Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
I nod, but I don’t feel physically present as I slowly turn into myself, desperate for this to stop.
Still, my feet move up, each step slowly pulling my mind into oblivion until I get to the top.
The guard nudges me toward the stage. In the middle, the same woman I recognize from before stands at a microphone and clears her throat.
“Our next girl has been on the stage previously, you may recognize her from when we had to move to this location. As you can tell, she is still well behaved, well trained.” She swirls her finger around, and I spin again, just like I was told to do last time. “A perfect girl for whatever cravings you may have.”
She holds up her hand, and I stop. “Bidding starts at a hundred and eighty thousand.”
A guy in the back raises a paddle. “Hundred and ninety.”
“Two hundred,” another guy calls out.
I shiver in place, trying to remember the voices and imprint them in my brain so I can recognize whoever tried to buy me if I ever meet them again.
“Two twenty,” the next one says.
I feel like cattle being sold on the market for breeding.
My eyes find the guard in the back, his gun fixated on my legs to make sure I get the message: If you fight, we will shoot.
My eyes flutter back and forth between the stage and the exits around the room, trying to search for a way out. Maybe I can overpower whoever buys me and run like hell the second they try to transport me into his car.
I look around at all the men beyond the stage holding up their hands one by one to try to get their hands on me like I’m some prized jewel, but the second I spot two feverishly gray eyes I stop.
Even though he’s wearing a mask, his veiny hands and slick, combed-over black hair make my heart stop.
Could it be … ?
No, don’t trust your tired mind. It’s making you see things.
“Any more bidders?” the woman calls out.
The guy with the black hair raises his hand, and his lips part, a hint of a smile at each edge. “Five million.”
Audible gasps erupt from the audience, and even I can’t believe what I’m hearing.
“Five million, going once,” the woman says. “Going twice.”
No one says a single word.
“Sold to the gentleman in black.”
The guard comes up the stage and grabs my wrist, dragging me away, but the last thing my gaze finds are gray eyes piercing through the dark like a beam of light, taking ahold of my soul.
Could it be …?
“Walk,” the guard growls, shoving me down the stairs and into a separate chamber, away from the other girls. “Sit.”
He closes the door, and I’m left alone in the darkness with nothing to hold except the clothes on my back.
I sit down on the floor and close my eyes. There’s no point in looking when there’s nothing to see. From what others have told me, this is where they make the girls that are sold wait for their buyer to come pick them up.
After a while, the door cracks open, and I take a deep breath, expecting the worst of whoever wanted me so badly they’d put down five million for me.
“In here. Do whatever you want. You’ve got twenty minutes,” the guard growls. “Then you gotta pay up.”
I look up right as the guard steps away and in walk three men with masks on their faces, one with an umbrella, two others in suits, their figures casting shadows on the concrete floor.
One of them steps closer, and I crawl away, backing into the cold, hard wall. But he still gets closer and goes to his knees in front of me. He leans in, his hand caressing my cheek so softly I hold my breath. “Your face is far too pretty to be poisoned by so much fear.”
That voice…
He pulls off his mask, casting it aside, and I gasp in shock at the chiseled face appearing underneath, the one I’ve loathed for so long … the one I could kiss just by seeing.
“Ares,” I mutter in disbelief, a brief smile forming on my face.
How is he here?
BLAINE
Ares cups her face. “I missed that wretched smile of yours, little rose.”
Her jaw nearly hits the floor, but then she does a double take, almost like she remembers the last time she saw him she wanted him dead.
“Don’t kill him just yet, darling.” My voice makes her look up at me, and I tear off my mask too. “We still need him to pay up so we can get you out of here.”
“What?” she mutters, shell-shocked.
Caleb takes off his mask too, chucking it to the ground before running his fingers through his blond hair. “Miss me, slut?”
Tears well up in her eyes, and a grin spreads on her cheeks. “You came for me.”