperation. “I had more I wanted to say about—”
“There is plenty of time to talk the rest of the day,” Luka says, moving back towards the lounge. “We’ll finish up then.”
Maddie moves to follow him inside, but I reach out and grab her arm, gently pulling her back towards me.
She wrenches her arm out of my grip. “Don’t touch me.”
“What is the matter?” I ask quietly. “You’ve changed so much in the last couple days, and I’m trying to understand what has happened.”
“Nothing,” she growls, rolling her eyes.
I reach for her hand, but she rips it away from me, and a thought I can’t shove away appears.
“Has someone hurt you?” I ask, stepping closer to her. “You are a virgin, so the rules should preclude you from being purchased throughout the week, but if someone hurt you, you can tell me. Lord knows rules don’t actually apply to the bidders.”
My mind flashes back to the man in the maroon mask cornering me in the bathroom. Did he or someone else do something similar to Maddie?
“I’m not telling you anything,” she says.
“Maddie, we are in the same position here.”
She barks out a laugh and pushes a finger into my chest. “By the looks of it, I’m going to be sold to one of the gross men that commands women to smack their own asses or moan the alphabet. I am going to be sold to a man who will look at me as nothing more than a place to put his dick. But you? You somehow spread your legs wide enough to hypnotize the nicest man here into caring for you. So, no, we are not in the same position.”
I want to argue with her, but I can’t. Not really.
While we are both on the auction block, I have someone here who loves me and is fighting for me.
Maddie is alone.
“You want Luka to bid on you,” I say softly.
Maddie looks up at me, eyes wide. “His name is Luka?”
I curse internally for giving anything away, but it is too late now. I nod. “It is.”
She smiles softly, the anger in her face dissipating slightly, and another wave of jealousy washes over me. She wants my husband. She doesn’t know he is my husband, but she wants him. And by the looks of it, she thinks he is more than just the best option available. The moony look in her eye tells me she has a crush on him.
I’m trying to find the words to explain to her that I’m doing everything I can to help her without giving our plan away, but before I can, there is a gunshot.
Followed by screams.
Maddie looks at me, eyes wide. “What was that?”
I grab her hand and pull her down the hall towards the gunshot. This time, she doesn’t pull away from me.
We run down the hallway, past the bathroom where the man in the maroon mask tried to assault me, and into the entryway. Guests and slaves are moving cautiously out of the lounge and ballroom, looking around to find out what is going on. But Maddie and I have a front-row view.
The front door is wide open, the lawn and parking lot of the inn visible, and just outside the door is a guard with his gun raised.
I follow the line of the barrel to a purple shape on the grass.
One of the virgins.
I can’t see her face, but I see that she is moving.
She is dragging herself across the grass, but it is useless. The guards are approaching her from every direction now, highlighting the futility of even thinking about escaping. Luka and I would be no match against that many armed guards.
“What happened?” Maddie whispers.
