Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
I had just made it past one of the buildings when I heard a loud scream come from inside. My footing faltered when it sounded again. It was the voice of a woman. My heart kicked into a sprint.
I was rooted to the spot. Fear and dread ran up my spine. In my peripheral vision I saw a guard walking my way. Without thinking, I opened the door of the building and ducked inside. Grimacing at the putrid smell coming from further inside the building, I snuck along the wall until I came to a door. I heard the low murmur of voices, then I heard one that I knew.
Juan.
The Spanish was muted and rapid. I brushed my hair off my shoulders, opened the door, and stepped into the room.
What greeted me on the other side, I wouldn’t have expected in a million years. Girls. Row upon row of girls lying on small cot beds, IVs coming from their arms.
A shocked cry escaped my mouth. The men gathered in the middle of the room all turned to look at me. Juan, the man I had fallen head over heels for, looked my way.
“Sia,” he said, a dark edge to his voice. I pressed myself up against the door I had just entered through. “What the fuck are you doing here?” I wanted to speak. I wanted to tell him that I’d come to see him, but my eyes wouldn’t leave the girls in the beds. They flitted over each one, all of different hair colors, ethnicities, and heights . . . until my eyes landed on one at the end of the room.
I didn’t even realize that I had hit the floor until Juan gripped my arm and yanked me to my feet. “Michelle . . .” I whispered, my voice cracking as I took in her brown hair, now limp and clumped in sweaty strands... and her body, naked and starved. “Michelle!” I screamed as I tried to run in her direction.
I was stopped in my tracks by a hand slicing across my face, knocking me to the floor. My palms slapped against the tiles. Juan dragged me to my feet and pulled me from the building and into his car waiting out front.
“Michelle!” I screamed, but before I could open the car and run to my best friend, something pricked my arm. I snapped my head to Juan. He was holding a syringe. “You’re a trafficker,” I accused. Dizziness took me over. My vision became blurred, my heartbeat slowing from whatever he had injected into me.
Juan spared me a glance before he pulled his car from this evil place. “I’m a trader, bella. The stock is merely . . . semantics.”
I could hear the tick-tocking of my bedroom clock. Tears cascaded down my cheeks. “He had your friend?” Cowboy’s voice was laced with a venom I’d never heard from him before.
“Still has her, maybe.” A sob ripped from my throat. “I have no idea if he sold her, if she’s still there . . . if she’s dead. When Ky and Styx came for me, we couldn’t get to her. There was no time. They were nearly killed getting me. And worse, they came without the permission of my poppa or the old prez.” I wiped my cheeks. “They risked their lives to rescue me.” I stared out the window. “It was all my fault. She could have been suffering all this time . . . and it’s all my fault.” I laughed without humor. “I believed she’d gone elsewhere. Maybe found someone to love too. The fact that she hadn’t called me in a while wasn’t strange behavior for Michelle.” I lowered my head. “I was a fucking idiot. Running around like I was the lady of his home while thinking my friend was off living her best life. When in fact I was just his possession, and she was in hell.”
Hush moved over me, his face staring down. “It isn’t your fault,” he said gently. Cowboy gave him a look. “It’s not the same,” Hush argued. “This really wasn’t her fault.” He turned back to me, leaving me lost as to what they were really talking about. “You both went to Mexico together, to travel. He preyed on you. It’s what the fucker does.”
“I’ve seen one of those places,” Cowboy admitted. I snapped my head to him. Blood drained from my face. “Believe me, cher. You had no fault in Michelle being taken. I’ve seen how these things operate. They’re fucking well-oiled machines. The Hangmen are fucking damned, evil to most people. But him? Fucker is on another level.”
“I never knew,” I whispered, picturing Juan’s pretty smile. “I fell for a lie . . . and he has made me pay over and over again.”
“We got you now.” Hush pulled me closer, Cowboy closing in on my other side. “We both got you now.”