I was getting more nauseous by the second. My time in this horrible world could’ve been so much worse. So far I had been raped by only two men, neither of whom liked to share me with others. Neither who left me to be molested and sold at auction. If I was damned to continue living in this world, I was in the best possible place being with Zander.
God that sickens me to admit.
We were attracting attention standing there outside the virgins’ door. Apparently, it was the most popular room for the night. Four more men passed us and went inside. Now suddenly every girl was coming to life and struggling against her binds, all because their bodies were being physically admired by strangers.
“Come on,” he said, pulling me along once more. I decided not to look into any more rooms, which was particularly difficult when I heard a girl scream out and cry from one of them. But there was a group of six men huddled in the doorway blocking whatever was going on inside. And by the crazed way one of them turned and looked at me like he truly wanted to hurt me, I was glad I couldn’t see through them. But it didn’t keep the sound from reaching my ears – the sounds of multiple men in the room taunting as one girl cried out, begging for them to stop whatever it was they were doing.
At the end of the hall, he led me up two flights of stairs and went right, taking me to a room halfway down. He opened the door and led me inside. Zander scanned the room, but no one was amongst the clutter. Checking the time on his watch, he said, “Alright. I want you to stay here. I think I know where Friggs might be.”
“You’re going to leave me here?” I asked in a panic. “Alone?”
“Relax. None of those men are going to come up here.”
“We did!” I rebutted.
“You’ll be fine,” he told me, exiting the room and leaving me behind.
Shit. If I were ever going to run, now would be the time. What I should’ve been doing these past few months was learning how to jump start a car. Hell, even On-Star would’ve been a blessing to set off and relay my position to the police, but I had a feeling the owners of those expensive cars made sure to deactivate that type of service for just that reason.
I walked towards one of the scalloped windows made of decorative colored glass and peered down. Bushes lined the first floor of the house. I so would’ve broken this window, attempted the jump and made a run for it through the forest, despite not knowing where I was. I would’ve followed the road off to the side and just kept going until I found the first business. I wouldn’t have trusted any car that passed along the way. I would’ve risked exposure and wild animals.
But I didn’t do it. Because Nick was passed out in Zander’s house. And because of that damn tracker inside me. I wouldn’t have gotten even a quarter mile down the road.
Not to mention I most likely would’ve broken my legs jumping from this height. And then Zander would’ve probably been tempted to auction my ass off at that point. Since we were here and all…
I spun and took in the room. The walls were mostly a dark cherry wood, the floors a similar shade of hardwood with large oriental rugs spread throughout. With the dim lighting, it was incredibly creepy, especially knowing what was going on in some of the other rooms in this house. Looking down at my feet, I worried this old mansion held a dungeon used for reasons I didn’t want my mind to explore.
There were way too many shadows in this room, too many places for someone to be lurking, watching my every move. The only good thing was the excessive number of display cases to hide behind and décor items at the ready. Things like heavy candlesticks, pointy replicas of old knives and swords, and a collection of antique globes, one even made of artistically shaped iron rods.
This room was large enough to have two sitting areas, a desk and a billiard table with the display cases kind of making an inner path to each station. One particular corner drew my eye. There was a U-shaped built-in bookcase that made its own nook. The two sides were lined with old-fashioned leather books, the back wall a large mirror that ran from floor to ceiling and a single arm chair for reading. But there was an oddly shaped table in the middle of the space. It was a thick, solid piece of wood that ran about four feet wide with a top two feet deep. But what was unique was the way the middle was carved down into the thick wood and lined with some sort of soft material. In a way it made me think of a saddle, but completely reversed to arc inward instead of outward. On the opposite side, two circular holes cut all the way through the wood at a slant. Curious, I was about to bend down to figure out the purpose of the holes when a smooth voice behind me said, “Hello.”
I whipped around, my hand thrown against my heart as I took a step sideways.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” the man said. He looked to be in his mid-thirties like Zander, with dark brown hair that seemed ruffled to perfection, like fingers had been brushing through his locks for hours. The dimness of this corner made it difficult to tell the color of his eyes or the exact shade of his skin, though both seemed like warm shades of brown and tan, respectively. Horrifyingly, he was probably the best looking guy I’d seen yet, including Zander. One more reason to fear every guy out in the real world. This one also had a nice build and a good three inches on me even with the heels. And he was dressed how Zander used to, in a business shirt and pants. “I’m Cable Friggs.”
“Cable?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“I know, I know. My mother was a horrible namer.” He reached out his hand, awaiting mine. “You must be Natalie?”
Megan, ass**le.
“Yes,” I answered, allowing him to take my hand, which he chose to kiss instead of shake. “Zander went looking for you.”
“And he found me. That’s how I knew you were in here.”
I tried not to look around the room suspiciously, but it was doubtful I pulled it off. “So where is he then?”
“He had some business to attend to and he didn’t want you left alone given the clientele in the house tonight. Besides, I asked him to bring you here while I was in town so I could examine you.”
“Excuse me?” I snapped, taking another step behind, yanking the hand free that he had yet to give back. I was in a house filled with girls up for auction. No one was f**king examining me!
His hands went up in the air in mock surrender. “Sorry. I should’ve stated that better. I’m the one who’s been performing your laser treatments. I asked Zander to bring you by so I could make sure your skin was healing and that the last treatment was successful.”
“Oh,” I replied.
“I would’ve followed up the last time, but as I understand it, there was a hiccup over ownership.”
My eyes narrowed a bit. An ownership hiccup? Was that what my freedom in between was to this jerk? Three months, twenty-three days. I closed my mouth and literally bit my tongue. I wasn’t going to get into it with this guy. Zander afforded me more room to speak these days, but I had the feeling this guy wouldn’t be so accepting of the spirited response I had lined up.
