Trust (2 page)

Chapter 2

Lance

I watched from the second floor of the housing quarters of the compound as Tanner pulled the unconscious cheerleader from the side of the van and slung her over his shoulder. Her golden hair veiled her face from my view, but I didn’t need to see
it; every delicate feature from her heart-shaped face to her large, sapphire blue eyes, and pouty lips was engraved in my brain.

Followed by his two men – Jazz and Connor – Tanner proceeded across the driveway and into the building, using the
main entrance directly below me. I’d been here for well over two years, closer to three, I think. Usually I kept my distance from the slaves. I had other daunting duties and obligations to the organization; the last thing I had any interest in was the emotional and mental anguish that came with kidnapping and selling young women. Human trafficking was a practice I didn’t agree with, but then again considering what I did for the organization, who was I to judge?

Flipping
open the file folder I browsed through the dozen pictures of her that had been taken over the past couple of weeks of surveillance. Her boyfriend looked like a douche to me, one of those uptight prep boys who had everything handed to him on a silver platter – I immediately disliked him. There were a couple of pictures of her with her family; her mother Louise, father Harry who happened to be the mayor of the little town she came from, and younger sister Tanya. They were the perfect little family.

There w
ere also a number of pictures of her at the mall, walking alone in the evening and then her at cheerleading practice. The pictures of her cheering always gave me pause. There was such promise and happiness in her eyes and expression, like a beam of light and goodness shone from within her lighting up everything it touched. Sadly it was her vibrancy that landed her on our radar, her light that attracted our darkness.

The pictures told a story of a young woman with a
promising future ahead of her. It was like a knife in my gut thinking that it wouldn’t be long before that light in her eyes would dim and then fade out completely, leaving a hollow shell of a woman in its place. I didn’t even know this woman, but I immediately felt the urge to protect her from the evils lurking within these walls.

“Sir, The Boss wants to see you in his office.” I turned to see my right hand man, Will.
He had saved my life a number of times over the past couple of years, but I held no feelings or sense of obligation toward him. Emotions were what got people killed; they made you weak. There was no place for emotion in this world of death and debauchery.

Then why did a woman I
hadn’t even met threaten to make me feel?

~*~*~*~*~

Gwen

The door open
ed to reveal three men, two of them with rifles slung over their shoulders. I had no doubt they’d use them if they had to, although I wouldn’t be worth a hell of a lot dead. That only gave me a sliver of reassurance. What I find surprising was how normal they looked.

There
were two Caucasian men and one black man. They weren’t huge, domineering types, and they weren’t ugly hillbilly types. They were the types of men I’d expect to see in the stands at our high school football games cheering on the team, or the father of one of my friends who would check on us before going to bed and offering to make us some hot cocoa or bring some snacks. Not creepy or scary in the least, just – normal, which I supposed in itself was creepy.

“Good, you’re awake. Saves me from having to carry you.” One of the Caucasian men step
ped forward while the two men with the rifles stood by the door, not saying a word, but watching closely. I looked around me at the other girls; they were all cowering on their cots, eyes cast downward, not moving or making a sound, as if making themselves as small and as quiet as possible would make them invisible.

I
didn’t answer, but stood my ground, eyeing him intently.

The man before me pull
ed a set of keys from the pocket of his jeans and gave them a little jingle, as if to taunt me. “All right, this is how this is going to work. I’m going to open the cell and you’re going to nice and politely walk out. You’re not going to try and run. You’re not going to try and fight. And you’re not going to cause me a single problem. If you abide by these rules, we’ll get along fine. But if you don’t…” he held his index finger up to me and walked over to the cell across the hall and a little to the left of me.

“Come here, sweetheart.” He motion
ed for the petite Asian woman to stand and walk over to the front of the cell. The woman stood and slowly walked to the front of the cage. As she got closer I could see harsh black and blue marks littering her body. “Lift your head, let her see you.”

“Yes, Master.” She lift
ed her face and I couldn’t stop the gasp from escaping my lips. One of her eyes was black and swollen shut and there was blood caked onto her cheeks along with several harsh cuts on her lip, forehead and cheeks. She looked like she’d just walked away from a horrific car accident.

“This is what happens when you disobey. This little one used to box at an amateur competitive level. She thought she was strong enough to escape. She couldn’t.
When you’re disobedient there’s a price to be paid. The only way you get out of here is when you’re sold. Or if you’re dead. The only choice you have is how easy or hard life can be for you while here.” He turned his attention back to the tiny Asian woman. “Go sit down.”

“Yes, Master.” She turned and hurried back to her cot. She sat
and remained motionless, eyes downcast as she was before she was summoned.

Her captor ma
de his way back over to my cell. “Now, you’ll refer to me and my men as Master. If you refuse or forget, you’ll be reminded, politely, once. And only once. For each act of defiance you’ll be punished. And each punishment will become more severe until you’ve learned your lesson. Your eyes are also to be downcast unless told otherwise. The rules are simple. Obey. So make it easy on both me and yourself and behave.”

He jingle
d the keys once more. “Any questions?”

I shook
my head. Sure I had lots of questions, but none for him. Not now anyhow.

He smile
d and his smile actually gave me chills more than any sinister gesture he could have made, because it made him look approachable. It made him look like he was there to make my life easier and I knew that was far from the case.

“So you’re not going to ask why you’re
here? What we’re going to do with you? You’re not going to beg for us to let you go home? Nothing?”

