Six

"I can't just kill you off like that, no, I can't." Leo shook his head and returned the gun to it's box.

"What do you want to do with me?" She asked and swallowed saliva, the chains around her hands still heavy.

"You'll see. I don't kill women, especially when they're beautiful ones like yourself." Leo licked his lips and stared at her for some seconds. Mae had clothes on but felt naked with the way he fixed his eyes on her briefly."You shouldn't have lied," he laughed lightly and took his eyes away from her.

"Are you going to FUCK me? Ooh, I'm so scared." She cried falsely when she remembered that night in his room alone with him when he said he'd fuck her. She didn't know where her confidence was coming from. Maybe it was just her convincing herself that he was just going to kill her anyway so she could mock at him all she wanted.

Leo laughed at her mimicking of him and she noticed he had a rare dimple that only showed when he laughed with his teeth out.

"You'd wish for that, trust me. It's why I repeat, you shouldn't have lied that night. You should have let me fuck you good; I was hungry that night and if I had done what I wanted, you wouldn't be here." Leo went back and sat in the swinging chair behind the desk after he spoke.

"Why let me go in the first place if you're just going to bring me back to meet you."

"I guess I just wanted to show Omar how stupid his plan was. I wanted you to return to him and report how easy it was for me to know he sent you, how weak you are and were that day."

‘Did he just call me weak?’ She looked on at him without having words to reply. Just an angry stare.

While she was still in thoughts, someone walked in and stood behind her. It was a forty something year old woman. She looked briefly at the dead man on the floor and then at Mae.

"Get her cleaned up and fresh, you know what to do to make the buyers want her." Leo started and got a nod from the woman so he continued speaking."Treat her wounds and bruises but put no bandages on her, it might lower hr value."

"Okay sir."

"What buyers?" Mae turned to the woman and asked. When she didn't reply, she turned back to Leo."What buyers? And what are they buying?"

"Get her out of here." Leo just ordered before swinging his chair to face the wall like it was when she walked in.

The woman came to her and picked up the end of the chain bound to Mae's wrists. "Let's go," she tugged on the chaim and made Mae budge from standing still and staring at Leo facing the wall.

The woman freed her of the chains when they got to a room and threw them to a corner then she went ahead to open a door."Come have a shower and I'll get you clothes."

"What was he saying back there?" She asked the woman who just ignored her question.

"Shower and get ready in these clothes I've brought for you. You should be done in the next three minutes. If you're not, I'll have one of the men come help you shower." Mae was surprised at the audacity of the woman to say that to her while looking her in the face without blinking once.

Nevertheless, she didn't want to have a man 'help' her shower so she snatched the clothes the woman had in hand for her and went to the bathroom.

Coming out fee minutes later, the woman was not in the room so she walked to the door to peep outside. No one was in the hallway so she could try and escape. She started down the long and seemingly unending hallway which wasn't leading to any stairs or even the elevator she came up in.

When she could find a way to go downstairs, she started to take the risk of opening doors one by one to look inside. Out of the many doors along the hallway, five of them she successfully opened quietly lead to the same place-a hall with many chairs and a high ramp for a stage.

She opened another and realized it was just another door leading to the same hall. After she carefully closed the door quietly, she heard someone behind her.

"I've found her!" She turned around and it was the woman. As soon as she announced finding Mae, some men came from around the corner. Mae swallowed.

"Ladies and gentlemen," An announcer stood on the stage Mae had seen at the front of the hall earlier."Tonight, we have the youngest girls. We will proceed bidding from the oldest of them all. She is twenty four but yet looks eighteen. Let the blinds fall!"

The thick curtain covering the cage Mae was forced into was cut and let to the ground and the little crowd at the hall started to mutter in low voices.

Mae blinked her eyes after the light was spotted on her in the cage. It was just now she was waking up after being made unconscious earlier by the people who caught her trying to escape.

She heard all that the announcer said to the crowd while still unconscious so when she opened her eyes, she sat up and looked left and right, wanting to see who it was that he was referring to. It was much time passed before she realized it was her. She was twenty four and was in a spacy cage. Her eyes widened when she looked in front of her and saw the many persons dressed elegantly and all seated behind tables like they were there for a party.

It just occurred to her what was happening. It was a bidding ground for young girls her age and younger. She swallowed. She didn't need to be reminded who it was that run the place. This was one of Leo Vance's illegal practices which tye government have being trying to prove but to no avail.

She screened her eyes across the crowd and could recognize some of the men and women seated in the hall even if they had masks on. She could identify the city's Mayor. She could also the chief prosecutor for the state amongst them. Now, she understood why it was so hard and usually almost impossible to target Leo Vance and successfully take him down legally. Now, she knew why her superior, Omar, made the decision to have her kill Leo Vance and not just get evidences to put him in jail. He(Omar) must have tried that and it didn't work, thanks to Leo Vance's aid in the system.

"Her price is ten million, no lower." The announcer set the price and opened the bidding ground.

"Twelve million!" Mae heard the announcer comment after someone typed in numbers on the transmitter and it showed on the screen.

"Fifteen!"

"Sixteen million, can we get higher?!"

"Nineteen million! Anyone willing to take it from this highest call?!"

"Stop!" Mar suddenly disrupted the event. She couldn't take it anymore. They were bidding on her like she was an object of some sort to be sold off."Get me out of here!" She started to bang against the cage.

"Do you want to die?" Someone came closer to the cage and asked her in a whisper. He was asking her to sit quietly else she'd be killed.

"I'll kill you. I'll kill your boss. You assholes!" She didn't back down, her voice echoing across the hall as she gritted those words through her teeth with anger. She was scared of Vance but not at this point. He was doing the most atrocious thing to her.

"Cover her up, continue with someone else." The man who had come closer to the cage to threaten her got an order from his earbuds.