Turning my head in the direction her brittle voice had come from, my eyes met hers and I barely checked my shock before it could register.

  Even with a lack of lighting I could see that the left side of her face was swollen so badly, her eye would be forced to remain in a squint until the swelling went down.

  She was the only one of the four of us who’d been physically assaulted, causing empathy to swell in my chest.

  “Marcy—”

  “I’m fine, it’s just a little puffy.” She cut me off and slid forward so we were closer to one another.

  Her limbs shook uncontrollably, and I knew it was from fear rather than the cold air.

  Not looking at her any longer, I took her soft hand in mine and gave it a comforting squeeze, hiding my surprise when she squeezed back a little harder and didn’t pull away.

  “Did either of you call the police?” I directed at Camilla and Lacy.

  When they shared a look, I assumed that meant no. Instead of me asking, “Why the fuck not?” I asked, “Do you guys know where we are? Did you see anything when they brought us here?”

  “No. They knocked us out as soon as they caught us. We only woke up a few minutes before you did, and we aren’t the only ones they took,” Camilla replied with a subtle gesture to the far side of the room.

  I turned around and caught sight of two more girls. Like us, they were in nothing but their undergarments; one lacked a bra altogether. They weren’t paying attention to anything aside from each other as they softly cried together.

  That was what first woke me up. They wouldn’t be much help in such an emotional state.

  I pulled my attention away from them and took notice of two more people huddled in the opposite corner, another girl and a boy.

  Neither of them was crying, but they didn’t look all the way lucid just yet.

  What we’d been dosed with had to be damn strong for someone to be able to remove our clothes and transport us inside a building without wearing off.

  It wasn’t a street drug; I knew the effects of most of them. Whatever was in those syringes wasn’t anything I’d had before.

  Not feeling or seeing any other symptoms aside from the drowsy couple, I hoped it was nothing more than a sedative.

  “We were all taken tonight?” I asked.

  “We haven’t exactly been trying to make friends, but I would imagine so,” Lilly drawled. “Sorry,” she mumbled when my face turned down at her ill-timed sarcasm.

  “They didn’t take anyone based off a particular type,” she pointed out, coming to join our mini huddle.

  I licked my lips again and nodded.

  I always thought if something like this happened to me, I would be inconsolable and hysterical.

  I’m sure everyone’s had such a thought at least once or twice. What they would do in a certain situation.

  I was proof none of that mattered until you actually went through it.

  Instead of being an outward emotional wreck now that I was awake, all I felt—besides some lingering soreness—was a determination to remain calm and get us the hell out of here.

  However, I was by no means okay.

  My mind was all over the place, thinking of my dad and how he’d be alone if I never made it back home.

  I wasn’t sure he could handle losing me after the way we’d lost Mom.

  That had me thinking of a hundred other things I didn’t want to think about. I couldn’t afford to think about. It would do nothing for my current situation.

  I had to remain solely focused on my wellbeing, my friends, and the lingering unknown we’d just been thrust into.

  Feeling the need to do something, anything, I began to study our unfamiliar surroundings, noting as many details as I could no matter how insignificant they seemed.

  The only lighting in the massive room came from the chandelier, and though it had been dramatically dimmed it still gave off enough of a glow that I could see the floor was marble, black and glossy.

  On the front wall was a large pair of elaborate double doors, but common sense told me they were locked.

  Where I suspected windows had once been was now all covered with rounded pieces of dark paneling.

  Sitting in the middle of the wall straight ahead of us was a thin mirror that expanded in both directions.

  While this wasn’t a place I’d been before, certain characteristics were starting to ring as familiar.

  Given my father’s political affiliations in our city, I’d been to many events and banquets that were held in rooms such as this one.

  I was almost positive we were being kept in what was once a ballroom.

  Before I could voice my observation, the double doors were swinging inward and six men dressed in black cargo gear came filing into the room.

  They split into groups of two with one set taking post on either side of the doors, ensuring no one could escape without getting past them first.

  “Everyone to the center!” the bulkiest of the bunch commanded, his voice booming in the empty space.

  Eight uneasy glances were exchanged. Not a single one of us moved to follow his command.

  “Now!” a smaller one barked, his hand moving to the gun holstered around his waist.

  That was enough incentive for all of us to temporarily shove our fear aside and immediately comply.I rose to my feet, taking Marcy with me. Lilly moved so she was at my back.

  “What do you think they want?” Camilla asked in a low whisper as the four of us made our way to the center of the room.

  “Nothing good,” I mumbled, keeping my true thoughts to myself. I was split between drug mules or sex trafficking. All I knew for certain was that whoever the overseer was of this whole operation wanted us alive for a reason.

  And like Lilly had said, none of us favored each other, appearance wise.

  I had dark hair and weighed maybe one hundred and fifteen pounds, most of that being in my ass.

  Lilly was a curvy blonde, Marcy was a mousy brunette, and Camilla was a living breathing Latina Barbie-doll.

