Cecilia’s voice comes over the speakers, and everyone gradually becomes quiet. She walks around stage smiling, her hand waving around. She thanks Antonio, to which everyone else claps. Then she looks back to the girl.
I wonder what the fastest way for me to leave the room is.
Because in her next sentence Cecilia does something that I’ve only heard stories of.
She starts a bidding war, and it’s play money.
She starts off at half a million. Who has that kind of money? What a waste. Oh, that’s right, Ryken does. The bids keep climbing higher and higher. Until a man outbids them all. Cecilia takes his offer, closing down the bids, and she tells the man when to collect his prize. The girl on stage is frozen to the spot. She doesn’t move when Cecilia asks her to. She has to yank her firmly from the darkened stage.
“Saskia,” Cecilia says to me as she passes. The girl doesn’t even look up as she’s pulled to a room out the back. I glance over and see Amy staring at me. It isn’t long before my feet are moving, and I step myself back to my room.
I just witnessed a girl’s life being sold as if she was nothing more than a ragdoll.
Chapter Eight
Ryken
Two nights is all I had, two nights is how long it will take for me to get her back. She can’t stay there any longer. That shit hole is no place for her to be. Her place in this life is next to me. It’s just taken me a while to see that.
My father was married by the age eighteen, and he had me by the age of twenty. He had started his business by the age of nineteen. Father began his businesses in clubs, nightclubs in particular. Then the business evolved. He got mixed up with some of the local motorcycle gangs. He didn’t see them as negative, he saw the positive in what they could do for him, and how they can do it. Because somehow, they were all connected, through each State, it was a brotherhood. That’s when he saw the potential. That’s how it grew into this business. He may not have been able to do it without them, but they definitely could not have done it without him.
Once he worked out the ins and outs of his business, that’s when he put everything in place. He would find buyers. First off, they were all in Australia. Then, it grew worldwide. He’d made connections along the way. Politicians would buy a sex slave because their wives didn’t want to fuck them anymore. Each time he sold a girl, the connection grew. He was almost untouchable.
You had to admire his business, even if you didn’t like what it was or what he’d become. Because to grow something from nothing, it was absolutely extraordinary. He developed his business while I was a child. I hardly ever saw him when I was growing up. His business was more important. Much more important than me, and he’s left it all to me.
Sometimes I think I’m not worthy because I never earned my spot. It was given. But maybe my sacrifice was not having my father because even now I still don’t have him. Just what’s left of him. And even though he had an extraordinary mind, it doesn’t mean I should be listening to everything he said.
Problem is, though, I did listen, and now Barbie’s out of my reach. But soon, I’m taking her back, and I may even lose my life trying to free hers. But if any woman’s worth it, it’s her. She doesn’t ask anyone for anything. She even donated half of the money I used to buy her virginity to a charity. She could have done so much with that money, but she didn’t. She seems to only live within her means.
“You have to fucking train, Ryken.” Quinn’s not impressed. My lack of concentration is pissing him off.
“I’ve been fucking training all damn day.” I’m angry now. All I want to do is sleep, but I can’t even fucking sleep. Every time I close my eyes all I fucking see is her. Cane wants me to come back, but he doesn’t understand, he’s never been in love. All he does is fuck. He doesn’t understand why I’m going after her. He believes I wouldn’t even be in this predicament if it wasn’t for her. Maybe he’s right, but what does it matter now.
“Not hard enough. He’s going to find his best fighter. Do you understand, Boss?”
My hands rub together, standing back up again. “I know this, Quinn. I fucking know this.”
He taps his gloves together. “Well, fucking start acting like it, because I don’t plan to carry your body bag out of that place. I plan to carry your opponent. Do you hear me?”