I never got a chance to tell Dante about Bernard’s cryptic warning. He had to leave soon after our kiss and I left the party because I wasn’t in the mood for it. I got ready for bed and just as I was about to turn off the light, Alice walked in. She shut the door and sat on her bed, not even bothering to take her heels off. “What’s wrong? I could tell from your expression down there that something happened,” Alice said, her brown eyes on mine. For a moment, I was stunned that she and Dante knew me so well to realize that something was wrong. “Bernard knows something’s up,” I told her flatly. I didn’t want to beat around the bush, preferring to just get it out there. Alice’s eyes widened in fear. “What? How do you know? Did he tell you?” Alice asked, placing her hands on her knees and leaning forward. “Not in so many words…and I don’t think he knows everything, but he’s suspicious of Dante and me,” I explained. “The only thing I can think of is that Valerie
I walked into the room because the door was open. For a moment, I studied him and the feeling of the room. Bernard had chosen one of the few private rooms without a bed in it. The curtains in front of the window were open and the sunlight was streaming into the room. He was sitting with his legs crossed and reading a newspaper at a nicely set table that had a white tablecloth on it. There was a small buffet of food, with plates filled with french fries, bite-sized burgers, mac and cheese, sliced watermelon, and pineapple. Even though I was nervous, my mouth began to water automatically. Bernard saw me eyeing the food. “Good afternoon, Gabrielle,” Bernard began warmly. I studied his eyes, there was no evil glint in them right now. “Please, sit down and help yourself to anything.” He pointed to the small feast. I did as he instructed. I loaded my plate with all the food, already anticipating the wonderful taste of everything. Just before I took my first bite thoug
“Alright, let’s see here. Who has a date tonight… Oh, yes. Gabrielle,” Valerie said and looked up at me. “You’re the only one with a date tonight. Dante will meet in your usual room at eight.” My stomach dropped. Usually, I was so happy to have a date scheduled with Dante. But my lunch with Bernard was only yesterday and I was trying to keep my distance from Dante. Valerie was staring at me with an expectant expression. Should I refuse the date? Technically, we were allowed to do that, but I heard that was very frowned upon. Would refusing the date make me look even more guilty? Ugh, I was developing a headache from overthinking. “Okay, sounds good,” I told Valerie. There, short and sweet. I just needed to act normal. Everything would be fine. After breakfast, I went into my room and shut the door. Alice and Tamara were there. We had helped Tamara move her things into the room the other day, but I hadn’t had a chance to talk to Tamara alone since she moved
“I need you. Now,” I whispered to him, and pressed myself against him again. Instead of answering me, Dante stood up and carried me over to the bed. I wrapped my legs around him and continued to kiss his neck. “Gabrielle, whatever has gotten into you, I hope it stays around,” he replied, then gently laid me on the bed. “Take your shirt off,” I demanded. He grinned and followed my orders. Damn, I’d never get tired of looking at his stomach. It was one of the best parts about him. Along with his face, his arms, and his…Dante pulled his pants and boxers down. I stared at his hard erection. “Come here,” I said in a husky voice. Dante crawled onto the bed. We continued kissing passionately. His hand worked its way under my dress and pinched my nipple. I bucked my hips and moaned in pleasure. After he played with my boobs for a while, I was already close to coming. “Please, Dante.” “Please what, baby?” he asked, chuckling amusedly.
