Forsaken (The Found Book 2) (15 page)

Annie scrambled to push Ashley off her lap before she threw up the little bit in her stomach. She continued to dry heave, her tears falling to the floor.

“After a while it doesn’t even hurt so bad. You just have to go to another place in your head.” She looked up Sharon and really saw her.

Long minutes later, Annie wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “If you can separate yourself, why do you want to kill yourself?”

“I’m done. It only gets worse and worse and worse. Death has to be better, and if it isn’t, at least it ends it.” She didn’t sound defeated, just resigned.

“Please believe me when I tell you we’re going to be rescued,” she begged the young woman.

“I can’t. If I believe in something good again and am disappointed one more time, it will be so much worse than death.” Annie tried to give Sharon a hug but was pushed away.

“Don’t, get away from me,” she said vehemently. “Just leave me alone.”

Annie walked around her puddle of puke and once again lifted Ashley’s head into her lap, praying she had the strength for what came next.

The door was flung open and pony-tail and the other man came in, and they looked pissed.

“Is she awake?” Pony-tail demanded, as he peered into the cage. Annie felt the girl start to move, and she held her tight, so she stayed still.

“No she hasn’t moved a muscle.”

“Then it’s your turn. I told you I liked brunettes. Get your ass over here, or we’re going to take you and the other one.” She heard Sharon whimpering behind her. Annie stood up. She’d made her decision. She went to the door. As soon as it was open, pony-tail grabbed her arm, she yanked backwards, making him stumble forward. She swung. There wasn’t a chance in fucking hell she was going to be easy prey. She connected with his nose, and he hit back—hard. Annie slammed backwards, her head hitting the steel bars of the cage. The last thing she saw was his look of shock and horror.

She thought she heard the other man say, “Ms. Gordon is going to be pissed.” As she lost consciousness she prayed.
Please God, don’t let them rape me while I’m unconscious.

Chapter Twelve

“They bore me.” Another lie. This lie would surely send him straight to hell. Girl after girl had been brought before him. This time they weren’t pictures, they were all brought into the room for his inspection. Each one wore a white slip. It was as if Leslie attended some kind of warped marketing seminar t instructing her to present all of her girls in the same attire so the customers would concentrate on the girls themselves.

When the young woman from the video was brought in, Seth remained composed. God, something was so wrong with her. She looked bad in the video, with her clothes torn, but now she looked almost comatose. He dismissed her with a wave of his hand, hoping the next woman would be Annie, but it wasn’t.

“This whole exercise was tedious, I don’t know how you found one woman, let alone three.”

“How can you say that?” Thiago said nervously. “There were so many to choose from. So beautiful, so young.”

“None with fire. You could tell it was beaten out of them. None with humanity. I’m not interested.”

“What about physical characteristics?” Leslie asked.

“I’m sick of blondes with tans.” It was easy for the disgust to show.

“This is critical, we discussed this. You need to find the right candidate for Carson immediately. I know you said you had more girls coming in from out of state, how soon can they be here?”

“I should have some in the next couple of days.” Leslie’s eyes cut away from Thiago, and he saw it.

“What? What aren’t you telling us?” the man demanded.

“There is a girl who suffered an accident who might meet your needs, Carson. She should be available for viewing in forty-eight hours. She perfectly matches your description.”

“I doubt that. You’re desperate now, that’s all. There were girls here who obviously had mishaps, and you showed them. I don’t see why you held one back. Thiago, we’re done here.” Fuck, what kind of
accident
had Annie suffered?

“I’m not selling you. Here’s a picture of her before her accident.” Leslie pulled out her phone and scrolled through. She handed it to Seth, and he was looking at a model shoot of Annie.

“She looks like the type I would be interested in, but I would have to meet her to see if she has the temperament I want. Why wasn’t she here?”

“As I said, she’s recovering. I expect you could meet her the day after tomorrow. She will have more bruising than what you have seen here tonight. I just want to warn you now.”

