Blind Loyalty - M J Marlow (i am reading a book .txt) 📗

voice. Rachel looked up groggily to see Adam and his team looking at her in concern. She lost her balance and found herself being guided towards their vehicle. “I’m fine,” she said weakly. She sank down in a seat and sighed in relief. “I am not going to rest until I see Leighton hang.” “I’m just glad Leighton left you here,” Adam replied tightly. “He could have taken it into his head to drop you out of the hatch.” He pulled her to her feet and hugged her close. “What were you thinking, Rachel?” “That Joanna needed help,” Rachel replied. “He took her to England, Adam. You know what that means! You need to contact your friends there and get them hunting.” The world was spinning around her in sickening circles as the two drugs warred with each other and created the worst after-effect she had ever experienced. “Ooh! That’s nasty!” “Get her to Lora, Tad,” Adam told one of the men. “The rest of you, we’re headed to England.” “Adam…” “No, Rachel,” Adam broke in. “Joanna needs me. I can feel it. And you are in no condition to do much of anything right now.” He saw her nod and he kissed her, grateful that she was all right. Then he ran to the controls while his men fueled their jet. Once they were ready, the jet was underway. Joanna woke up and found herself lying on a bed in a cell. She had been stripped and put into a sleeveless gray dress that fastened at the shoulders and hung loosely over her body to her knees. She was naked underneath and she bit her lip as she realized this. What was happening to her? There were bars on the window and a wall of bars that looked out onto a corridor of gray stone. There was a table with a bowl and pitcher on it but nothing else. She got to her feet, which were bare, and the room spun around her slowly. She was still feeling the effects of the sedative her father had given her. She heard footsteps and looked up to see a strange gray-eyed man with greasy brown hair looking in at her. He unlocked the door and stepped aside for a woman in a gray uniform and white apron to enter. The woman took the pitcher and carried it out. When she returned, she poured steaming water into the bowl and laid a towel and a bar of soap and a comb next to it. “Wash up quickly, girl,” the woman said. “You’re wanted upstairs by the masters.” Joanna washed her hands and face and combed out her hair. The woman nodded and took out a pair of cuffs and fastened Joanna’s wrists behind her back. “The man will take you up,” the woman nodded towards the stranger. Joanna didn’t talk to the man. She had nothing to say to anyone at this point. She had been brought here against her will and woken up to find herself in a cell. Well at least someone understood the truth around here. That was what she had always been, she realized; a prisoner. She was no more a daughter than any of the servants who had worked in her father’s home. They went past several other cells and she noticed that there were other prisoners inside, most of who were in very poor shape. There was a barred door in front of them. The man unlocked it and they went up a flight of stairs to the next floor. Several turns along corridors later, they stood in front of a pair of wooden doors. The man opened it and shoved her inside. The room was not overly large and there was only a long table with seven chairs behind it. In front of the table was a short post with an iron ring in front of it. The man shoved her to that spot in front of the table and freed one cuff to run through the ring. He pulled her arms behind her back and put the cuff back on her. Then he forced her to drink something that made her throat feel cold and then numb. A door opened behind the table and her father and six other men filed in and took their seats. James looked at her cold expression and knew it was time she was put back on the drug. Her true nature was asserting itself after the weeks of freedom. “I present to the Council,” James said simply, “Joanna Elizabeth Jeffries.” He looked at Joanna. “She is the daughter of our old nemesis, Major Adam Jeffries, and his ex-wife Hannah Winbourne.” Joanna looked at him in shock. It wasn’t true! He was her father. But the look on his face and the fact that she was here, chained like an animal, told her this statement of his was true. Adam was her real father! “Until this moment, she believed herself to be my child.” “Her father is on his way here already,” one of the other men said as he looked at Joanna. “So she has already served her purpose as bait.” He ran his eyes over her and she shuddered in revulsion at the expression in his eyes. “A virgin, Leighton?” “She has been touched but never taken as per our rules,” James nodded. “That will be reflected in the price.” He saw the shock in Joanna’s eyes change to horror. “I saw to it that she was well-educated. At sixteen, she is studying at a college level. Any children she bears should be just as intelligent.” “Healthy?” another man asked as he got to his feet. He approached Joanna and she backed away from him. He grabbed her by the chin and forced her to open her mouth. “She had her tonsils out recently, I hear. Any complications?” “No,” James told him. “She is a very healthy female.” He watched the man running