by Sophia Lynn
“Are you a virgin?”
Heat flushed her body. “Yes.”
When Oma’s touch grew more invasive, Emily only moaned and turned her face away.
“I see no evidence to disprove that. That is a very good thing for you. You can sit up now.”
“Why is it good?” asked Emily dully, curling in on herself.
“Because that means that you will fetch a much higher price,” Oma replied, her voice brutally practical. “That means that on our travels to Mirago, you will be kept safe.”
This was her life now, Emily realized. She was nothing more than her worth to slavers. She was nothing more than a piece of meat to be sold.
“What happens now?” Emily asked as Oma opened the box.
“Now you will clean yourself and put on these clothes. You have gone through the worst of it for a little while. We have a few days before we leave for Mirago, and in that time, I will teach you what you need to know.”
The box held a small basin and a jug of water for her to bathe with and a pile of fabric that looked more like lacy scarves than clothes. Before she reached for them, Emily looked up at the other woman.
“Have you helped many girls like this?”
Oma nodded, and there was a world of pain in her eyes.
“Why? Why are you doing this?”
It took Oma a long time to reply.
“Because I wish someone had done the same for me,” Oma said quietly, and Emily knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that escape was hopeless, at least for now.
“All right,” she said softly. “All right.”
Hesitantly, she reached a hand to touch Oma's, and Oma clasped it lightly before letting go.
“Come. Let us get you bathed. There are many important things for you to learn.”
Chapter Three
Adnan planned his arrival in Mirago carefully. The border town was sprawling, a den of sin and iniquity where every perversion could be satisfied. It drew people from all over the world, among them the rich and famous, the powerful and elite.
He made it a point to remove anything that might identify him as the sheikh of Nahr, but he pulled his most expensive clothes from the closet, had the most expensive sports car pulled from his collection.
When he looked at himself in the mirror, he had to smile grimly. Adnan was a large man, topping six feet with close-cropped dark hair. With his dark skin and his nearly black eyes, there was always something intimidating about him, but right now, in his well-tailored clothes, he looked like nothing more than a rich man out to have some fun. He had never felt more serious in his life, however.
“Well, how do I look?” he asked Roja, who was dressed in his customary black.
“Like a rich man who wants others to know it,” Rojas responded. “Do you have the itinerary?”
“Memorized,” Adnan said. “We do the circuit, and hopefully in that time, someone will alert the Razorback that there is a prospective customer for him.”
“Yes. See his wares, pretend to be dissatisfied, walk out. After that, we can take him.”
The plan was simple enough. The risk to himself was fairly low overall, but Adnan couldn't stop his heart from beating a little faster as he stepped out into the hot night, his bodyguards by his side. He could take care of himself quite easily, but tonight, he needed to show the city that he was a man of means, one who needed bodyguards.
As he toured the city, he found himself wishing that he could have a drink or two. Mirago operated under no law, and the city wallowed in a desperation that made him sick. He saw men beating each other bloody for money; he saw women watching him with dull eyes devoid of hope. It was an evil place, and he wished all over again that he had the power to wipe it off the map.
If this mission succeeded, however, there would be at least one victory to celebrate, so he kept his mind in the moment.
It only took a few stops before a skinny man sidled up to him, an ingratiating look on his face.
“You look like a man who knows quality, I think,” the man said, his voice a grating whine.
“I like to think I am,” Adnan said, even if he instinctively wanted to punch the man. He had that kind of face. “What kind of quality do you think I am interested in?”
The man made a gesture with his hands that left very little to the imagination, and Adnan allowed himself to sneer. It was very easy.
“I'm not a man who wants to lower himself into the garbage for one night,” he snorted. “I deserve better than that, I think.”
He made to turn away, but the skinny man didn't leave.
“Ah, the great lord wishes to buy rather than rent,” he said with a rather unnerving giggle. “Well, all things are possible in this great city under the mountain.”
Adnan frowned, tapping his finger impatiently on his phone. He looked every inch the bored, spoiled lord this man thought he was. He spun the tension out for a little longer.
“And I suppose that you think you have something that I want.”
The skinny man's smile grew slyer and more repugnant than ever.
“I might, yes I might, great lord—”
Adnan exploded into motion. In only a second, he had closed the space between them, knotting his fist in the man's shirt. He hauled him up with a single hand until the man's toes were barely touching the floor, and he did all of this while maintaining a bored expression on his face.
“If you don't tell me something that I actually want to hear in ten seconds, I am going to let my men get their exercise by kicking you to pieces,” he said, keeping his voice idle. It was difficult to talk to a human being this way, even one that made his skin crawl, but Adnan wondered if there was a part of himself that liked it just fine.
“I will, I will,” the man said in a shriek. “Oh great lord, I will, but only it is difficult to speak of such things in public, yes? Some kind of discretion is needed.”
“Discretion…I would have doubted that you could even pronounce the word if you hadn't done it just now.”
Adnan dropped the man carelessly, reaching into his pocket for a handkerchief to wipe his hands.
