Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 128812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
"Or she's fucking playing you?"
He reads it and shakes his head, but he doesn't take the notebook and argue with me.
I have to have faith in him that he knows what the fuck he's doing. He has been doing this for the better part of a decade, and with that experience comes the ability to read people.
The man knows what he's doing, and maybe I'm just a little jealous that he found a friend here when I've been spending my days doing grunt work and feeding the habits of junkies.
Chapter 33
Zayne
I've left Zeus alone since the first night I brought Sable back to our cabin.
I hate to even think of her with that name. I know it's one she's been given by someone here, but she's refused to give me her real name. I've written that question a half-dozen times in the notebook, but each time she looks up at me with sad, desperate eyes and shakes her head.
There could be countless reasons why she doesn't want me to know who she really is.
It could make things too real for her, giving her an ounce of hope she knows better than to have.
She could've done something on her own or at the urging of someone on the compound, which is too shameful for her, and she doesn't want people to know.
She could've done something illegal, and the threat of jail or prison could be, in her mind, worse than what she has to go through here.
She has refused to divulge any of the other girls' stories, other than to tell me that some don't want to be here.
She won't tell me how they got here, and shuts down completely when I ask if she or others have been trafficked.
She won't even tell me how long she's been at the compound, so I have no timeline to aid Casper in his search for her identity.
I took a photo of her and sent it to him, but his facial recognition search hasn't linked her to any missing-person reports.
It's as if she's a ghost, a lost soul no one is looking for, and I think that hits the hardest.
Some women are in the news, their families desperate to find them. They make sure everyone is speaking their names. Their pictures are on the news, smiling faces seen on posters hung all around town. They paper the streets and neighborhoods with missing-person fliers, begging people to help them be found.
Some disappear without a trace, and there's no one who cares enough to even whisper their name when they leave their lives behind.
These are the easier targets, but I don't have a clue if these are the type of women The League is seeking out. The way Billy acted a couple of weeks ago at The Garage with Melody suggests they see someone they like, befriend them, and then never allow them to leave once they step inside the compound.
There's a misconception that trafficked women are simply snatched up off the street and sold, and although that happens in a lot of cases, it's not the only option.
It's more dangerous for the group to befriend someone, be seen together, and then never let them leave, but we aren't exactly dealing with the brightest crayons in the box here.
Trafficked women don't have to be tied up in some dark, dank basement, held captive with chains and cages.
A lot of people would probably see these women walking around the compound and blame them for staying.
They couldn't take a step back, work through their confusion, and understand that threats of punishment and undesired outcomes can be just as powerful a tool in keeping these women compliant as the chains and cages they picture when told stories about trafficked women.
There's a real chance some are here and abused continually out of love. Threats to a family can make people endure so much. They won't even have to witness someone else's family being hurt when someone steps out of line. Whispers in the dark are powerful. If someone from the compound tells a story about a girl who challenges someone in the group and then their family was hurt in some way, those whispers stay alive long after the troublemaker has been removed.
These women don't need personal proof of what these men are capable of. They know that what they're experiencing here could be a lot worse if they misbehave.
The power these men have over them with mere words is no less restricting than physical restraints.
But even now that Zeus knows there's nothing sexual going on between Sable and me, it doesn't ease the sting that he thought I'd even cross such a line.
Allowing his silence for the last two weeks without explaining was meant to give me back a little piece of myself. It was a punishment of sorts for him and the way he treated me then, and the continued mistreatment now.