“Should we just go down to breakfast without her?” Tamara whispered to me. We were standing by our bedroom door, one foot out of the room and one foot in. Tamara and I were quiet getting ready for breakfast, but I thought Alice would wake up by now. She never did. I felt torn as I stared at her sleeping form. On one hand, I didn’t want her to miss breakfast because Valerie didn’t allow us to eat again til lunch, but I could tell Alice needed more sleep. “Yes, I’ll make sure to grab a protein bar or something to bring her when Valerie isn’t looking,” I said, and we finally headed down. The meal was uneventful, Valerie didn’t even notice Alice was missing. It was strange. Usually, the horrible woman was barking orders at us, like who had dates with sponsors, our chores for the day, or what classes with her we needed to attend. But she was strangely silent. Valerie was staring at the wall without even her signature black coffee up in front of her. The weirdest part
The next week and a half were the darkest times I’d ever had in my life. I barely got to talk to Alice because Valerie was always assigning us chores in different areas of the house. I knew she was doing it on purpose to keep us apart. I hadn’t seen Dante because there hadn’t been any more parties. Every day felt like it was the same. That was why I was surprised when Valerie came into the room I was dusting and told me I had a date in five minutes. “What room is it in?” I asked her. What I was really asking was who the date was with. When Valerie told me it was the room I usually met Dante, I could have leapt up and kissed her. But I controlled my reaction and studied Valerie as inconspicuously as I could. She was smiling, but I could tell that she still wasn’t sleeping well and she had lost weight. Valerie was already a tiny person, so she was starting to look sick from not eating. I walked to the room with a smile on my face. I walked into the open door and s
“We have a problem,” Alice said, slipping through the doorway. It was a couple of days later, and Dante scheduled a date with me for tonight. This was far from a date though. This was a team meeting with Alice, Dante, and me. Alice snuck into our private room when we knew Valerie would be at dinner, so she didn’t become suspicious. We needed to discuss how we were going to obtain the information to take down Bernard, Valerie, and the escort system itself. We thought that the information we needed was in Valerie’s office because of how she reacted when she caught Alice and me in there a while ago. Dante nodded in greeting as Alice sat on the chair across from us. I had introduced them during casino night. “What’s wrong?” I asked, looking up at her. “I walked by Valerie’s office and ‘accidentally’ dropped my cleaning supplies, just like we talked about,” Alice started. I nodded for her to go on. We decided that Alice would be the one to do this part of
“Ew, that guy’s mouth tasted like onions,” Alice said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and walking into the room. When she closed the door, I jumped up and hugged her tightly. “Alice! Thank you so much! You just saved my life,” I told her, meaning every word. “You’re…crushing…me,” she managed to get out. I pulled away at once. “Sorry,” I replied. “I’m just so grateful. I can’t believe you kissed that guy for me!” We sat down on our beds, facing each other. Alice waved me off like what she did hadn’t been a big deal. “I’ve had worse kisses on the stage and off. Simon wasn’t a bad kisser, he just must have had something with onions for breakfast,” Alice explained. I got up and handed her a water bottle and got one for myself. “Enough about me, I was just a distraction. Did you find anything?”I took a sip of my water, then frowned. I didn’t even have to answer her question. She could read my face easily enough. “Are we looking for
*Six Months Later*“Those slippery motherfuckers!” I yelled, pounding my fist on the table. Dante shook his head angrily. Bridgette leaned her head back and sighed. Charlotte was crying silently. Alice had her arms crossed and was staring blankly at the wall. We were at my office in the conference room since Dante had called us all here to tell us the outcome of Valerie and Bernard’s trials. He had been attending both of them. I wanted to go with him, but ultimately my therapist and I decided that it would be too triggering for me. When I got the call from Dante, I thought for sure that he was gathering us here to tell us both of them were found guilty. I followed their court cases closely with the help of Dante and the news, which was covering this story closely. But it turned out the news wasn't good. It was quite the opposite, actually. Alice was the first one to speak after my outburst. “But…I don’t understand how they could get away with this. Th
A cool breeze ruffled the grass where I was kneeling and it tickled my legs. I looked up at the blue sky. There wasn’t a cloud in sight. I took a deep breath to steady myself. I tried to get into the right headspace for this moment, but I didn’t think I could ever truly prepare myself for what I was about to do. It was now a couple of weeks after everything happened at The Golden Hive. I was taking my time as I adjusted back to life outside of it all. The main thing I focused on was making sure the other ex-escorts were doing well as they navigated the new world they were in. Dante and I were seeing each other almost every day and I would spend the night at his house most days because I didn’t want to sleep alone. I usually woke up with nightmares when I did. I continued to help with research and find evidence to help the case against Bernard and Valerie. I was even going into the office two days a week. Also, I started to take up boxing again. I basically had to start from
“Now, you two come over anytime, you hear?” Alice’s mother called to us. We had just spent the afternoon at her house. Dante told Alice and her mom, whose name was Lacey, the truth about his mother’s hard life. The two women listened with wide eyes and tears. I was sure that it was hard to hear, but they needed to know the truth. Only then they would be able to fully heal. After Dante was finished telling everything, the mood in the bright kitchen was somber. But Lacey perked up and looked over at her nephew. She asked him if he would like to hear about how his mother was as a child and her family. Dante nodded enthusiastically. As he listened to how much of a happy and curious child his mom was, Dante’s face changed. His smile grew wider and wider. I knew that it was good for him to hear this. Knowing that his mother’s life hadn’t been all bad was really good for him. “You know what I remember most about your mother though?” Lacey asked Dante.
