Page 37

Cillian

After I showered, I quickly make my way upstairs to where Sionn and Brendan are working.

“Anything?” I ask.

“Not since your father alerted me thirty minutes ago,”

Sionn says.

I nod and start pacing the length of the room; after about five minutes, Sionn speaks up.

“Cillian, go. We will call you when we find something.”

I shake my head. “No, I need to be in here.”

“No, go eat or sleep or something. You are not driving me nuts with your damn pacing. Out.”

“You better call me the moment you have something. I don’t care how small it is,”

I order him before I shut the door behind me. I shouldn’t be surprised because Sionn hates people in his space when he works. I’m pretty sure the only reason he tolerates Brendan is they are both techy nerds.

I reheat leftovers but I’m not hungry, so I force myself to eat knowing that I need my strength. Each bite feels like I’m swallowing cement.

After I finish eating, I head to my office and call both the LA and Chicago Irish Mafia and see if they have heard anything. They both tell me they haven’t, but they will report to me if they hear anything about Bia, or Thalia.

After getting off the phone, I grab the tennis ball I keep in my desk and toss it in the air while I think of who could be the enemy that took Bia, or if there is someone else who could help listen out for Bia. I don’t care at this point if I have to pay for loyalty.

While I’m deep in thought, someone knocks on the door. “Come in.”

Father walks through the door a moment later, by the look on his face he doesn’t have good news.

“What is it? Is it Bia?”

“No news on Bia but when the women went missing, we alerted Esmeralda. And they found Maya. She was raped and beaten and left for dead a few miles away from the safehouse.”

“Holy fuck. How bad is she hurt?”

“Bad, real fucking bad. They had to put her in a coma. They don’t know if she is going to wake up and if she does, she will most likely have brain damage from the hits she took to the head.”

“FUCK!”

I say and throw the tennis ball as hard as I can into the wall, adding another dent to the wall that already has at least forty dents in it since the day I got the call from Bia’s nurse.

“Yeah, Esmeralda says she is working with Emilia and searching the dark web. She is now more invested in helping because the fuckers hurt Maya and she is like family to them.”

“Let her know to tell us if we can do anything for them or Maya.”

“I already did.”

“Thanks,”

I tell him. Daidí leaves noticing that I need to be alone again.

Bia

“Wake up, bitch,”

someone yells at me as I feel pain across my cheek. I blink my eyes open and see a man inches from my face. I try to scoot away from him, but I’m already backed against a wall.

He grabs me by the arm and yanks me to my feet. I trip a few times, and he shakes me while yelling at me to watch where I’m going. I silently follow as he leads me down a hallway the cries and screams of women echo off the walls.

We get to a red door with paint that is chipped, and he opens the door and shoves me inside. I fall to my hands and knees. I’m pushed to the ground until I’m lying flat on my stomach.

Hands are all over me. I try to fight them off, but one set of hands pull my hands above my head. I start to thrash around screaming, “NOO. Please don’t do this to me.”

They all just laugh as they tear the fabric of my dress off me, then my underwear and bra.

“Please,”

I beg again, sounding as hopeless as I feel. I don’t want to be raped again. I can’t do it again.

They yank me to my feet; I see ten sets of hungry eyes on me. I try to back away but I back into another man. He slips his hand around my waist and cups me between my legs. I try to run forward but he pinches my folds, that makes me cry out in pain and I stop moving.

“So, this is Cillian O’Sullivan’s wife.”

One of the men sneers as he steps forward. I look down. He grabs my hair and yanks my head up.

“She is pretty enough to earn us some good money off her. Who knows? Maybe one of his enemies will buy her just to get back at him.”

Tears slowly fall down my face, realizing my fate has been sealed. I’m going to be sold and spend the rest of my days being used by men.

“Save those pretty little tears, those tears are for your new master when they destroy that pretty little cunt.”

He snickers.

“Toss her in with the others, make sure the men keep their hands off her. She will be worth more if she is unharmed.”

“Yes, Boss.”

The same man from before yanks me out of the room and back to the cell I was in. I move toward the corner of the room and wrap my arms around my legs. I sit against the wall, shivering from fear and the bitter cold that is slowly seeping into my body.

