Chapter 1
Bitter bile coated Ava’s tongue as she was carried into an unknown house situated on an unknown street. Her limbs dangled uselessly in the air as four large men, all masked in black balaclavas were hauling her unconscious body through the front door.
Drugs pulsed through her system, relentless and cruel. She couldn’t move, couldn’t think, couldn’t register anything going on around her. She was out cold. Vulnerable. Like a little bird in the claws of an alley cat.
Under cover of darkness, they’d been swift and efficient. Had left no loose ends and no trail of breadcrumbs for anyone to follow. No. They knew what they were doing, and no one would ever find her again. They’d been doing it for years and had gotten away with it every time. Ava would be no different. She’d turned into just another statistic and unsolved missing person’s case.
The Syndicate, they’d been called by authorities. Notorious for their role in backstreet drug sales and human trafficking. Professionals with a very specific set of skills acquired especially for abducting beautiful and unsuspecting young women.
Trade, is the name of their sick but perversely profitable game. Their currency; girls, drugs and large sums of money. To them, Ava was not a person. She was simply something to be traded with. Goods. Merchandise. Stock.
One of them, dark-skinned and emotionless, carried her up the stairs, into the girls’ shared bathroom. Downstairs, the others secured the house, locked all the entrances, and checked on the perimeter. A routine they were familiar with. Each of them knew what was expected of them and played their part, knowing full well that the reward would be worth it. Only four months left until their next big bonus.
The dark male dumped Ava’s body uncaringly on the cold hard tiled floor and stalked to the room across the hall, peering in to see if the other girls were still there. Three dark figures, cuffed to simple cots lined the furthest wall of their sleeping quarters. Good. They were all accounted for.
His eyes then scanned over the other three empty beds. One of them would be occupied within the next 12 hours. Four down. Two more to go. He grinned. They were ahead of schedule.
His team had impressed him yet again and as he reflected on the night's events, he didn’t feel bad for disposing of their weakest link earlier that month. No. Joey had been with them for almost a year and still, he didn’t get it. He felt too much, thought too much and it made him weak. An example had been made of him. Not only for the girls but for his own men too. They needed to know what would happen if any of them tried stepping out of line.
So far it had paid off. His men worked together like a well-oiled machine and the girls did everything they asked without protest. It’s strange how money and fear could drive people to do impossible things.
He loved it. Loved the power. The adrenaline. No one questioned him or even looked at him for longer than absolutely necessary. He preferred it that way.
Ava had begun stirring but remained mostly unresponsive as the dark male returned, this time without his mask. Crouching down, he cuffed her slender wrist to the metal grip bolted into the bathroom wall and patted her down, removing any and all personal items she had on her. She was still wearing her pretty black dress from earlier, although it was now covered in splatters of vomit and smelled of sweat. He didn’t care. Had worked in worse conditions before and was still wearing his rubber gloves anyway.
Her dark blonde, almost brown hair was a tangled mess, falling down her bare shoulders and covering half of her tear-streaked face. She’d put up one hell of a fight earlier and he’d made a mental note of that. Women who fought meant trouble.
Gripping a cluster of her matted hair in his fist, he pulled her head back and swiped his dirty fingers through her mouth, checking for a tongue ring or anything else she might have hidden in there. Nothing. He then proceeded to take off her earrings, the fine silver bracelet she was wearing and her heels, dumping everything into a plastic bag.
From an inner pocket of his black leather jacket, he pulled out a large, sharp dagger and sliced through the length of her dress, being careful not to nick her skin in the process. He couldn’t risk damaging their merchandise. It was one of his most important rules after all. No one was to leave any marks on the girls. Bruises were fine, they would heal, but cuts, gashes and any other open wounds were a definite no.
His men understood that and rarely ever touched the girls at all. When a girl misbehaved, he would be the one who decided on her punishment. A beating was not taboo to him, but he found it mostly unnecessary as most girls were easily persuaded with threats, shouting or withholding basic necessities.
Sexual conduct was out of the question. No one was to lay a finger on his merchandise. No one spoiled his goods, and no one came near his stock with their grimy STD-infected filth.
Risks. It was all calculated risks he was not willing to take. Not to mention the possible outcome of an unplanned pregnancy. No. To avoid utter chaos, none of his boys was allowed to have any sort of sexual interaction with the girls. Nothing at all.
He finished stripping Ava and checked her over one last time for any other personal items he might have missed. When he was finally satisfied, he stood, grabbed the plastic bag off the floor and dumped a washed-out old blanket next to her naked body.
He didn’t wait for her to wake up. He knew the sedatives would take at least another hour to wear off and, in the meantime, he needed to destroy the contents of the plastic bag. He needed to destroy everything that linked them to Ava Ellwood.
