Trust (9 page)

Oh Jenny…
Tears welled up in my eyes for her. She didn’t look to be hurt, but I could see the strain in her arms from being suspended.

“Who did this?” Lance demanded
, spinning around to glare at the two guards.

“Tanner, Sir. Said she needed to learn to shut her mouth and since you wouldn’t allow her to be punished…”

A low growl, just loud enough for me to hear, erupted from him. He turned back to my cell, unlocked it, unhooked my leash from my collar and gave me a little shove at the small of my back. Locking my cell door, he proceeded next door to Jenny’s cell.

Hearing her cell open Jenny began screaming around the ball gag
, which wasn’t much louder than a muffled moan, and wiggling against her bound hands, kicking out in front of her presumably hoping to make contact with one of the guards. I had to admit, she had spirit – I prayed they wouldn’t break it.

“Grab her legs
,” Lance ordered his men, who sprang into action forcing her to remain still.

“We got her, Sir.”

“All right, Jenny. I’m going to unhook you. As long as you promise to behave you won’t be cuffed.” He walked up to her and removed her ball gag. “Do we have a deal?”

“Fuck you!”
she screeched.

Lance rubbed the back of his neck, his shoulder
s tensing.

“She’s been like this since we got her here. This was the only way to keep her quiet.”

Lance sighed. “Okay. Well, I want her down. Cuff her hands around the bars and I guess we’ll have to keep the gag on.”

“Motherfucker! I’ll kill you! I promise.”

With another sigh, Lance placed the ball gag back into her mouth, but removed the blindfold. Exiting the cell, he waited for the two guards to unhook her hands from the ceiling and re-cuff her hands around the cell bar so she could sit on the cot.

She murmured around the gag and glared at Lance
, shooting daggers at him with her eyes. No doubt, if she could, she’d kill him in a heartbeat. 

Chapter 9

Jenny collapsed onto her cot and fell into an
exhausted sleep. She hadn’t even woken up when the men dropped off our trays of slop to eat. I doubted an earthquake could have woken her up at this point. She had so much will, it scared me to think of what would happen to her over the next week. I wished I could protect her from whatever brutality would be coming her way, but I couldn’t even protect myself at this point.

“What will happen to her?” I ask
ed Becca, biting into a stale roll.

“Don’t know. She’s in for a hard time if she continues acting that way. Around here you need to learn when to pick your ba
ttles,” Becca answered.

“So she bit Jazz
?” A tiny smile curled up the corners of my mouth. There wasn’t much to smile about here so any little win felt like we’d just won the Super Bowl, regardless of the pending consequences.

Becca’s
smile mirrored mine. “Yeah, took a bite out of his arm. Blood and everything, I swear that girl has vampire teeth or something.” She finished her mashed potatoes, licking off her fingers. “Jazz took her off to punish her, but then came back mumbling to himself and cursing.”

Nodding
, I decided not to divulge what I knew. I trusted Becca, but at the same time I suspected Lance didn’t want people knowing about his preferential treatment of me and I didn’t want to jeopardize being with him. I doubted Becca would say anything to the guards, but I wasn’t about to take any chances.

“What happened with you? You were gone a long time.”

I laughed. “How could you possibly know it was a long time with no clocks in here?”

“Felt like a long time. What happened?”

“I learned the fine art of giving head… And swallowing... While pretending I like it.” Despite my words I knew I did like it, no pretending required, but I seriously doubted I’d have that reaction with anyone else. How could they possibly expect us to pretend to like doing something like that to someone we couldn’t stand the sight of?

“Can’t forget about the swallowing…”
She rolled her dark eyes, her smile widened a moment and then grew serious again. “How are you? Did he hurt you at all? Did you have another panic attack?”

“I did. After our session.”

“How are you feeling now?”

I forced a smile on my lips. “Better. I’m okay, really. He didn’t hurt me.
I did what I was supposed to like a good little slave and it went smoothly enough.”

The sound of footsteps and voices sounded from outside the room so we immediately placed ou
r trays by the cell doors and manned our positions on our cots. I eyed my tray. There was still half of a piece of chicken like meat on it. I wanted that meat, but didn’t go for it. I’d have to wait till the next feeding time, I wasn’t about to bring the wrath of the guards down on me over a piece of chicken. But, damn did I ever want it.

