Chapter Forty-Five

Lyrical

S taring at Bailey, her eyes narrowing further, the first thing I notice is a few of her teeth are missing. My chest hurts and I cry uncontrollably.

"Bailey… what have they done to you?"

Her face is blank and she stares at the ceiling, watching the fan turn. I try to remove her restraints, but it's no use; they have a lock pad on the chain. I grab her by the shoulders in an attempt to shake her to her senses but she doesn't budge. She's drugged up, so out of it. Her pupils are the size of saucers. Finally, she turns her head to look at me, a weak smile spreading across her battered face.

"Carter told me I'll never see you again, that I'm going to die here for being a brat."

"What has he done to you?"

She doesn't respond, then her eyelids close, so I glance around the basement again, trying to find something to help us get out of here. It's bare, dirty, and stinks of piss and shit. The pictures of her sketch journal come to my mind. This is the exact same basement she used to draw. This is where he used to bring her to torture and rape her. The beautiful person whose smile lights up the room is gone. She's like an empty shell because she fell in love with someone who couldn't treat her right. Someone who wanted to use her for a quick buck. Carter is just like her father.

I wish he hadn't thrown my phone out of the window because Snow has a tracker on it. Does he realize that I'm missing? I'm sure my parents showed up to the gallery and noticed I wasn't there. Hopefully, they will find us, but I'm not going to sit around and wait for them. By then, I will be sold to some creepy-ass man.

I lie next to my best friend.

"I'm going to get us out of here. Somehow."

Her eyes pop open as tears leak down the sides of her face to her temples and her dull eyes meet mine. No hope for the future. No shine in them. Lifeless.

"Carter will never let me go, Lyrical. He makes pretty promises and does the opposite."

With that she closes her eyes once more.

I hear the steel door to the basement open, and I scramble to my feet, standing in front of the bed in order to protect Bailey. If they put their hands on her, I'll go down swinging. He already destroyed her, and I'm not going to allow them to do any further damage.

I'm going to get us out of here, even if I die trying.

Carter and the cop who pulled me over that fateful night walk in. I recognize him. He was at the club when I had my bachelorette party.

My stomach twists and bile rises in my throat.

"You're the one who pulled me over. The one who pretended to be a cop."

The guy doesn't respond but looks at me like I'm a piece of meat, darting out his tongue and licking his lips.

"If you hadn't been trying to figure out what happened to Bailey, none of this would have ever happened. Snow informed his father that you suspected the car accident was fake. Your husband and your father snooped through my place, running background checks on me." Carter claps. "Good job. Now she will die and you will be sold off to a rich guy who's going to kill you." He turns to the other guy. "Drake, leave the room."

Drake stares at me for a moment. "I want my chance."

"You will when I'm done with her."

Fear burns in my chest at his words.

Carter unzips his pants and yanks out his fat dick. "I need to test the product. On your knees, whore."

"If you stick your dick in my mouth, I'll bite it off," I grit through my teeth, backing away from him.

"If you bite it off, bitch, I'll fucking skin you alive."

He grabs me by the arms, forcing me down to my knees by pulling my hair. My head throbs, and he nudges his dick between my lips, and the tip hits my teeth. I turn my head to the side.

He slaps me across the face, and the pain travels all the way to my forehead.

"I. Said. Open. Bitch."

When I open my mouth, tears fall down my cheeks and I bite down hard, sinking my teeth into the flesh, biting a big chunk of his dick, chewing like I'm dying of hunger.

I continue to bite until it's completely ripped off, and I spit the flesh and blood into his face. The warm blood tickles down my chin and onto my blouse.

He kicks me in the wound where I had been stabbed by Savannah, and I scream at the top of my lungs as my shirt turns bloody red, and I fall to the ground.

"You fucking bitch!"

