The Warrior (11 page)

“I know what you’re thinking. I'm going if
you go.” He says as I laugh. I reach over and slap his
shoulder.

“You think you are but little brother this
time you’re out.” I say as I watch his face contort in anger.
That’s ok. He can get mad and take it out on me but there is no way
in hell he is going in. We watch as Josh plays and the girls come
out of the house.

“Come on guys let’s eat.” Josie yells as we
turn to see them bringing out plates of food. I stand and run over
grabbing Josh and throwing him in the air while he laughs that
sweet little laugh of his. I walk over and set him in his little
high chair so he can eat too.

“You ok?” Nina says as she hugs me around my
neck as I smile down at her.

“I'm perfect.” I say before I kiss her. She
smiles back up at me and we sit down and eat.

***

It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve called in to
Joel. He agreed to let my guys in only on this one trip. He said he
still dabbles in the trafficking game and he didn’t want anything
to mess with that which I totally get. I sent in some of my guys
that helped out with my dad’s shit. I'm waiting on a call to see if
this last stop they are making has anyone that remotely looks like
her. We have using text to verify the ones he has found are not
her.

“This is our last spot man. If she isn’t here
than I don’t know where she is. We got in with these guys and they
have ran us through all their spots but if she was shipped out from
there we won’t know.” Bentley says as I walk around the
backyard.

“I know. I just need to know that I tried
everything I could.” I say as I walk.

“I know man. We are looking and we should be
at the next spot in about 20 minutes so make sure you keep your
phone ready.” He says as I sigh. This is a rough time. I don’t like
being on the sidelines. I want to be the leader. That’s what I was
raised to do and now I'm sitting here.

“Alright Bentley. I appreciate it man. Be
careful.” I say as he agrees and hangs up. I walk out towards the
water and pull out my gun from the back of my jeans. I walk around
shooting at stuff just to keep myself in practice and because I
miss shooting it. When I feel like I’ve had enough I sit down under
a tree and lay back as I drift off to sleep.

***

“You are a disgrace! You make me sick!” My
dad screams at me. I must be about 5 years old. He throws me
against the wall as he pulls his belt off and begins to beat me
with it. He hits so hard. I'm crying as he keeps swinging but he
doesn’t care.

“Stop your crying! You are a warrior!” he
screams as he hits me some more. I can feel the burn on my skin
with eat snap of the belt. I want to cry so bad but I hold it back.
If I cry the beating gets worse. If I don’t I know he eventually
stop.

“I hate everything you are! Your mother
should have never had you! She was the stupidest bitch I knew. Two
bastards for me to have to take care of!” he screams as he hits me
more. I don’t think about the pain anymore. I think about my little
brother as he sits in the corner watching me. He is a year old. He
doesn’t know what’s going on or why it’s happening. He just watches
us chewing on his thumb. Just when I think the world will end he
stops hitting and walks out of the room. I rush over to my brother
and grab him and squeeze him to me.

“He won’t hurt you. I won’t let him.” I
whisper to him in between the tears I shed.

***

“Cad.?” I hear a voice that jars me awake. I
look up and Nina is standing there a few feet back from me. She has
learned that if I'm asleep to not be close by when she tries to
wake me up. I have been a lot better with the dreams lately though.
It seems like they have changed from all the war dreams to what
happened when I was younger. I can’t complain though because I
haven’t woken up trying to hurt anyone. I wake up now in tears. I
guess I just play out the scenes in my dreams and it brings back
what happened. I motion for Nina to come close to me and when she
does I grab her and pull her down with me.

“I'm ok. Just dozed off I guess.” I say
before I kiss her.

“You hardly sleep. I didn’t want to wake you
but Bradon said you needed to check your phone.” She says as she
smiles at me.

“It’s fine. I shouldn’t have laid down
anyway. I was working on stuff.” I say as I reach for my phone. I
pick it up and notice that I have 5 text messages from Bentley. I
start to click through them when I stop on one of the pictures. I
have never saw Nina’s sister in person but I can see it in this
girls eyes. That’s her. That’s Melissa. I sit up scooting Nina over
a little as I look at the picture.

