Page 19

The next shackle slips off, and I exhale a breath, massaging the red ligature marks left behind.

“Better, dear?” Madame Beaumont’s soft fingertips capture my wrist, and she gives a light massage, working out the last of the ache.

“What do you want with me?”

“I’ll bet you’re a smart girl, aren’t you? Shrewd. And stubborn as a whip. That’s why you’re here, after all, isn’t it?” Sliding her sunglasses back over her eyes, she jerks her head for me to follow after her. “Let me show you around. If you’re not pleased with my home, I’ll set you free.”

“After you just paid in crates of supplies.”

“I am one of few who live an abundant life out here. The universe has blessed me beyond measure.”

The beast of a man pushes through a cast iron gate, and as we cross the threshold, I immediately take notice of the guards standing at posts, strapped with guns. If Sam and his crew had attempted anything tricky, they’d have been shot dead on the spot. The place is a fortress.

Of course, he probably knew that. In fact, I bet he trades with her on a regular basis, picking up wayward girls he finds out in the Deadlands.

After taking in the security, my eyes are greeted by a jungle of greenery and exotic flowers. Gorgeous, cultivated gardens that don’t make any sense in the thick of all the surrounding abandonment.

Gaze drinking in the view, I tip my head back, look toward the tropical trees that create a tunnel of shade along our path. “What is this place?”

“It belonged to a real estate mogul, back before the whole end of the world thing.”

“Where are we?”

“Vegas, darling!”

Her light, flowy fabric moves with her, as she shuffles along, leading me up a stone staircase that rounds the mansion, flanked by more elaborate gardens, to the other side. There, an enormous pool and running waterfall stop me in my tracks. Not even Szolen boasts this level of luxury. A dozen, or so, women, with bare breasts on display, swim and play in the water, their laughter dying beneath the waterfall’s pattering, as they pause to stare back at me.

“How is this possible?”

“Szolen wasn’t the only genius of his time. My husband was a brilliant engineer, may his soul rest in peace.” She performs the sign of the cross, never once breaking her pace. “This place runs on five of its own solar power grids that could feed the entire neighborhood, if I got so ambitious.”

One of the women, a pale redhead who keeps to the shade, smiles and waves back at me.

“And just how ambitious are you?” I ask.

“You’re inquiring about your fate again, am I right?”

“If you’d be so kind as to enlighten me.”

Madame Beaumont finally comes to a stop and removes her sunglasses, hooking them on the neckline of her shirt. “The question, my dear, is how ambitious are you?”

“I’m not selling my body, if that’s what you’re asking of me.”

“No, of course not. You’re worth far more as a virgin. Out here, a man would have to fuck a child to get his hands on one. Women are so scarce these days, that when a man does find one, he’s lucky to have her all to himself. One girl might be used by several men throughout the course of her life. It’s not even rape anymore. It’s expectation. Survival.”

So wrong. And enraging. I can’t even imagine growing up on this side of the wall. I’d never have survived out here.

“Women have become a source of currency,” she continues. “A means of trade. It’s utterly disgusting, what life has become for so many of them.”

“Yet, here you are with your own personal harem.”

“Every one of these girls is free to go. I don’t keep them here. My guards don’t keep them here. The life I offer them is what keeps them here. Look around you. This place is paradise, compared to where they come from. Some of them had no idea what a shower was, or a pillow, or a private pool that they didn’t have to share with another neighboring hive.”

Without a doubt, the women don’t appear distressed, but it doesn’t erase the slimy, icky undercurrent of this place. “You trade them. To have all these things, you trade sex.”

“Of course. For a man who hasn’t seen a woman in months? It’s as valuable as water and food. With the number of women I have under my roof, I’d have been the equivalent to a billionaire before the Dredge. And those are women who have been fucked in every hole twenty ways to Tuesday. You represent the ultimate unicorn. A fully grown woman with her virtue intact? It’s unheard of! Men would fall at your feet, if they weren’t so keen on taking without asking. Fortunately for you? You’re in a good place. Secure. Safe.”

If she only knew I wasn’t a virgin. What then? Would I be forced to have sex with men, just as back in Szolen. Seems to be the expectation for young girls these days, whether within the safety of the walls, or not. “What. Do you want. From me?”