“I thought you were a better businesswoman than that. You’re just shooting yourself in the foot when you allow that.”

“Carson,” she swallowed and shot Labado a glance. “Of course you’re right. I have had to recently deal with a couple of employee issues. I have made examples of them.”

“So no more women will be abused?”

“Just trained to my specifications.”

“I hope this woman has been trained enough.” Seth let his disgust ring through. “Because the image I saw has potential. It would be a shame if your training techniques force me to get a divorce.”

“Leslie won’t touch her, I guarantee it,” Labado said quickly. Seth looked from one to the other, imagining each of them being trained.

“She won’t be touched. I’ll bring her here in forty-eight hours.” Her smile was forced. She reached out to grasp his hands for a parting kiss, he just nodded and left.

Keep it together, Natani. Keep it together
.

He damn near stumbled as he got into his Ferrari, and he did drop his keys. Where the fuck was Nate or this Kota? How could they have let this happen?

Seth was at the beach before he realized it. He didn’t even remember deciding to drive to the beach, let alone the drive itself. He got out of the car and pulled out his phone.

“Ms. Pierce, call me.” He so wanted to throw the cell phone into the ocean. His skin was too tight, his eyes burned, he couldn’t hold in the yell that exploded out of him. Dozens of people turned to look at the crazy man in a suit who was yelling at nothing. He needed to get control. Fast. His phone rang.

“Seth, she’s alive.”

“Get her out. Pull her out now. Now! We have everybody. We know where all the girls are, they were just paraded in front of me. Gather them up, and get their statements, and we’re done with this. Get her the fuck out of there.”

“If we pull her out now, then the auctions get called off. The buyers are let off. We can’t do it, we want to take them all down.”

“I don’t give a shit. I want her out. She’s hurt. I don’t know what they’ve done, but it’s clear she needs medical attention. The girl Ashley who had been with her was damn near catatonic today. I think she’s been raped. I didn’t see any marks on her, but she needs to be in a hospital yesterday.”

“You already knew Annie was hurt, you saw the bruising in the video yesterday,” Sierra said carefully.

“You bitch,” he bit out. “You knew something else happened to her, and you didn’t tell me.”

“I was really hoping she would be awake by now, and they would have showed her to you tonight so you could have taken her with you.”

“What the fuck happened?” If Sierra had been in front of him, he would be choking the answers out of her.

“She was knocked up against a wall and hit her head. Kota said she has a mild concussion and she’s unconscious.”

“She needs to be in a hospital.”

“Negative. I told you, Kota checked her out.”

“And how in the hell did he do that?”

“I told you Nate and Kota have been close the entire time. They took her to a warehouse, and they’ve been inside hiding. Whenever those assholes leave Annie alone, they go and check on her.”

“She could be dying without medical care for all we know.”

“Kota is a medic. He knows his stuff. Nate explained for the few days leading up to the modeling appointment she wasn’t sleeping. That’s the reason she’s still unconscious. She’s not in danger. I swear to you, if she were really in trouble, Kota would be the first one to pull her out.”

He stared at the ocean, breathing in the salt air.

“Are you still there?”

“There’s one more thing you need to consider. The bitch Gordon would never have told you about Annie if she had thought there was something really wrong with her.” Sierra was making sense, but Seth didn’t want to see reason. He continued staring at the ocean, then finally hit end on the phone and put it in his pocket. When it continued to buzz, he turned it off.

He sat in the sand and took off his shoes and socks, and rolled up his pant legs. He walked towards the water. Sitting down he closed his eyes and tried to center himself. It didn’t work, so he looked out over the horizon, trying to let the water soothe him. He breathed in with the waves. In. Out. Finally he closed his eyes, and reached out.

This time he wasn’t being blocked. He could sense Annie, but she was far away, like she was in another world. It teased his senses. For just a moment he imagined himself someplace else. He was in a stadium surrounded by other children. He saw them at eye level. He was a child.

