Page 32 of Tide
“We’re family.” He’s right, we are. More so than Christian and me. “We got word. Malcolm Padgett.”
“Who the hell is that?”
“Doesn’t ring any bells?” He asks. I shake my head no. I don’t remember anyone by that name.
“Should it?” Patch shrugs.
“Maybe not. Not just a trafficker, he used to run in my circle back in the day.”
“What do you mean?”
“Padgett trains slaves. Not much different than what I used to do,” he says, causing my stomach to turn.
“You know him?”
“Not personally, no. Like I said, we ran in the same circles. Train 'em up and sell them off.”
“Fuck Patch! Fuck!” I tug at my hair and get pissed at the whole situation. How did she get in the middle of this? Who set this up?
“Yeah. He’s not a good man. He’s worse than I ever was, and I got pretty bad at one point.”
“What do we do?”
“I’m gonna put word out that I’m lookin’ for a new girl.”
“Would he go for that?” I ask, unsure if that will even work.
“Not sure at this point but it can’t hurt to try,” he says. I nod my head before running my hand through my hair. This has to work. There’s no other choice.
“You’re right. Let’s do it.”
“Already on it, brother,” he says as he types on his keyboard.
“You think he’d sell a girl that isn’t trained?”
“I’m lookin’ for a girl that isn’t ready,” he smirks at me. I nod once more. I hope this works.
Chapter 18
Mylah
My back aches from where I was beaten with the belt. It burns, and there is nothing I can do about it except lie here on my stomach and pray the pain stops.
I haven’t eaten in days. I won’t do his workouts that require us to do. I defy him at every turn, and I’m punished for it. I’ve been cuffed to this table for days, only let off long enough to use the bathroom and him to order me around. I still don’t do what he says.
My body aches. It hurts from being stretched out on this table and I can’t seem to get comfortable at all.I hear the door creak, and I know that someone is coming. I close my eyes and pray that this doesn’t end in another beating because I don’t know how much more I can take. I refuse to do what he wants me to do, though.
I turn my head, and I can see the other girl sitting quietly on the floor where she’s chained and naked. She hasn’t moved much in the time that I’ve been down here. She lies down and sleeps, but that’s it. It makes me wonder what he’s done to her.
“We have a buyer,” Padgett says as he comes to sit near my head. I refuse to look at him. “Did you hear what I said?” I still ignore him until he presses his hand down on my cheek. Pain shoots through my face as I finally move my eyes to meet his.
“Who?”
“Does it matter? This man, well, he may be worse than I am.” No one could be worse than him. No one. But what if thereis someone worse? What more could they do to me? I’ve been beaten and abused. I shiver from the thought of someone worse than this asshole, but at the same time, maybe I can find a way out of there easier than I did here. Maybe I won’t be cuffed to a table there.
“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. The man that's purchasing you likes the fighters. He likes the ones that are hard to break,” he tells me as my skin crawls. This is bad, isn’t it? My heart beats a little faster now that I think about it.
“I still won’t do what he wants me to do.” Now Padgett chuckles and stares at me.