“All right. Where I can find the merchandise that you are promising?”
The man was shaking his head.
“No, no, we will bring it to you, at least, we will do so the first time,” he said. “After that, if the great lord wants another…”
Adnan narrowed his eyes.
“That sounds like a scam if I ever heard one.”
“It is the only way the Razorback will do business,” the skinny man said with a shrug. For the first time, he said it in a way that made Adnan believe him, and inwardly, the sheikh swore. The plan had been to get into position by following a contact to wherever the Razorback had his hideout, but the precaution of meeting at a place that Adnan designated threw a wrench in the works.
“All right,” he said, as if it didn't matter to him at all. “Talk to my bodyguard. He'll tell you where we are staying. I am available tonight. If you cannot provide me with something interesting by then, I am not interested.”
The skinny man was all smiles suddenly, and as he bowed his way back to speak with a bodyguard, Adnan could feel his stomach turn over. What the hell was going on here? How could people decide that they owned others?
Even as he asked himself that question, he knew the answer all too well. People did this because they knew they could get away with it. He would have to play his part or end the whole operation. When he thought of Roja's vengeance, he knew that he had to stay in.
He only hoped that it would be over soon.
***
“I hope this ends soon,” Emily said, swallowing hard.
Oma hummed as she put the finishing touch on Emily's makeup.
“It is better instead to hope that you will find some kind of safe harbor,” she corrected. “Death is an ending, after all.”
Over the last few days, Emily had come to realize how lucky she was to have Oma. When they came to the holding st
ation where another half-dozen girls were held, it was clear that their keepers had not been nearly as careful with them. They cried, they rocked themselves into a stupor, and they could not believe what had happened to them. Emily would never have called herself happy, but she was at least grimly determined to do what had to be done.
They had waited for several days in that dark place, and finally one of the armed and masked men had come down. A quick conversation with Oma later, and he had ushered her and Oma into a car and taken them to a hotel room. Emily's nerves were frayed from the constant vigilance, but Oma told her to be calm.
“This is where you prove yourself,” she said. “If you make a good sale, you can be free of these monsters.”
Emily could have snorted. Free of these monsters and with someone who was willing to spend money to own a woman. She couldn't see how it was better. She was learning to keep her barbs to herself, however. Instead, she had decided to be watchful and to be clever. At any moment, she might have an opportunity to escape, and when it came, she had to be ready.
Oma closed the makeup kit with a note of finality. “There, you're done.”
Emily had been surprised to see the simple white sundress they had given her to wear, along with the ballet flats. With her blonde hair damp and slightly curly and the eyeliner that made her eyes look huge, there was something surprisingly innocent and sweet about her.
To Emily's surprise, Oma gave her a hug. “This is not the life that you dreamed of,” she said, “but it is one that you can survive. Be brave, all right?”
“Thank you, Oma,” she said, hugging her back. “I…I will do my best.”
When a skinny man with a sour face came to take her away, her spirit nearly failed. Then she remembered Oma's stories of girls being beaten until they complied, and she went with him meekly enough.
The man who was escorting her to the location seemed, to her, to be a bitter thing. He snapped at the driver and at the man who was along ostensibly as a bodyguard but really to keep Emily from escaping. When she didn't move fast enough, the escort pinched the flesh under her arm, making her yelp a little. She could already feel a bruise starting to form, one that would be hidden as long as she kept her arm down.
“That is what happens when you do not obey fast enough,” he sneered, pushing her through the side door of a luxury hotel. “Now move!”
She did as he said, seething silently. If she had a way to get out of this situation, she thought that it would be here with him. Emily's spirits fell a little when she realized the bodyguard was going in with them. She looked up when her escort sent the bodyguard to the room they were assigned.
“Not you,” he said to her with an unpleasant sneer. “You're going right to the client, and you should pray to Allah that he finds you acceptable.”
Emily bided her time as they rode up in an elevator to the “client’s” floor. When they stepped out, she saw an exit sign at the far end of the hallway. The stairs. Emily allowed them to progress a little farther down the hallway before she stumbled.
“Ow!”
“What is it?” he snarled.
“I don't know,” she said fretfully. “Only I think there is something wrong with my shoe. I can feel it stabbing my foot somehow…”
“You American girls, so spoiled,” he said snorting. “Wait until you meet this sheikh; he'll give you more to cry about than a shoe.”
“Seriously, it's very bad, I think I am bleeding,” she said, her voice tremulous and afraid.
Frowning, he stepped closer and leaned down to look at it. Without making a sound, Emily drew her foot back and kicked him as hard as she could. She couldn't kick him in the head, as she planned, but she landed a solid kick in his chest. She heard the satisfying whuff of breath as she kicked the air out of him, and then she vaulted over him and ran towards the exit at the end of the hall. If she could just get to the stairway, if she could just get down to the street level, if she could just get to a place where people would help her…
Emily's thoughts raced, going so hard that she didn't notice the door opening in front of her or the tall man stepping out. She saw him just in time to crash into him, her full weight not even making him take a step back.
