“Still here.She is mine for now,” he added with a dark chuckle.
“How much?”
“She is not for sale!”he raged.
The voices disappeared, and Luciana stared at the door, still frozen in place.They’d been talking about the teenagers, not her.What type of horrible person did that make Luciana for being grateful the men were gone?They could be going for their newest victim.Hurting another woman in the home.
For whatever reason, Luciana hadn’t been assaulted yet.Despite the fact that she’d finally healed from her head injury, they’d generally left her alone.And somehow, she instinctively knew that the other women weren’t taken out in public like she’d been.
Lost in her thoughts for a moment, she jolted in surprise as the doorknob turned.Luciana let out a shaky breath as an older woman strode into the bedroom, letting the door swing shut behind her.She made atsk-tsksound as she saw Luciana crouched beside the trash can.
“You’re not feeling well,” the woman said, helping Luciana to stand.“I have fresh things for you,” she added, letting a cotton nightgown fall to the bed.“You will remove your clothing and boots, and I will keep your belongings once more.”
“No,” Luciana whispered, clutching her hands to her chest.
The woman raised her eyebrows.“Would you rather be one of those girls sold off to an angry man?”She shook her head, amused.“You have it easy here.”
“I’m being held hostage,” Luciana hissed, anger rising within her.“I’m not here of my own accord.They kidnapped me!”
“I have no control over the matter,” the older woman said evenly.“I do as I am told, just like you.”
“Nothing about this is right,” Luciana told her.Her eyes tracked to the door and then back to the woman’s face.The woman remained in place, looking nonplussed.Clearly, she was not afraid of any retaliation from Luciana, despite her sudden burst of anger.They’d come for her in moments if she so much as fought or raised her voice.Both women knew that.
“Undress.I should have taken these things from you last night,” the woman chided.“I was busy with other tasks, but that will be remedied shortly.You need to be ready just in case.”
Luciana looked disdainfully at the nightgown on the bed.
The woman shrugged.“They might change their mind and want you to service them,” she said, as if it was perfectly normal to be kept in a bedroom all day in a nightgown just...waiting.“There are other girls here,” the woman commented.“You’ve heard some of them, si?They come and go, but it seems they have other plans for you.Hurry up now.I’ve got many things to do.”
Fighting back the anger and tears rising within her, Luciana stripped off her clothes.She balled them up and shoved them aside, leaving on her undergarments.The woman didn’t comment, just nodded to the boots Luciana had kicked off.Reluctantly, Luciana handed them to her.She should’ve removed the knife from the sole, but it was too late now.Not that she had a good hiding spot for it anyway.The older woman might be willing to overlook the fact that Luciana had kept on her bra and panties, but there was no way she’d allow her to have a weapon.
She might not be here willingly either, but she also wasn’t on Luciana’s side.
The door to the bedroom suddenly swung open, and Luciana gasped as one of her captors stormed in.He spoke briefly to the older woman, but then his eyes tracked over Luciana, hungry and assessing, as he saw her in nothing but a nightgown.“We must go, but I’ll be back for her later,” he told the woman.“We will need her help again tonight.”
Luciana’s stomach wrenched, and she leaned over and vomited once more.