Focus Natani.
He didn’t care if he was remembering a long forgotten past. Now he needed to concentrate on Annie, only on Annie.

Porcelain skin that felt like silk, mink colored hair that once in a great while in sunlight would glint red, and then there were her eyes. Seth pictured Annie’s eyes laughing at him, or snapping with irritation, or the occasional fire of anger. Finally he had the perfect picture of Annie, skin flushed and dewy, hair messed, and those beautiful eyes softly hazed with passion as she looked at him. He found her.

No wonder it had taken so long, she wasn’t sleeping, she was truly unconscious, and this was different. She wasn’t even dreaming, but he could feel her spirit. Annie didn’t seem to be in pain, he delved deeper and realized she had gone so deeply within her own head she blocked out her physical reality. He kept probing and finally found her huddled in the fetal position. She wasn’t responsive, so he curled up behind her, pulling her spirit body against his. She didn’t respond to his presence. But maybe, maybe if he just spoke to her, reminded her of something special…

****

She laughed at him. She surprised him.

“Paperwork?” she asked again in her sultry woman’s voice. Thank God, Seth thought, as he handed over the slip of paper. Her voice matched the gleam in her eye and the mature visage of the woman he met in the library the other day. But now he was staring at this green-eyed waif who looked no more than seventeen. She worked in the tire store, too?

“Natani? Native American, right?”

Seth nodded. He was having trouble speaking as he looked into the greenest eyes he had ever seen. Then she had the gall to laugh, and t broke his silence.

“So you work here
and
at the college library?”

“A woman has to work off her student loans.” One of the tire techs walked up and handed her an order. She processed the credit card charge, as she answered the phone. As soon as she hung up, she handed Seth’s paperwork to the man and told him what tires to pull. Another tech arrived as the phone rang again and Seth stepped aside for the next customer. He watched in amazement as the woman handled four things at the same time for the next twenty minutes.

“Mr. Natani? Your car is ready.” He handed his credit card to her.

“What’s your name?”

“Annie.” Another tech came up, without any paperwork. He glowered at Seth.

“May I take you to dinner?”

“I work two jobs, I don’t have time to date.”

He could see she was sincere.

“If it weren’t for that, would you have dinner with me?” Seth watched as she nibbled at her bottom lip before finally nodding. “Don’t you have any time where you would be available?”

“I could meet you on Sunday. The tire shop is closed, and I only work mornings in the library.”

“Dinner?”

She shook her head. “I have to be here early Monday morning to open.” He watched as she bit her lip again, and then smiled. “I’ll meet you for coffee at the college.”

After working out the particulars, Seth found himself grinning as he walked to his car. He wasn’t surprised when the technician was waiting for him.

“Cancel your coffee date,” he said without preamble.

“Why?”

“You’re a player.”

“I’m not. My folks live over in Shiprock, you can check them out. I graduated from Farmington College and now I’m taking additional courses at the college for my job.”

The man gave him a long look. “Don’t think I won’t check you out.”

“I never doubted it.” Seth didn’t. He was actually happy to see Annie had such a fierce protector.

Seth couldn’t remember a time he had been more excited to go on a date, and to think it was just a cup of coffee. He arrived fifteen minutes early, finding a seat near the back, where he could see the door. Annie arrived precisely at two o’clock. This time she was wearing a soft green sweater, her dark hair floated down around her shoulders and her smoky make-up made her eyes glow. Heads turned as she made her way to his table.

He held out both hands in greeting. He so wanted to hug her, but knew it was too soon.

“You look beautiful.”

“I look my age.”

“I’m twenty-seven, how old are you?”

“Twenty-two.” She smiled ruefully.

“Well then, neither of us look our age, I look older, you look younger. People are bound to stare. But at least I’ll get a thumbs up for having a trophy wife.”

“Trophy girlfriend.”

“My mistake.”
Not hardly
, Seth thought. He’d found her, his instincts never steered him wrong. She was going to be his…permanently.