Page 85 of Trick or Treat

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“C-c-cold.”

His eyes dropped to her bare feet and discovered they were turning blue, as was her hands and lips. Shit, someone had taken her coat as well. Someone should have at least given her a blanket. How many times had he told his men, you can’t sell dead merchandise? He got to his feet and reached into his pocket. He pulled out his key ring and unlocked the cage. “Come on, Lindsey. I’ll take you to my office to warm up.” He waved for her to crawl out. She didn’t move.

“Come on. I’ll get you warmed up, or would you rather stay out here and freeze to death?” He was getting impatient now. He was used to having his orders followed immediately without question.

“I. Can’t.” She started to put her head back down and looked like she planned on going back to sleep.

“God damn it.” He ducked his head and stomped into the cage, wrapped his arms under her knees and around her back and lifted her. Fuck, shewascold. If he planned to fuck her, he’d have to warm her up. Hell, as cold as she was, his dick would shrivel up if he got it inside her. Carefully, he managed to get her out and into his office. He set her on his couch, lying her on her side. He found a blanket and placed it over her then pulled the portable heater closer to her. After being exposed to the heat, her body started shivering violently. She was unable to stop the tears from falling as her thawing got painful.

He looked around, spotted some tea bags and decided to make her a cup of tea. Maybe if he could warm her up on the inside, it might make things go faster. He heated water in the microwave, poured it over the tea bag and added some sugar. He wasn’t a big tea drinker, so he guessed as to when he thought it was done. He took the straw from his earlier fast-food run and stuck it in the tea. The straw was too long, so he had to hold it in place to keep it from falling out. He knelt next to where she was lying on the couch and held the straw next to her lips and told her to drink. “Damn it, Lindsey. Take a drink. It’s hot. It’ll help warm you up.”

Why was everything with Lindsey so damn hard? He understood her lack of interest when he was younger, scrawnier, nerdier. But, why the hell couldn’t she see how much better he was now? Hell, he was rich, knew important people and if she’d give him a chance, he’d always love her. Why couldn’t she see that?

“If your stubborn ass doesn’t drink this God damn tea, I’m going to take you to the shower and throw you under the hot water.” She immediately opened her mouth enough to get the straw in. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he shook his head and laughed. He waited until she drank most of it before he set it to the side at his knee. He stroked her hair out of her face and leaned close. “Just think, Linds, when we leave here, we’ll be starting our new life together. Just how good or how bad it goes is all up to you.”

Holy shit!Lindsey was frozen to the bone. It was bad enough they took her shoes, but did they have to take her coat, too? She’d been left alone for the last several hours as Kurtis’s men loaded women in trucks and started taking everything down. Before she knew it, she was the only one left in a cage. She’d never been so cold or so scared in her life.

She’d been holding on to the idea that Trick would find her soon, but the more these men went about loading everything up, the more her hope failed her. She knew that if Kurtis was able to get her out of Redemption before Trick found her, the odds of her ever being found would be slim to none.

She was tired, hungry and so damn cold, she didn’t think she would ever thaw out. She’d been shocked when Kurtis picked her up and brought her into his warm office. The warmer temperature was almost too much to bear. She’d been further shocked when he made her hot tea and helped her drink it through a straw. Despite his caring actions, she didn’t trust him any farther than she could throw him.

At the moment he was outside the office, doing only God knew what. Lindsey’s heart had nearly broken as she watched the last of the women get loaded into a delivery truck. If Kurtis wasn’t so interested in her, she would be one of the unlucky women being shipped to their new destination.

God, she couldn’t stop shivering. She pulled the blanket tighter around her and slowly sat up. Not sure how long Kurtis would leave her alone in his office, her eyes did a quick scan around the room. She desperately searched for her coat, or please God, her shoes and socks. She feared that if she didn’t get her feet warmed up soon, she might actually end up with frost bite or something. Hell, if she did find them, would she even be able to walk at this point? Although he’d set a space heater next to her, she still felt like a solid block of ice.

On her second scan of the room, she made a point to look for a phone; his cell or a landline would be much appreciated right now. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped the blanket more tightly around her feet. She hated to admit it, but the hot tea did help a little to warm her up from the inside. Enough to chase away some of the lethargy brought on by her time spent on the cold concrete floor.

Through the window, she spotted Kurtis heading back her way, a grim expression on his face. What now?

