“I, yes, perhaps Jade might be to your liking,” Hazel said.
“Good.” I smiled, tightlipped.
It’d be a lie to say that I was surprised they required the girls to use different names.
“Tell me, Violet, why might I choose to buy you when I could have any woman in this place?” I asked only because I knew they listened.
She opened her mouth and quickly shut it.
I raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to answer.
Hazel exhaled a heavy breath and leaned closer. Her fingers raked through my hair as her lips reached my ear, whispering so that only I could hear her. “Because if you don’t, Mason will hunt you down and kill you.”
She wasn’t wrong.
* * *
I had several thousand dollars in cash, most of it on me, but a few grand had been hidden in the truck outside.
I’d been concerned that if all the cash was on me, I could get some of it lifted.
The truth was I had no idea how much it would cost, what a silent auction for a person went for. It wasn’t like I could ask someone.
Capo Sergio stood in the center of the room. The lights dimmed, as he had a microphone in his left hand.
“The final moment of the evening you all have been patiently waiting for, the winners of the silent auction,” Sergio said.
A wayward smile reached his lips. He received a stack of notecards from an older woman who I didn’t recognize, dressed in a glittery gold gown that shined like a chandelier under the lights.
“Thank you,” Sergio said to her.
The girls were lined up against the wall, and he gestured for the first girl to join him.
“Our first prize of the evening, Ruby, will be going home with Rafael. You may pay me or bring the funds to Diamond to claim your prize.” He gestured toward the woman in the gold gown.
Ruby walked to the opposite side of the room beside Diamond.
The young redhead, Ruby, looked downright frightened as she stood waiting for Rafael to complete his transaction.
If I could have saved every girl tonight, I would have, but that wasn’t why I came to the auction. I was here for Ariella and Hazel, or rather Jade and Violet.
The auction continued, girl after girl, transaction after transaction.
My stomach flopped as I watched the girls leave, forced to go with a stranger—most of the men I didn’t recognize. However, a few were DeLuca’s crew and hadn’t been at the compound from what I’d seen earlier in the day.
If they had, I’d have been dead by now.
Thankfully, my cover hadn’t been blown.
Did they know Angelo DeLuca was dead? I doubted it was the end of the DeLuca family. Another boss would rise up in his place. Would it be Gino, his second in command?
“Next up this evening, we have Violet. Violet, please step forward,” Sergio said as she hesitated to do as told.
She stepped up to the stage and held her breath.
She wasn’t the only one. What if I hadn’t bid enough to take her home with me? I didn’t have any idea how much it cost, and I had to split the amount between Ariella and Hazel.
What if I couldn’t afford either one of them?
“Violet, you will be going home this evening with Jayden.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. One down.
She crossed the room and headed over toward Diamond, where I was to make the final payment for her to accompany me home.
“And last of the evening, our rare gem, Jade.”
I’d barely seen Ariella all night. Had different men bought her time? Had someone else held a firm interest in her?
Capo Sergio glanced down at the card in his hand and shoved it into his back pocket. “Jade will be coming home with me.”