Page 22 of Beautiful Heart

She studied the room. The lights were bright and were well out of reach, even if she stood on someone’s shoulders. There were no windows to climb out of, the walls were corrugated metal, and there was only one entrance with no hinges in sight.

There was a single toilet and sink in the corner. A large plastic bin was filled with bottles of water and a paper box held what looked like sandwiches that could be bought at any gas station. There were several mattresses on the floor, but no blankets or anything else that might be used as a weapon.

“Hurry, Livingston. Please hurry and come get me,” she whispered and took one more look around the room.

Before she could get her still sluggish brain to come up with some creative way to get out of the room and to safety, the door opened. Four large men wearing full face masks entered and grabbed the first two women closest to the door. In a moment they were handcuffed together and they grabbed another and another.

While the women tried to evade and escape, it only took a few minutes for them to be handcuffed together in a long chain. Gerri was in the middle, handcuffed to the young woman who’d gently woken her, and an older woman who had been seated in the corner, never spoke, and barely breathed. When Gerri had asked about supers, she looked confused and had not answered.

She took Gerri’s hand and leaned close to whisper in Gerri’s ear. “My name is Tessa Dubois and I’m blind. My son gave me to these monsters. If you need to sacrifice someone, use me.”

Gerri squeezed her hand gently and said, “I’m Gerri and I’ll keep you safe. We will all get out of here … one way or another.”

Tessa nodded but looked doubtful.

Once the last woman was attached to the chain, two men moved to the front and led the first woman out of the room. Not wanting to lose their hands, or arms, the rest followed with one man walking beside Gerri and the fourth one walking behind the last woman in line.

Gerri’s thoughts turned to Livingston and what her disappearance and possible death would do to him.

Silent tears fell as they wound their way through the building and into a huge room with an even higher ceiling than the room they’d been in. If they got out of this alive, she vowed to never again walk the streets alone at night.

****

Livingston was ready to tear the city apart as they slowly followed a trio of shifters in wolf form down the street toward the warehouse district. All he wanted was his mate back. He vowed to the universe that if he got her back safely, he would mate her before anything else happened. The deep connection between mates that included the ability to speak to one another did not kick in until their third mating. All he could feel was her fear, her anger, her guilt.

While he understood the fear and anger, he couldn’t figure out what she had to feel guilty about. Her disappearance was on the animals who took her, not her wanting to walk down her city’s streets. She should have been safe as she walked, especially with one of his men trailing after her.

Livingston was so caught up in his own misery, he didn’t bother to follow Jefferson’s conversation. Not until the man hung up, looking pleased.

“What?”

“They’ve been found.”

All at once the boulder that had been sitting on Livingston chest lifted and he could breathe again. Then Jefferson’s words registered. “They?”

“Yes, apparently she and all the women who have disappeared over the past couple of weeks are together. They’re being held in an abandoned warehouse on the back side of the airport.”

“Well, let’s go get my mate back.”

Chapter Twelve

While Gerri wished she could protect all these women, she concentrated on the young woman on her left whose named she learned was Ariel, and Tessa on her right. Without use of her hands, and still feeling the effects of the drugs they’d used on her as well as in pain from being tossed into the van, and then dropped on the ground in their prison room when she had still been unconscious, she was feeling pretty rocky.

Looking around, she recognized this as an airplane hangar. The line of handcuffed women were led across the cement floor and past what seemed like a parking lot of expensive cars to a stage at the back of the room. The lights were aimed at the stage, leaving the rest of the room in darkness.

Just in front of the stage were a grouping of folding chairs, all of which were filled with men wearing expensive suits. All had paddles with numbers on them. Behind each seated man was at least one large man dressed in a cheaper black suit. Every man in the room wore a mask. Until the women were lined up and one of the men onstage stepped up to the podium with the microphone, Gerri still couldn’t understand what was about to happen.

Two of the guards, who were dressed in cargo pants and t-shirts, freed the first woman from the handcuffs. With a man on either side of her, she was pulled to stand next to the podium at the front of the stage.

“Welcome, gentlemen, to this month’s special auction. These women all have special talents of one sort or another. Each offering will be a challenge to break, but will heal quickly from any abuse you deal them. And now, our first offering.”

Gerri’s stomach clenched as the two security men ripped the woman’s clothes from her body, leaving her naked and cowering between them.

The line of women grew silent as they watched the two men hold her arms out and turn her around so the audience could see her from all angles. After a few minutes, the auctioneer opened up the bidding. It went quickly and the naked woman, who Ariel whispered was an elf, was dragged off stage and released to her new owner.

A second and third woman were treated in the same way. Gerri’s fear grew, until she thought she felt a wave of anger that seemed to be coming from Livingston.

As the fourth woman was being stripped, Gerri noticed the doors at the other end of the hangar were slowly sliding open. One of the perks of being a vampire was being able to see through the darkness.