Page 87 of Hunted Innocence

Chapter Thirty-Eight

NADINE

Slipping into the bathroom stall,I try to breathe. I don’t know where Lola went, but she’s gone. It’s been hours, and she hasn’t come back. Maybe she knows just how bad this guy is, and she wants no part of it, happy to feed me to whatever wolf makes himself known.

Once I’m finished, I slip out of the stall and make my way to the sink. I don’t know how to get out of this. I’m not covert. I’m not smart like that, and I should never have done this. I seriously freaking hate myself for this.

As much as I want to say that Lucille is at fault, I knew this was dangerous. I just didn’t think it would feel this…scary, which is naive as hell of me. And stupid. I was stupid to even attempt this.

I’m not stronger than this man, this monster. I know that. And yet, I thought I could be smarter than him. I thought this was a little game I could play in an attempt to pull Grayson to me. I could force him to choose me. I was stupid—I am stupid.

“Don’t go home with him. You need to get away,” a voice whispers from beside me.

Turning my head, I look over to her. She’s dressed like everyone else has been in this club, except even more naked, if that’s possible. She’s only wearing pasties beneath her mesh dress and G-string panties, not even a thong, just teeny-tiny strings.

“But you are staying,” I say.

Another girl comes to my other side. “We don’t have a choice. You do… so far.”

So far.

I know what this means, and my stomach twists at the thought. “You don’t have a choice?” I ask.

“You know the answer to that probably better than anyone else, aside from us.”

Sucking in my lips, I press them tightly together and try not to cry. I don’t want to cry. But they see me. See right through me. They know because they are the same and they’re being hurt.

“Can you get away?” I ask. “At all?”

I was able to run, but I’m under no illusion that every person kept against their will has an opportunity like I did. Both of the girls look at one another over my head, then the third one clears her throat behind us.

Turning around, I rest my ass against the sink. She tilts her head to the side. “You know that we can’t walk away. That man will kill us. We’re his property. But you aren’t, at least not yet. So I would suggest getting away before you are added to our home.”

“Do you want to be free?” I ask.

I’m probably suggesting this out of turn, but I also know that the men of Securus would not allow women to be kept against their will in a situation like this or any other one. So, I don’t think I am speaking out of turn when I ask if they want their freedom.

“It doesn’t matter,” the girl standing directly in front of me says. I start to open my mouth to tell her that it does matter, but she shakes her head once. “It doesn’t matter because this is what we know. We’re good at it.”

“But—” I begin.

The girl next to me takes my hand and squeezes it, then she releases it and walks toward the one across from me. She is joined instantly by the third. Their eyes meet mine, and I can tell that they’re not only resigned to their lives, but I fear they may actually like them. Or, at the very least, are comfortable in them.

“But nothing. We are happy. We know our world. You need to go. There is a way out the back; turn left instead of right. Just go straight out.”

“I can get you help,” I whisper.

The three of them shake their heads simultaneously. “We don’t want it,” the one in the middle announces.

“And if he were gone?” I chance asking.

The middle one takes a step forward, lifts her hand, takes mine in hers and squeezes gently before she releases it and speaks. What she says causes my heart to ache, but more importantly, I think my soul actually cracks at her words.

“There would be another to take his place, and we would stay with him. We are content. Let us be. But you should leave quickly because you are not breakable. And it will be a fun game for him to play to try and break you.”

I know she’s right. I can see the gleam in his eye when he watches me. When he touches me and tries to seduce me with honeyed words. But there is nothing he could offer me to make me want to have anything to do with him.

They know this. They can see it inside of me. “I don’t want to leave you here,” I confess.

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