“Are you nervous?” I asked Alice as we walked down the sidewalk. “Yeah, it feels like my heart is in my stomach,” she replied. It was a couple of days later and Alice, Dante, and I were going to visit my team's office. It had been a very hectic couple of days—from talking with FBI agents, police officers, and continuing to help Bridgette and Jeremy research The Golden Hive. We wanted to gather enough evidence to strengthen the upcoming case against Valerie, Bernard, and all of the sponsors. Also, I’d been helping organize all the witness protection placements for everyone. Alice was the only girl who didn’t need to go into the program. She was staying with her mother and she recently told me that her mother had said that Alice going undercover inside The Golden Hive was the bravest, but stupidest thing she had ever done. But, thankfully, I had just helped move the last girl into her apartment, Charlotte. It was hard to leave her, especially when she kept crying
“Here, please drink something, Gabrielle. You’ve had a long night and it’s far from over,” Dante said, handing me a water bottle. But I didn’t take it. Dante, Charlotte, Alice, myself, and the rest of the other escorts were outside of the mansion. We formed a semi-circle and police cars with flashing lights were surrounding us. There were so many people in uniforms talking on walkie-talkies or walking in and out of the manor. It looked like the entire local police and the FBI were here. The scene before me was chaos. Two separate squad cars had driven Bernard and Valerie away. I was glad the FBI knew what they were doing. You never put the criminals in the back of the same car before questioning. You had to keep them separated so they couldn’t talk with each other about how to get their stories straight. I stared up at the mansion that had been my prison. It felt strange to be in the outside world after two months inside that house of horrors. If I felt weird, I coul
“Give me my goddamn laptop back, you little bitch,” Valerie hissed at me. I clutched the laptop that I was still holding in my hands. I held it in front of my chest like it was a bulletproof vest. She was stupider than I thought if she believed I was going to hand over the only bargaining chip I had. Sure, I had a gun pointed at me many times, but I wasn’t the one I was worried about. I was terrified that Valerie was going to kill the man I loved who was beside me, looking like he would take a bullet for me. I was even more scared for the terrified girl behind me who I just heard let out a little squeak of fear. Charlotte hadn’t even asked for this. When I thought about plan B, I never had any intention for her to risk her life too. “Good evening, Valerie,” I said in a calm voice, trying to convey a confidence I didn’t feel. "Why did you leave your own party?” I asked in a mildly curious voice. “From what I heard, your organization needs all the money it can get
All three of us were shocked into inactivity for a long moment. We stared at each other in horror, wondering how Valerie or Bernard found out about the missing computer in such a short amount of time. I was the first one to rise and slowly walked toward the hallway that Valerie’s office was down. My legs felt heavy, like I was walking through water. I peered around the corner and gasped when I saw the mistake I had made. I had forgotten to close Valerie’s office door when I left. Jeremy and Bridgette could only hack into the cameras for twenty minutes. Our time was up. I turned to the other two, gripping Valerie’s laptop tightly in my hands. “We need to hide. Now,” I ordered Dante and Charlotte. Neither of them argued or questioned my urgency. They knew the severity of the situation. Both of them knew what could happen if we were caught. We raced down the hallway in the opposite direction of Valerie’s office. Quickly, my mind raced considering
Charlotte stared at me for a moment, then she started laughing hysterically. She leaned against the wall and put her hands on her knees while continuing to giggle. Dante and I shared a look and I adjusted Valerie’s laptop I was holding. “Um, Charlotte? Are you alright?” I asked her with uncertainty coloring my tone. The young girl laughed for a few more moments and I had no idea what to do. It seemed like this was Charlotte’s breaking point. She had finally lost it. This house that she thought would be her saving grace, had broken her. I felt terrible that I had any part in it, however small or inadvertently it was. As we were waiting, Dante tried to take the laptop from my hands and leave, but I shook my head. “Plan B,” I whispered to him. He nodded. Finally, Charlotte seemed to calm down. Dante and I brought her over to a small alcove in the hallway with two chairs. We sat her down and I took the seat across from her. The last thing I wanted to do was si
I stared at myself in the mirror and let out a nervous sigh. I smoothed my hands down my red dress, the same one I wore at my first party here. I thought it would be fitting to wear the same dress since it was my last night here. No matter how the night played out. “You ready to meet Dante?” Alice asked from behind me. I turned around and studied her. She was wearing a black dress that suited her pale skin tone. I couldn’t even compliment how she looked because my throat was too dry. I nodded to answer her question and we walked to meet Dante. Thankfully, the hallways were deserted and we slipped into our usual room. Dante was already waiting for us. I stopped in the doorway because his appearance made me pause. He looked gorgeous in a black suit and red tie. When he saw me, his face bloomed into a huge smile. He pointed to his tie. “I was hoping you’d wear that dress so we could match,” Dante told me. We grinned at each other with stupid, happy look