Chapter 8

I thoughtwhat I was going through was rough, but nothing compares to what these women have been through. The dark, small room is cramped, and from the minute the guards brought Bishop and me into the room with the three other ladies, it feels like we"ve all been walking on eggshells.

I want to help them the best way I know how, but I can"t do any of that if they don"t let me in. It"s better than just sitting and waiting for the next blow to come from Shade and the rest of the Faceless. This is where I excel: getting people to open up about themselves, helping people.

Bishop stays in the corner, making sure to give the other women more than enough space to feel comfortable with him in the same room. I take the opportunity to get to know my fellow captives a little better.

"So, are you just going to fucking stare at me all day, or do you have something to fucking say?" One of the women, the one with a short hairstyle and a piercing in her eyebrow, glares at me. She looks rugged. She must have had to develop a thick skin being in this place, but I"m not going to hold it against her.

"I don"t mean to stare, just trying to figure out where my place is in all of this." I take a step forward and give her a tentative smile.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? You know we don"t have a place besides under these bastards" thumb. Just stay in your corner and everything will be fine." The woman rolls her eyes and looks away from me.

"Yeah, I"ve never really been the type of person to do what I"m told for too long. I"m Gabrielle." I position myself so that she can see me again.

She looks me over and presses her lips together before she speaks again. "Uma."

I put my hand out to shake hers, and she looks at it as if it"s a snake waiting to attack her, but I don't back down. I need them to see that I"m here to help, that I"m not here to make their lives any worse. Hopefully, together we can figure out a way to be free.

Finally, she takes my hand and shakes it. "You must not have been here very long. You"re too refined for a place like this." Uma snickers before she takes a step backward. The words grate on my nerves. It"s not the first time someone has tried to put me down because of how I act. So many people have assumed they know who I am just because I"m a little more what they like to call uppity than normal. Because I"m professional, I"m less of who I am. I"ve lived through the judgment before, and I"ll get through it again.

"We"ve been here for months," Bishop answers from his place in the corner behind me.

I nod and look back towards Uma. "It"s true. In fact, we didn"t even know there were other people here until I saw Willa in the shower. We thought we were the only people Shade and the Faceless were torturing." I try to keep it light, but there"s nothing about this situation that is light. We"re all in a fucked-up place.

"I"ve been here for six months," the other girl says. She looks younger than everyone, in fact almost too young.

"Six months? Holy fuck. I can"t imagine. How old are you?" I ask, keeping my eyes on her.

"I"m eighteen. They picked me up at my fucking birthday party. Talk about a fucked-up introduction to adult life."

"What did you do to get on Shade"s bad side?" Uma asks. I sigh and sit down in the middle of the floor, knowing that it"ll get the other two women to drop their guard around me. Willa already seems to have accepted me as one of their own. I guess the small interaction I had with her in the shower was enough for her to see that I was keeping things completely real with her.

"I found out they were holding some girls hostage in a house across from mine. I called the right people to get them freed, and apparently, it was all I needed to do to end up on the Faceless"s shit list forever." I shrug and nearly smile when the younger girl nods her head and takes a seat in the middle of the floor with me.

It doesn"t take long for me to get the atmosphere in the small cell to be one that is conducive to the girls opening up to me.

I find out that Willa, the pregnant girl, is twenty-two years old. She was an investigative reporter who was digging a little too hard into all the political figures and officials that were connected to the Faceless organization. When they brought her here, she was full of fire and definitely not pregnant.

She"s had a hard time waking up every day knowing that she already loves a child that was forced on her by some assholes who thought it was okay to rape her for monetary gain. Still, she was excited about becoming a mother for the first time, even if it meant having the child in these shitty conditions.

Uma is thirty years old and made the mistake of turning down Shade"s advances; that was all it took for him to swoop in and destroy her life.

April, the youngest at only eighteen, is here through no fault of her own. Apparently, her father who is incarcerated had some issues with Liam. Of course being the crazed maniac he is, Liam thought it was a good idea to use April as collateral until whatever debt was paid by her father. As far as April knows, her father can"t do anything to get her out. Her mother is a junkie and she"s got no other family. She"s all alone. A fact that only makes me want to protect her more.

Even though all of our stories are different, it"s clear to see that we are the same in many aspects.

Except I"m a little luckier.

My eyes scan over to the corner where Bishop is still sitting, not adding to the conversation, but I"m sure logging everything that he hears. I may be stuck in this monstrous place with the rest of these women, but I"m the only one who has Bishop to stand by her side.

I like to think I"m a strong woman, but if I had to deal with any of the shit these women had to deal with without Bishop, I"m positive that I wouldn"t have made it. I"d either be catatonic or dead. Bishop"s presence, calm and strong as ever, is the only reason I"ve been able to pull through this. I hope one day I have the opportunity to let him know how grateful I am.

"What about him? I"ve seen a few other women in here from time to time, but I"ve never seen a man in here." Willa gestures her head in Bishop"s direction.

"Bishop? Yeah, he"s with the Boys of Djinn MC. They were the ones who helped get those girls free from that slave house. Liam used to be one of them until he was arrested and put away. They have a long history." I explain, not wanting to give away too much personal information.

"Boys of Djinn?" Willa"s brows furrow, and she looks from me to Bishop and back again.

"Yeah? You know them?" I ask. It wouldn"t be surprising to me if she knew of the club. It seems like more people than not know who the Boys of Djinn are in Maine.

"I don"t, but I heard some things about them, I think. Are they connected with the Wings of Diablo in any way?" Willa asks, and my eyebrows jerk up.

