Secret Worlds (591 page)

Ari ran her fingers across the markings on the side, over the tiny gold painted flowers. She fingered the latch and tiny metal plates. The box was heavy. Too heavy to be empty, yet when she shook, nothing rattled or shifted around.

“What the hell, Davis? I’m starting to think your perfect timing gift is bullcrap and you were just lucky,” she said out loud, feeling defeated.

Closing the top, Ari set the box on the table and to her surprise, heard a small click. The end of the box jutted out just a bit. She pushed one end with her thumb and pulled with the other, revealing a hidden space.

Ari reached inside and pulled out the long, wrapped object. Barely containing the smile on her face, she knew what it was the minute she touched it.

Unfolding the cloth, she found exactly what she needed. A knife.

“Perfect timing,” she said, sending a silent thank you to Davis.

***

Ari had refused to push the button since she’d been there. Hope had used it more than once, but Ari couldn’t bring herself to do the same. There was nothing she wanted, other than leaving, and no way would she voluntarily call Jace into her room. But this time was different. Armed and ready, she pressed her finger to the smooth white button. She heard nothing, but paced the room with the knife tucked in the back of her shorts.

She had a plan. Once Nick or Jace opened the door she would stab him, hopefully in the neck. From her perspective, she had two advantages, the knife and the element of surprise. The thought sickened her and just thinking about it made Ari run her hands over the top of her shorts to dry them off. To make it out of there alive, Ari would have to be a murderer. She had to come to terms with that.

Minutes passed and no one answered her call. Normally, the door opened quickly after Hope pressed the button. Not today. Ari decided to try it again. This time she pushed it twice, not caring if she seemed impatient. She was impatient. For this to be over.

When the door finally opened, Ari frowned. Neither Jace nor Nick stood before her. Not even Hope.

“Who are you?” she asked the young man. He looked vaguely familiar.

He stood in the doorway with his cap on backwards. His dark eyes twitched nervously down the hallway and back. “What do you want?”

“Where’s Nick?” she asked, forgetting her plan.

“Not here,” he said with annoyance. “What do you want?” A loud bang echoed down the dark hallway and the guy shook his head. “Obviously, you’re okay.”

He started to close the door and Ari came to her senses. “I know where I’ve seen you before,” she said, taking a step closer. “You were there the night of the shooting. You were with Antonio.”

This information surprised him and he dropped his hand from the door knob. Ari took her chance, rushing him while pulling the knife from behind her back. Mustering up every bit of anger and rage she’d been holding back, she lunged. The kid reacted quickly to Ari’s attack, but the knife threw him off.

“Holy shit!” he yelled, throwing his arms up over his face.

Ari went for the only part of his body she could hit, his thigh, stabbing him hard with the blade. She yanked it back out.

He howled with pain, clutching the wound. Dark red blood started dripping down his leg. “You stabbed me? Psycho bitch!”

“I’m sorry,” she said on instinct, pushing past him, and ran into the dark hallway. For the second time since she’d been kidnapped, Ari had escaped outside of her room. Unfortunately, that was as far as she’d planned.

She moved forward, barely able to see in the dark, but toward the middle of the hall she found a shaft of light. The light came from the stairwell, leading to the upper floor. Taking a deep breath, Ari began to climb the stairs but paused when she heard a voice from the hall. A girl’s voice.

She stood still, trying to hear over her pounding heart, convinced she’d made it up. Ari couldn’t wait long. She hadn’t injured the kid that badly, just enough to slow him down.

Deciding she’d imagined it, Ari had just turned to the steps when she heard it again. This time she knew the girl’s voice was real. And needed help. Help, Ari knew, was up those stairs, but it went against her nature to leave someone in need. Not when it could possibly be one of her girls.

***

Light in the hallway came from two sources. The stairway and Ari’s old room. There was no way she could chance going back in the direction of her room, with Nick’s lackey waiting for her, injured and undoubtedly pissed.

Ari crept along the hallway and whispered, “Hello? Anyone?”

“Ms. Grant!” she heard in reply.

“Yes! Who’s there? Hope?” She ran her hands along the walls, searching for a doorknob.

“Here! I’m in here!”

The muffled voice sounded closer and Ari’s hand made contact with a cool, metal doorknob. She twisted and pulled but it was locked.

