They laughed, and I wanted to cry.
“Mmm,” he turned back, stepping closer to me. “You do have some pretty lips, my dear,” he growled. “I bet you suck ameancock.”
“The fuck is this, Jeb?”
We turned towards one of the other guys in suits, standing next to a metal drum in the corner of the room half covered with a riding blanket.
Mr. Pike frowned. “I don’t know?”
The man turned, grinning. “Aww c’mon Jeb. This one of those stupid practical jokes of yours? The thing is fucking ticking.”
The other men laughed, but I slowly watched Mr. Pike’s face go white.
“It ain’t mine, fellas.”
“Oh fuck off, Jeb,” another man in a suit with a New Jersey accent chuckled. “This is like the time you tried to get a donkey head in Johnny’s bed the last time we came out.”
The men roared with laugher.
“Shit, you’ve been watching too many mafia movies, Jeb, you son of a—”
“Fellas, thatain’t—”
The lights suddenly went out, and the room plunged into darkness.
There was the sound of chairs knocking over, and men yelling for the lights, and a few glowing cell phone screens, and I started to turn, when I wasgrabbed. My heart jumped into my throat as the hand yanked me back, another closing over my mouth before I could scream.
“Let’s go, angel.”
My heart about melted right there.
It was them.
I felt Roman and Colt’s hands tighten on my arms as they whisked me through the darkness, shoving someone out of the way with a crash before I was suddenly blinded by sunlight.
The side door slammed shut behind us, and I whirled as their hands let me go to see them yanking a chain through the door handle and locking it tight.
“What are you—”
“I need you to trust us, angel,” Roman growled. “Whatever you’re about to see, you need to know we’re not evil men. But the men in thereARE. I can’t even begin to tell you the horrible shit they’ve done, and would have continued to do.
“Wouldhave?”
“We need you to trust—”
“Of course I do,” I whispered. “You just saved me from whatever hell that was. Whatever it is, I trust you.”
Colt held up a small black box with a tiny antenna and a button, his face grim.
My eyes went wide.
“They were going to sell you,” he said, his voice breaking. “Or worse, Jeb was going togive youto those animals, to torture, to use, to degrade, to hurt—” His voice caught, and he shook his head.
The door suddenly exploded outwards, wrenching right off it’s hinges as one of the henchmen from inside crashed through it. I screamed, whirling along with Colt and Roman to see Jeb staggering through the doorway — a gun in his hand.
Twelve men stood behind him in the doorway, each holding a gun aimed at us.
“You two!” Mr. Pike roared, brandishing the gun at Colt and Roman.