Page 129 of Obey

The crowd laughs nervously, the bids climbing another notch before the hammer falls for good at four hundred and fifty thousand.

Elias checks the crowd gathering near the exits. “We should get out of here. It’s going to be a nightmare if we leave with everyone else.”

No one argues.

His hand closes around mine, and we start toward the exit. I glance over my shoulder to find Vivienne watching us go, her painted lips pressed into a thin, irritated line.

Bitch.

Pressing myself closer to Elias, I exhale as we maneuver through the crowd. And then the auctioneer speaks again.

“Ladies and gentlemen, our final lot of the evening is a surprise addition.” He pauses and motions the man working the spotlight over in our direction. “And what a beauty she is. She joins us from SOLAÉ and is a vision in emerald.”

The spotlight lands on us, and every eye in the room swings our way. I’m frozen, my breath caught somewhere between my lungs and my ass.

“Miss Sloane Harper.”

Nate goes rigid beside me, Elias’s eyes turn murderous as his head whips toward the stage, and Jace’s champagne flute slips from his hand and shatters against the marble.

thirty-two

The Price of Her Name

The auctioneer's words echo through the ballroom as a woman materializes at Sloane's elbow, already reaching for her arm.

“Miss Harper! Right this way.”

Sloane dodges her hand. “Oh, no. Absolutely not.”

The woman catches her elbow anyway, smiling brightly as she steers her toward the stage. Sloane twists free, only for the woman to reach for her again.

“Ma'am, I said no.” Sloane bats her hand away. “Why do you keep touching me?”

“Just a few minutes, sweetheart. Everyone's waiting!”

Sloane looks straight at us, eyes wide, her expression practically screaming Are y'all seriously going to stand there?

Jace takes a step forward, but the woman has already seized Sloane's wrist and is marching her toward the stairs.

“Girl, if you don't let go of my—”

“Ladies and gentlemen!” the auctioneer booms. “Let's hear it for Miss Sloane Harper!”

The applause erupts as Sloane jerks her hand free and tries to retreat down the steps. The woman blocks her path, catches her by the shoulders, and turns her back toward the audience.

Sloane swats at her hands again, glaring hard enough to strip paint.

From where I'm standing, I can practically hear her plotting a felony.

“Nate.” Jace is at my shoulder, the easy cadence gone from his voice entirely. “What do we do?”

I turn to Elias. “Find out how her name got on that list.”

He’s gone before I finish the sentence. On the stage, the bidding opens. A hundred thousand. One-fifty. Two hundred.

“Jace, go work the room.”

Understanding dawns on him, and he rolls his shoulders back, his smile clicking into place like a weapon he’d only set down for a moment, and disappears into the crowd. He’ll handle the bidders. He knows how to make a man reconsider without leaving a mark.