Chapter Ten

Abbie

My head was pounding so badly, nausea swirled in my gut. Vomit rose in my throat, and I just managed to turn my head to the side in time to throw up so I wouldn't choke on my own sick. The table beneath me was cold and sterile, and shivers began to wrack through my body when air conditioning suddenly blasted over my?—

Bare skin.

I was naked.

Why the fuck was I naked?

My heart slammed against my breastbone, fear swamping me so quickly, I drowned in it. I choked on my next breath of air, trying to move, trying to get the fuck off this table and get the hell away from wherever it was I was at, but it was hopeless.

I was bound to the fucking table.

Tears burned hotly in my eyes. A lump swelled in my throat. But I buried it all down. I would not cry. I would not succumb to the fear. I would not give in to the hopeless feeling churning my gut and threatening to stop my heart. Someone had to notice I was missing, right? Someone at the precinct would notice I was gone. Trent would notify someone, wouldn't he? Someone would begin a search party for me. I wouldn't be stuck here forever.

I turned my head to the other side when I heard a low groan, but my eyes stopped on the row of tools before I could locate whoever else was in the room with me—blades, scissors, forceps, clamps. More nausea built in my gut, my skin growing clammy despite the cold air still blowing on me from the vent above my table.

Where the fuck was I?

A low groan met my ears again, and I searched what I could see of the room before my eyes landed on another woman. She looked younger than me by a couple of years and much thinner. She was naked and bound just as I was, but she looked to be in a lot more pain, her eyes still not open though she was definitely coming awake.

A door to my right suddenly opened, and a man in a lab coat stepped in. His hair was dark and sprinkled with gray, and his dark eyes were hollow—lacking emotion. A shiver ran down my spine at the sight of him. I knew a predator when I saw one, and he was definitely one of the bad guys.

One of the most horrible kind.

Two men stepped in behind him as he grimaced at the sight of my vomit slowly dripping to the floor. My teeth chattered, and I clenched my jaw to stop it. I didn't know if I was shivering from the fear, the cold air, or a combination of both. All I knew was that I was sick to my stomach, my heart was ready to slam out of my chest, and my head was hurting so goddamn badly, I wanted to rip my brain out of my skull.

"Gag her," the man in the lab coat ordered.

"No," I rasped, my throat raw. "Why are you—mmph." My words were garbled as one of the men quickly shoved a gag into my mouth before tying it behind my head tightly enough that my cheeks ached.

I could only watch in horror as the man in the lab coat tapped the other woman's cheek. Her eyes slowly slid open, and she sobbed at the sight of him. She tried speaking, but her words were garbled, a gag also residing between her lips. The man grinned down at her. "You're such a begger," he murmured as if his words were supposed to be sweet. As if she was supposed to take pride in them. "They'll love you, pretty thing."

She shook her head, full-on crying now. Sobs wracked her chest. Her entire body trembled on the table, rattling the metal frame. The doctor slid a rolling table over to him, bringing into view a speculum, a spatula, and long cotton swabs. My chest felt like it was going to cave in.

He was about to examine her. Between her thighs. Fucking violate her.

She screamed against the gag, doing her best to thrash within her restraints as the doctor forced her thighs apart, bending them at an awkward angle that I knew had to be painful. I didn't want to watch. Couldn't fucking watch. I ripped my eyes away, but one of the men that'd come into the room with the doctor gripped my hair and forced my head into the perfect angle to watch, ensuring I couldn't look away.

My tears slid down my cheeks, my heart breaking for her. For me. For anyone else who had gone through this before us and whoever would endure this after us.

I sobbed when he began doing an anal exam on her as well, forcing his gloved fingers inside of her without any lube. Her pain-filled scream ripped my soul to shreds. I'd never felt more hopeless. More helpless. I couldn't help her. I couldn't even help myself.

We'd become victims of sick, twisted, sex trafficking bullshit. And if I, a fucking cop, managed to get thrown into this situation…

My hope was diminishing.

By the time the doctor was done violating her and doing his examination, the girl had passed out, her mind forcing her under to protect her. People that could do that were lucky, in a way. They could at least be somewhat protected.

"Now you," the doctor murmured, turning to face me. He grabbed another table as one of the other men wheeled the one with the used tools away. Vomit rose in my throat, but I managed to swallow it down. "You're a special one," he said as if that was supposed to make me… happy?

The door creaked open, a man in a fitted, expensive suit stepping in. His hair was perfectly styled, his beard and mustache groomed to perfection. He wore an expensive Rolex on his wrist, and his shoes gleamed in the overhead lights.

His eyes lacked warmth. Empathy. A fucking soul.

"That she is." He stood over me as I tensed my thighs, trying to stop the inevitable, but the other two men shoved them open. I gasped in pain, my back arching the slightest bit at the painful, awkward angle, the straps around my ankles burning and rubbing my skin raw as they were forced to turn to accommodate the spread. "I'll take particular pleasure in breaking you, Abbie Sinclair."

"Fuckyou," I spat from behind my gag, my words garbled. I doubted he could understand them, but there was no mistaking the venom behind my gaze.

Pain exploded through the lower part of my body between my thighs, and my vision whited out for a moment. I clenched my teeth around the gag, biting back my scream. My hands trembled as I tightened them into fists, my breaths sawing from my lungs.

"This is only the beginning, Abbie," the man above me spoke, a sadistic gleam burning in his eyes that made every organ in my body shrivel with fear. "You'll pay for the mistakes your boyfriend's precious little club has made, and when I'm done with you, I'll deliver you to him right in front of those gates so he can bury you just as I had to bury my uncle."

He leaned over me as the speculum was pulled from my vagina, his breath hot on my face. "Your boy toy made a mistake fucking around in my business, trying to dismantle my empire, little girl. And you are going to pay for the price of his and his brothers' mistakes."

Gloved fingers shoved into my ass, and that time, I couldn't hold back my scream of pain…

And terror.