The door was opened to reveal Lance with the two men
who normally accompanied him. They must work in some sort of shifts or something – Tanner, Jazz and Connor one set and Lance and his two goons the second.

Lance’s eyes scanned all of the cages and nodded his approval to see all the food trays were at the front of the cell
s awaiting pickup. His eyes landed on the sleeping Jenny as he approached my cell. “How is she?”

I lift
ed my eyes to see him focusing his stare on me, his expression not giving away anything he was thinking. “She’s okay. Been asleep for a while, Master.”

“Maybe she’ll have a better attitude when she wakes.” Pulling the cel
l keys from his pocket he began with Becca’s cage and went down the rows gathering the food trays and setting them by the doors. He saved me for last. Opening my cell he motioned with his hand for me to exit.

“Pick up all the trays
, slave, and follow me.”

“Yes, Master.” I glance
d over my shoulder at Becca and saw she had a bewildered expression on her face.

“Eyes forward a
nd to the ground 342,” he growled, giving me a little shove between my shoulder blades and I stumbled forward, but I caught myself and didn’t fall down. The trays were heavy enough that in my weakened state my arms strained with the weight, but I didn’t complain. He was doing as promised and coming for me for a second time today so I was more than happy to carry some trays for him – regardless of how heavy.

We went up the stairs and turned left, past
The Boss’s office and to the end of the hallway. There was a set of double doors, which he parted and held open one side for me to pass through and into a kitchen. It looked like a normal kitchen, aside from the fact that there was a series of freezers along one wall, no doubt where they stored the slop they fed us.

“Where do I put them, Master?”

Lance turned to the armed guards. “Leave us, we’ll be fine.”

They both frowned, but nodded and left
, closing the door behind them. After grabbing the trays from me he placed them on the counter and then walked to the kitchen door and locked it. There was a line of knives – butcher knives, steak knives, paring knives. If I grabbed one maybe… But I couldn’t do it and it wasn’t because of the fact I believed there was no way out.

I began
to clean off the trays, dumping the excess food into the garbage can. As I finished cleaning off each tray, Lance loaded it into the dishwasher. Halfway through loading the plates I looked over at him and a giggle escaped me.

His brow knit, giving me a peculiar look.

“We look like an old married couple doing the nightly dishes,” I explained and felt my cheeks grow warm.

He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess we do.”

Feeling his eyes on me, I lifted my gaze upward and met his eyes.

“How are you feeling?” Lance asked, his smile fading and concern filling his eyes.

“I’m okay. Better. Thank you.”

Nodding, Lance grabbed
the last tray and loaded it into the dishwasher and started the machine. Turning his back to the counter, he crossed his arms over his chest and eyed me.

“Why are you doing this for me?” It was a question that had been nagging me since the previous day. What was his endgame?

“I don’t follow.”

“Being nice to me. Why? I don’t understand.”

He cocked a brow up at me, a hint of a grin on his lips. “Would you prefer I treat you badly?”

“No, I just…
I feel bad for the other girls.”

He took a deep breath in and slowly released it. “I’m going to tell you something and I need you to take this to heart and really, really listen.”

“Okay.”

“The only person you need to be concerned about here is yourself
, Gwen.”

“But…”

“But nothing. Sometimes in life we have to make hard choices. Maybe those decisions fuck with your head and are in direct conflict with your sense of morality, but to survive they have to be made.”

We stare
d into each other’s eyes and I saw a glimmer of something there, like he wasn’t just talking about me, but himself as well. My eyes narrowed at him as if that would help me see past the mask he had on and see into his soul to discover the secrets he was hiding. I couldn’t.

“Then it makes even less sense that I’m being treated better.”

He remained silent a moment, his lips forming into a tight line. “Come on, I gotta get you back.”

I silently kick
ed myself. I stupidly pushed him and I was being banished to my cage because of it. When would I learn?

~*~*~*~*~

“I have something I need to tell you,” Lance said, sitting next to me on the bed in the BDSM room and taking my hand in his.

A feeling of foreboding came
over me. He didn’t have to tell me, I already knew. “The auction –” I whispered.

“
– Is tomorrow,” he confirmed.