  Thus far it seemed we were taken because the sheer fact we were easy to take. It was the only reason that made sense. We were four completely defenseless women, alone in the middle of the night.

  The guards watched us closely, hands resting on their guns in case someone tried anything.

  The larger one began barking out orders as soon as we got to where he wanted us.

  “Stand shoulder to shoulder, face the mirror, and keep your arms by your sides. No touching.”

  I had to practically wrench my hand away from Marcy’s to do as we’d been instructed. We all faced forward and a bright luminescent spotlight clicked on from above the thin glass.

  I shielded my eyes from the glare and stared at our reflections. The glow seemed to show every visible flaw we had. Every freckle, blemish, and scar.

  I did my best to remain as calm as I could. If I freaked out, I knew Marcy would do the same.

  The doors opened again and a smaller group of men entered, completely different from the first.

  These three men were dressed sharp, walked with their heads held high, and had an air of opulence surrounding them.

  “What the fuck?” Camilla sputtered from beside me.

  I shared her sentiment, thrown from a state of utter confusion to disbelief in a matter of seconds as I took in each of the men, unable to tear my widening eyes away from the one in the center.

  He had a head full of dark brown hair, combed back with a high crew fade not a strand out of place. His goatee was freshly trimmed, cut as low to his tanned skin as possible. Shaded ink peeked out from beneath the perfectly pressed fabric of his clothing.

  My mind instantly tried to deny what I was seeing right in front of me. There was absolutely no way this could be possible.

  He was a tattooed Adonis in a three piece suit.

  I knew him.

  We had history.

  Deep, well acquainted history.

  Pale blue met baby blue and lingered for a full sixty seconds, each one seeming hours long.

  Time slowed and all the air emptied from my lungs. If I had even the slightest doubt that it wasn’t really him I was seeing before, he’d just proved that it in fact was.

  “Ryker.” My lips formed his name but my vocal cords failed to make any sound. A massive lump lodged in my throat.

  Why was he here?

  Why the fuck was he here?

  He looked away and slowly surveyed each of us.

  A satisfied smile split his face in two when he was done. The two men who had come in with him stood back, silently doing the same.

  They looked oddly familiar. I felt as if I somehow knew them, but I couldn’t pinpoint from where. They were each attractive in their own way.

  The man on the right had thick, silver hair you could easily tell was once black due to the streaks in it—same with his full beard. He was bigger than Ryker, clearly in age but body wise too, and he appeared to have a considerable number more tattoos.

  The man on the left had black hair that curled at the ends, and the greenest eyes I’d ever seen.

  He didn’t appear to have as many tats as the other two, and looked marginally closer to Ryker’s thirty-one years than the other man.

  Clasping his hands together loud enough to pull my attention back to him, Ryker remained silent for another minute. I swear he was finding pleasure in our discomfort.

  I stared, willing him to look at me again. My brain scrambled in search of a logical explanation, a viable reason for what he could possibly have to do with this, why he was here.

  He’d been ignoring me since our sordid encounter and I’d been unable to understand why. Was it because of this?

  If he regretted what happened and was angry, I didn’t blame him.

  But why wait so long to act on it? And what did these strangers have to do with anything?

  Why would he take my friends too?

  Question after question began stockpiling inside my head, my anger built behind each one.

  “What the fuck is going on?” My voice cracked through the air like a whip. All heads turned in my direction.

  I wasn’t fazed by the extra attention; all I cared about was the answer to my question.

  “You know they say patience is a virtue?” Ryker replied flippantly, not bothering to look in my direction.

  He couldn’t be serious.

  He was behaving as if I were a stranger, which only further confused and pissed me off.

  Had he not attended all of my father’s holiday parties, golf outings, or partnered with him on multiple charity drives? Were our bodies not tangled up in his sheets together?

  “Ry—”

  “Patience,” he spoke over me, “is a virtue that never fails to deliver exquisite delayed gratification.”

  His emphasis on exquisite made me think his words were meant for my ears alone.

  He turned his head, finally giving me his full attention. My stomach pitched and all the saliva I’d managed to accumulate was suddenly gone.

  Within his eyes was a coldness he no longer bothered to veil, a seductively sinister promise of what lay ahead. It wasn’t a look I’d ever received from him before.

  I stared back just as intently, unsure how I was supposed to react, causing a corner of his mouth to tilt up in amusement.

  Something was happening between us in that moment, something I couldn’t decipher and wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to explore.

  He was the first to look away so that he could address the rest of the room, who had been watching the two of us in total silence.

  “I don’t like when anyone wastes my time, so I won’t waste any of yours. Let’s get right into it shall we?” His soft voice took on a hard authoritative edge. “Oh, wait. I almost forgot to ask. Does anyone in here happen to have children?”

  What the hell kind of question was that?

  “I do!” a girl with a thick accent immediately replied from the end of our line.

  Her voice trembled from a mixture of uncontrollable nerves and hopefulness.

  “I’ve got two, a—”

  “A simple yes or no would have sufficed, Amy,” Ryker smoothly interjected.

  “H-how do you know my name?” she stuttered.