It"s been a while since anyone has muttered that club"s name in my direction. Not even Bishop will talk about the club anymore. I"m sure it"s because he doesn"t want to get my hopes up about what could happen.

"Yeah, they"re allies. What have you heard?" I reply hoping my growing interest doesn"t put her off. I don"t want her to think I"m just trying to squeeze information out of her.

"The last time the Faceless pulled me into a session with some of their higher end clients , I heard Shade and Liam going at it about what they were going to do about this club. I don"t know exactly what happened, but it seemed like whatever they thought the end result was going to be with the Wings of Diablo had gone left. It sounded like they were scared. I remember being happy that someone finally had them on their toes. Maybe someone would give them a taste of their own medicine." Willa chewed on her bottom lip and glanced over at Bishop, who is now looking at her with great interest.

"When did you hear this?" He questions, his voice far more intense than I"d like. I don"t want him to scare these girls away, but I know how important this information is. If something more is going on behind the scenes, then we need to know about it.

"What"s it matter? They"re out there, and we"re stuck in here." Uma scoffs, directing her comment at Bishop.

"It matters because I know my club. I know the Wings of Diablo and the people that run that club. If they are getting the upper hand, that means they are going to be on their way to getting us. If there"s a plan in motion, we need to be ready."

It"s the first time Bishop has spoken to the girls about maybe being able to get out of here, and right away, I see the disbelief on the women"s faces. If I were them, I"d be skeptical too. After all, they"ve been in here for months, and nothing on the outside has changed their circumstance. Fortunately for me, I know firsthand what Bishop is talking about. If the tide is changing, our freedom may be closer than we think.

"He"s telling the truth. The Wings of Diablo and the boys of Djinn are the good guys, and loyal to their families. What did you hear?"

The air in the small cell gets thick with tension, all of us on edge waiting to hear what Willa knows.

Of course, nothing goes right in this place, and before she can start telling us what she knows, the sound of a lock scraping against the cell door jerks all of us up from the floor and on guard.

"What the fuck do you want?" Bishop growls and takes a step forward, putting himself between the girls and me and the guards who just walked in the room.

"We don"t want anything, but your best friend Liam has requested your company." The guard smiles and reaches forward for Bishop.

I know what"s about to happen.

Bishop has never gone down without a fight. I push Willa back, trying to make sure she doesn"t get hurt, as Bishop swings and connects with the side of the guard"s face. The sound of his fist connecting with the man"s face makes me cringe.

Another guard rushes forward and grabs hold of Bishop"s arms, but that only puts Bishop in a place to kick his legs forward and take down the next guard who makes the mistake of rushing into the room.

"Oh my God! Stop it!" April screams and huddles behind Willa and me. She must not be used to the violence.

Two more guards enter the room, this time with their clubs up and ready. They swing with all their might against Bishop"s body, and my insides twist as I hear the thumps of the weapons against my protector"s body. Bishop roars in pain when one of the clubs makes contact with his head and splits his eyebrow.

"Bishop! Please!" I yell for him but don"t make any movement to get closer to him. I know better than to get in the way when Bishop is seeing red.

"You stupid fuck!" The first guard Bishop punched in the face gets back up to his feet and pulls out a knife.

I"m not worried about him killing Bishop. Liam is keeping him around for something more than just to settle a score. It"s almost as if Liam thinks he needs to lord his power over Bishop to feel good about himself. What I am worried about is the rest of us in the room.

"You want to play, let"s fucking play." The guard hisses, but instead of going for Bishop, he lunges in Uma"s direction. I"m so startled by the sudden change of aggression I don"t get to her in time to keep the guard from grabbing her.

"Get your fucking hands off me, you bastard!" Uma screams and yanks at his grip, trying to get away.

It takes Bishop a second to figure out what"s going on, but the guards don"t stop bringing their clubs down on his body even when he stops fighting. With one hard crack against the back of his head, Bishop crumbles to the ground, his eyes glazing over slightly, unfocusing before focusing back on us again.

"Leave...leave them alone," he groans and turns over, shaking his head trying to clear the fog I"m sure he"s in.

"Leave them alone? Oh no. Here"s another perk of having all of you together in one room. Your leash has gotten a lot shorter." The guard chuckles and jerks Uma around once again, pressing the knife in his hand against the side of her face. I hold my breath waiting for the guard to make his next move. Even with just a little bit of pressure, she"d start bleeding.

"Before, I only had this fine little piece of ass to keep you in line," the guard gestures in my direction before looking back at Bishop, "but now I have three more. Get up off your ass, Bishop, put your hands behind your back like the good little dog you are, and walk out of the room like we ask. If you give me even the littlest fucking problem, I"ll carve this one up until not even the cheapest asshole will pay to look at her. Her life is in your hands. Make your decision." The guard gestures to the other guards in the room to move away from Bishop, and they do just that.

I can see the defeat all over Bishop"s face as he looks up at me and then to Uma.

Suddenly, I feel bad about what this means for him.

He"s spent so long fighting for me I didn"t think how it would affect him if he had to fight for anyone else. I just add more weight on this man"s shoulders, and I"m not sure how much more he"s going to be able to take.

"Let her go," Bishop says again, his voice clearer now.

"You have an appointment."

Bishop nods his head once, gets to his feet, and like a model prisoner, laces his hands behind his back and walks toward the door. The guard lets Uma go and follows Bishop out. The four of us hold each other and cry tears of fear and trauma.

Here I thought we might be on the verge of getting out of here, but it doesn"t seem like we"re going to be able to survive the brutality if this keeps up.

I"m hoping whatever news Willa has points us in the right direction to get out of here before I lose Bishop for good.