Tensing, she was pleased when his hands withdrew but because she couldn’t see him, she didn’t know exactly what he was doing. “Not me, but others were. That’s the reason I kept quiet. I heard what was done to them, what the men threatened. Some of the girls didn’t come back after annoying the guards, and the men would boast about what they put those poor women through. To hear their stories was torture enough.”
Devon noted that his hands didn’t return to work on her, so she assumed he was finished. Turning her cheek onto her forearm, she opened her eyes to try to see him. “Wren?”
“You speak Spanish?” he asked in a rush of breath.
“Yes.”
A kind of hope and happiness merged in his voice, and it perplexed her. His next words flowed fast out of him. “Did they know that?”
Rolling over onto her back, she pulled down her gown and sat up. “No, they didn’t engage me in much direct conversation. Why?”
His wide eyes and frozen forehead made her frown. He licked his lips and swallowed, trying hard to pace his words as though this wasn’t a major deal. But she could tell from the way he’d reacted already that it was.
“Did you hear them talking to each other?”
Well obviously, she thought to herself, because the only words the women spoke in Spanish, English or any other language were the same pleadings for life as they begged for mercy in their desperation for liberation. Devon didn’t have to speak every one of their languages to know that’s what the women wanted.
“Yes,” she said. “The men hung out in the hallways during and after their rounds. They talked to each other when they fed us. It was as if we weren’t there. I wanted to stay alive, so I didn’t interrupt them. I kept my mouth shut.”
At the time, it had been a great idea to stay quiet, under the radar, and out of the way. But since she’d been here, Devon had been dealing with her own type of survivor’s guilt.
While she’d been in the shower, trying to relax her weary self, she’d experienced gratitude for the fresh, clean water coating her body, washing away her woes. The fight mode she’d been in since waking here was fading. More at ease now that she could feel the sickness slipping from her, she was rested and clean, and that made a huge amount of difference to her mood. It was then she began to put herself together again.
The negative side of that was embracing the reality that some of the other girls who were sold on the same night as her were probably dead or being abused and tortured. Devon didn’t know what was going on here. She was still suspicious, so she would keep her guard up. But after living in a metal box for months, this place was like a palace.
Whatever these people wanted from her, Devon would make no promises to them. But she’d learned not to take even one minute of peace for granted. She wasn’t shackled, there was food and clean water, giving her little to complain about, even if she was still under lock and key.
Wren began to toss his things into the first-aid box, without much thought for where they landed. He sealed it up and surged to his feet. “I’ll come back for the blood in a minute,” he said, whipping off his latex gloves and balling them into his pocket as he dashed for the door.
“Wait, what did I say?” she asked because his entire demeanor was different, his mood had changed in an instant and she wasn’t sure of the significance of what she’d said.
“I’ll be back, Devon, just… just wait here.”
Wren darted out and the door slammed. Rolling her eyes left and right, she took a minute to herself then exhaled. “Hmm,” she said. “Ok.”
There was nowhere she could go, so she’d just have to hope that Wren came back to explain himself soon.
FOUR
Whether it was soon or not, she had no idea. It seemed like it took a long time for her to see another soul, but she was grateful for it. Her shower had sapped some of her energy, and although adrenaline kept her on her feet for a while, Devon eventually had to take a nap.
Upon waking, she didn’t feel the need to lie in bed as she had for the past undefined period. Devon had to start building her body back up again. Tedious though it was, she began to pace the room, just to give herself something to do and to remind herself what it was to stand and walk upright. She would pace for as long as she could, varying the speed and length of her strides, then she would sit, have some water, stare at the canopy over her bed for a while and ponder who these people might be.
Wren was odd in that he seemed genuine in what he did. He was knowledgeable in the way he acted. He was deft and skilled with the medical supplies, knew the procedures and performed them while holding a conversation without giving much thought to what his hands were doing, suggesting to her that he was indeed a medical doctor of some variety, just as he’d claimed to be.
Bess she liked the best because the woman had zero expectations. Bess brought her food and water, she provided her with clothes and toiletries and seemed more intent on looking after her than asking her for anything.
Because Devon had no idea where they were, they could be in a house with a hundred rooms or this could be a single unit trussed up to look like an upper-class building. There could be a thousand people, another hundred women like her, or she could be all alone. Wren said he didn’t live here full-time, and that was an interesting fact. It might be difficult to find out when he came and when he left, but if she could make a break for freedom while he wasn’t here, the only people she may have to contend with were Bess and this enigmatic man she’d never met: the buyer.
She was slowing her pace and considering going back to bed when the door opened again. This time Bess came in with Wren. After they closed the door, they stood together in front of it.
“We’d like to ask you some questions,” Wren said.
Devon had stopped in front of the window. She folded her arms as she scrutinized them both. Maybe it was the invigoration of exercise or that she was finally feeling fully rested, but not only did she crack a smile, she laughed.
“You’re kidding,” Devon said. “You want to ask me questions?”