He kicks me again and yanks my hair, then he punches me in my face, tossing me to the ground. My nostrils burn as I breathe in, trying to catch my breath. I don't know how I have the strength to get up, but I do. I knee him in the balls and he falls to the floor, then I stomp on them. My face feels as if I've been hit by a bus.

I search his pockets to find several keys, so I test each one of them and try it on the locks. Finally I find one that works, and I unlock the padlocks and I pick Bailey up. She's so malnourished that I can lift her and carry her over my shoulders. When I breathe in and out, my rib cage hurts and I feel weak. My head throbs and my stab wounds bleed uncontrollably, and I don't know if we can make it to the front door. I hope I don't bleed out before then.

When I open the basement door and step out, there is a long-ass hallway, so I keep going, tripping over my feet and dropping Bailey along the way.

She groans and tries to push herself up, but she's too weak. My heart pounds in my chest, and I wrap her arms around my shoulders, lifting her up with as much strength as I can. I'm weak as well but we have to keep going. We will not die here. I need to find a car to steal. I spotted a few when Carter brought me here.

We make it to the front door, and I turn the knob to find it's locked from the outside, which is strange. Why would it be locked from the outside? I set Bailey down on the floor, and she groans.

"Lyrics, I don't feel too good."

"I'm going to get us out of here, okay? I promise."

I don't believe my own words, but I need her to hold on to hope. I finally got my best friend back and I'm not going to let her go. She's not going to die here, and her story doesn't end in this place.

Once I grab a small chair, I toss it at a nearby floor-to-ceiling window, then I duck my head as the glass shatters in a million pieces. When I pick Bailey up, my hair is pulled back and my gaze clashes with a pair of mismatched eyes similar to Snow's.

Pure terror overrides my senses as I stare at Revi. A wicked grin plasters his face and it gives me chills.

Is he working with Carter?

"You couldn't mind your business, could you, bitch? Always shoving your nose into shit that has nothing to do with you."

He drags my body across the floor, a sharp glass sticking into my calf. I try to yank my arm from his grip but it's no use, he's too strong.

"You're pathetic." He pulls me into a room, slamming the door behind him.

He takes out a gun, placing it to my temple. "If you do anything to escape or hurt me, I will put a bullet through you."

"What are you going to do to Bailey?"

"I'm going to kill her. She's no use to me now that you're here. I'm not going to kill you just yet, I need money and you're going to spread those pretty legs!"

How can he treat his daughter this way? Hurt her?

"Why would you want to sell your daughter?"

"She's a liability. Just like you. You turned my son against me. He chose you over me, over his own family. I worked so hard to make him the machine he is today, to make him do what I want. Now, he thinks he has power and can do whatever the fuck he wants." His eyes narrow. "I almost forgot, pull down your panties."

I shake my head.

"I'm not going to fuck you, bitch. You're not my type. And I'm not going to ask you again." He pushes me to the ground.

With tears in my eyes, I lift up my skirt, pull down my panties.

He yanks me up on my feet, forcing me onto the bed and flipping me on my stomach. I turn to look at him to see he has a knife. Several seconds later, I feel a sharp pain below my ass cheek. I scream, begging for him to stop.

Blood runs down my thigh.

"My son had a tracker inside of you. Stupid ass went to our family doctor to help him."

So Snow might be on his way? I'm so happy that he put a tracker inside of my body.

I sit up, crawling to the head of the bed, wrapping my arms around my legs. My hand grazes at the sharp glass that's currently imbedded into my skin.

My body aches and my eyelids are heavy.

Drake walks inside and slams the door shut.

"The other girls have arrived and Bailey is back in the basement."

This is a trafficking business, I realize. They never stopped trafficking women after the policemen busted them.

Revi whispers in Drake's ear, and when Drake turns his back to him, Revi pulls out his gun and shoots him in the back of the head. He falls to the ground, then Revi turns to face me, and I sob uncontrollably.

With that, he steps over the body, leaving it in the room with me, and shuts the door, locking it.