Page 27 of Spade

Letting him use her body was the price that she had paid. There was no other way to gain his trust. Ella was just glad that it didn’t take very long to do so because if he climbed on top of her one more time, she’d lose her mind. Giving up her body wasn’t easy, but losing her mind wasn’t an option. If her plan worked, she would be going back to her old life, leaving the past six months in her rearview, and for that, she’d need to try to forget the nameless faces that treated her like dirt. Hell, they treated her like less than dirt, and forgetting them would take time.

“Hey,” her new savior shouted at her, bringing her back to the here and now. She must have ignored him the first few times he tried to get her attention. “I’ve been trying to talk to you. I need to know where I’m dropping you off.” That was a good question and one that she had no answer for. Ideas ran through her mind—the airport, a train station, or even a bus station, but all those places would require her to have money, and all she had was the clothes on her back.

“I’m not sure,” she almost whispered. “I don’t have any money and I’m not sure that I even have a place to liveanymore,” she admitted. After six months, she had to believe that her father would have given up her lease and put her stuff in storage, or worse, got rid of everything.

“Why wouldn’t you have a place to live anymore?” he asked.

“Because I’ve been,” she hesitated, trying to figure out how to say that she was sold off to be some asshole’s sex slave. “I’ve been away for a while.”

“Like, prison away, or out of town on business away?” he asked. She looked down at her body and back over to him. How could he believe that she was out of town on business? She looked like she had been living on the streets for six months, not living in a nice hotel with three square meals a day.

“I wasn’t away on business or in prison. I don’t want to talk about me anymore,” she insisted.

“Okay, how about you tell me where you lived?” he asked. “We can drive by your place and see what’s going on,” he offered. She couldn’t go back there. The Devils had abducted her there and they would probably look for her there first. The only way to stay out of the Devil’s cage again was to come clean with a total stranger. Maybe she was putting her trust in someone who would only end up screwing her over, but she had no choice.

“I can’t go back there,” she admitted. “They’ll look for me there first.”

“Who are they?” Razor asked.

“It’s not safe to tell you,” she insisted. Ella didn’t want to get anyone else involved in her mess, especially the good Samaritan who picked her up on the side of the road.

“It’s not safe for you or me?” Razor asked.

“It’s not safe for either of us,” she sighed and wondered how much she should tell Razor, and how much she needed to keep to herself.

“How about if you tell me what’s going on, and I’ll try to help you figure out where you need to go,” he said.

Ella sighed, knowing that she wasn’t going to get much further in their conversation, and she was sure that Razor never lost an argument or a debate. “Fine, I was abducted about six months ago,” she admitted. Razor nearly slammed on the brakes, causing her to grab the dashboard.

“You were abducted?” he asked as though he didn’t believe her the first time.

“Yes, just let me get this out,” she ordered. “An MC called the Devils kidnapped me in front of my office building, took me to some warehouse, and put me in a cell. They sold me off at an auction three times, and then, they privately sold me to buyer number four. That’s when I was able to escape.”

“Wait, why did they auction you off three times?” he asked.

“That’s a long story, but the men who bought me kept returning me. Apparently, they didn’t like pain.” She was proud of herself for putting up a fight, and the smug smile on her face was proof of that.

“You hurt them?” he asked.

“Well, it was that or let them rape me,” she spat. “I decided that hurting buyers one through three was a valid option.”

“What happened with the fourth buyer?” he asked.

“Um, I think that I killed him,” she admitted. “I’m an ER nurse, so I know a few tricks about how to hurt someone, and even take them out permanently.”

“You mean, you know how to kill someone,” he corrected.

“Well, yes, but tell a cop that won’t bode well for my case,” she teased. Razor made a U-turn at the closest light and started for town. “Where are you taking me?” she asked.

“Down to the precinct,” he admitted.

“You can’t just arrest me,” she insisted. “I was kidnapped, or did you not hear that part?”

“I heard it,” he assured. “And I’m not taking you down there to arrest you. I’m going to take your formal statement, and then, I’m going to get you set up someplace safe.”

“You don’t have to do all that for me,” she insisted.

“Yeah, I do,” he said. “Remember, I’m a cop, and I’m trained to help people.” She knew that trusting Razor might not be a good idea, but for the first time in a long time, he gave her just a little bit of hope, and that was enough for her.

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