Brows furrowed, the woman shook her head.
So maybe not all the guys brought the women they dated to this dungeon. Did that make her the exception, or was this woman the exception?
“Are they going to … hurt me? Hit me and stuff?”
This time, the woman’s nod was sad.
Even though it was the response Ally had been expecting, her body began to shake again. Her muscles were already aching after hours of trembling, but she couldn’t seem to get it under control. Every time it stopped, she’d start thinking about what was coming, and it would start up again.
“Are they going to hurt me … sexually?”
Tears welled in the woman’s eyes, and she nodded again. Then she shifted just a tiny bit closer. After looking up and down the corridor, as though searching to see if anyone was around who could overhear, she looked back at Ally. “Cameras, watching us,” she murmured. “No, don’t look for them,” she added when Ally immediately went to search for the cameras that monitored them.
“Why?”
“They like to watch everything. I think … that the men who are going to buy us like to be able to watch, helps them choose, I guess,” the woman whispered. “They won't rape you, not allowed, but they will do other stuff.”
“All of them?” The thought of so many men touching her, hurting her, doing stuff to her she certainly didn't want, seemed more terrifying than if she’d just been abducted by a single psychopath. One made it seem like maybe you had a chance of escaping, or like you could try to talk to them, get them to see you as a person and not just a toy to be played with. But you couldn’t do that with a gang of them.
“Once they decide you're … broken enough, you’ll be assigned a trainer.”
“A trainer?”
“One of the men will work with you mostly exclusively. Sometimes the others can still … join in … but you’ll almost always be with just him.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” If she really was mostly going to be with one man, maybe she really could find a way to escape.
“Bad. Everything here is bad. There’s no escape. You can't reason with them. They enjoy hurting us, enjoy taunting us, and enjoy the money they’re going to get when they sell us. This is a business to them, trust me, fighting only makes it worse. Acceptyour fate, it’ll make it easier in the long run, because nothing is going to change the fact that they’re going to sell you to someone who’s probably worse than them, and you’ll never be heard from again.”
With that, the woman shuffled away from her and focused on finishing up her breakfast, leaving Ally staring, shaking, trying to make sense of what was happening. But there was nothing to make sense of. She’d had it laid out plainly before her. She was going to be broken, then given a man who would mold her into what buyers were looking for, and then sold.
Her fate.
One that didn't seem like it could be changed.
August 15th
2:41 P.M.
Mateo had never been so exhausted from doing nothing in his life.
All he’d done for the last day and a half was hang around and wait. Wait to see how Ally would react to her new environment, wait to see what the others were going to do, wait to see if they were going to make a move toward hurting her, and wait to see when the right time was to move in and take over as her trainer.
At least he could thank his lucky stars that Griffin had gone along with him being assigned as Ally’s trainer. While Mateo was sure it was supposed to be part of his test, a way to prove he didn't have any feelings for the gorgeous redhead by training her the same way he would any other woman, he didn't even care.
The thing was, he never volunteered to be a trainer, so no one really had anything to compare him to anyway. His undercoverpersona didn't touch the women here, he watched, sure, because he couldn’t just completely abstain, but he made it clear from the beginning that he was here because this was a good business opportunity, but he didn't get off from captive women. So no one questioned that, the guys mocked him sometimes for being weak, but he didn't care, he made sure he played up other areas of the job, and participated to a degree in more group-related punishments and training sessions, to ensure that he didn't get found out for what he was, but that was it.
Probably helped that he’d beaten up Adrian the first time the guy mocked him for not taking on a training position. Everyone had laughed at Adrian for a month straight afterward, and no one had pressed the issue with him again.
Now everything had changed, though. He’d asked to be assigned to Ally and been granted permission, which meant he was going to have to step up and do what everyone else expected him to do. He had no idea how he was going to do that. The thought of hurting her made him feel ill, but he couldn’t do nothing.
Maybe he should have let someone else take on the role of her trainer, at least then, he wouldn't have to worry about giving himself away.
Although he would have to worry about killing whoever put their filthy hands on her.
At least Ally’s timid personality was working for her here. Usually, the guys would enjoy breaking her to the point that she was ready to be molded by a trainer, but she was so quiet and shy, used to withdrawing into herself so as not to be seen, that it really wasn't necessary. She would already do anything that was asked of her without fighting.
But he wanted her to fight.