“My princess has returned to me,” Monarch bellows. “My beautiful Brandy is back, telling me she never wanted to leave in the first place. Saying she loves me madly.”
The words are like a rat eating its way into my stomach. But it’d be worse if Brenda’s eyes weren’t full of fear and pleading as she frantically searches for mine. It’d be worse if Monarch’s words weren’t met with silence even deeper than before.
What the fuck is going on? Shouldn’t they all be happy to hear this? The waitress with the huge boobs is standing a few feet away from us, biting her nails, her eyes filled with fear.
“Who here believes the lovely Brandy?” Monarch asks after basking in the fearful silence for a few heartbeats.
“Fucking no one!”
“The bitch double-crossed you!”
“She’s a fucking liar!”
“Show her what we do with liar and traitors!”
And that’s just a few of the hundred shouts in the same vein that I can decipher. Female voices are raised along with the males.
The rat has gnawed its way into my stomach and it’s devouring me from the inside now.
What the fuck do I do?
I stand up again and this time Ace, Blaze, and even Stormi all rise with me, but Blaze is still holding me back firmly.
“What the fuck?” I snap at him. “I’m not gonna watch her die.”
Her eyes finally find mine, and she smiles, whispers something, and I have no idea what to make of it, though it chases the pain of this scene away quite completely.
“What do you say we have some fun with her first,” Monarch says, guffawing. “I know a lot of you have been dying to fuck her all these years. So, being the good Monarch I am, I’m gonna give one of you that chance tonight.”
The cheers that erupt at that are deafening and the whole place is shaking from the chairs and feet slamming against the wooden floor.
“A little auction, I’m thinking,” Monarch muses. “Money, service, women, anything goes. I’ll choose the winner. Amaze me!”
Brenda turns to him, horror and pleading mixing in her eyes as she says something to him. But he just smiles and whispers something in her ear. Something that makes her face turn as white snow.
He leaves her standing alone as he takes his seat on the leather sofa. “Proceed to outbid each other!”
Men start shouting offers—money, service, bikes, their fucking wives—but Monarch remains unimpressed, denying them all.
“How much money you got on you?” Blaze asks. “We can just buy her.”
“He’s not gonna sell her to us,” Ace says, and Stormi nods along. “This is just a show. He probably has worse shit planned for her.”
“Over my dead body,” I say. “Let’s grab her and go, and I’ll kill the old bastard on our way out.”
“None of us will get out alive if you try that,” Ace says. “We’ll get her out, don’t worry, but we gotta be smart about this.”
Just then Monarch stands up and claps his hands until silence falls over the room again. “You’re not offering enough, not nearly enough. Maybe it’s because you don’t know the full level of perfection you’re bidding one. Let me show you!”
He strides over to Brenda and rips open her dress with no warning, the tiny, shiny things that looked like stars flying everywhere like the universe just exploded. Which it did.
She’s standing there naked now, in impossibly high heels, trying to cover herself with arms way too thin for the job. And even those Monarch rips away as he orders her to let them see.
She has eyes just for me again, and this time no peace enters me through her gaze. None at all. Only a wish to end this humiliation right not before it gets worse. End it by giving my life. I owe her that. She saved my life, I wouldn’t be here if she hadn’t shot that Sinner. And I don’t want to live my life without her. My life is worth nothing without her. Every eye on her nakedness is a scratch to my own.
I rip my arm from Blaze’s grasp so hard he stumbles back as I leap up on the table.
“I offer you your life for her, fat man!” I yell, my voice so loud it echoes off the walls in the silence.
They’re all staring at me, Brenda’s eyes soft and hopeful. Everyone, including Monarch, was struck speechless by my words. Words I’ll back up as best I can.
“Why if it isn’t your new boyfriend, Brenda,” Monarch says in a quiet, steady, mocking tone, but I can hear his seething anger underneath it. “The one who took you out to fancy lunches and paid for that sleazy motel room we found you in. Look how brave he is. You can watch him die later. Bring him to me.”
“Do nothing,” I hiss over my shoulder at Blaze. “I got a plan.”
Then I charge towards the podium and Brenda. And I let Monarch’s men take me halfway there and drag me the rest of the way to the podium.
It’s not much of a plan. But at least now I’m close enough to Monarch to kill him.
Brenda
The first time I noticed Colt as Monarch led me through the crowd to his podium, I was sure I lost my mind. Lost it in the best way possible, imagining my love has come to rescue me from Monarch’s clutches, but I knew better.
Until I locked eyes with him.
Then I knew he was truly here. For me. His eyes told me that beyond a shadow of a doubt. My biggest dream come true, for real, no illusion and faking necessary.
Then Monarch pulled me along, practically dragged me up those three steps to his leather sofa throne, and spun me around so hard the room somersaulted around me and wasn’t quite sitting right even after he delivered his little speech, revealing his plan for me. His sick and twisted plan. I was such an idiot to think I had him wrapped around my finger again. He doesn’t forgive. And he lets no man touch what is his.
But I knew something else too. The ripped clothes and broken makeup stuff told me that clearly. He means to batter me some, break me some, and then he’ll be satisfied, then he’ll put me back together. Then I’ll be forgiven. Good. I can take a battering. If Colt is waiting for me on the other side, I can do anything. I tried to tell him not to do anything stupid or rash, whispered it to him as soon as I found his eyes in the sea of glaring, angry ones surrounding me. The only eyes full of love and nothing but love for me.
There was no way he could’ve heard what I said, but I hoped he did too. I believed he did.
I was wrong. He didn’t.
I can’t say my whole body didn’t melt with love and hope as he made his offer for me.
But now they’re dragging him up here, and Monarch is so pissed off he’s seething like a pot of boiling water from it.
I no longer have any reason to think either one of us will survive this.
“You’re an idiot, Colt,” I hiss at him as they drag him up the three stairs. “I told you I can handle this.”
He looks so confused and hurt I smile, willing him to feel all the love and happiness at seeing him again I feel. “But I love you more than anything else in the world,” I tell him. “Thank you for being my knight in shining armor.”
He grins at me. “Anytime, princess. Now and forever.”
Which might be a very short time for us. The front door slams open in the distance, bringing in a waft of cold, clear air from outside, like the winds of destiny blowing clean and fresh. In a very twisted way, this is still the very best day of my life.