"Are you leaving so soon?" I made sure to bat my eyelashes seductively at him and knew I had him secured and entrapped the minute a sickening smile made its way across his face.

I watched as he stalked his way closer to me. My heart beat rapidly in my chest as I went to put my plan into motion. He was an easy man to fool, so pulling a trick like this would hopefully be simple enough.

As Bernard stalked toward, me I got up from my seat on the hard and cold stone bench and pressed myself against him, using his moment of shock to spin us around and sit him down where I had been moments before.

The chains around my wrist clinked with all the movement I had made. I looked down for a brief moment as I noticed it had successfully wrapped itself around his ankles. Bernard seemed too invested in my chest pressing against his to notice.

"Hm," I hummed as I put my face in his neck and tried not to gag from the sweaty smell emitting from him. When I pretended to struggle to get onto his legs with the long chains, I held them between our two bodies and pouted. "I can’t do anything with these in the way."

Quicker than I imagined he would be, Bernard quickly pulled a key from his pocket and undid the chains on my wrists. I giggled as he did so, playing into the innocent act of trying to get him to let down his guard.

"Take this off too," Bernard whispered hungrily in an unflattering way as he tugged at my nightshirt that I had put on after the shower before they had taken me.

I nodded my head eagerly and handed the chains to him as he leaned back and made a show of slowly and carefully unbuttoning the buttons from my top. I slid the top over my shoulders and let them rest in the crook of my elbow before getting on his lap.

"You’re so gorgeous." Bernard kept whispering sweet words into my ears, only the words were less sweet and more made me want to choke him to death and throw up.

"Thank you, baby," I whispered back to him. "You’re so handsome. Hm, I love your broad shoulders," I said back as I ran my hands over his shoulders but was actually just trying to get the chains around his neck in an inconspicuous way.

"Better than that bastard Roman?" I giggled at the name to make it sound like what he said was the silliest thing.

"Of course," I whispered, "so much better than Roman." God, what a lie. Roman beat this ugly pig in every aspect, physical or not, without a thought of doubt in my mind.

Sneakily taking the chains from his hands and wrapping them around the back of his neck in a show of getting it out of the way, I cringed when he bucked his hips into me as he adjusted me on his lap but quickly disguised it as a fake moan.

"That’s right," he said cockily. "I knew it. I knew you didn’t really like that bastard. Wish it were me that had bought you that day. I would’ve treated you so well. Still would. I will. When this is all over, I’m gonna kill Roman myself and have you all to myself."

"Hm," I hummed as he spoke nonsense. "What about Jessica?"

He scoffed, "She’ll get over it. I will make her. I’ll be damned if she ends up with an *sshole like Roman Thaddeus."

Tricking a man like Bernard wasn’t a hard thing to do, especially not when he so willingly wanted to allow himself to believe that I could want him—did want him—in the way he wanted me to. I tried to resist the pull he had on my face with his clammy hands.

Instead of kissing him, I ran my nose up his neck—the action in itself something to gag about. Instead of undoing any more clothes, I undid his instead.

The chains clanked as we moved. It seemed he paid no mind to the noise as I made a show of breathing heavily into his ear, making sure he believed the show I was putting on. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

When he started to get even more bold, handsy, and demanding, the more I sprung into action.

Quickly wrapping my legs around his waist and bringing my heels so that they were high enough to dig into his lungs I pressed down harder than he anticipated. I then used the chain that was still wrapped around my neck behind his back and circled it around his throat.

Bernard took a moment to snap out of the lustfully induced haze I had set him in. When he did, his eyes went wide. He began choking.

But it was too late. The chain around his throat, coupled with the heel of my foot pressing into his lungs as hard and fast as I was, was too much for him to handle all at once.

He tried to stand up and throw me off from him, but he tripped over the chains that had circled around his ankles. We both fell to the floor.

I let out a gasp of breath as he fell on top of me but kept a hard lock onto his lungs and a tight hold over the chains that were choking him. From on top of me, Bernard was gasping for breath. I noted the veins in his temples begin to pop.

His face began to turn red. That’s when I slightly, only slightly, loosened my grip on the chains. It was still tight enough that it was choking him. Just before his body fell unconscious, I flipped us over in his weakened state.

Still awake but weakened from the chains and my heels, I released the chains around his neck and lifted my fist. In one heavy swoop, I managed to punch him square in the jaw and knock him out effectively.

I swore as a numb pain shot through my fist. I shook it to relieve some of the tension and pain that had cramped up there.

I sighed heavily as I stared down at him. It was done. Getting up from him, I straightened the shirt I wore and buttoned it back up, somehow feeling dirty despite not really doing anything, and began working to make sure he would stay in the cage.

I grabbed the keys from his pocket and fully released my body from the chains. I took the long steel chain and wrapped it around his feet to secure an extra amount of security and assure myself that he would stay down.

His breathing was shallow, and there was no movement behind his eyes. I figured I had managed to knock him out efficiently enough.

I looked at him for a short moment. Looking at him now, he didn’t seem so scary. After all, he was just a man.

I pocketed the keys as I stepped out from the cage and locked it. Let’s see how he feels being locked up like an animal. I looked to the other women in the cages around me who had all watched the commotion and scene unfold before them.

"I’m going to get help," I whispered to them as I made my way up the stairs. "Don’t worry. This all ends tonight."

Thankfully, they didn’t object. Somehow, they all understood that sneaking out of this place as one small woman would be a lot easier than seven of us trying to not get caught. I gave them my word that they would be free tonight, and I was going to stick by that.

I tried to remember the way Bernard had brought me to the storage room filled with the girls and successfully made it back to the main room where he had me locked in the chair. From there, I took a left turn and ended up in what seemed to be the bar area.

Voices came from the front door, so I quickly hid in a corner as guards passed me by.

"Hurry up!" one of them yelled. "We have to get the cars ready. Boss wants the girls moved and in transit before sunup, and we haven’t got a lot of time."

Sh*t. What was I going to do about that?

If I could get to a phone or something that I could use to communicate with Roman or even Marcus—literally anybody who would be able to help—then it would be great.

Turning right instead of left this time, I made my way to what seemed like the main security room. I was shocked when I saw no one inside and quickly locked myself in the room before locating a phone drilled into the wall and began punching numbers in.

The phone rang three times before a familiar voice answered.

"Lori?" I breathed out.