“No!” she cried, but he only caught her arm and shook her as if she were a doll, looking over her head at the skinny man recovering on the ground.
“I take it this is what you were bringing to me,” the man holding her drawled.
The skinny man got up, wheezing hard and stumbling towards them. Despite her earlier bravado, she shrank away from him. He had murder in his eyes.
“She is, great lord—”
“Then both of you get in here.”
The man had an iron-hard grasp on her wrist, and though she tried to pull back, he didn't even notice as he tugged her into the luxurious hotel room. The skinny man followed, still glaring at her as if he could snap her neck and not feel the least bit sorry.
“No…” she whispered, but then the door closed behind her with a snap.
Chapter Four
Adnan's mind was working furiously, and in between trying to figure out what to do, he cursed to himself. There had been a plan. It was a good plan, one that he had had thrashed out with Roja earlier that day.
“When he comes up, I pretend to be displeased with the girl. I tell him that she's not bad, but that I need to see more. After that, we can go to their base, and we can take them out then.”
Roja frowned.
“It is not ideal,” he said, “but it is certainly the best we have. If you refuse the girl, they may think that you are not serious, but far better to refuse her than to keep a potential spy.”
That was how the plan was supposed to go, but then a single crash and shout disrupted everything. He had stepped out into the hallway to be slammed into by a beautiful blond girl in a white dress. When she looked up at him, her eyes furious and desperate, Adnan had felt something in his chest squeeze tight.
Whatever it was, he had no time to consider it right this moment as he dragged the girl into the room, the skinny man following her.
“Apologies, great lord,” the man said, so irate that even the normal snivel was out of his voice. “She is ill-trained, new to all of this, but a guaranteed virgin…”
“I cannot say I am impressed,” Adnan drawled, letting her go.
The girl shot him a furious look, her eyes blacker than the fires of hell, but she didn't try to run. Instead she simply stood mutinously, rubbing her wrist and glaring around her.
“My apologies again. She was trained, but it appears to have been forgotten. I can remind her.”
Before Adnan could stop him, the man stepped over and struck the girl across the face, making her gasp.
“Show the proper respect for men,” he hissed, and Adnan's heart twisted as the girl sank to the floor in a kneeling position. He knew that it was not an accident that her knees were spread wide apart, or that her face was turned up to his in a beseeching manner. No matter what her posture was like, however, there was a glowering fury about her that promised mayhem as soon as she could find the opportunity. While it was not necessarily wise, a part of him could not prevent himself from admiring her spirit.
“Great apologies again, my lord,” the skinny man said with a deep bow. “This is how you should have seen her.”
“I'll admit straight off, her looks are to my taste, but her behavior is not,” he said casually. “What kind of operation are you running when the merchandise thinks that it’s a deer and can flee when it likes?”
“It was a momentary lapse, and I am sure that under the hand of a man like you, she will learn quickly—”
“And if I am uninterested in teaching?” Adnan demanded. “If I wanted something that would please me immediately?”
The skinny man flinched noticeably, shooting a narrow glare at the girl on the floor. Despite the severity of her situation, Adnan noticed that she did not flinch. She refused to look down, and the defiant gleam in her eye
made his heart ache. What kind of pain would she endure for tonight's events? Were they things she had endured before?
“Then of course you will not need to take her on,” the skinny man said soothingly. “We would never insist that you take on someone so very unsuitable…”
“You are entirely right with that,” Adnan said, striving to sound bored. “So far I am not impressed with what you have to offer…”
The skinny man nodded. “Perhaps, then, the great lord would like to examine our other goods,” the skinny man said hopefully. “Perhaps two nights from now…”
“At the location where they are being held,” Adnan insisted. “I wish to see all of what you have, and also to see if it is something about your…husbandry that is allowing this flagrant defiance.”
Outwardly, Adnan looked like any other bored customer. Inwardly, he was holding his breath. This was where the scheme would move forward or fail. This was where Roja would have his vengeance or be forced to let it go…
“Of course, great lord,” the man said with a sigh. “I will text your man with the location, and two nights from now, I am certain you will find something you like better. In the meantime, I will remove this from your sight.”
Adnan watched, his face stone, as the man grabbed the girl by her arm. He could see that the man's grip was painful, but the girl made no sound, only staring up at him with unconcealed hate. No, it wasn't just hate…a new despair had appeared now.
“Disgraceful,” the man hissed, quietly enough that he must have thought that Adnan couldn't hear. “Nothing but a disgrace for all we have done for you. Well, you'll learn your lesson tonight. We have men who know how to hurt without scarring…”
Whatever he said next, Adnan couldn't hear it, but the girl's face went white.
You can't help her, he tried to tell himself. If things go well, you will save her in less than three days anyway…
But that didn't mean that she didn't have to deal with tonight. It didn't mean that she wouldn’t be dropped into hell, and even if her body was not going to be damaged, that her mind and brave spirit wouldn't be shattered.
