“I know that,” she cuts in, “but the boys got to you first and you beat the shit out of Knox. That was over.”
I shake my head. “That was only the beginning,” I tell her. “Do you remember the night of the pier party?”
She nods. “That was the night Jacob and I first got together. I felt like a bitch because I ditched you and you went home early.”
“Yeah,” I whisper, glancing away. “When I got back to Kurt and Irene’s place, two of Sam’s men were waiting for me in my room.” Ember sucks in a breath but I don’t stop, knowing that if I did, I might not be able to continue. “I tried to fight them off. I screamed and a part of me hoped that maybe Kurt or Irene would come to save me, but they never showed. The men shoved a black bag over my head and I was knocked out. The next thing I knew, I was being pulled out of the back of a van.”
Tears well in Ember’s eyes as she reaches out and takes my hand. “No, please don’t tell me Sam hurt you.”
I shake my head, hating my own tears that threaten to spill down my face. “I was put in a cold cell for three nights and it was awful. It was wet and dark. I couldn’t see a damn thing. All I could hear was the sounds of the girls in other cells screaming for help and cell doors banging. There was this constant dripping, which I know doesn’t sound bad but on repeat like that, it’s fucking horrible. After the third night, I’d basically given up. Nobody knew I was gone and even if they did, how were they going to find me?”
I let out a shaky breath and meet her eyes again. “That night, two men came into my cell and dressed me in black lingerie. They forced me into this big room filled with men. Hands were grabbing at me, touching me, and they spit comments about my body and what they were going to do to it. I was taken onto a stage with harsh lights on my face and I couldn’t see anything beyond that, only hear as the auctioneer sold me for five million dollars.”
“What?” she breathes, her eyes wide. “No, please tell me this is some kind of joke.”
“I really wish I could,” I tell her, the tears now staining my cheeks. “It turns out that Dynasty was responsible for that five million dollars. Carver and the boys used some fancy tech and beat the living shit out of Knox until they got some information out of him. They found me just in time, but because of that, the past few weeks have been hard. Like really fucking hard.”
“What happened? I know that’s not the end of the story. Those guys wouldn’t just let it go like that.”
“Dynasty isn’t big on revenge plans. They wouldn’t let us go after Sam because they don’t involve themselves in crimes like this. To them, the matter had been resolved, but I couldn’t let it go.”
“What did you do?” she asks, wide-eyed, reaching up and wiping away my tears.
Another shaky breath comes tearing out of me. “Last week, Carver put in a call. Sam remembered him from ‘purchasing’ me and he said that he wanted a new girl. So Sam flew back into the state and we royally fucked him up,” I explain. “Do you remember seeing the house explosion on the news the other day?”
Her brows furrow and she quickly nods her head. “That was you?”
“Uh-huh. Well, King, actually. Apparently, he knows a little something about explosives,” I say, a wicked grin pulling at my lips. “We took Sam back to Carver’s place and gave him what he deserved.”
“Holy fuck, tell me that you beat his ass?”
A grin stretches across my face as I meet her eyes. “With a fucking baseball bat.”
“HELL YEAH,” she cheers, throwing her arms around me. “I’m so sorry. The past few days, I’ve been sulking because you wouldn’t let me in, but you were just trying to protect me from all of this.”
“I really was,” I whisper. “You don’t know how much I wanted to tell you, to have someone to talk to about all of this shit, because fuck, Ember, this world is fucking twisted and I’ve hardly been able to wrap my head around it.”
She nods and grips my hand before pulling me to my feet. Despite us already being alone in her house, she leads me right up to her bedroom and closes the door for privacy. “I just have one more question,” she tells me. “Then I promise, I won’t bug you for information unless you want to tell me.”
My eyes narrow. “What is it?”
“What’s the fucking deal with the guys? Are you sleeping with them or what?”