I shook
my head. “No.”

He frowned
. “Excuse me?”

I froze
a moment and we eyed each other.
What in the fuck does he want from me?

“No, what?” His smile began
to fade and a darkness began to fill his eyes.

I swallow
ed down the fear beginning to rise up in me and swallowed down my pride as I responded. “No, Master.”

As if by magic the darkness in his eyes lift
ed and his smile returned. “Good. I think we’re going to get along fine.” He pushed the key into the lock and opened the cell, stepping back and motioning for me to exit. “That’s a cute little outfit you have on there. I always had a thing for cheerleaders when I was in high school.”

I
froze halfway out of the cell and stared up into his eyes. Had I entered some fucked-up version of
Bizarro
world? Or was this some cruel game where they acted friendly and then just when I started to feel a sense of calmness things changed? By looking at the women around me, many battered and bruised, I suspected this was simply the calm before the storm. “Thank you, Master.”

“Are you allowed to look at me, slave?”

I visibly cringed at the term “slave” and I heard the two men at the door chuckle softly. A surge of anger fought to surface, but I pushed it down. I lowered my eyes and muttered, “No, Master.”

“Follow me.” He turned and walked
out of the room. I dutifully followed behind and heard the two men who were manning the door take up the rear, closing and locking the dungeon door behind us. Although my head was down I was able to take in a bit of my surroundings. I appeared to be in a house, a really large house.

I
wasn’t sure how to feel about being in a house. If I were in a warehouse then there’d be a chance I was close enough to outside people that if I escaped there may be a place to run. If I were in some far-off house, way out in the country somewhere, then I could be running for hours and hours naked in the woods. Hell, for all I know they had dogs that could hunt me down before I even got a mile from the place.

I follow
ed what appeared to be the leader of the group down a hallway until we came to a closed wooden door. He opened it up and a bright light spilled out into the dimly lit hallway and he motioned for me to enter. I hesitated, but when I glanced up at him and saw a frown begin to form on his face I quickly skirted past him and into what appeared to be a doctor’s office, with a table at the center.

The reality of what
was about to happen crashed over me and I couldn’t have controlled the instinct to flee if I wanted to. I spun around and bolted. I made it three feet before a hand reached out, grabbed my hair and pulled me backward. Screaming, I fell backward, pain radiating through my skull as the strands were tugged and some pulled from my head. I clawed wildly at the hand grasping my hair, but it was a futile effort. The blonde thug who’d been silent up until this point stepped forward, straddled my body and landed a punch to the left side of my face. There was ringing in my ears and a second later the world went black.

~*~*~*~

My head hurt, and there was a faint metallic taste in my mouth. My lip was also throbbing and I could feel it had swollen while I was knocked out. Groaning, I attempted to move, but then froze upon realizing I was strapped down on a cold metal table – my arms at my sides and feet in the stirrups, my legs spread wide. Even more alarming was the realization that while I’d been passed out I’d been stripped and I was lying bare on the table.

A single tear escaped
my eyes, but I swallowed down the need to sob, as I opened my eyes to find I was alone. Testing my restraints I wasn’t surprised to find they were secure. And there was something on my neck, a collar perhaps? It was snug and uncomfortable.

“Shit, shit, shit…”

I didn’t have to spend too much time thinking about what was going to happen. Or at least I assumed what was going to happen, although it was quite possible it happened already. A hundred different scenarios started going through my head, but when the door opened all thought left me and all I could do is watch in horror as a man in a white doctor’s coat entered, behind him the man who’d led me here. My scalp ached just setting eyes on him.

“Good afternoo
n, Miss Anderson.” The doctor was on the short side and slender, perhaps 5’6 with grey at his temples. I guessed he was in his early fifties. “I have some questions for you, all right?”

I
didn’t respond, but just eyed him with suspicion.

He chuckled
. “Not much of a talker, huh Tanner?”

“Not really, no,” the man who had grabbed me by my hair answer
ed.

“Is she retarded?”

My mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”

“Well, look at that,
she can speak.” The doctor chuckled as he walked over to the side of the table and his eyes scanned the length of my exposed body. No one had ever seen me completely naked before and it was the most humiliating experience of my life, although I suspected it wouldn’t be the last or worst if I didn’t get out of wherever it was they’d taken me.

I glare
d up at him, but refused to comment.

He finished
his visual inspection of me, turned around and walked over to the counter across the room. Grabbing a pair of latex gloves from a box on the counter he pulled them on and then grabbed an electric razor.

“First thing is first, you need to be shaved. The Boss prefers you clean.” Grabbing a stool with his free hand he roll
ed it over, situating it between my legs, and sat down. Plugging in the razor, it began to buzz softly and he proceeded to carefully remove all traces of blonde hair from between my legs. With each strip of hair that was removed, a part of my dignity went with it.

My hands fist
ed at my sides, as I closed my eyes and fought the tears threatening to fall.
They don’t deserve to see my tears, I’m not giving them the satisfaction
. I’d rather be punched in the face again than endure the humiliation of some strange old doctor shaving my most private of areas while some brute watched, no doubt sporting a hard-on.

They’d
pay for this, all of them. How or when I couldn’t say, but one day. A lifetime was a long time and I just needed to stay strong and keep my mind right. Eventually I’d have my freedom, it was only a matter of when. I knew that above all else I had to keep that in mind.