“Oh, God,” I cry out as pain lances through me. Every inch of my body hurts. I need to hurry; I don’t know how much longer I have before they come back. I have to try and get the hell out of here, although I have no idea where here is.
A small sob leaves my throat, and I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to hold back the tears. Nobody knows I’m missing. He made sure of that when he responded to the messages from myfriends and family. He told me he would keep it up for as long as he could. He said that plans have been put in place for me to be shipped off to another country along with other women. We’re to be sold into the traffic trade. That my life is no longer my own.
He claims that someone has paid for me already. He claims that person I’m being sold to is a cruel man who likes to buy women just to hurt them. He took pleasure telling me, in graphic detail, what this man does to women, how he hurts them and pushes them to see how much their body can take before it finally gives out.
I don’t want to go; I don’t want to suffer that fate. I’d rather piss these fuckers off to their breaking point so they kill me before they can ship me off. I’ll do whatever I need to do to make sure I never make it onto that ship.
With a newfound sense of need, I take a deep breath, as deep as I can with broken ribs. Then, shuffling closer to the edge of the mattress, I pull hard on the ropes, biting my bottom lip to stop myself from crying out again.
I stretch out my leg, my bare foot hitting the cold concrete floor. I just need to get off the mattress and get closer to the wall at the side where my ropes are tied. I need to see what kind of knots they’ve used and how tight they’ve tied them. I’m hoping, even if they are too tight, there is something there that I can use to wear down the rope enough to remove it.
I turn my body too quickly and too hard to the left; it sends a wave of nausea through me, and I have to close my eyes to stop the room from spinning.
“Come on Marissa just a little further. You've got to keep it together,” I tell myself as my body gives a small shudder. I don’t know if it’s fear or the cold, maybe a little of both. I need to get it together. I can’t break yet.
I brace for pain as I shuffle my body off the edge of the mattress closer to the wall. I cry out in pain, as the nausea takesover, and I vomit on the floor and on my arm. My head begins to spin, and I think I can hear banging and men shouting. A tear runs down my face.
I took too long. The room begins to pull in and out of focus, and I shut my eyes hoping that it’s not too late, that I’m hearing things. I let out a small breath and I open my eyes, trying to look around the room, the noises getting louder, closer. I focus on the door but my vision blurs as it bursts open. I can make out figures approaching, and I can hear shouting, but I can’t focus, struggling to keep my eyes open.
I feel a hand on my head, pushing the hair back out of my face. Another hand pulling at the rope and another hand on my bare leg. I try to cry out, to tell them to stop, but panic ripples through me. There are too many hands; I can’t take it. I don’t want to do this again. I thrash my body, trying to buck them off me. I know it won’t work. I'm too weak, but I have to try. I can’t go down without a fight.
I hear pounding and yelling, but I can’t make it out. More figures appear in the doorway just as my vision turns to black, and I pass out.
Chapter
Forty-Six
I’m clearing a room at the far end of the warehouse when I hear my brothers yelling for me. My heart rate spikes, and my skin turns to ice. I know they’ve found her.
I spin, pushing Knuckles out of the way and racing to the other side of the building where the voices are coming from. Nitro rounds the other side of the corridor the same time I do. We both race for the door, but he’s a little closer and beats me there by a few seconds. Those few seconds are all it takes for his face to change, from determination to shock to fear. My heart sinks. Nitro pushes through into the room as I freeze, not wanting to follow him through that door for fear of what I’ll find.
I lose focus, my brain playing all different scenarios through my head of what is in there. I can hear my brothers shouting, the men racing to the corridor I’m in. But I can’t make anything out. I close my eyes, remembering the last time I saw her. The look of pain in her eyes when I screamed in her face to leave. When I told her that she was just a fuck, a warm pussy for me to get my dick wet. I remember the tip of her beautiful, skilful pink tongue running along her bottom lip, the bob in her throat as she listened to me spew some shit at her about not wanting her near me. It was a lie, of course. But she didn’t know that.
