Auctioned Mates Revenge
Chapter 89

I reached the end of the corridor where a heavy locked door stood.

"I need keys!" I cried back down the hallway.

The guards came up behind me as Matt pulled me back. One of them shot the lock on the door and the door swung open. The damp scent of the basement gushed out along with Angelia's scent and I ran in.

My stomach roiled, memories I didn't want to think about surfaced, but I ignored them.

I smelled old water and molded bread. The stench of unwashed bodies, but I couldn't focus on that. Angelia was here. I'd found her.

Across the room, she lay on a dirty mattress on the ground, unmoving and unspeaking. I ran towards her as Alyssa tried to reach out to her and lifted her into my arms. She didn't move. Her eyes stared out into nothing as if she would never speak again. She'd grown frail and thin since the last time I saw her. Her cheeks were drawn into her face and her eyes were a bit sunken. Her hair seemed dull and lifeless, but there was no mistaking her. "Angelia, say something. Please say something!"

She said nothing as the tears spilled down my cheeks as I rocked her. I heard Matt speaking to me, speaking to someone, but I couldn't make it out around the anger and sorrow.

I should have been faster. I should have tortured Jay to death for all of this, but more than that, I should have killed Ben if I had the chance.

I can't get to her, Alyssa said sadly. She's gone.

But she was still breathing. That had to mean something. What could that mean she's gone?

Her wolf is gone. I don't know if she's just retreated or has truly left, but I can't reach her.

"Angelia? Angelia, please say something. I'm here now..."

"She hasn't said anything since we got here." I looked at the girl sitting beside her.

"Mary?"

"She doesn't speak anymore," Mary said. "J-Jay... Jay tried to make her speak, but..."

My jaw shook as I stroked Angelia's hair. It was about the recipes I bet. When he'd found her, he probably thought Angelia might know something, but who was to say how long it had been since she'd said anything? What had Jay done to her to try and make her speak?

Had her last words been to Dan in that dungeon? A cry for help that no one could answer?

"Call the paramedics," Matt said from behind me.

"Mr. Wallber, we have a problem."

I heard him step away, but I couldn't think, I couldn't speak, rocking Angelia in my arms and apologizing.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry..."

Could I ever apologize enough for taking so long to replace her? Would there be a time when she heard me? What about everyone else?

I looked up at the rest of the room. They were all familiar faces. Zoe was there, cowering in a corner. Armina was there. They all stared wide-eyed and fearful through the darkness of the room. "We'll get them upstairs," a guard said."

I stood, lifting Angelia in my arms. She was so light, barely skin and bones.

"Come on," I said, "We're getting everyone out of here."

"B-But... J-Jay-"

"Jay is dead," I said. "So is Andrew."

They seemed shocked, but they followed me upstairs to a room with couches. I got them blankets and water while we waited for paramedics. They were all so thin. Would they be okay?

Would it be over now? Could it be over now? Maybe they could start a new life with a new identity, but would it do any good? The scars likely ran so deep. Would they ever feel safe enough to really live? Zoe sat beside me, "I'm glad to see you again."

I nodded, feeling oddly numb as she leaned against me.

"What happened?"

Jay had come to Midnight and saw her soon after I had already gone to Larry's. She'd thought he was rescuing her until he brought her back to Skyfall and threw her in the basement with the rest of the girls.

I heard Frank's voice down the hallway and stood, walking towards it. He looked like Mordecai had punched him a few times, bound to a chair and under guard. His leg was bleeding. I guessed Mordecai had to cut him to make him talk.

I felt nothing seeing him like this. Whatever affection I had once for him seemed gone. That was good. Affection meant mercy and Frank didn't deserve mercy.

I sat down across from him, "Frank"

He lifted his head a little. His eyes were hazy with pain. My blood was boiling with fury. If I could, I would have clawed his face off. The dagger Tzipporah gave me burned against my hip, urging me to use it.

He may not have planned to kill me, but if it would have gotten him what he wanted I couldn't put it past him that he would. After all, he'd had my mother killed. If his sister wasn't worth more to him than money, then what would a niece be worth? "Who else from Fluorite was a part of this?"

"No one."

I didn't believe him, but it didn't matter. They were all, likely, here in Skyfall or connected to Ben in some way. They'd pop up soon enough.

"I want you to know that I have no intention of letting you live."

His eyes widened.

"For everything you've done, for everything that your greed has made happen... An easy death is too good for you."

I thought of my parents' bodies swinging in the courtyard and all the bodies on the ground. I thought of the young girl whose body was used until it was too cold to be pleasurable anymore.

No. He didn't deserve an easy death. He deserved to suffer like everyone who died in Fluorite or had been taken from Fluorite had suffered.

"Glenda, I'm your uncle... What would your mom say?"

"I can't speak to the dead."

He closed his mouth.

"Did you know Angelia was here?"

He hesitated and the guard jabbed a gun into his shoulder, "Answer her."

"Yes."

"And you never got her cared for? You never got her to a doctor?" I glared at him, "She and the others could have starved to death down there."

He sneered, "She was as good as dead anyway after what Dennis did to her."

I stood and looked at the two guards, "He doesn't get food or water or medical attention."

I glared at him, "He's as good as dead like the rest of Fluorite."

I left the room, tears burned in my eyes and I went back to where Angelia and the others were to sit with them. I got some of them cleaned up. Others didn't want to undress so I bandaged them as best as I could. Then the house shook and the guards seemed to be on high alert.

Memories swarmed. I heard gunfire and smelled gunpowder and blood. People were screaming and running. Someone cackled in the back of my mind. I heard Dan's voice. I felt the bag over my head and the shaking of a van. Not again.

I couldn't go through that again.

I wouldn't go through that again.

I forced the memories back and calmed down, searching for something in the room to count while I settled myself back into the present.

What was happening now?

I heard shuffling downstairs and the screech of tires against the ground. Matt and Mordecai were gone. The only people left were a few Warhammer guards on the perimeter of the house.

I didn't know what was going on, but I had a bad feeling. I tried to get the girls together in the room, a meal in them from what I could replace in the kitchen, and get them ready to leave. Another explosion shook the house and I heard tires on the ground. I went to the front door and the guard blocked my path.

"Remain inside."

I thought we were leaving. I looked up as gunfire started and saw the one person I didn't expect to ever see again.

My stomach roiled and heaved. I stumbled back as a chilling terror filled me, rooting me in place. I heard his laughter, his sick groans of pleasure, and smelled the heated air and his sweat. It was Dan, sitting in the jeep.