“Ms. Grant!” Hope’s voice came from below and Ari couched, feeling along the door. There was a mail flap about halfway down. She pried it open, recoiling from the smell inside.

“Hope! Are you okay?” Ari asked, still unable to see, keeping one eye down the hall.

“Shanna never came back, Ms. Grant. I think she’s dead,” she cried. “Reggie came back on a tear the other night. Yelling and breaking things upstairs. The girls ran and hid in their rooms. He grabbed me by the throat and dragged me down here. I haven’t seen anyone since.”

“No food? Nothing?”

“No, and I don’t have a bathroom in here.” That was the smell.

A noise came from down the hall and Ari whispered, “shhh,” pressing herself as close as possible to the wall. The guy Ari had stabbed came toward her, limping. She fumbled for her knife, holding it to her chest. He stepped into the light of the stairwell and she could see the pain on his face and his shirt streaked with blood. With a vague look in her direction, he turned and started climbing the stairs. His leg must have hurt badly because each step brought a loud, stomping noise. Ari released a breath when he reached the top.

“Who was that?” Hope asked.

“I don’t know. Someone working for Nick I guess? A young guy …”

“That’s Desmond. He’s part of the crew.”

Of course. Nick had a whole group of young men working for him. “Okay, how do I get you out of here?”

“I don’t think you can. Reggie—Nick—told me I could rot in this hellhole. Do you think maybe he got caught? Maybe he was arrested. Maybe Shanna got help and they freaked out.”

Unlikely, Ari thought. That kid would be long gone if Nick had been arrested. She didn’t want to scare Hope, so she said, “I hope so, but I’m going to have to go up there and get help. Can you tell me anything about where we are?”

“Yes,” Hope said. “We’re in the basement of a house. Upstairs there is the main floor, and then another floor with bedrooms. All the other girls sleep in one room. The other rooms are for them to meet with men.”

Ari fought back the urge to vomit. Hope continued. “Reggie and Jace have their own rooms, too, you know, for the girls to meet with them, too.”

“Has anyone tried to escape?”

“No. There are bars on all the windows and doors, though. No one can get out.”

“Does anyone know we’re down here?”

She shook her head. “They definitely don’t know about you. They probably think I’m dead.”

“If the doors are locked, how can I get a key?”

“Only Jace and Reggie have a key. You’ll have to take it from them.”

Ari squeezed the knife in her hand. “All right, I’m going to have to go up. Now, before I chicken out.”

“Go, but don’t forget about me, okay?”

Ari frowned and reached her hand into the slot, touching her fingers to Hope’s. “I’d never do that. I’ll be back.”

Hope let out a sob, something she’d never heard from the hardened kick-ass inner-city girl before. Ari fought back her own tears and took a deep breath of resolve. “I’m coming back, Hope. I promise.”

Ari walked away, clenching the knife in her hand so hard it hurt. In the quiet, dark hallway she heard Hope’s voice. “I believe you.”

***

Bright sunlight streamed through the window at the top of the stairs. Ari winced, having not seen the sun in days, the glare hurt her eyes.

The other thing was how quiet the house seemed. Daytime probably wasn’t the busiest time of day for these girls, so maybe they were asleep. Plus, Nick had to work to keep up his appearances.

She entered the living room, running her hand along the leather couch. All the furnishings were high quality and the room was spotless. She tried to figure out her next move. How to get the keys. The odds were not in her favor.

The main level appeared to be empty, so Ari took the chance and tried the doors, frantically pulling and pushing to get them to budge. Both had a bolted lock that could only be unlocked with a key. A long, glass patio door went out to the backyard. She managed to slide it open, and inhaled a deep gulp of air, but a long row of bars and another lock kept her firmly inside. Each window was the same. Even if Ari could open the door, she was met with locked bars on the other side.

The neighborhood looked plain and suburban. Quiet, identical ranch-style homes lined the streets. She opened her mouth to call for help but paused. What if Jace or Nick found her? They would kill her before anyone got the bars off the doors.

The best thing to do would be to find one of them and steal the key.

She followed the blood until she found a long smear down the back hallway wall. Maybe Desmond got out of the house. Maybe he’s lying in a pool of blood in the back. Ari didn’t care. Determined, she found the stairs to the upper floor. At the top, she gripped her knife and walked toward a series of closed doors. Several had a gold, thick slide lock on the outside.

