A snarl clawed up Sage’s throat as she charged again at the pig, hoping to get in a solid head butt. King swerved, but not fast enough to avoid a spray of her spit, courtesy of the gag. An animalistic sound surged out of the bastard as he glared at the white blobs on his hand and arm. He shook the spit off, raised his hand again, and backhanded her face. Sage heard the thud of his heavy topaz ring as it connected to her cheekbone, but the sound was eclipsed by the clanging pain throughout her head.
“Sage!” The shriek was Rayna’s, sounding weirdly muffled as she got pushed in front of her friend. The guards led them down a semi-underground passageway. Though the block rocks of the cave still surrounded them, the walls on their left gave way every five or six feet to bunches of thick tropical foliage. After they’d walked a minute or so, Sage glimpsed lights through the trees. She made out the shadows of low-lying buildings and picked up on the labored sound of clunky compact car engines. Bar glasses clinked somewhere, and an old Bon Jovi song blared from tired speakers. They were in a small village, though they weren’t exactly led into the middle of town square. Across a small clearing lay a dome-shaped Quonset hut. Dim lights burned from the high windows.
Sage and Rayna were led past more guards and then trundled inside through a back door. The room they entered was small and musty, walled off from the rest of the hut by corrugated aluminum walls. A few strings of old Christmas lights and a half-dozen kerosene lamps were the only light sources in the space, which didn’t help her disorientation as one of the guards spun her around and threw her to the hard-packed dirt floor. He grabbed Rayna and did the same to her. Without their arms to fling out for balance, they both landed in painful heaps, their knees and shoulders taking the brunt of their falls. For a few seconds, Sage even forgot the throbbing in her face from King’s blow.
“Careful, you idiots!” King cuffed both guards on the sides of their faces. Watching the guy direct his masochism on someone else was satisfying in a sick way. “We’re not renting those two tonight. Sales will be final on them. The blond is already scuffed up, so take care.”
Sage watched in grim triumph as the two men glared at King’s back. She wished one of them would point out that it was he who’d scuffed her up in the first place, but they both pulled the wuss card like the cowards they were.
A shaking cry whipped her attention back down and to the side. She joined Rayna in returning the stares of five women who were caked in gaudy cosmetics, raw fear, and little else. One of the girls, a strawberry blond in a low-cut red leather minidress and matching boots, scooted toward Sage.
“Dear merciful Lord. You’ve got a shiner the size of Kalamazoo, girlfriend. And that rag must be wretched. Let me—”
“No.” Rayna grabbed the woman’s wrist. Red Mini’s heart was in the right place in wanting to dislodge the gag from Sage, but Rayna set the woman straight in a somber tone. “The bastard is using it as punishment. Take it off, and he’ll give her worse.”
“Who is he?” A curvy chestnut brunette trembled hard as she curled against the wall. King’s magical makeover team had dressed her in a black tube top and a cheetah-print skirt that wasn’t much bigger. “Wh-What’s going on?” Tears coursed down her face, taking trails of her makeup with them. “Why is this happening? We came here to help people! We were on our way to Myanmar. We just wanted to serve. Now wh-what’s going to happen to us?”
“He said ‘renting.’” The matter-of-fact statement was given by a woman in a royal-blue version of Red Mini’s outfit. Aside from the dresses, the women were literally twins. “I think we can draw the logical conclusions from that term.”
“Oh my God!” The brunette sobbed harder. “I-I can’t! I can’t!”
Another woman, black-haired and in a lemon-yellow halter with pink shorts, crawled over to her. “Yes, you can, Mandy. Listen to me. You do whatever it takes to survive, you hear me? Just do whatever they say. Don’t make them upset.”
“You d-don’t understand,” the brunette rasped back. “I’m…I’m a…virgin.”
One of the guards sidled in closer. “In that case, waan jai, maybe I’ll bid on you myself.”
“Hell yeah, baby.” His friend cracked an oily grin. “Teo will be good to you, honey. He’s popped the plug on three virgins this year alone.”
The first guard shrugged. “Eh, it’s almost getting boring, ya know?” He slid a sideways glance down at Sage. “If I was making the big baht, I’d wanna buy something like that to take home and tie up for myself.” After looking to make sure King was still in the other section of the hut, he grabbed Sage’s hair and grinded her face against his crotch. “I have a million ideas for how to break a tiger like you, gorgeous. Again and again and again…”
Sage instinctively tried to yank away, but she was crouched, bound, and about half the henchman’s size. Teo grunted and kept her locked against his burgeoning bulge, rolling her nose along the khaki fabric that smelled like sweat and urine. Okay, this was not where a single one of her bondage fantasies had ever led.
Think of home. Think of home. He’ll get bored in a minute and stop. Think of—
“Oh yeah, baby. You’re a sweet little e-raan. Nice little slut. Open your mouth for me. Suck those balls right through my pants. Yeeaahh…”
Behind her, Rayna remained thankfully silent, but the other five women let out gasps of horror and protest. Sage knew they meant well, but the louder they sobbed, the harder the bastard toyed with her. She reached inside, frantically scrounging for her mental disconnect button.
Think of Garrett. Think of home. Think of the egrets on the water.
Who the hell was she kidding?
She’d never see home again.
Once King had haggled the highest price for her, life as Sage Weston wouldn’t exist any longer. She’d have a new name, if her owner decided to call her anything at all. The tracks of her life would be erased by the ocean of anonymity. Of slavery.
She and Rayna had discussed this a thousand times over the last two weeks, yet she realized some fortress in her brain had been holding back the reality of it. This helpless, humiliating instant blew those walls to dust. In the wake of the explosion, her mind screamed in grief and her heart floundered in despair. The effort of both sapped the strength from her body. She was a shell, numb and senseless. When the other guards hissed that King was on approach again and Teo tossed her back to the ground, she barely felt the impact.
The curious thing was, King’s approach now seemed more the charge of a crazed rodeo bull. His features matched the mien, his mouth bared in a grimace, the whites of his eyes like crazed flashlights.
“The auction is off,” he snapped. “Get the bitches out of here.”
“Off?” Teo’s buddy didn’t have such a snarky tone now.
“Take them back to the cave,” King fired as if the guy hadn’t spoken. “Then wait for my instructions. Reaw-khao! Hurry!”
“The cave?” echoed another henchman. “All of them?”
King rammed the heel of his palm up that guy’s nose. “Imbecile! Isn’t that what I just said?”
The soldier didn’t get a chance to check his bloody nose. Before King was done, shouts erupted outside the hut. A door was bashed in somewhere. Another.
“Get them out of here!” King dictated. “No bitches in the buildings. They cannot be found. Hide them. Now!”
Teo and his friends hauled them to their feet. “You heard him, sluts. Move.”
Sage and Rayna struggled to get upright. “What’s going on?” her friend rasped.
Sage shook her head in a wordless I don’t know. Her heart pounded. Frantic wheezes erupted from her nose. Rayna and she stumbled behind the other women. They wouldn’t be sold tonight, but that didn’t mean the danger was over.
The next second, they were slammed back to the dirt. Sage’s head hit the floor. A curtain of silver spots crashed over her vision, yanked by pulleys screaming in terror. No. The screams were human. The Miniskirt Twins and Virgin Girl, accompanied by the women’s frenzied retreat from the door, barreled into Sage and Rayna. Their cries mixed with more voices from outside the hut, seeming to come from the direction of the village. They all sounded male—and pissed.