She sinks down to her knees and grabs ahold of the tasteless protein drinks, sliding them through the bars of the cage.
“Is she okay?” I ask, my voice a hoarse rasp. The woman lifts her gaze, her eyes wide as she watches me. “The woman with the blonde hair, is she okay?”
The maid looks back behind her, over her shoulder, then shifts her gaze back to meet my own. “For now, yes.”
“You’ll help her?”
She licks her lips, tilting her head to the side. “If I can.”
Without another word, she rises and disappears back up the stairs. If I can. That isn’t very reassuring, because odds are, she will not be able to. This will ultimately fall on me to do solely and I’m okay with that, as long as I can do it, as long as I can get us the fuck out of here alive. As long as I can eliminate the threat of Walsh ever finding us again.
Reaching for the tasteless supplement drinks, I twist off the cap and down them one by one, then the other before I toss the empty bottles in the trash can in the corner of the room.
It’s hard to attempt to devise a plan when my resources are nothing but my own two hands. I’m a tough son of a bitch, but I’m not invincible and Walsh always has his wallflower goon with him, if I can just get him out of the room, then maybe, just maybe I can do something.
The door opens again, footsteps click down the concrete stairs and Walsh appears in front of me. He’s wearing his suit, loafers, and his hair is perfectly slicked back.
“Another day, another dollar,” he announces with a chuckle.
“Is it another day?” I ask.
Time is fleeting down here. I have zero clue when it’s day, night, when a new day begins, or when a day ends. There are no clocks around and no windows. All I do is stare straight ahead of me and think, for hours.
“You’re getting lost down here already. I like that. Adjustment is the hardest part of this life,” he announces.
Life.
He’s fucking crazy if he thinks any of this is life. It’s not, and I refuse to accept any of it. Not for me and definitely not for Avah.
“Why did you pay for Avah from Layne? When you purchase these women, kidnap them, however you get them. Why did you waste your money on her?”
He flicks his gaze down to meet mine, his eyes heat for a moment, then he goes back to his cold and calculated stare.
“I wanted to buy her from Layne, typically that’s what I did. You’ll never tell, so I don’t mind answering your question. He wouldn’t sell her. He said she was making more than he had anticipated when he recruited her.”
He clears his throat, rocking back on his heels, then shifts his gaze to the ceiling for a moment and a look of reminiscence crosses his face before he shifts his eyes back to meet mine.
“So, I paid for her company. I paid to use her, and I paid well. I paid enough that I own her now.”
“You can’t own her. She’s a person and she doesn’t even work for Layne anymore, even when she did, she was not owned by him, so she couldn’t be sold by him.”
Walsh chuckles, though it’s a bit humorless. “Do you think that I paid for her just for the pleasure of the evening, that I don’t know how to invest? Layne kept a running tab. He was supposed to deliver her to me when your fucking daughter left and your little group put her in the middle of their shit.”
I don’t clarify anything, like it wasn’t my fault all that shit happened or that if I could have kept both Trista and Avah out of it all, I would have. I don’t say a fucking thing.
“Then all that shit unfolded, Layne was murdered and I was left high and goddamn dry, for months.”
“Until you found her again,” I rasp.
He chuckles. “It didn’t take long. I had eyes on her while she was going through Layne’s place. I didn’t want you though, so I waited. Then you left and she moved rather quickly to her new place. I became almost enamored by her tenacity. Perhaps I waited a bit longer than I should have. It was alluring to see her, to see her move through her daily life, to pick herself up and transform.”
“But then I came back,” I grunt.
He dips his chin. “Then you came back and after watching you with her, I realized that if I wanted her, wanted all of her, not just her body, then I would need you. If I wanted her complete compliance, I would need to keep you.”
“Why have me be with the other woman?” I ask. “Don’t you think that would cause her to rebel?”
He chuckles. “That is just for fun. The great thing about this whole situation is that I’m the one in charge, I will control this, and she will realize who controls her soon. You will too. I own you now, and her, and Taylee. I own you all and I can play any way that I wish.”
Walsh is getting off on the control, which I totally understand as a man who craves control as well. I just don’t need to hold people against their will, to fuck with their lives to get it. Fuck that and fuck him for doing it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
AVAH
My sleep is fitful. I toss and turn, then toss and turn a little more. Sleep never comes, it doesn’t take over my body the way that I wish it would. Sleep could be my only relief, but it lingers just out of reach.
Sliding off of the bed, I walk over to the window and look out. I squint as I try to
