Lie (Betrothed 8)

If some other woman were in the bathroom, that could have ended quite differently. Maybe she wouldn’t have known how to fight him off, and something terrible would have happened to her. Too disturbed by the experience, she probably wouldn’t call the cops either.

So maybe that was supposed to happen to me. Maybe it happened because I could handle it, put the asshole behind bars where he belonged. I believed everything happened for a reason, and tonight was no different.

After a long night, I was a heavy sleeper. I hadn’t gotten home until two in the morning, and since I’d been dancing on the stage earlier that night, I slept so hard. The only reason I would wake up was if the guy next to me snored like a bear. Otherwise, I was totally out of it.

That was probably why I didn’t hear them come in.

A gloved hand immediately cupped my mouth and pushed down hard so I couldn’t make a sound. Once the hand was on my face, I threw my arms out to hit whoever had attacked me. My eyes opened and looked into the face of a man I didn’t know. With dark hair and absolutely no mercy in his brown eyes, it wasn’t someone I knew, but someone I faintly recognized.

It was one of the guys from the table, one of the cronies of the man who’d assaulted me.

Another guy held my legs down so I couldn’t kick, and then a third came at me with a syringe.

Oh, hell no.

I fought harder, tears forming in my eyes because I knew my fate right then and there. I was outnumbered, and it was the middle of the night, so no one would even know what was happening. They were going to put me under so they could either transfer me…or something worse.

I’d never been so fucking scared.

I tried to buck them off, tried to scream, but my cries were muffled.

The guy grabbed me by the hair and yanked harshly on my scalp so my neck would become exposed. Then he stabbed the needle into my neck and injected the fluid. “Talk soon, bitch.”

I’d thought I was strong enough to fight off the drug, to pretend to be asleep just as I had when Heath took me. But the chemicals were too strong, immediately dumping into my blood and knocking me right out. I tried to fight it, but I was pulled under, knowing whatever I woke up to would be truly horrifying.

The instant my eyes were open, anxiety really kicked in. My heart rate exploded, and the adrenaline nearly gave me a heart attack. My eyes took in the scene around me, darkness, cages, damp coldness.

I realized I was in a little cage, similar to the one I’d been in when Heath locked me up, but there were several cages right up against one another, and in each one was a woman.

Naked.

When I looked down at myself, I realized I’d met the same fate. Buck naked, I could see my flesh from my toes to my tits. My belly button ring glittered in the dark. I tried to keep my breathing even so I could pretend I was still asleep, but I was so rattled I couldn’t control my panic.

There didn’t seem to be anyone on the other side of the bars, the men who took me or any guards. I sat up slightly and realized I was lying on a bed of hay. There was a bucket in the corner where they expected me to shit, a roll of toilet paper on a stool. Hot tears burned in my eyes when I realized it wasn’t a nightmare. The fact that I was there with other women made it perfectly clear what had just happened to me.

I was being trafficked.

I did my best to keep my breathing deep and even, not to appear awake, not to give in to the screams and tears. There was still hope because Damien would realize I was missing eventually. He’d track me down and find me. I knew he would.

I just knew it wouldn’t be soon enough before…they did things to me.

I looked through the bars of the cage to the woman beside me. She was a blonde, her hair oily because she hadn’t showered in a long time. She seemed to be a veteran, someone who’d been there a long time. “Hey…” I whispered and hoped I wouldn’t be overheard.

She turned me slightly, her arms over her chest.

“Where are we?”

She looked out of the bars to the walkway, like she was checking for something, and then turned back to me and placed her forefinger over her lips as if to silence me.

I needed answers. “Please.”

Someone must’ve heard me, because footsteps sounded before a large man approached. His dark hair and brown eyes told me he was one of the guys who’d broken in to my apartment and stolen me. He was the same one who had put the needle into my neck. They must have followed me after I left the bar, ready to exact vengeance for what I did to their friend.