It was two days after our moment in the kitchen
. Lance had been good enough to tell me the dates, which was nice since it gave me a measure of time. He’d been growing increasingly agitated so I knew it was coming without even being told the date.

“And I’m going up for auction.”

“Yes.”

“How many of us are being auctioned?

“Five.”

“Is there a chance I won’t be sold?” I’d been praying every night
hoping there might be something to the whole praying thing that the girl at the end of the line of cells seemed focused on. Ultimately freedom was my dream, but just staying there would do for now. Until I could figure out some sort of plan.

His frown deepened. “I wish I could say there was, but you’re the main
-ticket item – so to speak – so I have no doubt you’ll sell.”

“Please. I can’t. I don’t want to leave you. Please!
There’s got to be something…” I could hear the desperation in my voice, but I didn’t give a damn. My life was on the line and he was the only one who might be able to save me.

“I have an idea that I’ve been mulling around for the last day or so.
”

My eyes gre
w wide and a wave of relief flowed through me. “Anything. I’ll do anything.”

“Your value comes with the fact that you’re a virgin and unmarked.”

“Unmarked?” I knew what he was referring to despite my questioning, I just needed his confirmation. I saw the marks and bruises that Becca and the other girls had.

“If I mark you and we fuck
so you’ll lose your virginity it might make your value low enough then I may be able to swing a deal with The Boss and be able to keep you.”

“What will happen to you? Aren’t you and the rest on strict orders?”

“He’s my father. Family doesn’t hold much value to him, but I’ll just claim you pushed me too far, you were abnormally disobedient. Attempted to attack me and I lost control. I’m hoping he’ll chalk it up to a learning curve and your anticipated value will be docked from my wages and in exchange I’ll keep you as my personal slave.”

“And if he doesn’t go for it?”

“Then you still go up for sale.”

I lower
ed my gaze. I could already feel the pain from the whip in my mind’s eye as it radiated down my back and ass. Sex was no problem. I wanted him. I wanted every part of him. But the marking. I closed my eyes and gathered my courage. If I didn’t then I’d definitely be sold and go to an owner who wouldn’t have an issue beating me. The lesser of two evils, I supposed. This was my only chance and all I had.

I look
ed back up and caught his gaze. “I don’t need to even think about it. Whatever you need from me.”

“I won’t lie, it’ll hurt
– a lot. I need to use a bullwhip and the lashes have to be hard enough for it to break the skin and scar.”

Glancing at the chains hanging f
rom the ceiling, a tremble rocked through my body
. Becca has endured
, I told myself.

Almost all of the girls had
endured at one point or another. If they could then I could, fair was fair. I couldn’t believe I’d become so fucked up that I was feeling out of place because I’d been the only one not excessively abused thus far. I took a deep breath in and released it, steadying my nerves. The fact he looked more uncertain than I felt didn’t help matters. “Okay. Whatever it takes. Let’s get this over with. What do we do first?”

He
leaned forward and kissed me, answering my question. His kiss was soft, teasing my lips, drawing me into him. His aftershave drifted to my nose and I crawled the last couple of inches that separated us, needing to be closer. He hadn’t touched me sexually the previous day, but we’d spent our brief time together with me cuddled in his arms, talking about everything, but nothing of importance – pets growing up, favourite TV sitcoms, what franchise was better Star Wars or Star Trek… Had it not been for where we were it would have felt like a normal relationship. I was grateful for his restraint, but my body wanted more; I wanted and
needed
more. The fact that his claiming me fully would only help get me out of this predicament was an added bonus.

Lance pulled my bottom lip between his teeth, nipping lightly before deepening the kiss
, his tongue searching out mine. As our tongues touched it was like a fuse was lit, racing through my body to ignite the need between my legs.

I pull
ed back and caressed the side of his face, which was beginning to form a shadow.

“What’s wrong?”

My cheeks grew warm. “I was just thinking that when I envisioned my first time this isn’t what I had in mind.”

“You saying this isn’t how everyone envisions it?”
he attempted to tease.

“I envisioned it would include candles
and maybe some wine, a romantic backdrop,” I replied, feeling stupid for even bringing it up. I had no doubt this was a hell of a lot more romantic than anything my buyer would have in mind.