“But what about the money? If you bail, you won’t get paid.”
I grasped Jilly’s hand before delivering the awful truth, “None of us are getting paid. It’s all a fucking lie. Think about it, why do you think they have you locked in a room, feeding you nothing but garbage? When we first got here, they treated us like we were worth something at least. Now? We’re just used goods. Something bad is about to happen to all of us. I should’ve known this was too good to be true and now I see how she pulls off this scam.”
Jilly’s eyes watered. “You mean we went through this for nothing? How do you know? Are you sure? I mean, what if you’re wrong?”
I could feel in my bones that I was right. “Olivia keeps dancing around the question each time I ask about the money. She’s the queen of deflection. I can’t get a straight answer out of her lying mouth. Experience tells me when people can’t be straight with you, it’s because they’re fucking trying to hide something.”
I felt Jilly’s despair as if it were my own as she nodded in agreement, bemoaning, “That fucking bastard…the things he did to me…were inhuman! How could they do this to us? We’re fucking people for God’s sakes!”
I soothed her with understanding murmurs but I didn’t have an answer that would satisfy because I was just as bewildered as Jilly. “I wish I knew. All I can figure is that they’re soulless. How else can someone do such awful things to another human being?”
Jilly nodded but I knew it wasn’t enough. We were all confused by how this happened.
“I can’t believe I was stupid as to believe that any of this was real. They used us for the one thing they wanted and now they’re just going to throw us away?”
“No,” I returned with savage conviction “they are not going to throw us away because we aren’t going to let them.”
Jilly’s frantic confusion colored her voice. “What do you mean? We’re stuck here. They’re guarding us with men packing guns. How the hell are we supposed to get out? It’s not like they’re going to let us walk out the front door.”
“Yeah, but they don’t know that I can get out. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do as soon as I find Tana. Dylan is a few doors down. I think they keep all the girls on this floor because it makes sense. Organized, even.”
Jilly sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Yeah? I guess so. But how are we going to escape? I’m sure the grounds are guarded by dogs with big teeth and men with really big guns.”
“I thought that too but I’ve been listening to every sound this house makes and I’ve never heard any dogs. I think they’ve just got the guards we’ve seen. They don’t think we’re capable of pushing against a locked door. Their biggest mistake is underestimating us.”
“I don’t want to die,” Jilly whispered, her big eyes fearful. “Please don’t let me die, Nicole.”
I wasn’t a fucking hero by any stretch of the imagination but I couldn’t let their story end here “I won’t,” I promised. “As soon as I find Tana, we’re getting the fuck out of here. All of us.”
Jilly nodded, taking my promise to heart. She sniffed again, drawing her knees up to her chest. “Did your buyer…did he hurt you?”
I swallowed as I nodded. “Did yours?”
She answered with an ashamed nod. I held her tightly as she cried silent tears on my shoulder. I hated these people more than I ever hated Carla, which was a pretty significant benchmark. I hungered for vengeance but I wasn’t stupid.
We were a bunch of kids no one cared about. How could we do anything to affect Madame Moirai’s operation? We were gnats buzzing around a giant. As much as I wanted to smash this network into the ground, getting out alive was more important.
I pulled away, wiping at Jilly’s tears, feeling so much older when we were the same age. “Listen, I need you to pretend that nothing has changed. I don’t want them to get suspicious and increase security, okay?” She nodded and I continued with my instructions. “I’m going to leave you now so I can find Tana. If I find Tana, we’re busting out tonight. If I can’t find Tana, we have one more night before our five days is officially up. I have a feeling that’s when all hell’s going to break loose. Right now, Olivia is trying to force me to accept my elevation but that’s never going to happen. Once she realizes I’m not going to budge, my fate will be the same as everyone else’s and I’ll give you one guess as to what they might be.”
Jilly swallowed. “They’re going to kill us?”
“Or sell us to a brothel out of the country.”
“Jesus,” she breathed in fear. “Please no.”
“It’s not going to happen,” I told her. “We’re getting out.”
Jilly nodded, bolstered by my fierce determination. “Okay, I trust you.”
I felt the weight of those words settle on my shoulders. Fuck, when did I become a savior? I was just a kid with a bad attitude. I never thought I’d become the kind of person who others looked to as a champion.
Fate was a cruel bitch.
I couldn’t walk away with Dylan, Jilly and Tana lost to this place. Of all the things I’d have to live through, the shame of abandoning them wasn’t something I’d ever survive and I knew it.
With a few final words of encouragement, I left Jilly and slipped back into the hall, creeping through the shadows, mindful of every step, every sound. I hoped and prayed I found Tana’s room so we could ditch this nightmare tonight but I ran out of locked doors. Worry seized me as I realized Tana was not on the same floor as we were.
Where was she?
I made my way to Dylan’s room and let myself in. I wasn’t surprised to see her awake and waiting for me.
“Did you find Jilly,” she asked in a hushed tone. At my nod, she followed with, “What about Tana? Or anyone else?”
“I only found Jilly,” I answered, worried. “I have a bad feeling about this. Why wouldn’t they put her on the same floor as us? There are plenty of other rooms just like ours. Something must’ve went wrong? Or bad? Or…I don’t know.”
Dylan worried her bottom lip with her teeth, admitting she shared the same concerns. “It doesn’t make sense to keep her someplace else unless…”
“Don’t say it,” I said, not wanting to go there but it was in the back of my mind. Tana had been so scared that not even the Xanax had managed to completely calm her down. What if she’d freaked out with her buyer and he threw her back to Madame Moirai with the demand for a refund? How would Tana be punished for something like that? “Maybe she’s downstairs somewhere. We don’t need to jump to conclusions.”
“C’mon, you’re thinking exactly what I’m thinking,” Dylan persisted. “If anyone could’ve pushed someone’s buttons it would’ve been that girl. She never should’ve signed the deal.”
“None of us should’ve signed that contract,” I corrected with a short hiss. My fear for Tana made me prickly. Or maybe it was just Dylan. “We all made a shitty choice. Try to remember that.”
“Yeah, of course, I’m just saying, out of all of us…she wasn’t mentally ready for whatever was going to happen. All I can say is that if her buyer did to her what mine did to me…that girl would’ve killed herself.”
I wanted to cry for all of us. For being stupid, naive girls who thought they were more badass than they actually were. Fuck, Madame Moirai had picked her marks well and that made me hate the shadowy woman all the more.
“Is Jilly okay?” Dylan asked.
“As much as can be expected,” I answered. “She’s pretty traumatized. Like we all are to some degree.”
“If I ever see my buyer again, I’ll fucking kill him,” Dylan promised. I believed her. If we had more time and the resources, I’d gladly help her but we didn’t have that option.