His eyes fell to my chest, but he was squinting his eyes and moving his head, like he was trying to see if my scars caught the light. I too looked down. For the most part, the cuts and burns there had faded well enough to not stand out anymore, but the burn on my forearm was still a little pink. But given the redness it had several treatments ago, I’d say it was pretty successful. It was funny. The burns were just a part of me that I’d come to terms with, so I hardly thought about them anymore.
When I looked back up, I caught Friggs staring at the part of my chest that was covered. And then it hit me. This guy had seen me na**d several times now if he’d been the one doing the treatments. One of my burns were on my left breast, but it was so pale now it could hardly get better. Once again I felt uneasy in his presence, scanning the room to see if Zander had snuck back in yet. When I turned back to Friggs, his eyes scanned me toe to head – slowly. When he reached my eyes, he mildly said, “That is a lovely dress on you.”
Trying to get that perv’s focus off my body, I told him, “The only spot really left with some color is the one on my forearm.”
His face switched back to doctor-mode and he focused in on my forearm. “May I?” he asked.
Oh, God. Where the hell was Zander? He said to never be without him in this place and here he dumped me with the creepy dude. I turned and looked again to see if he’d come back.
“Please,” he urged, holding out his hand to receive mine. “Zander’s inquiring whether or not we need to schedule another appointment.”
I reluctantly allowed him to take my arm. He gently pulled me closer, lifting my arm higher to better see it in the light. His thumb pads rubbed their way over the remaining bumps of my burns. “Yeah, we can probably go again. I can’t honestly promise you that additional treatments will make this any better because it was so extreme to begin with, but we can try. At least it’s pale in color now, so it’s far less obvious. I could hardly see it tonight when I came up to you.” He dropped my arm and softly smiled when he added, “Lucky you, you’ve got such a pretty face most people won’t notice what’s going on down at your arm.”
I forced a smile. He crossed his arms and leaned against the edge of the funky table. When he did that, my eyes were immediately drawn to it again.
“Interesting, isn’t it? I know the guy who actually makes these.”
Curiosity getting the best of me, I asked, “What is it, exactly?”
“It’s the table I’m going to f**k you on, so bend over.”
The stone glint in his eyes told me he was serious. My brain took too long to react so my body stumbled backward awkwardly, my legs not getting the message to run. And before they could, Friggs reached out and snatched my arm, pulling me to him. I screamed, but before he could grab and pin my second arm, I thrust the heel of my hand against his nose in an upward arc. I felt it smash a bit, and he yelled and let go, forming a steeple over his nose. I scampered off, putting several huge artifact display cases between us. “Are you f**king kidding me?!” he yelled, his voice a little distorted now that he was clamping his nose. He stormed towards me, his arm swinging at the item displayed atop the table closest to him, sending it flying through the air, only to have it crash against the wall and shatter to the floor. I kicked my heels off – to hell with them. I almost grabbed one as a weapon when I spotted something that resembled a candlestick. Snatching it, I was surprised how heavy it was. It would be slow to swing, but it would do some serious damage to the monster stalking towards me.
“Come here!” he yelled. When I dodged and ran for the safety of yet another table, he screamed it again. “COME. HERE!”
One of the doors swung open and Zander walked in, immediately narrowing his eyes at the situation – me poised with some heavy object held in my hands like it was a baseball bat, Cable pissed and flushed red with anger, blood splattered on his white shirt. “What the f**k do you think you’re doing?” he asked with an eerie calmness. Relief rushed through me. My arms and legs were seriously shaking, my heart beating painfully as if I’d been running for an hour.
Cable exhaled a heavy breath and I ran to hide myself behind Zander, who took the object from me the moment I got to him. My hands dug beneath his suit jacket and fisted his belt, as if it could anchor me in place.
“Why the hell don’t you keep her sedated?” he spat, reaching for his busted nose again.
“I don’t need to. She obeys everything I say. Now what the hell were you doing?”
“Just telling the little lady to bend over. Apparently, she thinks she gets a choice in the matter.”
“Imagine that,” Zander remarked with a droll voice. “She’s not some damaged piece of ass like downstairs. And you weren’t supposed to screw her until I got here.”
“What?” I cried, taking a few steps away from Zander now.
He turned to face me, hardly fazed that I was trying to retreat. With an annoyed expression I didn’t feel had anything to do with me, he softly said, “I’m sorry. It’s time to pay for your last treatment and Frigg’s here,” he added bitterly, pausing to turn to the side and flash him an infuriated expression, “won’t allow me to pay cash this time. He wants you. And as much as it pisses me off that he’s forcing my hand, it’s a payment that must be made.”
My jaw slackened and fell open, my feet moving farther away from them both. Zander still ignored me, probably because he knew I had nowhere to go but to run into a mansion with fifty more men like Friggs roaming around. He turned his back on me and motioned his head at Friggs. “What the hell happened to your face?”
“She did. The bitch f**king hit me.” Friggs wiped his sleeve across his face to absorb the blood slithering down from his nose.
Zander burst into laughter, which got Friggs even more irritated, settling his evil glare on me. I swallowed hard, trying to think of a way out of this but coming up empty. “Alright,” Zander said, still calming his delightment, “I have a proposition for you, Friggs.” He paused to look between us. “One that I think you can both agree to.”
Not. Bloody. Likely.
“You know my price. That’s what I expect to be paid.”
“Yeah. Here’s my suggestion anyway. Natalie’s a little feisty, but you already know that. It’s what you like and why you’re forcing me to pay this way. I think the two of you should fight.”
“What?” both Friggs and I asked at the same time.
“Seriously. Fight. If she wins, I can pay cash. If you win, I’ll step out of the room while you f**k her in that little table of yours. I’ll even double up. One hour instead of thirty minutes.”