his hands over Joanna and bristled. “You’re pushing it, Humphrey. She isn’t yours to fondle yet.” “She’s certainly a spirited little thing,” Humphrey laughed as he saw the fire in Joanna’s eyes. He turned to Leighton. “I thought you dealt with that.” “The training was interrupted,” James shrugged. “She knows what it is to be corrected and should be easy enough to return to control. If you are the one who wins the bid.” He met Joanna’s eyes and saw hatred there. “The minimum asking price will be fifteen million.” “For that price,” Humphrey said as he resumed his seat; “I think we should see what we are being offered.” The men all nodded agreement and the man standing behind Joanna moved in front of her. He unfastened the ties at the shoulders and the dress she was wearing fell to her feet, leaving her naked. Joanna was horrified as the men all got up and came towards her. She saw James standing back, smiling proudly. How could he do this to her? She had been his daughter! Yet he was offering her to these lecherous men like a harem slave. She cringed as one of the men put his hand on her breast and tried to pull away. But they continued running their hands over her as she shuddered in revulsion. When they finally stepped away, she fell to her knees sobbing. “Quite acceptable,” a silver-haired man nodded. “Fifteen million is far too low a price for this exquisite child.” “Then we will adjust the price and hold the auction,” James stated coldly, “when her father arrives. I am certain he would be interested to see how valuable we all believe his pretty daughter to be.” He nodded to the jailer. “Take the girl back to her cell now and have the Matron begin dosing her.” The man bowed and pulled the dress back up her body and tied it fast. Then he freed one wrist and Joanna took a swing at him before he could get the cuff back on. He laughed as she fought him and the buyers were enchanted with the way she moved. James smiled. He was going to be very rich soon and he owed it all to the child of the woman he had stolen. Joanna used every move she had learned from her martial arts instructor, but the jailer finally got the cuff back on and he carried Joanna off over his shoulder still kicking and struggling. “Your asking price is way too low,” Humphrey said as the door closed behind Joanna and her jailer. “That female is a goddess, Leighton.” Joanna was shoved into her cell and her arms yanked through the bars so the cuffs could be removed. She couldn’t stop shivering as she remembered those foul men touching her. He couldn’t be doing this to her! He had raised her as his own daughter! How could he be selling her like she was nothing more than livestock? Joanna backed into the corner with the pillow clutched to her chest, trying to calm herself down. She watched as the woman entered the cell with an IV pole and a bag full of a clear liquid with a long tube hanging from it. “You’re to receive your first dose now, slave,” the woman said to her. She nodded to the wall at the head of the bed where a pair of shackles was hanging about three feet up. “Put your wrists in the shackles there,” she ordered Joanna. When she did not obey the woman took a short whip off her belt and struck her with it. “Do as you are told, slave!” Joanna refused and the woman whistled. The man came in and forced Joanna’s wrists into the shackles. Her arms were now held up over her head against the cold gray stone. “It is easier to do as you are told, little one,” the woman said as she put a pair of gloves on her hands and nodded to the man. He forced Joanna’s mouth open and the woman slid the tube down the struggling girl’s throat and taped it in place. “There we go,” she smiled and patted Joanna’s cheek. “All set.” Joanna could do nothing but watch as the woman opened the tube and the liquid in the bag slid down the tube and into her stomach. She could feel herself becoming groggy. The woman nodded and left the cell, leaving Joanna alone. The girl closed her eyes and struggled not to give in to the feelings of despair attacking her mind. Her real father was coming for her! She had heard one of the men say so. He wouldn’t let these foul people buy and sell her like livestock. He would save her and take her home to their family. But as the hours passed and she remained locked in the cell with only the matron coming and going to check on her, despair was becoming more and more an emotion that her mind found easy to accept. She drifted in and out of consciousness and lost track of time. She woke to find the tube removed and her body freed of the shackles. But she was too weakened by the drugs to even lift her head without shaking. So she laid back and tried to focus her mind. She heard a loud bang and the bed she was laying on shook in the concussion. She needed to get up, her mind shouted at her body. Joanna tried to move and she wound up face down on the floor, shaking. She was so tired, her body shouted back at her screaming mind. She needed to rest. But Joanna was listening to her mind as another explosion went off and the floor shook underneath her. She managed to get to her knees as the door was unlocked and the man yanked her up under his arm. “They come for you, little slave,” he laughed as he hefted her over his shoulder;