“Time to walk the walk, Acquisitions.” Cal was crowing atop the podium as one of the prostitutes sucked his cock.
I hated the idea of him seeing Stella, of any of them seeing her. She was mine. But I kept having to share her.
Bob pushed Gavin up the stairs. “Walk.”
Gavin obeyed, tentatively placing one foot in front of the other. Once he’d made it a little way across, he was emboldened, holding his head a bit higher, his shoulders back. It made sense. After all, walking was easy.
He picked up his pace. When he got to the end of the walk, he turned to come back. Two men grabbed him, stripped off his coat, and then ripped his shirt away. He started to fight them but stopped when one held up a cattle prod. The other one pointed back down the runway.
Stella trembled next to me as Brianne broke down into gut-wrenching sobs. Red grabbed her by the hair and shook her. She screamed, high and piercing.
Stella reached out, fast as a cat, and gripped Red’s arm, trying to wrest his grip from Brianne. Her small hands did nothing to stop him.
“Get your bitch under control, Vinemont, before I do it for you.”
I wrapped my arm around Stella’s waist and pulled her back. “Stop, Stella. You’re making it worse.”
She lunged at Red again as Brianne still suffered in his grasp. I held her back and away from him.
“What, you don’t like this?” Red asked and shook Brianne again. He used his other hand and ripped down the back of her dress, leaving her top fully exposed. “What about this? Stella, is it? Do you like this?” Red ripped her dress again until the fabric fell to the floor.
“You, son of a bitch!” Stella cried.
“Oh, look over here. We have a wild one.” Cal’s voice grated on my ears as it boomed around the room.
I put my hand around Stella’s throat and squeezed until she fell back against me gasping for air.
“Stop fighting,” I hissed in her ear.
“Motherfucker. You, motherfuckers,” was all she managed to get out.
Red sneered and stepped toward us.
“Back the fuck up, Red.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll stomp another mud hole in your ass, same as I did at your sister’s wedding last year. Remember that?”
“Fuck you, Sin.”
“Right back at you, Red.”
He returned to his toy, palming her ass so hard it had to hurt as she waited her turn. He leered at Stella as he did it, but she didn’t make another move.
“You’re all best friends, aren’t you?” Stella’s voice was quiet. “You’re all the same. Let me go. I’ll be good.” She put an acid inflection on the last word.
Her comment should have stung me, but it was true. Red and I were the same breed. He was just playing the game better than I was at the moment. That would be remedied before the night ended.
I released Stella, but stayed ready to hold her again. I didn’t know what Red would do if she actually managed to hurt him. It wouldn’t be pretty. Not that I’d let him hurt her. That wasn’t his right.
She stood in front of me, careful not to touch me. The back of her dress was open so I could see her smooth skin. She was so pale against the deep green of the dress. Flawless, radiant skin. I stared, knowing that it would never look this way again, not after tonight.
Gavin was on his final run, fully nude and halfway across the walkway back to us. Men and women rose from below to touch him. I froze at the thought of one of them touching Stella. But they would. There was nothing I could do to stop them.
“Go on, whore.” Red pushed the shivering Brianne up onto the walkway. She wore only heels as she made her way between the revelers.
Many rushed to her, their fingers reaching to touch her pussy, her ass, her tits. Towards the middle, one man actually pulled her down and threw her on the nearest bed before trying to force her legs apart. Her scream blended with the others. Two servants approached and pulled the man off before setting her back on the platform. Now her shoes were missing and she was sobbing as she walked.
She made it to the other end and tried to stay there. It took a near miss with the cattle prod to get her moving again. By the time she made it back to us, her makeup was streaked from tears and her body shook with sobs.
“Again,” Red demanded.
She shook her head. Red advanced on her with a menacing step.
“Go, just go. Get it over with.” Stella urged the girl to pass through hell one more time. “You can do it. You have to.”
Brianne focused on Stella who was nodding at her, encouraging her.