Claiming Their Mate Read online

  Neither moved and Elena suspected they’d been drugged, too.

  The skinny dude came up to her cage and kicked it. “I’ll be back. A good soak in the tub and I bet you’ll be ripe for the plucking.” He spit and walked out.

  Bile tinged her throat, and she covered her mouth to keep the vomit from erupting. She made the sign of the cross and prayed for a miracle. She was going to die. Now there’d be no man in her life or little ones running around. Tears finally spilled from her eyes, and she wiped them away.

  Elena dipped her head. There was only one thing left to do. “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”

  When the big door closed, and they were once more shrouded in semi-darkness, she kept watch, not only for the men to return but also for the women to awaken. With the addition of these new girls, it probably wouldn’t be long before they eliminated her.

  A sob escaped. Her mom’s birthday was in a month and she really wanted to be there with her. Now that wouldn’t happen and her heart trembled. A mother should never outlive her child.

  One of the girls moaned and Elena faced her. She rapped her knuckles on her cage bars. “Hello? Can you hear me?” After dragging the pillow to the end of the cage, she knelt on it waiting for the first one to rouse. When Elena had first arrived, the drug they’d given her took a long time to wear off.

  The blonde pushed up on her elbows then dropped back down. A trickle of hope surfaced. Three could think better than one.

  “Hey. Open your eyes. It’s okay.” Not really, but any reassurance would help them cope once they found out what happened.

  She needed to speak with them before the guard returned to tell them resistance was futile.

  After prodding the new women for several minutes, the blonde opened her eyes and looked around.

  She licked her lips. “Holy fuck. Where am I?” She grabbed the bars and rattled them. “Hey!”

  Her anger at the injustice must have struck home.

  “No one can hear you,” Elena said with an eerie calm.

  The girl faced her. “Whoa. You look like shit. What the fuck’s going on?”

  The girl swore too much, but given the situation, Elena understood people weren’t always at their best under these circumstances.

  “Do you remember how you got here?” Perhaps all three of them had been abducted the same way.

  “Fuck, yeah.” She brushed the hair from her face. “I was leaving the club out the back door like I do every night when this dude stumbles toward me moaning and holding his stomach. I’m thinking maybe he’s been shot or something, so I go to help him. That was when he straightens and freaking sticks a needle right here.” She rubbed the back of her arm. “Doesn’t pay to be helpful.”

  The girl’s experience kind of matched hers. Her mind spun at what that might mean. “Then you woke up here, right?”

  “You’re a real genius.”

  Why was the girl being nasty? Didn’t she understand their situation was quite dire? They’d be better off working as a team. “I’m Elena Sanchez.”

  The blonde studied her. Given she was wearing a too short skirt and a top that barely covered her breasts, she might have been an exotic dancer or worse, a hooker. “Barbie Lassiter.” She leaned against the bars. “I could use another round of whatever they gave me.”

  “You want drugs?”

  “Girlie, there is nothing better than a little coke. You should try it some time.” Barbie rubbed the inside of her arm. “So, you want to tell me how the hell you got here? You homeless or something?”

  “No. I was at the airport about to get on a plane to surprise my parents when a man who I thought was a security agent asked me to come with him. The same man who delivered you here stuck me with a needle. I’ve been here two weeks.”

  “No shit. That sucks.”

  At least the blonde was capable of some sympathy.

  The brunette rolled over, draped an arm over her face, and coughed. She then pushed up on her hands and looked around, her hair in total disarray. She spotted Barbie. “Who are you?”

  “Well, ain’t this a regular circus. I’m stuck here with two princesses.”

  Elena had had enough. “What is your problem? Don’t you understand we could die soon? Be nice.”

  “Sure, Pollyanna. That and a buck will buy me a cigarette.”

  Elena refused to rise to the bait and kept her mouth shut. She turned toward the brunette. “I’m Elena.”

  The girl faced her. Her pretty, heart-shaped face was accented with gorgeous blue eyes that looked like they belonged to a wolf rather than a human. “I’m Cheryl Johnson.”

  What a stark contrast to Barbie. The soft way Cheryl said her name made her sound fragile. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  She rubbed her arms. “I came to Gulfside for a job interview. I’m a paralegal from Muncie, Indiana. Moving to Florida has always been my dream.”

  “Did you get the job?”

  Her chin trembled. “No. There was no job. I am the dumbest person alive. I had the cab drop me off at a rundown building outside of town. I stupidly ignored the little person in my head who told me that no respectable law firm would have a building out there. When I arrived, there was this nice woman sitting at a desk in a decent enough office, so I thought my paranoia was due to nerves. She smiled and then escorted me to a back room, where I thought I’d meet the lawyer.” Cheryl shook her head. “All I felt was a prick to the back of my arm and then nothing.” She sniffled.

  Elena’s heart ached. That was so unfair. “Your poor parents. They’ll be worried sick.” As would her own when she didn’t call.

  Cheryl glanced down. “I’m not on the best terms with them. Only my landlord will be upset when he doesn’t receive his rent check in three weeks.”

  Both girls looked exhausted, but if Elena could just figure out why they were taken and what they had in common, she might be able to bargain with these horrible men.

  Elena wet her dry lips. “Barbie, where do you work?”

  Her chuckle came out harsh. “I’m an exotic dancer at Mons Venus.” She jerked her shoulders forward as if ready for a fight.

  Elena mentally crossed herself and schooled her features. “I was a secretary for Harvey Couch.” Given he was such a jerk, perhaps he’d visited her strip club.

  Before they got a chance to figure out what to do about their confinement, the side door opened and the hulking figure she’d come to accept as part of her world trudged in. He had three food trays with him and mumbled something that sounded Russian.

  He shoved the meal through the small door at the bottom of each cage, and she wrinkled her nose at the stench. When she lifted the lid, she nearly gagged. It was some kind of porridge that smelled like burnt shoes rather than a cousin of the wheat family.

  Elena didn’t complain though. Barbie, however, shoved it back out. “What is this shit?”

  The guard picked it up, walked across the room, and dumped it in the trash. Like her, Barbie would learn that complaining would gain her nothing but pain.

  “Hey,” Barbie yelled at the retreating figure. “I need to take a piss.”

  The man pivoted and returned. He unhooked the latch on the door and it swung open. Barbie crawled out and winced when she stood.

  “Follow.”

  So, the giant could speak English. He led her outside instead of to the bathroom at the back of the warehouse. Elena was about to protest and ask why she had to use the filthy restroom in here and Barbie didn’t, but thought better of it.

  Cheryl sat up and looked around. “What’s going to happen to us?” Not only was her hair a mess, her clothes were dirty and torn.

  “I don’t know.”

  Cheryl leaned against the bars and closed her eyes. Poor thing. From the way she wound her fingers, she was working hard to keep it together.

  She dropped her head against the cage. “I never should have come down here. I knew the offer was too good to be true. Fifty-five thousand
dollars to be a paralegal. Right.”

  Greed. It seemed to be all about greed.

  After an hour, Barbie still hadn’t returned, and Elena’s heart grew heavy. Dear Mary, mother of God. The girl was never coming back.

  The killing had begun.