“Shut the fuck up!”The Russian yelled, and I heard what sounded like a slap as a girl whimpered beyond my door. She was faceless, nameless, a stranger who would be used and then broken before they shipped her off someplace new.
Over the last four months, I’d heard this voice multiple times. Several Russians liked to come into the basement and “sample the new product.” Girls who were taken like I had been and brought downstairs to await a fate none of them could escape. This man, though, was pure evil.
I heard the others refer to him as Resnikov.
From the loose bricks about eye level in my wall, I could see a long line of girls awaiting his inspection. He had little patience, and when one of them cried or whimpered or begged, he would hit them. That was if he was feeling generous.
If he were annoyed or in a hurry, he would choose a guard to throw her down and rape her in front of the others.
The girl who had been slapped cried in silence as he ticked his head in her direction. “Brothel.”
She was seized by the arm and hauled upstairs as he continued his evaluation. Resnikov stopped in front of a petite redhead. He ordered her to open her mouth and then shook his head.
“She’s sick. Get rid of her.” The words were spoken so calmly that it was difficult to register that he ordered her death with no emotion at all.
The redhead tried to run, and she was caught by one of the Russian goons who struck her so hard on the back of the head that she collapsed. Her body was picked up and taken upstairs. I heard a muffled gunshot about a minute later and jolted, biting my lip to keep from making any noise.
My hands covered my mouth as I kept silent, shaking at the cruelty these girls suffered and how close I remained every single day to becoming one of them. I wasn’t sure why I was spared. My kidnappers weren’t kind men.
All I knew was that I hadn’t yet become a victim, and I didn’t plan on letting it happen either. I obeyed the rules. I stayed silent as my soul cried out for the suffering of innocents. Every second of the day, I made a mental note of what happened here so when I escaped, I could testify against these rapists and murderers and make them pay for their crimes.
So far, I’d only been pushed and shoved and struck a few times but never sexually assaulted. It was horrifying to know that I was kept in this place and subjected to the numerous rapes that occurred, never able to help. Worse, that it could be me at any moment. I think the fear was what my kidnappers thrived on. The two assholes took great delight in the fact that I never saw the light of day more than once a week. I tried to run a few times, and it only resulted in a beating. Now I waited for the day to come when I would be the girl placed in front of the Russian. It was my personal nightmare.
I had to believe I wouldn’t be stuck here forever. I couldn’t die in this room with faded brick walls and cold concrete. It was a prison—a cell designed to keep someone hidden in plain sight.
The Russian was never here long. It wasn’t a surprise that none of the men ever focused on their surroundings. When you were on the other side of the wall, it was obvious there was something else here. Of course, my kidnappers shoved a rolling cart full of junk in front of my door, so it always seemed like this room was empty or inaccessible.
Maybe men like that didn’t care about details that didn’t affect their bottom line. After all, the sale of humans was profitable.
The money was all they cared about, and if they got to fuck girls and take out their depraved fantasies on those who couldn’t fight back, then there was no need to care about what happened beyond lining their fat wallets. The fault didn’t even originate with them. It was the demand for sexual slavery. If there were no money to be made, then it wouldn’t exist. At least not on such a grand scale.
There would never be an end to trafficking until people stopped wanting to enslave others.
Disgusted, I quietly crept to the farthest wall and sank to the floor, wrapping my arms around my knees. For the next hour, I ignored the cries and begging, the slap of flesh, and the knowledge that Resnikov chose the girls he wanted and left the rest to be “broken in” by a couple of his henchmen.
My kidnappers returned when it was almost over, and I knew they were taking their turns, getting off on the unending revolving door of girls they always took advantage of. Never mind that it was rape, even if the girls were unconscious or incapable of fighting back. Maybe that turned some of them on.
My hands were pressed over my ears as I drifted away and let my thoughts conjure happier days. Dirty glass block windows on the upper portion of the exterior wall revealed strands of twinkling lights in multiple colors. I could barely catch more than a few inches of the world beyond my prison cell, but it was enough. The sky had grown dark, and those precious, beautiful lights brought me back to last Christmas Eve, and the magical night I spent with Shadow.
My heart stuttered as tears filled my eyes. I could hardly swallow because the lump in my throat was so big and tight that I trembled, finally sucking in a ragged breath. The smooth, ruggedness of his voice filtered into my memory. His gentle, loving touch. The way he grinned when he dipped his head between my legs and touched my body in ways that I never knew were possible.
I’d given him my virginity, and I never regretted it.
Shadow was the love of my life. The young biker with a limp, and a dark aura, and the fierceness of a lion when he protected me from the rest of the world.
A sob escaped my chest as the tears filled my eyes and spilled over, trickling down my face and dripping from my chin. He didn’t come for me. Not once. I kept hoping he would miraculously show up with the rest of the Royal Bastards, and they would save me from this hellhole.
But day after day, week after week, nothing happened. Four months later and all hope was lost. If he were coming for me, Shadow would have found me.
What did that mean? Did he think I was dead?
The tremors that seized my body were almost painful. Cold settled deep into my bones, and I knew I’d never be warm again. My teeth chattered as I finally stood and went to the bed, wrapping the dirty blanket around my shoulders. A small bathroom was across from the bed, and I could hear the dripping faucet. That noise would haunt me for the remainder of my days.
I must have fallen asleep because my head snapped up as I heard the shelving move and then the keys jangling before the lock turned. The door swung open, and both of my kidnappers entered. They didn’t say anything for several seconds, and I had no idea what they wanted.
Terrified, I huddled deeper into the blanket.
“It’s time.”