I fidget with the ring on my finger, a habit. It belonged to my grandmother, her wedding ring, and the one thing I have to remember her by. It’s not a fancy ring, given that she was never a very rich woman, but that doesn’t matter to me. Holding it fills me with memories of a better time. Of being ten years old and helping her in her little garden. She put so much pride into that little patch of dirt, and I did too. Raising vegetables and hoping they’d turn out nice and juicy. From the tomatoes she grew herself, she made the sweetest spaghetti sauce, always saying it was the product of all of our work together.
What would she think if she saw me now? Standing on a shoddy-looking stage in the dark, waiting for a bunch of disgusting old men to come out and throw money at the chance to deflower me. My first time, sold off to make Uncle Jericho a quick buck. He doesn’t care if they’re nice to me, he doesn’t care if they are sweet or tender with me. All he cares about is himself, and I’m just an asset he conned my father into selling. All so that he can have some more money to buy another fix and keep my father drunk out of his mind.
Grandma always told me how important love was. That I would find a man some day and I’d want to give myself to him completely, and that would be the start of the best years of my life. This isn’t it. This feels like it can only be the beginning of something truly awful.
My only hope of getting out of here in one piece is that hot biker who I saw following us out here. I mouthed ‘help’ to him and then he disappeared. Did he give up? Decide I wasn’t worth it?
Is he waiting in the dark for his chance to bid on me?
I need a hero, someone who will ride in and save me from all this, but that’s the stuff of movies and romance novels. That’s not real life, and there aren’t enough real-world heroes out there to save everyone who needs help.
Not tonight, anyway.
5
BLAZE
“What’s the story, Blaze?” Scar asks as he rolls up next to me, keeping enough distance from the event so as not to give the presence of our bike armada away. “Why are you calling a sudden red alert?”
I run my hands through my hair. Why did I call them here? I don’t know this girl. She isn’t anyone to me. You don’t call the Wildfire calvary in on just any problem.
This is a worthy problem, but I have to phrase it right. “They have my girl in there, Scar.”
That’s only half a lie. I guess it’s a bit much to call her my girl, after all, I don’t even know this woman’s name. And she’s married. But damn, I look at her and I feel like she’s mine. Maybe I’m just going soft, maybe I’m going a bit crazy. But I’m worried about her, not to mention the sheer shady shit that’s going down here. All those girls need our help. I don’t feel too bad about not being wholly truthful with Scar.
The club president raises an eyebrow. “Color me a little surprised, given this is a virgin auction.”
I cock my eyebrow. “And you know that how?”
“Part of being president is knowing what’s going down in your territory, Blaze. These fuckers have been doing this for a while.”
“And you’ve allowed this bullshit to continue?”
Scar shakes his head. “Don’t give me that look, man. You know how it is. I know it’s bullshit too. But I can’t be riding around being fucking Captain America every week. I’ve tried to run them out. I gave the pigs the tips to bring this operation down. Not surprised they fucking failed. Probably some of the buyers, knowing them shitheads. But you know how it is, Blaze. You know how dangerous it is to go to all-out war.”
There’s grumbling through the ranks. I don’t doubt that Scar has the club’s best interests at heart, but it doesn’t mean I’m not infuriated hearing it.
“But,” he continues, a smile coming to his face. “If they got your girl, they got one of us.” He winks knowingly at me and adds, “Didn’t know you had a girl, but that’s enough for me to abandon being all prudent about turf wars and start making decisions about going and fucking some shit up.”
I laugh. “That’s the president I elected.”
“Come on, boys. We got work to do. We don’t stop until every girl in there walks free.” He revs his cycle, and gets revs in return. “Although I’m going to suggest that Blaze hurry up and make his girl not a virgin so she don’t end up in a place like this again.”