“Yes,” Wren said. “It could be important. If you sit on the bed—”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “I appreciate that you gave me medical care, I don’t know if you plan to slap me with a bill, whatever. I’ve asked for two things since I got here, neither of which I’ve gotten. So, unless your questions are A) which airports I’d like to fly from and to, and B) how much monetary compensation you can offer for keeping me hostage, I’m not going to answer a single thing.”
Devon didn’t remember ever being so confrontational or so sassy. She had a sense of humor, but she’d never been one to mock or ridicule with sarcasm.
“You don’t understand,” Wren said. “What we do is help people, women like you. Can’t you see that?”
“All I see is that your boss bought me at an auction, like I was some eBay listing. He brought me back here, and by the way,” she said, turning around to grab the curtains and thrust them open as far as she could reach. “I still don’t even know where here is! You’ve kept me locked in this room without answering any questions. I don’t even know what day of the week it is, what month of the year it is, I don’t know how long I’ve been here, I don’t know how long I was there. All I want to do is go home.”
“What do you think is waiting at home for you?” Wren asked. “I’ll tell you what’s waiting at home. Nothing. You’ve been gone for so long, I bet even your landlord has rented your apartment again.”
Bess slapped his arm and move forward. “Don’t listen to him, dearie,” she said. “This is difficult for you and you must be frustrated, especially now that you’re starting to feel human again, and here we are making demands.”
“It does seem a bit rich,” Devon agreed and allowed Bess to link their arms to lead them over to the bed where they sat down.
“You must be confused and hurt.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Wren said.
“You hush,” B
ess chastised him. “You should never have let Raven coach you before you came in here. You treat this girl like a human being, not like a walking reference manual.”
“It’s because I understood them,” Devon said. She might still be groggy and Bess was right that she was confused, but she hadn’t missed how Wren had run out of here when he learned that she’d eavesdropped on her captors’ conversations. “I could have valuable information, but I have no reason to share it with you.”
“Why would you protect them?” Wren asked, marching over to stand in front of the women, who were still seated on the bed.
“I don’t know who you are,” Devon said. “You could be a rival gang, grooming vulnerable women like me. You say you want to help people, and I agree that you’ve treated me well while I’ve been here, despite keeping me confined. But you don’t trust me and you don’t treat me with respect. You said that you wouldn’t let me go until I was back to full strength, but look at me, I’m healthy.”
“You have a long way to go,” Bess said. “We have to get you eating properly and build up some of those muscles. You’re still weak.”
“I’m alive,” Devon said. “And I bet not every girl who was in that place when I was can say that. Can you imagine for a second what they must be going through? And I still don’t know why I’m here, can’t you understand how that unnerves me? You tell me I’ll never see this man who bought me. But I can’t begin to understand why that is and that terrifies me. Who is he? What’s he hiding?”
“He won’t come,” Bess said, seeming upset while delivering a non-apology apology.
“But why?” Devon begged. “The information I have, I can take to authorities, and maybe they can take these people down.”
“That’s what we do,” Wren said. “That’s what he does. That’s why you can’t see his face.”
Devon didn’t accept that. “I don’t hang out with these bastards. Just because I see the buyer’s face doesn’t mean I’d know who he was or that I’d be able to share his identity with anyone.”
Bess and Wren exchanged a look. “We can’t take that chance.”
“You can’t or he can’t?” Devon asked. “He’s comfortable around the scum of the earth but won’t talk to one solitary woman? Telling you everything that I know gives you an advantage that you could exploit. Either you tell your boss to come here and face me like a man, or you let me go.”
“He won’t come,” Bess said, but she was talking to Wren. “I’ve tried.”
Wren rubbed the back of his neck. “We’ve all tried. He’s not built for this and doesn’t know how to handle it. He won’t even talk to Swallow. Hell, he won’t even talk to me.”
What was it about this guy? Devon didn’t understand why he was so determined to shut himself off. She didn’t know who Swallow was or what significance the person had, but at least Devon wasn’t alone in being excluded from this man’s company.
“If he’s so desperate to know what I know,” Devon said. “He can ask me his questions himself. I’m not telling you guys squat. So if he won’t face me, you can let me go, and I’ll tell everything I know to the authorities.”
“You can’t go to the authorities. You can’t tell them about this, about us.”
Another demand, these people had some nerve. “So I’m supposed to pretend I wasn’t abducted and held against my will? You want me to forgive the men who did this to me?”
“No,” Bess said and stood up. “There is one person he’ll listen to. We have to try again.”
Bess and Wren went out of the room together. Lying on her back, Devon rested her hands on her upper chest as she contemplated the future. These people were now claiming they deliberately rescued her, like they were some kind of vigilantes. If that was the case, then they did need to protect their identities, like all good vigilantes did.
But it wasn’t enough for her. If they wanted something from her, she had to know more about them because if she relied on her assumptions and they turned out to be wrong, more innocent women could be hurt.
