Vile Boys (Spine Ridge University)

It was easy to find the location they took her to. My father has a whole host of contacts at his disposal, contacts I could easily swipe from his laptop at the casino. Just a quick five minutes in and out of his office while he was too busy chatting up new clients at the blackjack table, and I know exactly where they’re keeping her.

These Bones Brotherhood have so many different locations all over the country, but only a couple of them actively sell humans, and two near Crescent Vale City. One of which just got raided by the Skull & Serpents and Phantoms to find Lana Rivera.

And of course, my father has a contact at the nearest location, so I’ve already called them and asked if they sell petite blond-haired girls, posing as one of his clients. No names. Just the description is enough for them to offer me and my two friends a seat at the auction.

I shift in my seat and look around the room to try to gauge just how many I need to kill in order to succeed. Fifteen guards at the very least, just for this room. There must be far more beyond the doors where they keep the prisoners, as well as in the multitude of offices, and multiple standing guard near each exit.

Caleb leans sideways to whisper. “How much longer do we have to wait?”

“I want her to be safe first,” I whisper. “After, you’re free to kill whoever you want.”

He licks his lips, antsy at the prospect of unleashing his violence on these poor souls.

I smile. They won’t even know what’s coming for them until it’s too late.

And I will happily take my last shower in a spray of their blood.

Crystal

My whole body shakes as I huddle in a corner, just like the others.

I have no clue where I am or how long I’ll remain.

The moment I was shoved into that van, all my senses went into overdrive, but the blindfold they put around our heads made it impossible to know where they took us. They only let us take it off once we were in this cell, where we’ve remained.

I promised my father I would never fear the life I was given, but I can’t stop the terror from slowly eating me alive. I wasn’t scared of the Tartarus boys, but the prospect of being sold to someone I don’t even know, someone of any age, of any type, makes all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

When the door opens up again, I hide into a pillar, hoping they don’t pick me as one of them steps inside the cell.

“You.” The guard’s stern voice isn’t what makes me look.

It’s the gun pushed into my skin.

“It’s your turn. Get up.”

With my heart beating in my throat, I crawl up from the floor and the guard grabs my arm and shoves me toward the door. I take one more glance back at the other people in the cell before the door is shut.

“Where are we going?” I mutter under my breath, already regretting having asked a question.

He pushes the barrel into my back, and I’m very conscious of the fact that I could be taking my last breath at any moment. That this could be my last few steps before I’m sold to the highest bidder. Before my body no longer belongs to me.

We walk into a long hallway and go left, toward a crooked, wooden staircase in the back.

“Up the stairs,” the guard growls, shoving me forward.

Above me is a bright light shining down onto a stage.

“Don’t speak unless you’re spoken to.”

Oh God. It’s happening again.

“Do as you’re told or you will feel pain. Understood?”

I nod, but I don’t feel physically present as I slowly turn into myself, desperate for this to stop.

Still, my feet move up, each step slowly pulling my mind into oblivion until I get to the top.

The guard nudges me toward the stage. In the middle, the same woman I recognize from before stands at a microphone and clears her throat.

“Our next girl has been on the stage previously, you may recognize her from when we had to move to this location. As you can tell, she is still well behaved, well trained.” She swirls her finger around, and I spin again, just like I was told to do last time. “A perfect girl for whatever cravings you may have.”

She holds up her hand, and I stop. “Bidding starts at a hundred and eighty thousand.”

A guy in the back raises a paddle. “Hundred and ninety.”

“Two hundred,” another guy calls out.

I shiver in place, trying to remember the voices and imprint them in my brain so I can recognize whoever tried to buy me if I ever meet them again.

“Two twenty,” the next one says.

I feel like cattle being sold on the market for breeding.

My eyes find the guard in the back, his gun fixated on my legs to make sure I get the message: If you fight, we will shoot.

My eyes flutter back and forth between the stage and the exits around the room, trying to search for a way out. Maybe I can overpower whoever buys me and run like hell the second they try to transport me into his car.

I look around at all the men beyond the stage holding up their hands one by one to try to get their hands on me like I’m some prized jewel, but the second I spot two feverishly gray eyes I stop.

Even though he’s wearing a mask, his veiny hands and slick, combed-over black hair make my heart stop.

Could it be … ?

No, don’t trust your tired mind. It’s making you see things.

“Any more bidders?” the woman calls out.

The guy with the black hair raises his hand, and his lips part, a hint of a smile at each edge. “Five million.”

Audible gasps erupt from the audience, and even I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

“Five million, going once,” the woman says. “Going twice.”

No one says a single word.

“Sold to the gentleman in black.”

The guard comes up the stage and grabs my wrist, dragging me away, but the last thing my gaze finds are gray eyes piercing through the dark like a beam of light, taking ahold of my soul.

Could it be …?

“Walk,” the guard growls, shoving me down the stairs and into a separate chamber, away from the other girls. “Sit.”

He closes the door, and I’m left alone in the darkness with nothing to hold except the clothes on my back.

I sit down on the floor and close my eyes. There’s no point in looking when there’s nothing to see. From what others have told me, this is where they make the girls that are sold wait for their buyer to come pick them up.

After a while, the door cracks open, and I take a deep breath, expecting the worst of whoever wanted me so badly they’d put down five million for me.

“In here. Do whatever you want. You’ve got twenty minutes,” the guard growls. “Then you gotta pay up.”

I look up right as the guard steps away and in walk three men with masks on their faces, one with an umbrella, two others in suits, their figures casting shadows on the concrete floor.

One of them steps closer, and I crawl away, backing into the cold, hard wall. But he still gets closer and goes to his knees in front of me. He leans in, his hand caressing my cheek so softly I hold my breath. “Your face is far too pretty to be poisoned by so much fear.”

That voice…

He pulls off his mask, casting it aside, and I gasp in shock at the chiseled face appearing underneath, the one I’ve loathed for so long … the one I could kiss just by seeing.

“Ares,” I mutter in disbelief, a brief smile forming on my face.

How is he here?