Locked (Savage Men 2)

“C’mon, let’s go celebrate,” he says, putting his arm around my shoulder and pulling me along. “What did you think?” he asks. “Did I punch him good or what?”

“Yeah, great,” I answer.

“Not good?”

I shrug. “You like beating people up?”

He smirks. “It’s what I do best. So that’s what I do.”

“But why?”

“To earn money.”

“Money …?” I frown. Hate that stuff. It’s why Father did all those horrible things to us. It’s the sole reason we had to suffer.

Why doesn’t he care?

“You know … to buy stuff. You need money to give your woman what she needs,” he says, eyeing Ella who’s waiting for him in the locker room.

“If you want, I can introduce you to someone and hook you up.”

“As in fighting?” I ask, raising a brow.

“Yeah. To earn money.”

“Ah …” I hold up my hand. “No thanks.”

“Let me help some other way then. Want me to show you around town? Help you get started?”

I frown. “I prefer not.”

“Why?”

I shrug. “I just wanna take it slow. Besides, I don’t see the point.”

“In what? A job?”

“No, everything. Here,” I reply.

He snorts. “You’re not making any sense.”

“I know,” I say. I don’t mind. He fits in well here, but just because he does doesn’t mean I will. Or that I want to.

“My point is, dude, you’re gonna have to search for a job too, if you wanna survive and make your woman happy.”

I make a face. “Don’t wanna talk about that now.”

“Sorry.” He laughs. “I just figured you wanted to know.”

“Is that why you invited me to come watch you?” I ask, raising a brow. “To give me tips?”

“Well, I figured … since you’re new to it and all …”

I cross my arms. “That I’m what? Inexperienced?”

He shrugs, but a grin still spreads across his lips.

“Did you forget I was the first one to escape?” I ask. “I’ve seen the world. I know what people like, what they do, what they want. It’s not my thing.”

“Then what is?” Cage asks as Ella hands him a towel, and he wipes off his sweat.

I stare off into the distance, picturing the jungle and fresh lakes. “My island.”

“Hmm …” He nods. “Must be a great place. Can’t wait to see it.”

I freeze.

Is he going to?

Does that mean I’ll have to share my island?

“Relax,” he says, laughing. “We’ll come when invited only.”

“Right.” I shake my head. “Except I’m here now. Just like you.”

“Right …” Cage winks.

Well, fuck me.

He’s just as arrogant as I am.

Guess he really is my brother.

Still, it makes me wonder why I never knew about his existence in the first place. Why Father kept him from me is a mystery to me. Maybe he thought it’d be another incentive for me to want to leave the prison he built. He did everything in his power to keep us both there… and still, we escaped.

“What happened to … the compound?” I ask, after a moment of silence.

“The police raided it. No one was found.”

“What about Father?” I ask.

Ella’s face contorts, and she glances back and forth between Cage and me.

Their faces are all I need to know the truth.

“You know what happened to him.” Cage replies, swallowing. “It’s for the best.”

I nod, letting out a sigh of relief. “Agreed.” Still, I can’t let go of the compound so quickly. “But we weren’t the only people in that prison. What happened to all of them? The girls?”

Ella licks her lips and looks at Cage questioningly. “Well,” he says. “One of the girls who shared a cell with us, Syrena … She was sold.”

“Sold?” I frown.

“Yeah. That’s what he did too. Lots of girls who couldn’t get pregnant for whatever reason. He sold them to rich and powerful men. Like pets.”

I want to smack the wall with my fists. Goddamn that man and all his evil.

“We’re still looking for her.”

“And the others?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “They vanished.”

“I hope they ended up somewhere safe,” I say.

“We don’t know. But the police are on it, they say. So we’re gonna trust them, right?” He glances at Ella, who nods in agreement.

I rub the back of my head and close my eyes, sighing. “Man, I can’t believe it. I thought he would’ve changed his ways after I escaped. But of course not. Bad people will always be bad people.”

“Right …” Cage mutters.

“God, I fucking hate this world,” I say, grinding my teeth.

Cage slams his locker shut and suddenly asks, “Hey man, do you even want to be here?”

“What?” I mutter, pulled from my thoughts.

“This place. The city. The people. Do you even like it?”

I frown and purse my lips, but there’s no response I can give them that will satisfy them.

He won’t understand. He wasn’t shunned like I was. He had a girl to guide him.

What did I have? Broken dreams.

I have never fit in.

He does.

He likes this place. More than I ever will.