“Oh, good, you’re up.” He absently swiped his hand through his hair, leaving it slightly mussed. “For a minute there, I thought my boys might have frozen you. The idea of having to dispose of your body didn’t set well with me.”

Inside her eyes were bugging out and she was mentally sputtering at how casually he threw that out there. On the outside she played as if she were still too cold to move. Maybe she could play on that and maybe get her shoes and sock back.

“Well, if you really don’t want me to freeze to death, you could give me my shoes and socks back. I can’t feel my toes.”

Kurtis glanced down at her feet and cringed. He moved to take a seat behind the desk, opened a drawer and pulled out her shoes and socks. He placed them on the desk, then leaned back in his chair, running a thumb over his bottom lip. His gaze was fixed on hers as if analyzing the pros and cons of giving her back her footwear. “If I give these back, you have to promise you won’t try to run away from me. Right now, I would like to treat you as someone special in my life. If you cross me, however, I’ll be forced to take what I want from you, then pass you off to my men before eventually selling you to one of my clients.”

Lindsey didn’t know how to answer him or if he was even expecting an answer. There was no way she could tell him she would never try to escape because the first chance she got, she was going for it.

“I can see by the look in your eye, you’re going to be a tough sell. Let’s put it another way. You come with me, be the woman I’ve always dreamed about and keep me happy, or I go visit one of your friends and sell them to my next client wanting a blonde and a brunette.” He tipped his head to the side. “Now do you understand me?”

Lindsey’s fists tightened under the blanket where she held it closed in front of her. Leave it to Kurtis to find the one weakness that would gain her cooperation. There was one other, make that two other things that would flat out guarantee it. She prayed he wouldn’t think of it. “You leave my friends alone. I’ll go with you but I need my shoes. My feet are freezing.”

Kurtis rose from his chair, grabbed her footwear and moved closer to her. He held them out for her to take. Unsure if it was a trick or not, she reached out slowly and took them. His wicked smile told her he had an ace up his sleeve. “I’m really surprised that you agreed to your new life so quickly. I was prepared to pick up a certain princess and her older brother in order to convince you. Believe it or not, little ones go for top dollar. I personally don’t enjoy trafficking kids. They’re too noisy. They cry a lot. They need to use the bathroom every five minutes. Unlike some of my clients, my dick doesn’t get hard at the thought of doing it with a child.” He experienced a whole-body shiver. “Yeah. Not my thing. Give me a hot, desperate adult female and I’m a happy man.”

He reached out and touched her cheek softly. It was all she could do to sit still and allow the touch without throwing up all over his shoes. “Yeah. I think we understand each other now.” He backed up a step and added, “I think if you give us half a chance, we could be happy.”

Was he insane? There was no way, in this life or the next, that she would ever be happy with Kurtis Black. The thought that he would continue to traffic women right under her nose made her sick.

He tipped his head toward her shoes. “Get your shoes on. We’ll be leaving soon.” He moved toward the door and stopped before he went through. “I want you to keep something in mind. Even if we move to upstate New York, I will always be able to get my hands on that biker’s kids.” With that he exited the office.

Lindsey was shaking so hard she could barely get her sock on her foot. Her shaking wasn’t from the cold this time. No, it was from the thought of anything ever happening to Trick’s kids. She couldn’t think about some sick man getting his hands on Reagan or Keegan. The thought made her physically ill. She dropped to her knees and crawled the two feet to a waste basket and threw up the tea she’d drank only moments ago. She wiped her mouth with the sock still clutched in her hand.

Oh, God. What was she going to do? How could she possibly go with Kurtis? The thought of having sex with him was revolting. But what option did she have? She had to go with him, if not for Cami and Jenna’s sakes, then for Reagan and Keegan’s. She would endure whatever hell Kurtis dished out if only to keep Trick’s kids safe. And that bastard knew it.

Silent tears streaked her face as she once again sat on the couch and finished pulling her socks and shoes on. She had two options as far as she could see. One, go with Kurtis and accept her fate in order to save her friends and the children. Or, two, pretend to go along with him and escape the first chance she got. The escape plan depended on her getting away while she was still in Redemption so she could warn Trick that his kids were in danger and for him to send someone to watch over Cami and Jenna. If she got caught after that, so be it. At least she’d warned Trick.

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