Shadow Storm (Shadow Riders 6)

The two entered the house cautiously through the kitchen. Pat had brought Rosy out the door, and it wasn’t locked. Tommaso was so focused on getting his clients drunk or drugged, and in the mood he wanted them in, with the performances on the stage becoming more and more depraved, that he wasn’t paying much attention to his newly bought mercenaries. His own men were spread thin, and couldn’t cover the streets, the grounds and the entire huge house, plus watch over the teens that he’d insisted be kept apart as well as watch the auction room and guard him. It was no wonder no one was overseeing the mercenaries.

Emmanuelle discovered a young girl being held in a small bathroom just off the master bedroom. She’d been fairly certain they would need access to the passageway if they were going to escort the teens to the stage using that method. She looked to be about thirteen and wore only a thin blue wraparound robe that barely covered her bottom. Her hair was pulled back from her face in a high ponytail, and her face was devoid of any makeup. She was barefoot. She sat on a towel on the floor with her knees drawn up, her arms hugging her legs and her head down on top of her knees.

A man talked to her in a low voice with the door cracked open. “You know I’ve been good to you, never steered you wrong.”

“You hurt me.”

“Only when you wouldn’t obey. I had to teach you to obey for your own good. These men are going to offer to buy you girls. You want someone nice to buy you. If you get someone bad …” He trailed off. “Some of these men are really cruel. They’ll share you. Hurt you. They’ll use you and then sell you to other men. That will happen to you over and over. You don’t want that. You want someone nicer to buy you. I’m trying to help you.”

The girl looked even more scared. “What should I do? What if one of the mean ones buys me? I couldn’t stand that. You have to tell me if that happens.”

“No. It’s best you don’t know.”

Something in his voice made Emmanuelle look at his face sharply. He was smirking. Why would he be smirking? Was he deliberately trying to scare the child even more before she went on the auction block?

“I have to know. You said after they bid and purchase me, you’d bring me back here to wait while the others are bid on. You could tell me then.” The girl was pleading with him.

“Are you sure?” He made her beg, the smirk even bigger.

Emmanuelle wanted to kill him on the spot, but she needed to wait to understand what he was doing.

“Yes. Please. I have to know. If he’s one of the really cruel ones, you have to tell me and what I can do.”

The man gave an exaggerated sigh. “I’ll tell you, but honestly, there isn’t much you can do except …” He trailed off.

“What? Tell me.”

He swore. “I’m not going there. Just accept what you have to do. Obey him in everything and hope for the best. Hope he isn’t one of the cruel ones or married. Hope he doesn’t share you or pass you around or sell you. Or doesn’t like to whip you until you bleed. Some of them like that. If he does, just endure it.”

The girl began to sob. “You have to tell me what I can do if he’s like that.”

There was silence as if he was reluctant, but he was smiling as if he had accomplished exactly what he’d set out to do. “You can never tell anyone I said this to you. And if you have to do it, you need to wait at least one month or more after he’s had you. Swear to me.”

“I do. I swear it.”

“You could kill yourself. That’s your only out. You get in the bathtub and open your veins. It won’t even hurt. Or if he gives you drugs, you just take way too much. But you have to wait at least a month. Do you understand me, little pet? If this comes back on me, they’ll kill me for trying to help you.”

She was nodding her head. “Yes, I understand. Thank you. I’ll wait. I will.”

Emmanuelle would bet her last dollar that no matter who bid on this girl, when she was brought back, her guard would tell her the buyer was cruel and would do something terrible to her, not that it was likely to be a lie, but there was something more going on here.

The next girl was located just down the hall and around the corner in a full bath. Like the first girl, this one was very young, dressed in a similar wraparound robe, looking seriously miserable. She might have been a year or so older, her hair chestnut, cut shorter and falling around her chin and neck, making her appear vulnerable.