My heart feels like it’s pounding out of my chest. Fuck. Whatever shit she’s been through, she went through it thinking I hated her. My legs feel like they are about to give out, and I reach my hand out to the wall to steady myself. But I feel hands grab at my shoulders to steady me. Then I’m pulled forward, arms wrap around me, one hand on the back of my neck pulling my head forward. I feel sick, my eyes spring open, and I see brothers standing in the hall outside of the room, some are looking at the floor, others at me. None are looking into the room.
I try to pull back, realising it’s Knuckles, my former Prez. But he holds me tighter. His face leans against my cheek, his mouth right near my ear. “Pull your shit together. Your woman fucking needs you. Get your arse in there right now.” I pull back, pushing at him at the same time. My eyebrows pinch in confusion. “Wait, what? She’s…”
He gives me a nod and guides me toward the room. “She’s alive brother. But barely. Get your arse in there.” I push away from him and race through the door. My eyes do a quick scan of the room. Brothers standing around, all looking pissed. Doc at my woman’s side, checking for fuck knows what. Nitro running his fingers up and down her cheek saying something to her. He glances over his shoulder at me, hearing my growl at him. He turns back to her without even a word to me.
Then I see Tongue by her head, a knife in his hand, sawing movements as he cuts through the rope binding her arms to a hook in the wall. I walk over to her and drop to my knees when I see the state of her. Bruises covering every inch of her face, her lip split in three places, both eyes are closed and covered in bruises that are mixed colours, purple and black but there is yellowing underneath. Her left cheek is swollen, a bruise covering half of her face. My eyes scan down, her neck covered in black bruises, spanning her entire fucking neck, indicating she had some large fucking hands wrapped around it.
Her collarbone is covered in bruises. Trailing my eyes down a little I see bite marks on the tops of her breasts. A wave of sickness washes over me, knowing what that likely means. I hear my brothers all talking around me. I hear Nitro talking to her, though I'm pretty sure she’s out of it.
My brow furrows and my eyebrows pinch as I look down at her, then up at Tongue. He’s not paying any attention to me; he’s focused on his task of freeing her arms. I scan his body and then look back down at my girl. Rage bubbles inside of me, and I reach for the leather kutte covering her body.
Suddenly, Nitro's hand grabs mine. I look up at him and he shakes his head before giving a chin lift to the rest of the brothers. I look at them standing around the room, the men mostly from the London Chapter, standing around watching the Doc work, waiting for him to tell them something. Then I look back down at my girl, and it dawns on me. Tongue has shucked his Kutte to cover my girl. I look at Nitro; he gives me a small nod, then he glances at Tongue, a look of respect passing over his face.
“Brother.” He doesn’t hear me. I’m not surprised; it came out barely above a whisper. “Brother.” I try again, but he’s too focused and I see why; his knife could have slid through the ropes like it was air, but he’s taking his time. He’s making slow, deliberate movements to minimise the amount of pressure and movements on her wrist. The rope is bound so tight it’s ripped through her skin. It looks like the rope has been loosed and re-tied at some point as the skin from the base of her hands to below her wrists are raw with friction burns. It looks like she’s been trying to free herself.
My stomach drops, knowing that she was in this alone, that she probably thought nobody was coming for her. I reach forward, gently placing my hand on Tongue's arm, then moving quickly when he stops what he’s doing. “Brother. Thank you.” Ineed him to know how much I appreciate what he did for her. I know how he feels about anyone touching him, or his kutte. So, the fact that he has chosen to take it off and place it over her, shows how much he respects her. I’ll never be able to thank him enough for that one simple gesture.
He doesn’t look at me, just gives me a small nod then turns back to his task. “Almost free,” he tells us.
“Doc?” Nitro bites out as my eyes continue their assessment of her. Her left leg is covered in a mix of purple, black, green and yellow bruises. The leg is pulled straight, her left ankle is purple and swollen; it looks like it might be broken. Her right leg is wide, and bent at the knee; it’s covered in just as many bruises as the left. Both legs are covered in blood, old and new. The kutte barely covers her pussy, and I see bruising and blood on her thighs. My blood boils at the thought. I failed her. I should have found her sooner. I should have realised sooner that she was missing. I should never have pushed her away. This is on me.
“Wrath,” Nitro yells at me, his hand punching my arm. I look from him to Doc to Tongue, then back again. “What?”
“I’ve called an ambulance…” My head flips to Doc. “Why?”
