Page 12 of Bishop

"This is really going to work?" She questions and I nod. "Oh, my God!" She laughs and throws her hands around my neck to pull me into a hug. This is the happiest I've seen her since we've been here, and it's all because we're going to be able to help this other women.

This time when she pulls away and plants a kiss on my lips I don't back away. I accept the kiss and press for more. For the first time in a long while, I can feel the hope bubbling to the surface.

Eight

Gabrielle

I thought what I was going through was rough, but nothing compares to what these women have been through. The dark, small room is cramped, and from the minute the guards brought Bishop and me into the room with the three other ladies, it feels like we've all been walking on eggshells.

I want to help them the best way I know how, but I can't do any of that if they don't let me in. It's better than just sitting and waiting for the next blow to come from Shade and the rest of the Faceless. This is where I excel: getting people to open up about themselves, helping people.

Bishop stays in the corner, making sure to give the other women more than enough space to feel comfortable with him in the same room. I take the opportunity to get to know my fellow captives a little better.

"So, are you just going to fucking stare at me all day, or do you have something to fucking say?" One of the women, the one with a short hairstyle and a piercing in her eyebrow, glares at me. She looks rugged. She must have had to develop a thick skin being in this place, but I'm not going to hold it against her.

"I don't mean to stare, just trying to figure out where my place is in all of this." I take a step forward and give her a tentative smile.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? You know we don't have a place besides under these bastards' thumb. Just stay in your corner and everything will be fine." The woman rolls her eyes and looks away from me.

"Yeah, I've never really been the type of person to do what I'm told for too long. I'm Gabrielle." I position myself so that she can see me again.

She looks me over and presses her lips together before she speaks again. "Uma."

I put my hand out to shake hers, and she looks at it as if it's a snake waiting to attack her, but I don’t back down. I need them to see that I'm here to help, that I'm not here to make their lives any worse. Hopefully, together we can figure out a way to be free.

Finally, she takes my hand and shakes it. "You must not have been here very long. You're too refined for a place like this." Uma snickers before she takes a step backward. The words grate on my nerves. It's not the first time someone has tried to put me down because of how I act. So many people have assumed they know who I am just because I'm a little more what they like to call uppity than normal. Because I'm professional, I'm less of who I am. I've lived through the judgment before, and I'll get through it again.

"We've been here for months," Bishop answers from his place in the corner behind me.

I nod and look back towards Uma. "It's true. In fact, we didn't even know there were other people here until I saw Willa in the shower. We thought we were the only people Shade and the Faceless were torturing." I try to keep it light, but there's nothing about this situation that is light. We're all in a fucked-up place.

"I've been here for six months," the other girl says. She looks younger than everyone, in fact almost too young.

"Six months? Holy fuck. I can't imagine. How old are you?" I ask, keeping my eyes on her.

"I'm eighteen. They picked me up at my fucking birthday party. Talk about a fucked-up introduction to adult life."

"What did you do to get on Shade's bad side?" Uma asks. I sigh and sit down in the middle of the floor, knowing that it'll get the other two women to drop their guard around me. Willa already seems to have accepted me as one of their own. I guess the small interaction I had with her in the shower was enough for her to see that I was keeping things completely real with her.

"I found out they were holding some girls hostage in a house across from mine. I called the right people to get them freed, and apparently, it was all I needed to do to end up on the Faceless's shit list forever." I shrug and nearly smile when the younger girl nods her head and takes a seat in the middle of the floor with me.

It doesn't take long for me to get the atmosphere in the small cell to be one that is conducive to the girls opening up to me.

I find out that Willa, the pregnant girl, is twenty-two years old. She was an investigative reporter who was digging a little too hard into all the political figures and officials that were connected to the Faceless organization. When they brought her here, she was full of fire and definitely not pregnant.

She's had a hard time waking up every day knowing that she already loves a child that was forced on her by some assholes who thought it was okay to rape her for monetary gain. Still, she was excited about becoming a mother for the first time, even if it meant having the child in these shitty conditions.

Uma is thirty years old and made the mistake of turning down Shade's advances; that was all it took for him to swoop in and destroy her life.

April, the youngest at only eighteen, is here through no fault of her own. Apparently, her father who is incarcerated had some issues with Liam. Of course being the crazed maniac he is, Liam thought it was a good idea to use April as collateral until whatever debt was paid by her father. As far as April knows, her father can't do anything to get her out. Her mother is a junkie and she's got no other family. She's all alone. A fact that only makes me want to protect her more.

Even though all of our stories are different, it's clear to see that we are the same in many aspects.

Except I'm a little luckier.

My eyes scan over to the corner where Bishop is still sitting, not adding to the conversation, but I'm sure logging everything that he hears. I may be stuck in this monstrous place with the rest of these women, but I'm the only one who has Bishop to stand by her side.

I like to think I'm a strong woman, but if I had to deal with any of the shit these women had to deal with without Bishop, I'm positive that I wouldn't have made it. I'd either be catatonic or dead. Bishop's presence, calm and strong as ever, is the only reason I've been able to pull through this. I hope one day I have the opportunity to let him know how grateful I am.