64. Eva

Brent dragged me out of the concrete room, wrenching my shoulder. I had no idea where he was taking me, but if it was outside, I intended to fight back. Being shot in the back was better than whatever sick things he had planned for me.

If there was one thing I'd learned since I got away from him the first time, it was that I deserved better than this.

"You should have stuck with me, you stupid cunt," he muttered. "After everything I did for you. I kept you clothed, fed, safe."

He was fucking delusional. "You beat me every fucking day!"

"You deserved it. Discipline was the only way to make you behave."

He pulled me down a long corridor, illuminated by harsh spotlights. A guard stepped out of a side room, but he nodded at Brent and ignored me. To the men in this place, I was invisible. Just a thing they could play with or use for their own sick pleasure.

It made me nauseous. How many other women and girls had passed through here, on their way to who knew what horrors? It didn't surprise me that Brent was a part of it. I always knew there was something wrong with him, something broken.

He had no conscience or moral code. As a serving police officer, he'd sworn an oath ‘to protect and serve', but it clearly meant nothing to him. Brent's badge was a means to an end, a veneer of respectability, and a tool he used to get away with crimes any normal citizen would have served prison time for.

All I could do was pray he got what was coming to him.

"You're a monster!" I screamed as he kicked open a door and shoved me into a small room. He just laughed.

My eyes picked out a chair and small cot with a rumpled sheet thrown over it. The room stank of despair and fear. I had a feeling other girls had suffered in here, and now it was my turn.

Brent shoved the door shut with his boot and stood facing me.

"You'll have a new owner by tomorrow. Someone who likes his toys to be submissive. I suggest you get some practice in, so on your fucking knees, bitch."

"Fuck you!"

His fist moved so fast I didn't have time to dodge. Pain exploded in my skull and I fell sideways. From the cracking sound when his fist connected with my face, he'd broken something. I could barely think through the cacophony of pain, let alone scream.

I desperately tried to string a thought together. Get it together, Eva!

If I didn't do something now, Brent would take what he wanted, and I wasn't sure I could come back from that. I reached out, grasped the leg of the small chair, and swung it in Brent's direction. He cursed when it smacked his head, causing him to stumble sideways. Blood tricked down his face.

The look of pure, undiluted rage in his eyes triggered my deep-seated trauma. My limbs froze. Brent was going to kill me. I could feel it in my bones. All rational thought had left the building. It didn't matter that money had exchanged hands; Brent no longer cared. He just wanted to make me pay for hurting him.

Just as he straightened, I felt a sharp pulling sensation in my chest.

Eva! Where are you?

The connection between me and the guys flared to life, dazzling and pure. I was no longer alone.

Silas! Help me!

Brent stepped toward me, licking his lips. "You're going to pay for that, you fucking cunt!"

Basement, a side room, he's going to kill me!

Nearly there, sugar!

We're coming, baby, hang on!

A pause and then a voice I hadn't expected to hear again,

We got you, sweetheart!

Cole was alive! My heart exploded with joy just as Brent punched me in the face a second time. I went down hard, the back of my head hitting the concrete floor as Brent's boot connected with my ribs.

The pain was like nothing on earth. I was dimly aware of someone screaming, but the more he kicked and punched me, the more the pain obliterated my senses. I curled up into a ball, trying to protect myself from Brent's rage. The light dimmed as my mind switched off. The only thing I knew was pain.

I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take. Tears dripped on to the cement floor as I imagined my mates finding me broken, dead. The thought of their anguish forced me to grit my teeth and shuffle away from Brent's vicious fists and kicks. I tried to crawl under the cot and he cursed.

Just as he reached out to grab my ankle, the door burst open and three homicidal males stormed in.