“Bia?”

I hear my name being called. I know that voice.

“Thalia?”

I look into the cage next to me and see Thalia naked just like I am, but I can see she has bruises all over her face, arms, and legs.

“What happened?”

She shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter. Are you okay?”

I nod, but I see she has old and new tear tracks on her face. I quietly move to where I can grab her hand. We don’t say anything but hold each other’s hand, giving each other the silent support the other needs even though we are petrified ourselves.

Each time a cell door is slammed open or closed, one, if not both, of us jumps and we breathe harder. We hear the other women being abused and used, knowing these evil men are not holding back when it comes to unleashing their rage on us. We squeeze our hands together.

It goes on like this for days. We are given a half cup of filthy water and a moldy meal. Some women have gotten sick from the poor conditions, and the men let them die and rot in their cells for days until someone finally takes the body away. My heart breaks for them, for their families who will never know what happened to them, and for them that their final moments were here.

Today something is definitely happening. The men are all excited and I can hear it in their voices.

“Love pay day,”

one says as he approaches my cell.

“Come on, you rich whore. Let’s see how much we get from you,”

he says as he yanks me away from Thalia.

“No! Bia!”

Thalia yells. “Take me instead.”

The man looks at her. “Your bloodline isn’t worthy to go where she is going. You will be going where you deserve.”

I hear Thalia call my name, yelling for me. “Don’t give up, Bia. Cillian will find you. I love you.”

I finally use my voice. “I love you too. I promise I will find you,”

I tell her, and that is a promise I will, no matter how long it takes me, I will find her.

I’m tossed into another van with five other girls. I don’t say anything, just curl my arms around my legs and look down at the ground.

I just zone out; the other girls cry and beg for mercy. I know it will do no good, the best thing to do now is hope the man I’m sold to isn’t evil.

After I’m in my new cell, I let the tears that I have been holding in fall.

I’m worried about Thalia and where she will end up. With them putting her in the poor auction house, who knows who will end up buying her. Who knows if she will even make it to the auction house.

My thoughts move to Cillian and Lucas, my sweet Lucas who was unfairly ripped away from us. I know that even though Cillian’s anger was misguided I know he would have turned around and been there for us. We could have been a family, maybe not the kind of family I have dreamed of, but it would have been our family regardless.

And Cillian, poor Cillian, he must be so hurt. He lost Meredith and Dillion, then he lost Lucas, and now me. I just hope his next wife can be the one who gives him everything he needs and can help him heal his broken heart. I wanted to be the one who healed him and got to love him until our dying breath, but I guess that I was never the one to do that.

I just pray his future is filled with nothing but happiness, that is all I want for him. He has had enough heartache; he deserves some happiness in his life.

I have been kept in my cell for a week, we are fed a bit better. It was clean water and half of a cheese sandwich but at least it wasn’t moldy.

A man pulls me from my cell to a shower where he turns on the water.

“Get in,”

he tells me. I don’t move, and he pulls me by my hair under the cold water. I try to move away but his hold on my hair doesn’t let me. He harshly scrubs my body clean, spending extra time on my chest and in between my legs. I hear him mutter about how my new owners are lucky to be able to fuck a pretty cunt. Then he washes my hair before sending me to a room where an older woman yanks a comb through my hair. Then she styles my hair before adding makeup onto my face.

“Here,”

she says as she tightens a black leather strap around my neck. I look in the mirror and see I’m wearing a collar with the number twenty-six on the tag.

“Now you're ready. Go through that door and wait until you are called. Best of luck to you.”

I open the door and a man is standing there, and before I realize what is happening, a chain is being attached to my collar and I’m yanked forward. I look in the room and all of the other girls are wearing the same type of collar with number tags, and we’re chained together.

“Move it,”

the man says as he pushes me forward.

“Piece of advice. Don’t look at the men in the crowd,”

a woman whispers, to me.

I nod and watch as a few more women are forced into the room.

A man walks into the room, rubbing his hands together.

“Alright, ladies. It’s show time.”