“Gentlemen,” he began, voice dripping with charm. “Tonight, we continue our tradition of exclusivity. Our selections are rare, our opportunities even rarer.”
A few men whistled, their glasses clinking.
I set mine down. The smell of scotch suddenly made me nauseous.
It wasn’t the first time I’d seen something like this. The world had dark corners, and I’d spent most of my life crawlingthrough them. But this kind of filth never stopped tasting like ash. It was common in the Bratva world, but our family and those of our allies condemned it. My jaw tightened as the first girl was led onto the stage, blindfolded and trembling. Even standing was difficult for her. I could only imagine the horrors she must have been through before being brought here. She had wounds all over her exposed arms and legs. The bids rose fast, and she was gone within minutes, replaced by another.
Then another.
I forced myself to stay still, to watch. I wanted to leave, but this allowed me to learn who was buying, who was selling, and who stood to gain from it all. Still, every laugh, every cheer, scraped against something sharp inside me.
If I let that something loose, the floor would be red before the night was over.
I took a slow breath.You’re here to observe, Avgust, not to kill.
The thought barely stuck.
“Item four,” the announcer’s voice echoed, smooth and practiced. “Fresh blood of Russian descent. She is eloquent, educated, and untouched by our world. We’ll start the bidding at fifty thousand.”
I almost didn’t even look. Just like at the others.
Almost.
And then she stepped into the light, and all thoughts vanished in that moment.
She hadn’t walked out. She was pushed.
The two masked guards flanking her released her in the center of the stage like she was something they wanted off theirhands. The lights hit her face, and for a second, the entire room fell away. She was small, not fragile but delicate in the way porcelain could be right before it shattered.
A black dress clung to her like sin, torn at one sleeve, slipping against pale skin that gleamed under the gold lights of the stage. Her reddish brown hair was heavy and wild as it spilled down her back, catching the light with every tremor of her body.
And her eyes.Christ.
Green, bright, terrified, and furious all at once. The kind of eyes that begged and fought in the same breath. Something cold slid through my chest, sharp and unfamiliar. I’d seen beauty before. I’d ruined beauty before. But this was not beauty. It was chaos wrapped in silk, and I wanted it all for myself. A protective urge rose in my throat, a feeling that had not taken root in my heart for years.
“Do I have anyone for fifty thousand?” the announcer asked, and the first hand went up.
“Fifty.”
Something twisted inside my gut. I could not sit there and let this unfold before my eyes.
Another hand shot up. “Eighty.”
The air shifted, buzzing with greed. I felt it crawl under my skin.
Her chin lifted slightly, defiant despite the tremor in her hands. That single act, barely noticeable, set something off in me. Like the muscle memory of a life I didn’t remember living.
I shouldn’t care. I didn’t care.
But the way those bastards looked at her made my jaw ache with having to control the anger that was threatening to overtake everything. Everyone accused me of having a perpetual scowl on my face, and in that moment, the scowl turned into a frown that was impossible for me to ignore.
“She’s scared,” someone muttered nearby, sounding amused. “They’re always scared at first. That’s what makes breaking them even more exciting.”
“I love the screaming and the crying. It turns me on,” someone replied.
I wanted to turn around and break his nose. Sadistic bastards.
My fingers tightened around the edge of the glass in front of me until it cracked. The sound was small, lost beneath the next round of numbers.
