Several days later the girl was curled up on the couch sipping a cup of cocoa and working her way through a new novel when he came out of the master bedroom with a printout in hand.
"We did it sweetheart. We've got our in." He handed her the piece of paper, an emailed invite to an upcoming Valentine's gala.
She swallowed deeply, reading over the invite. "That's less than two weeks away. Are you sure about this?"
He pointed out the small print, outlining a private auction by invite only. "It's our best bet. They're too smart to send anything incriminating via email but they're not auctioning off a romantic getaway for two."
"You mean you're being invited, by special invitation nonetheless, to bid on a another slave."
He nodded gently, sharing her disgust for the thought but needing her to understand just how critical this was.
"I planted the seeds for it when our guest was here, but you're the one who did all the work. They wouldn't even have considered allowing me to bid if they hadn't been fully convinced I had been able to reign you in. Of course I won't be going through with it, I hope I'm not in need of a replacement for you any time soon. But I do think this is the best way to gain access to the head of this beast."
She reluctantly nodded in agreement. "So where are we headed?"
"To a private hotel near Vegas, owned by one of the organization's more well to do clients. The bastard's fortress is actually in New Mexico, just outside of Albuquerque, but all the group auctions are done offsite. He will be there to personally oversee distribution, so he'll actually be more vulnerable at this event than he would be on his home turf."
She tried breathing deeply to quell the anxiety that was rapidly building. "Will Shawn be there?"
Sensing a need for deeper conversation he sat down on the couch next to her.
"I honestly don't know. Usually the handlers who have trainees being auctioned off attend with their girls, but since you seem to think you were his first take and he didn't prove up to the task he might not be high ranking enough to attend. Is it a problem if he is?"
She'd thought she had managed to subdue the anxiety, but instead found herself sinking further into her ruminations. He sensed her increasing distress and embraced her, fighting to keep her from disassociating completely.
"Talk to me Hannah. I am right here sweetheart. You do not have to go through this alone."
The haunted desperation in her voice implied that she was still deeply caught up in the memories, but at least she was talking to him. He rocked her in his arms reassuringly as she outlined the nightmare she was fighting inside her head.
"The night before you liberated me was the worst. I think he knew you were coming and felt like I'd made him look bad to his boss. He came into my cell in the middle of the night, that wasn't normal. He drug me off the filthy cot and slammed me up against the wall. The cells were tiny, no room to move around but he didn't take me to one of the training rooms like he usually would. He wrapped his hands around my neck, almost cutting off my air supply, and whispered in gruesome detail exactly what he wanted to do to me.
The worst part was had he said the same things to me a few weeks before through email his descriptions might have been arousing. But under the circumstances they were terrifying. He touched me everywhere, pressing painfully on trigger points and laughing when I tried desperately to get away, but even if I could have managed to escape his grip I knew I couldn't possibly get out of the cell. I was honestly afraid he intended to kill me. I wasn't sure I cared if he did.
It seemed like he spent hours torturing me before he threw me back on the cot and told me he would see me in the morning. He told me to look forward to it. Of course I couldn't go back to sleep after that so I was forced to lie there in the dark imagining what he would do to me next. When he came to get me the next day he took me to the pit. That's what they called the room where you found me. All the training rooms were bad, but that was the worst. He drug me into the room by my hair and slapped me around, kicking me and screaming at me to get up if I fell and punching me if tried to block his blows.
When I finally stopped resisting he hung me up and started in with the whip. He told me to beg for mercy, demanded I cry for him. Promised he wasn't going to stop beating me until I did. He slapped my face and spit on me, then as he grabbed my face again that's when I bit him. After that he stopped trying to make me respond and just whipped me until I decided I did want to die. I'm pretty sure someone else came into the room and made him stop, but I can't really remember. They just left me hanging there alone until you came in. I can't survive that again. Next time they really will kill me."
Her description of the events leading up to the condition he had found her in made his blood boil. It had been late into the afternoon when he had freed her, he imagined her hanging alone in the darkness in pain and despair for hours and rage nearly consumed him. He was torn between wanting her previous handler to show his face at the upcoming event so he could look him in the eye before exacting his revenge or hoping he wouldn't show to spare the girl from ever having to face him again.
"There's not going to be a next time Hannah, not with me there. I promise I will not leave you alone with them even for a moment. I will die before I allow them to reclaim you and I have no intention of dying before I get my revenge. Our revenge. We will make them pay."
That night the dreams came again as he had feared they would, but at least he was closer this time and able to intervene immediately. He wrapped his arms around her and woke her gently, running his thumb softly down her cheek to wipe away tears as he whispered reassurances and swore again that he wouldn't leave her to go through her nightmares alone.
He fell into what he thought was a restless sleep but when he awoke he was alone in the bed and the house was quiet. Too quiet. He pulled himself out of bed and went looking for her, but the house was empty. Panic rushed through him. He checked the alarm and discovered it was disarmed, realized suddenly he had forgotten to reset it the night before after letting the cat in. After checking the garage and ensuring the car was still there he headed for the porch, relieved to see footprints in the fresh snow. Following them he found her sitting in the clearing on a tree stump.
