Page 111 of The Games We Play

No one is coming.

I keep my head down.

For as long as they think I’m unconscious, perhaps they’ll leave me alone.

I hear whispers.

“…shipment at eleven…only four of them. Keep her.”

It was maybe six o’clock, when I was taken. It’s now dark outside. So it’s after seven at least.

Discretely, I glance to where the women were sitting. Now, two of them are missing. One of the remaining two is crying. The other is hugging her knees.

They are both blindfolded, and for some reason, I’m glad. Not because I don’t want them to know what might happen to them. In an act of pure selfishness, I want as few people as possible to see me like this.

“Boss,” I hear someone say.

Then battered brown cowboy boots appear in my vision. Fingers grip my jaw and lift my face until I’m staring at my keeper again.

“See. All quiet now,” he says in a voice like he’s soothing a skittish animal.

I resist the urge to spit in his face.

Perhaps he’s right; perhaps it is all about learning what causes submission. In my case, I don’t want to be hit again.

His fingers run down my neck; they tug on my nipple as he laughs. They run lower until two of them attempt to slip between my legs. I grind my teeth hard as I press my knees so firmly the bones grind against each other.

I’m alive.

I’m alive.

I mentally repeat it as he grips my hip so hard it will bruise. He hurts me with his fingers as he tries to force them between my legs. “I like it best when you fight. And because of the mess you’re in, I can’t send you tonight. So, you’re going to stay here with me until the shipment next week, and I’ll teach you how to be an open and giving wife.”

Desperation blankets me. I hear a scream as the two other women are dragged out of the room.

I won’t survive a week.

Stop.

I’ll survive what I need to.

But I’m not going to give in.

I won’t let myself be violated.

Not without a fight.

And as I take my weight in my arms, ready to kick again, ice trickles through my veins.

If Spark doesn’t find me, I may not make it out of here alive.

36

SPARK

“She leaves my care because she doesn’t want to end up in this life, and then within weeks of meeting you fuckers, she’s been kidnapped.”

Cillian’s tone is frigid in the evening air, but I’ve had enough of the Irishman already.