  “Cooper,” he called to the smaller guard, ignoring her altogether.

  Without question or further instruction, the guard lifted his gun from its holster and pulled the slide back, cocking the hammer.

  Almost immediately, Amy began to beg for her life.

  I shut my eyes and silently began to count down from one hundred to block out her pleas.

  Beside me, Marcy’s trembling increased ten-fold.

  I desperately wanted to reach out and comfort her, but testing the other guards’ patience didn’t seem all that smart right then.

  Camilla murmured something to her beneath her breath that was drowned out by the sound of rapid gunfire.

  A choked sob erupted from the girl who had been standing right beside Amy as another let out a scream.

  I fumbled in my count, bringing my hands up to my ears.

  I didn’t see Amy’s head snap back or witness pieces of her brain exiting from the hole in the back of her skull, scattering in different directions.

  Hearing her lifeless body hit the cold, hard floor was enough to haunt me for a lifetime.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  FAITH

  He killed her.

  He put two bullets in a mother’s head. And for what? Having children?

  My stomach churned as I replayed the sound of her body smacking the floor.

  “That one’s pissin,” a gruff voice spoke over the sobs.

  Just as he said it, I felt something wet gathering at the base of my left foot.

  My eyes flew open and I turned my head to look at Marcy, who was now standing in a puddle of her own urine, the blue fabric of her underwear completely soaked.

  The powerful stench reached my nose and burned the inside of my nostrils.

  Camilla coughed and buried her face in her shoulder.

  “Marcy,” I mumbled, having no idea how to calm her down when I was barely hanging onto a semblance of calm myself.

  I lifted my foot away from the piss and shuffled back slightly, aware we were now the center of attention.

  “There’s no need to be afraid,” Ryker stated.

  He came closer and I swore Marcy was going to have a stroke.

  “Stay away from me!” she screamed at him.

  Now cemented right where I stood, I watched her completely unravel.

  Without warning, she turned and darted behind me, nearly slipping in her own mess as she did.

  Using me as a shield, her hands gripped my arms just beneath my shoulders.

  A soft hiss slipped through my lips as her nails dug into my flesh hard enough to pierce the skin.

  “Marcy,” I soothed as pleasantly as I could.

  “He knows, Faith! He knows!” she wailed at a decibel that had my ears ringing in response, digging her fingers in a little deeper.

  He knows what?

  I had no idea what she was referring to. Right then, I really just wanted her claws unsheathed from my arms.

  “Marcy, you’re hurting her,” Camilla called out softly, attempting to calm our friend.

  “Sedate her,” Ryker ordered, watching the whole fiasco with an unreadable expression on his face.

  “No!” she snarled like a damn animal and shoved my back, pushing me towards the guard who had begun to approach.

  Ryker was the one who stopped me from face planting the floor. His arms wrapped around my torso and kept me upright.

  I looked up at him, inhaling the scent of his familiar cologne, tearing my gaze from his when Marcy began to yell even louder.

  She was damn near screeching. The words coming from her mouth were jumbled nonsense. I didn’t recognize her like this. She looked like an entirely different person from the girl who had been in the car with me.

  My heart splintered as she was roughly apprehended by one guard, while another shoved a needle into her neck.

  The room remained deathly silent as she was hoisted over one of the men’s shoulders and carried away.

  “What was she talking about? Where are they taking her?” I glared up at Ryker, suddenly finding my voice. I tried to shove away from him. He only held me closer, forcing me to turn as he did to address all five who remained.

  The line was now in a zigzag pattern. Amy was at the end, her upper body bent back and lying in a mixture of blood and brain matter.

  The only male was rubbing the back of a brunette who was crying into her hands. Another girl stood with a vacant look on her face, already resigned to the fact that none of us were walking out of here anytime soon, if ever.

  Lilly stared at me with tears in her eyes and I could tell she was seconds away from losing her shit, too.

  Camilla was like me, doing her best to remain as level-headed as possible whilst keeping her emotions under lock.

  “I think we need a short intermission,” Ryker announced. “We can start over in a few hours. Escort everyone to their rooms.”

  Their rooms?

  As quickly as the order was given, it was carried out with no protest spilling from anyone.

  I stood by helplessly as Camilla and Lilly were herded from the room like sheep. The two men who had come in with Ryker followed everyone else out.

  My stomach sank with the realization we would be alone together.

  I wanted to believe Ryker wouldn’t hurt me, but in a matter of minutes he’d succeeded in dismantling every notion I had about him.

  “Let go of me.” I tried to twist away from him as soon as the doors clicked shut, and barely budged an inch

  “Shhh,” he quieted me, forcing my head to rest over his beating heart, tightening his embrace to the point my lungs began to protest.

  Feeling the outline of his solid body beneath the navy fabric of his suit only made me more aware of how exposed I was.

  “Getting you here proved much easier than I initially assumed it would be.” His tone still had the authoritative edge but was now somewhat softer.

  I placed both palms on his chest and shoved, managing to break free this time with a small grunt.

 

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