“I need you to tell me if this is your
sister.” I say as she looks nervously at me. She takes a deep
breath and nods her head as I pass her the phone. Her hand flies to
her mouth and she starts to cry.

“That’s her.” She says as tears fall down her
cheek. “That’s her.” She whispers again as I text Bentley back.
Nina hugs me around my neck and squeezes.

“I need to go there.” I say as she snaps her
back quickly to look up at me.

“No. No you can’t.” She says and she sounds
panicked. I pull her head back down as she cries some more. I rub
her hair back away from her face and let her cry.

“I know you don’t want me to but if you want
your sister back I have to.” I say as she looks up at me.

“Why can’t the other guys get her?” She says
watching me.

“I wish it was that easy. Where she is the
girls are being auctioned off to the highest bidder. She was held
at a compound since she went missing and now that they are bringing
in newer girls they auction out the old.” I say as she stares at
me. She looks down and then out at the water.

“How are you going to get her?” She asks
without looking at me. I know this is hard for her to hear now that
she knows her sister is alive but untouchable.

“I'm going to bid on her.” I say and I hate
the way that sounded coming out almost as much as I hate the way
Nina is looking at me right now.

“You can’t do that! She isn’t a piece of
property Cadence!” She snaps as she stands and paces around. I
stand up wiping my jeans as I do.

“You want her back?” I say as calmly as I
can. Nina doesn’t speak.

“Answer me Nina!” I snap as she turns to look
at me.

“Yes Cad. I want her back.” She says without
moving.

“Then I have to do this Nina.” I say as I
move towards her and grab her arm.

“I have to.” I say softly as she nods her
head.

***

“You sure about this?” Bradon says as I pack
up a small bag.

“Yep. Shouldn’t be too hard Bra. I mean I'm
going in and bidding.” I say as he watches me. I know he’s scared
for me to go but I have to be the one to do this. The setup guys
know me and Joel can get me in.

“You call me ok?” He says as I nod and grab
my bag throwing it over my shoulder. I stop to hug my brother and
Josh then head out to the living room giving Josie a hug.

“Walk outside with me?” I say to Nina as she
nods and follows me out front. I walk over and throw my bag in the
truck before turning back to Nina.

“It will be fine. I'm going to bring her
back.” I say as she hugs me around my waist. I put my arms around
her holding her tight.

“Promise me no more killing.” She says as I
look down at her confused.

“I want us to start over. I want you to be
ok.” She says as I smile at her. God I love this girl.

“That I can’t promise. If it comes down to it
I may have to but after that I promise.” I say as I chuckle. Nina
smiles up at me as I kiss her.

“I need to go. Shouldn’t take but a few
days.” I say as she starts to cry. I reach up and wipe her
eyes.

“I love you.” She says as I kiss her
forehead.

“I love you too. Everything will work out.” I
say as she lets go and I climb in the truck. I pull away with a
renewed strength I didn’t have before. I feel good about this run.
I make way to the set up point Joel has put in place to me and
wait.

***

“You ready?” Bentley says as I suit up. I
mean I am legit in a suit. Nina would shit if she saw me in this
shit. I feel like I'm going to a fucking funeral.

“I guess. I don’t get this shit but oh well.”
I say pointing at the suit as Bentley laughs.

“What the hell you think you’re wearing to
your damn wedding man?” He says as I shrug.

“Jeans.” I say with a chuckle. We finish up
and get ready to head into the room where we will all be seated to
bid. The way it works is we all have a small handheld button that
we click when we want to bid. They will bring each girl for a
certain amount of time and we just click on what we want. We are
allowed to take one man in with us and I chose Bentley. He’s a good
guy and I know he will be watching my ass and not the girls which
is what I want.

