I look up at the face belonging to the body of the man who is holding me. His eyes are gunmetal gray like the sky before a storm but as he looks into my eyes his gaze softens.
“Help me, please help me,” I whisper, my voice trembling. I grip onto his shirt tighter willing him to help me, to save me from these horrible men. He doesn’t say a word, he just stares at me, no emotion whatsoever in his eyes. When the heavy footfalls of the two guys chasing me stop behind us, I see his eyes move from mine, and past me to where the two guys are standing.
I feel their presence without looking, and it terrifies me. I pray he isn’t going to give me back to them, I don’t know what will happen if he does, but I won’t just let them have me. No way. I bury my face into the unknown man’s chest. His scent washes over me, he smells like expensive whiskey, and cinnamon. Looking up at him…I know he is so much bigger and stronger than those two, he could protect me from them.
An eerie moment of silence falls over us, and my body starts to shake uncontrollably.
“That bitch tried to run boss, we were just going to put her back in the cell.” The Luca man interrupts the silence.
“And who opened the cell door for her?” The man holding me ask. His voice is deep and dark, and dread fills my veins at his words. He is not going to help me. He knows I’ve been here. Maybe he is the one that put me in that room. The one who kidnapped me. Sobs wreck my body at the disappointment. I’m never going to get out of here. I’m never going to be safe again.
“Ivan… boss, we were just going to have a little fun… we weren’t going to hurt her…”
“You don’t touch the merchandise, and by the looks of her fucking face, it seems like you did a whole lot of hurting her,” the man named Ivan growls.
One single word stands out from his sentence: Merchandise? I know what the word means but I can’t comprehend what it means for me. They can’t possibly be selling me…or anyone for that matter, right? It’s illegal to sell humans, men, women, it doesn’t matter.
As I listen in shock to their conversation I realize that I’m still holding on to the man who obviously has something to do with me being here. Why do I feel safe in his arms? I should push him away, fight him like I did the other two men. I should try and escape, but instead, I lean into him for comfort. I feel safe in his arms even though the rational part of my brain tells me I shouldn’t.
I enjoy his big hands sprawled out over my back, and the warmth his body gives me and for a moment I can forget the throbbing in my face and the split in my lip. I can forget that I’ve been kidnapped, and held hostage against my will.
“She tried escaping boss, we had to stop her. Maybe if she didn’t try and claw our fucking eyes out she wouldn’t look like she does,” The other man starts, but Luca cuts him off by clearing his throat as if he knows better than to disobey what the man holding me says.
“It won’t happen again boss. We just wanted to have a little fun, clearly, we made a mistake. Well put her back in her cell, and lock it up.”
My body stiffens at his words and my fingers imbed into Ivan’s shirt. Please say no. I silently say in my head like a prayer. If he gives me to them I’m going to run…I’m going to run as fast and hard as I can.
“I’ll take her back myself and if I see you two around her cell again I’ll kill you both. We don’t touch the merchandise if you want to fuck something go to the whorehouse,” he warns them both.
“Of course sir.” They both mumble and when I hear their feet pounding against the floor going in the opposite direction of where we’re standing I sigh. I cling to the man before me, my fingers refusing to let go of him.
A whimper escapes my lips when he prys my fingers from his shirt and lifts me into the air, holding me like a groom holds his bride… like I weigh nothing at all, and I probably don’t considering his size. I briefly catch a glimpse of a large tattoo on the side of his neck before I lower my face so he can’t look at it.
He cradles me to his chest like I’m a small child. His skin feels so warm against mine, and I want to sink deep inside him and stay there forever. I twist and burrow my face into his chest. I remember then that I’m completely naked, other than my panties. I’ve never been naked in front of a man before, and now I’ve been naked in front of three all in one night.