question.”
“Where are we?
Logan? Please why are you doing this to me?” I couldn’t help it.
The words tumbled from my mouth in quick succession. What little
connection I felt he tried to make shattered the moment Logan
grabbed me by both shoulders and shook me.
“Don’t you get
it yet, Emily? Raul owns you. He’s ruthless, and he’ll break you
down, torture you, and when you beg him for mercy he’ll torture you
some more.” His bruising fingers tightened, and I winced. “Do not
fuck this up.”
I broke. I
couldn’t help it, and I hated myself for falling so low as to let
him or anyone else see me do it, but for that one second I let the
fear take hold of me as I said, “I’m scared.”
Logan stared
at me with eyes that were cold, dark, and without a spark of ...
anything. “You should be.”
My breath
hitched, and it was at that moment I knew I had to face my fear
head-on and conquer it or I was going to die. Logan wasn’t going to
save me; only I could do that.
Walking into
what looked like a huge dining hall, I kept my head down like Logan
told me to, but my eyes drifted upward. It was an uncontrollable
reaction. Survival maybe, I didn’t know why, but I was facing the
unknown, and I had to look at what the unknown was.
The room
was filled with over a dozen men, most sitting at a long wooden
table laden with food. I could smell the aroma of cheeses, wines,
and the sweetness of an array of fruits. The sound of laughter
echoed off the walls, along with the clinking of glasses and men
talking and shouting.
But it was the
subtle sounds of groaning and sobbing that caught my attention. My
heart started pounding harder and faster. The noises were wrong.
They reminded me of trapped animals in cages and their sobs of
despair. I raised my head, eyes searching the room as the sounds
pulled at me.
Lying
shivering on the floor was a naked girl.
Then another
tied to a chair.
Beneath the
table.
Over in the
corner of the room, a girl kneeling.
My eyes
widened, and my breath caught in my throat as I stared horrified at
the women ... They were young, some maybe younger than me.
My stomach
rolled and lurched, and I staggered backward, fighting against
Logan’s grip as I heaved with revulsion at the scene before me.
I shook my
head back and forth over and over. “No. No ...” I repeated, my hand
over my mouth.
One girl knelt
at a man’s feet while he fed her pieces of meat like a dog. She had
a metal collar on that had a chain attached to the man’s belt. She
was naked, and I could see red welts running the length of her
spine.
Beneath the
table, another girl was between an overweight man’s legs. She was
... her mouth was on his cock as he groaned and pushed her face
back and forth into him.
But it was the
girl kneeling on all fours nearest me that was the one sobbing
quietly. Her cheek was pressed into the floor with her butt in the
air as a young man pumped into her from behind. He was also naked
and wearing a collar, and he had scars running the length of his
back.
“Emily.”
Alfonzo was
standing beside the girl laughing and drinking his wine as he
watched with a sickening gleam in his eyes. Another man, tall and
lean, who looked in his thirties stood beside Alfonzo watching as
well, but he wasn’t smiling. The girl. Oh God, the girl’s eyes
stared at ... nothing. Blank and empty, yet filled with tears. Her
body rocked back and forth, her hair swinging with the motion. It
was when Alfonzo raised a crop and hit the guy on the back and
said, “Harder” that I lost it.
I was
hyperventilating, and I couldn’t hold it together any longer as I
turned my head away and bent over coughing and choking. I couldn’t
look as a girl screamed, and I knew ... I knew it was that girl
with the dead eyes.
“No. No.” My
mind was like a tornado filled with the sounds and images of what
Logan had walked me into. Nightmares couldn’t compare to this. What
I thought couldn’t exist in this world ... The