Page 16 of Unbound Duchess

“Benedict, please!” she cried as he shoved her into his carriage outside. “Let me go!”

“You just need a fresh perspective, little Ellie,” he replied, his tone biting as he shoved her down hard into the carriage seat. “You will see soon enough just how kind I am compared to others.”

Ellen froze, her tear-filled eyes going wide with fear and confusion.

“What do you mean?” she asked, her voice trembling. “Where are you taking me?”

Benedict’s sneer was wide and triumphant as his cold, blue eyes glittered with excitement.

“To the auction,” he answered—the words sending a chill down her spine. “I will teach you a lesson tonight.”

CHAPTER SIX

“Ithought you said we had two weeks,” Laurence snarled under his breath.

Yet another masked man bumped into him in the crowded auction room. Already beyond his usual rage, Laurence sent his broad shoulder into the man, sending him several feet away.

Solomon grabbed him by the arm and yanked him through the crowd until they reached the fray of it.

“You have to keep your temper in check, Laurence!” Solomon seethed. “If your temper gets us thrown out before the auction even gets started, we’ll lose our chance at ever getting vengeance for Annabel!”

Behind his mask, Laurence sneered with gritted teeth, but he silently willed his rage back into its cage. Solomon was right, and Laurence knew it. He would have to contain his disgust through the night and act the part, like the other savages in the room who were clearly excited for the auction to begin.

“Now look,” Solomon said gruffly. “I will stay out here and talk with the other members. You go backstage, gather yourself, and find a man named Nigel. He is the one who supposedly handles the women entering auction. See what you can find out about him. We brought a rather large amount of money tonight. Bribe him. Make him betray his employer.”

“Fine,” Laurence said through gritted teeth. “But what makes you sure he can be bought?”

Solomon waved a hand over the crowd before them.

“This is an auction. Everyone can be bought,” he retorted. “You just have to find the right price.”

“The girls are for sale, sir,” Nigel said, as Laurence followed him through the narrowed halls behind the stage. “Not me.”

Solomon had apparently been wrong.

Laurence sidestepped just in time as two giggling, highly painted, and scantily clad women ran past them. He was expecting far more tears behind the stage, and was surprised to find that most of the women were willing participants.

“Surely there is an amount we can agree on?” Laurence urged as he caught up to Nigel. “I will pay double whatever your employer pays you. Triple. All I need is a name.”

Nigel whirled on him, his face tight with annoyance.

“And all I need is for men like you to follow the rules,” he flung back. “Now get back out in front of the stage, or I will have you banned!”

Laurence opened his mouth to speak, but Nigel cut him off.

“You think you are special? That every few months we don’t get a man like you thinking he’ll barge in here and right some sort of wrong?”

Nigel stepped closer to him, his eyes narrowing.

“These women want to be sold. They get a thrill out of it. Just as much as those lust-hungry men who pay for them.”

“Nigel!” someone barked from behind him.

Nigel sneered as he glanced over his shoulder, then raised a finger toward Laurence’s masked face.

“When I turn around, you’d better be gone, sir,” he warned. “Or I can promise you that no amount of money will protect you from what comes next.”

“Nigel!” the man barked again.