Caged: The Underground

But apparently, I’d totally spaced the warning that I should be leery of accepting drinks from a scary woman who lived in the armpit of Satan with her creeper husband.

“See Juanita…I told you that good things happen to those who wait. This little peach just wandered right into our laps. She going to be popular.”

Juanita smiled and nodded. “You right, baby. You right.”

The horrifying realization that I’d stupidly allowed myself to be drugged was the last coherent thought before I fell to the floor, unconscious.

Well, Universe thanks for fucking with my sense of fair play; you suck.

Chapter 11

Cason

My lids popped open and I knew immediately, my chick had flown the coop.

I swore under my breath. I knew I should’ve tied her down.

I bounced from the bed and yanked on jeans. She couldn’t have gotten far.

Holly had no idea where she was and this was a shit neighborhood to wander around in.

Hell, that’s why I’d picked it.

Obviously, I’d underestimated Holly’s determination to escape. I’d mistakenly thought that the prissy thing would take one look at the surroundings and decide that she was better off with the devil she knew.

Way to go, Cason.

I swore at my own stupidity.

My ego had gotten in the way of common sense. Just because I’d made her come didn’t mean she wasn’t going to run the first chance she got.

Which was exactly what she’d done.

While I was dead to the world, Holly had slipped out.

Man, what happened to me?

I don’t usually sleep that hard, thanks to a shitty childhood and a mother whose boyfriends often tried to mess with me when she’d been asleep.

I slept with one eye open. Always have and always would.

But I’d crashed as soon as I heard she was out.

Best sleep I’d had in years, ironically.

I could still taste her juices on my tongue; I could smell her musk lingering on my lips.

I hadn’t even jerked off to relieve the pressure building in my sac. Although, if I had, I might’ve shot a hole in the ceiling. I was primed and ready to blow.

Even now the memory was messing with my ability to focus. I wanted her back.

Now.

Quick dialing Tito, he answered with a yawn. “It’s fucking early,” he groused. “Someone better be dead.”

“She’s gone.”

“Who?”

“Holly, you dumbshit,” I answered. “I woke up this morning and she was gone.”

“Fuck, Cason, you can’t keep track of one girl?” he teased, clearly finding the humor that I couldn’t. “Did she kick your ass or something? Maybe whip out some ninja-style Kung Fu? Did she go all Uma Therman on ya?”

“If you don’t shut the fuck up and get your ass over here, I’m going to shove my foot so far up your ass you’ll taste my boots for the rest of your life. I’m fucking serious. I need to find her.”

Tito sobered. “Calm down, Cason. We’ll find her.”

I shoved a hand through my hair. “How soon can you be here?”

“I’ll be there in fifteen.”

The sleepy murmur of a female voice sounded in the background, groaning with disappointment and I clicked off. Whoever Tito was shacking up with, wasn’t going to be happy.

But my heart was thundering and I was pissed as hell that Holly had bolted.

Hadn’t I been considerate?

Far more considerate than I should’ve been.

I should’ve ignored her cries of pain and tied her to the toilet for the night.

Fuck.

My whole plan was going up in smoke because Holly had made me weak.

Wasn’t going to happen twice.

I would find her and when I did…I was going to put her somewhere she couldn’t escape.

Which meant, Tito’s place was no longer an option.

But no worries…I had a place I could go.

Someplace a good girl like Holly wouldn’t be caught dead in.

Now I just had to find her.

Chapter 12

Holly

I groaned as I opened my eyes. I rolled to my back when I realized my face was stuffed against a disgusting mattress that smelled of urine and other things best left unmentioned.

I never imagined things could go from bad to worse.

Suddenly Tito’s lumpy bed didn’t seem so terrible.

I clutched my pounding head, biting back a cry as a wave of nausea threatened to burble up my throat.

My eyes fought to focus and I discovered I was in a bedroom, bare of anything aside from the mattress thrown on the musty carpet.

Great, now I’d been kidnapped by a sex trafficker.

If I weren’t scared witless, I’d have laughed at the irony.

Was I wearing a sign on my back that said, “Kidnap me, please!”?

A near hysterical laugh fell from my mouth.

But there was nothing to laugh about.

I was in real trouble.

Serious, bad, fucked-up trouble.

I rose on shaky legs to look for something I could use as a weapon but the room was like a prison. The window was bolted shut with thick, black metal bars across the grimy glass.

Wiping at the tears that leaked down my cheek, I realized I’d have to go down swinging.

If only I’d taken that self-defense class, I thought with despair. But the class had conflicted with my reading time and I wasn’t going to sacrifice my precious down time with getting awkwardly sweaty in a class filled with Barbies.

Right about now, I was rethinking that decision. It occurred to me that I hadn’t put the correct priorities in place.

But I was such a sucker for a good romance novel and I’d been so excited to finally dig into the newest Kresley Cole that I don’t think it would’ve mattered if the Vin Diesel had been teaching the class.

Nothing was going to keep me from that book.

Which put me here. Alone — defenseless — and feeling pretty low.

I tried the door but it was locked.

Not that I expected anything different but…I had to try.

Footsteps came my way and I sprang away from the door, running to the furthest corner of the room. The door opened and Juanita came in, tossing some clothes my way.

“Put these on,” she told me.

“Why?”

“You do as you’re told, bitch. Put those on,” Juanita said.

“Or what?”

“Or you gonna wish you’d done as I told you.”

The threat was vague but real enough.

I reached to pick up the clothes she’d thrown at me. There was nothing to them. Lingerie? I held up the filmy negligee and balked. “I can’t wear this,” I protested, unable to imagine being squeezed into something so ridiculous. “I’m…I’m a college student…not a…”

“You what we say you are,” Juanita cut in with a smirk. “And today, you a whore. Got that?”

“This is illegal,” I said, my voice shaking. “I…if you let me go, I’ll forget this ever happened. Please.”

It was the same plea I’d offered Cason — surprise, surprise, Juanita scoffed at my offer, too.

“You a dumb bitch. You think it’s fun to slum it up? Well, you gonna find out just how life works here. We got customers who gonna love banging a redhead uppity bitch. You gonna make us some fast cash, honey. Maybe if you nice, I let you shower after you done.”

Oh God.

I was in a nightmare. “My brother is Butcher Brannon,” I blurted out in sheer desperation. “You don’t want to mess with me. My brother is crazy. Let me go and I promise I won’t say anything to him.”

“Who Butcher Brannon?” Juanita asked, not impressed. “That supposed to mean something to me?”

“My brother runs the Ice Town Rebels.”

The gang name struck a chord of recognition but Juanita wasn’t sur

e what to make of the information.