Ari stopped at the first locked door and took a breath. The house was so quiet, the idea of opening the door terrified her. What if they were all dead? All gone? What if the plan really was to let Ari and Hope rot away in this house?

With her free hand, Ari slid the lock open. Startled, she gripped the knife so she wouldn’t drop it.

“Oh my God,” she said. Three mattresses covered the floor and eight girls lay across them, in various states of sleep. Only one sat with her back against the wall reading a fashion magazine. She had ratty blonde hair, and old, heavy makeup lined her eyes. She looked exhausted. The girl tensed when she saw Ari.

“Who are you?” the girl asked.

“I’m Ari,” she said. “Are you okay?”

She shrugged. “You one of Reggie’s girls, too?”

“No.” Ari said, but wasn’t she?

The girl nodded. Her eyes held that same glazed-over look Hope’s had when she would come to Ari’s room. “Yeah, you’re too old.”

“I’m here to help you get out of here. What’s your name?”

“Sydney,” she replied. “How are you going to get us out of here? There’s no way.” She nudged one of the sleeping girls with her foot. The pale girl lay on her stomach in shorts and a tight T-shirt. Dark red blood stained the mattress under her head, and her hands and feet were bound with duct tape. Painful-looking bruises covered her arms and legs. “That’s the last girl that tried to escape.”

“Is she dead?” Ari asked, stepping into the room. She pressed her fingers into the girl’s neck. She was warm and had a pulse. Tilting the injured girl’s head to the side, she gasped. “Oh, no. No.”

“What?” Sydney asked, for the first time sounding alert.

“I, um. I know her and I need to get her help. And you. And all these girls.” Ari stood up, trying not to step on anyone. “Okay, do you know if Nic—Reggie or Jace is here? I need a key to get us out of here.”

The girl snorted. “Jace keeps that key around his neck, on a chain. You’re only getting it off of him in one of two ways.”

“How?”

“Killing him,” she said, eyeing the knife. She had an amused expression on her face. “Or screwing him.”

Ari took a step backwards and clenched her jaw. There was no way in hell she was getting into bed with that dirt bag. She’d stabbed Desmond. Maybe even killed him. She could do the same to Jace. She opened her mouth to tell Sydney as much but a rough hand grabbed her by the neck. She squeaked, dropping the knife to the ground in surprise.

Jace’s hard, entitled voice, whispered low in her ear. “I pick choice number two.”

“How’d you get out of your cage?” Jace asked, pushing her down the hallway and into a bedroom. This one held a bed with tacky red satin sheets and wide mirrors on the wall. He looked at the blood splattered across her shirt and shorts. He frowned. “Is that yours?”

“No. It’s Desmond’s. He may still be alive,” Ari retorted. “If you get him help now.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about Desmond.” Jace took a step forward and grabbed Ari by the chin. “I’ve wanted to get you alone for a long time.”

Ari stomped on his foot, and used her elbow like she’d seen the boys do when they had their demonstration at her program, but Jace had a lot of weight and height on her. He smacked her across the mouth so forcefully she landed across the bed with a bounce. “Nick will kill you if he finds out,” she said, licking the blood off her lip.

“Once he finds out you tried to escape and killed one of his men? He won’t think twice. He’s gone anyway.” Jace stood over the bed and pulled off his shirt. His chest was covered in scars and just like Sydney said, a shiny silver key hung from a long chain. Ari lunged for it, and he swatted her back, proceeding to unbutton the top button on his jeans. “Don’t worry. I’ll kill you when I’m finished.”

Ari grimaced when he lowered his pants and she saw how aroused he was. The violence turned him on, and that incapacitating feeling of panic washed over her. At what he wanted to do. She thought back to what Davis told her. Always fight.

She waited until his pants were down to his ankles. Using all her weight, she rolled off the bed, crashing into the bedside table, toppling a lamp to the floor. Ari landed hard on her hip.

“You’re always a feisty bitch, I’ll give you that,” Jace yelled from the bed.

She scrambled to her feet and took a swipe at his chest, reaching for the key. Grasping her fingers around it, she yanked until it broke.