Hours passed, she knew it because the fuzzy light faded from behind the fogged glass until it became black. Bess came in with food, which Devon refused, much to Bess’ surprise. She was sick of the games, sick of the waiting, sick of being controlled by everyone else. She demanded that Bess take the food away and reiterated what she’d said: either she was let go or the man pulling the strings came to tell her exactly what the hell was going on.
More time went by, all the light faded and she was left in the pitch black. Devon lay down in bed, ready for another night of sleep in this place that was nothing more than a gilded cage. Thinking about what the lack of artificial light outside the obscured window could mean when she married it with the silence she’d monitored, Devon didn’t reach many conclusions.
When Wren and Bess weren’t here, she heard nothing. Either this place had the best soundproofing on the face of the Earth or they were far from civilization and any kind of external noises like traffic and other people.
No artificial light meant no headlights, no passing cars, no street lights. While putting all of these pieces together, her eyes grew heavy until sleep threatened. Just as she was about to lose herself to it, she heard a click and the sound of a door opening.
A sliver of light appeared on the opposite wall, and she pulled her blankets higher over her chest. It grew wider and then was filled by a looming silhouette that she saw only a flash of before it grew so large it blocked all of the light.
When she sat up, Devon registered the tiniest strip of muted light seeping underneath the now closed door that definitely hadn’t been there before. It let in just enough illumination for Devon to decipher the tall, broad shape standing at the end of her bed.
“You’re him, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” he said. His deep voice had the impact of a gut punch. A low rumble, the single syllable seemed to shake the whole room.
“You’re trying to regain control.”
There was so little emotion in his voice that she couldn’t tell if he was angry or upset or if he was just trying to condescend her as his doctor buddy had done when he came in here the first time. “You don’t have to patronize me. You need me.”
Her strength was bravado. Demanding to see this man had been a way of trying to regain control, to show these people how unfair it was to try to force someone into doing something that they didn’t want to do.
And yet, he’d chosen to come to her at the worst time because while she was in the dark it was like being back in her metal cage. Although the ground was soft here and she had space to stretch and walk, the memories were vivid and still raw, making it difficult to tether her emotions to something solid.
“You’re a pain in the ass.”
So far she’d deduced that he didn’t say much, but when he did speak, he was honest. “Why are you holding me prisoner? Why don’t you let me go?”
“You can go.”
Just like that, did he have that much power, could he allow her to just walk out? If that was the case, she was right, he was the one pulling the strings. Something told her that it wasn’t going to be quite that easy.
“But?”
“It’s the middle of the night. It’s cold out”
“I’ll get a cab.”
“We’re on a private island.”
An island. That idea hadn’t occurred to her. It explained so much, such as their confidence that they wouldn’t be caught holding a woman captive and the lack of sound or artificial lights.
“Who are you?” she asked, the words coming out of her of their own volition because of her innate need to know who this enigmatic man was.
“Names don’t matter.”
“You have a private island. Does it belong to you? If you have enough money to splurge on buying a person, then I guess it stands to reason that you’d have enough to buy an island. Is it a tropical island?”
“We’re in the Pacific Northwest, Devon, prepare to freeze your ass of
f if you go out there in a nightdress.”
Ok, so she accepted that leaving this minute wasn’t a good idea. “How do I get off the island?”
“You don’t. Not until you tell us what we need to know.” A threat. These people weren’t as benevolent as they made out. “You do that and we’ll take you back to the mainland.”
“You can’t—”
“You wanted to meet me, here I am,” he said, becoming stern. “Tomorrow, Bess and Wren will introduce you to some new people. Answer their questions.”
“And you?”
“Forget me,” he said. “Sleep, ‘cause tomorrow you better be ready to talk.”
In less than two strides, he was at the door, and he was out before she could voice any objections. The light beneath the door vanished and she was alone again, blinking into darkness. That brief encounter could have been a dream, something her mind made up, or maybe they’d just conceded.
Devon didn’t know who these new people were or what they would ask. But she’d made progress by forcing the buyer to come here against his will. Although her victory was tiny, she slept easier because of it.
FIVE
Bess had put a small nail file and tweezer set in the bathroom with the other supplies she’d left. Devon had finished plucking her eyebrows and was giving herself a manicure when there was a tap on the ajar bathroom door. Whirling around, Bess was there with a pile of clothes in her hands.
“Would you like to get dressed?”
Devon wouldn’t say no to that offer. Wearing anything but this shapeless nightgown would be an improvement. Bess came over and laid the clothes on the vanity. “Come into the bedroom when you’re ready, dearie.”
Bess went out allowing Devon to see what clothes were there. New underwear with the tags on was a relief, so she quickly put that on then looked at the other choices. There were two dresses to choose from, a blue one or a purple. Devon doubted she would want to ever wear blue again, so she chose the purple. It was long sleeved with a scoop neck, but the loose skirt went to her knee and didn’t disturb any of her wound dressings.
Falcon (Kindred #5) Page 4