“Gentlemen. Welcome. We have about 20 girls
for you tonight. Most of you know how it works but if you don’t I
will explain. You each have a button to your right, when you see
something you like you will push your button. The highest bidder at
the end of the auction gets the girl. You can leave at anytime and
pick up your package. We run a cash only auction here so if you
were expecting something different it is time for you to leave.” He
says as we all look around. No one gets up to leave so he opens the
big curtain up front which reveals a large stage. I know from
experience I can’t leave here with just one girl so I have to bid
on 2. I don’t know what the hell I'm going to do with the second
girl but I know the rules. I watch as the girls start coming out
one by one. I glare over at Bentley and he isn’t paying attention
to the girls as he scans the room for possible threats. The bidding
is going on the girls and they are quickly going fast. A little red
head comes out on the stage and I notice Bentley tense up. I look
over at him and there is something about his stance that throws me
off. I see a look in his eye and can’t place it. I know I need to
bid on this one. I click the button and wait. A few others bid but
in the end I outbid them. No one knows who is outbidding who and
the button vibrates when you get outbid. I watch as they bring the
next girl out. It’s her. It’s Melissa. I wait a few minutes before
I click the button. My heart is pounding in my chest as I wait for
the button to vibrate. I can’t handle this shit. I squirm around in
my chair a little. The button vibrates and I click it again
instantly. I watch this pale little girl standing there scared to
death. When the button doesn’t vibrate again I let out a breath I
didn’t realize I was holding as I stand and motion for Brentley to
follow which he does. We make our way out the door and head down to
make the payment. I was smart when I blew dad’s place to hell. I
tool his whole stash. I could buy all these fucking girls if I
wanted to but I needed just the one.

“Congratulations.” The man says as I pass him
the money. He hands it off to someone behind him to go and run it
through the counting machines.

“Yea. These two will do us some good.” I say
as the man smiles up at me. The other guy comes back out now.

“It’s good. Your packages are waiting at the
door.” He says as I nod and turn around to walk down the hall. We
make our way to the door and standing there are the two girls I
just won. Bentley dead stops next to me and I stop with him.

“You ok?” I say as I look over at him.

“Yea. You got her?” He says as he nods
towards the red head.

“Yea. I saw something in you in there. We
will talk later.” I say as he nods his head and we walk to the
girls. They throw themselves at us kissing on our necks and
grabbing on us. They tell them to do this and they will be treated
better which is all a big ass lie. I lean into Melissa and whisper
in her ear.

“I don’t think your sister is going to like
you doing that to me.” I say with a smile to not throw anyone off.
She pulls back and looks up at me with a shocked look.

“What did you say?” She says as she tries to
stop. I lean in slapping her ass for show.

“You heard me. Keep walking like you were so
no one suspects anything.” I say as I smile down at her and she
makes the attempt to smile back. I wrap my arm around her as we
lead the girls to the door. Once outside we hurry them along to the
truck.

“Let’s move. I don’t want to be around here
long.” I say as Bentley nods and ushers the girls into the truck.
We drive the hell out of there as fast as I can without drawing
attention to us.

“Hotel for the night?” I say as I look over
at Bentley and he nods.

“Yea I'm dead tired man.” He says and I
agree. This day has been dragging on.

***

“You said something about my sister.” Melissa
says as we all sit and eat. Bentley seems a little uneasy as we sit
here. I am going to talk to him after we eat.

“Nina is my fiancé.” I say as her eyes
widen.

“You’re kidding me? How did you meet? Where
is she? Is she ok?” Questions keep flying from her mouth as I smile
at her.

“She’s fine. You will see her soon. I want to
get a few things in place before that though.” I say as she nods
quickly. Any faster her head may pop off.

“Thank you.” She says as I nod. The small red
head doesn’t say anything as she looks at us.

“You ok? What’s your name?” I say as she
looks at me with scared haunted eyes.

“Amber.” She says as I nod.

“How old are you?” I say as I grab a
drink.

“19.” Is all she will say. She is short and
to the point.

“Well Amber. You don’t need to worry anymore.
We aren’t like that. We had a tip to find Melissa and I couldn’t
leave with one girl and something about you struck me. You will be
safe now.” I say as she looks around like I'm crazy.

“You just bought me. I'm not safe.” She says
as she scoots back a little. I move towards her and she goes bat
shit crazy. She is kicking and screaming and just going off.
Bentley moves and grabs her wrapping his arms around hers and
holding her there.