I was seeing black again. A few guards had come into my cage not a few hours later and blindfolded me before tying my arms around my back. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

I had tried to fight them off with the chains around my wrists as I attempted to hold them off, but there were too many of them against just myself, and they managed to grab me by the arms and drag me off to somewhere else—I had no idea where.

They insisted on not speaking or answering any of my questions. It was moments later when the stench of the holding room left my nose and I was now smelling a different surrounding. This one was cleaner.

When the blindfold was taken off, and my eyes finally adjusted to the bright orange-tinted light that took over, I came face to face with the grinning faces of Bernard and Jessica.

I was quickly and very easily becoming sick of these two. I wasn’t even angry anymore about having my day ruined by these two. I was just irritated. I scoffed at the two as I looked away from their agitating faces and around the room.

My eyes trailed over Jessica’s face first, and then Bernard’s, before I spoke.

"Miss me that much?" I smiled up at them and watched in delight as Jessica’s triumphant smirk fell from her face.

"Always one with the smart reply," she said as she stalked toward me, "aren’t you? Have you forgotten that Roman is at the hospital with a bullet wound in his stomach?"

I shook my head at her in disbelief. "And you wonder why he didn’t reciprocate your feelings."

I huffed a laugh at her, but it was cut short as her face fell even more. She landed a slap against my cheek with the palm of her hand. I hissed as I felt a sting on my face and blood pooling down my cheek. Her damn long acrylic nails had sliced it open.

"Jessica, that’s enough!" Bernard yelled at her seeing my face split open, but Jessica didn’t relent. Instead, she grabbed me by my collar and pulled me to face her.

"You’re a conniving b*tch, do you know that?" Jessica hissed in my face. "Things were going so well before you came along and indoctrinated Roman."

I raised my eyebrow at her. "Indoctrinated? That’s a big word."

She only yanked me forward even more. "You stole him from me, you wench, and now I’m going to take him back."

Jessica was pulled away from me by Bernard, and I just gave her a smug smile, which moved to further enrage her as she was pushed behind the man.

Bernard focused his attention on me, as he leaned in a bit too close for my liking and I pushed myself against the back of the chair as far as I could go.

I didn’t like the way Bernard was looking down at me, but I refused to take my eyes off of him and give him the satisfaction of thinking he made me uncomfortable. He did. He was the type of man who could make even the Pope uncomfortable. But I didn’t want him to think he had any sort of power over me.

Granted, I was the one strapped to a chair in his secret hideout. Granted, he was the one with guns and men at his side. But still. It was psychological.

This was what I was telling myself as he began to speak.

"Please, excuse her. She gets a tad bit emotional." A look of disgust made its way to my face as Bernard wiped the blood from my cheek and caressed the side of my face. "But very soon it will just be the two of us, so don’t pay her any mind."

God, even the way he spoke irritated me. I tried to calm myself down. I didn’t want to get angry and agitated and say or do something because of the bubbling emotions that began to rise up in me. Despite how hard it was to keep it down.

So I only looked up at him and spoke as clearly as I could without letting the shake in my voice show. It was much easier to do when I just looked at Jessica from over his shoulder instead.

"You must be sick in the head if you think I’m going to let that happen," I told him.

He only shook his head at me and tutted. "Oh, but you will. You see, if you don’t listen to what I have to say, then your poor Roman will be taking an extra big bullet to the heart. Now, you don’t want that do you?"

"You said you wouldn’t hurt him!" Jessica’s voice came from behind Bernard. I watched as the man rolled his eyes at the loud woman behind him.

"I said you could have her and do whatever you want with her, just make sure she disappears," Jessica told Bernard. "She is the one who ruined my perfect life and stole Roman from me! Just sell her off already."

I laughed loudly at her bold proclamation. "Perfect life?" I asked her, "You and Roman? Please. The man barely looked at you once even before I came into the picture. Tell me exactly how me being sold on a flesh market was ruining your life and stealing Roman from you?"

"You’re as narcissistic as you are delusional," I continued as I peered at her from over Bernard’s shoulder. "Roman doesn’t love you, you hypocritical toad, and he never will! God, do you even hear yourself? Selling women left and right to secure your own happiness... Do you think Roman could ever love someone like that?"

"You’re lying!" Jessica screeched. "He does love me! He’s just being manipulated by you! You’ve been putting words into his head ever since you came here! Just you wait. When you’re out of the picture and he’s with me, he’ll realize how much he loves me."

I deadpanned and turned to Bernard. "You may as well kill me now and free me from this stupidity because I can’t take it anymore."

"Jessica, that’s enough," Bernard told her. He moved away from my face only slightly to turn toward her. "You’ve been running your mouth ever since we got her. Quite frankly, it’s been annoying the hell out of me."

I smirked at her from behind Bernard’s body and decided to antagonize her even more in hopes of getting some information from her.

"Do you hear that?" I asked her. "Not even your friends like you. Hell, I was the one who got kidnapped, yet they find you more irritating and intolerable to be around."

Smirking at the way her face became red with anger, she let out another screech as she stampeded toward me. "Would you shut up!" she yelled. "Shut up! Shut up! You’ll be shipped off within the hour with all those other prostitutes, and I’ll never hear from you again!"

"The boss is coming, and you’ll all be so far away that you’ll never hear another word of your families or loved ones again!" My eyes widened. "And you’ll never be able to ruin any other perfect matches with your sick and twisted lies!"

Jesus. She really did have anger issues.

But sh*t, did she say the boss was going to come here? If the girls were being moved in an hour, there was less and less time for me to find a window of opportunity and escape. I couldn’t rely on Roman like I did last time.

There seemed to be no windows in the room. I guessed that it was because this room was used to host the girls with their customers. It certainly looked like it. I was tied to one of the flimsy wooden chairs and turned my hands behind my back.

The rope around my wrists was binding and constrictive. There was no way I was getting out of it even if I decided to break my thumbs.

Taking a deep breath in, I tried to survey the room. It seemed to be an entertainment room that the customers would use with the girls on auction. There were stripper poles and a table with various types of things on it.

They looked like handcuffs and ribbons. I scrunched up my nose in disgust.

"Jessica." Bernard’s low voice was angry and warning. We both knew Jessica said too much. Even though I was tied to a chair and bound tightly enough, her loud mouth running off like that about the boss’s whereabouts and the movements of the girls wasn’t a good thing.

She seemed to realize it too as her eyes went wide. She closed her mouth.

Just then, the door behind me creaked open. I watched as Bernard’s eyes widened and Jessica’s face paled. From that reaction alone, I knew who had stepped in on this little conversation.

The floorboards creaked under his steps. My heart began beating faster than I had ever felt it beating before.