House Of Aces (5 page)

“He tapes a video of him cutting off the person’s middle finger
—her brother, sister, mother, father, whoever lives in their home. It’s to let the girls know not to fuck around because it will not be tolerated.”

“But that was the girl
’s first time. She’s just afraid. Why don’t you just end it with a warning?”

“They are told from the beginning that there are no games, no warnings.
If we let her off easy, she will just sit back and plot a way to fuck up our business even more. This is how it’s run. It keeps them all straight.”

Chapter 6

The rest of the ride to the next house was quiet. We pulled up to a building that was very different from the two that I had seen previously.
This building was run down, a warehouse of some sort, with a rusted steel-framed door that could have easily been replaced with the money that we were making, but I guessed that was how they kept this one low key and out of suspicion.

“Ryan, I need you to just follow my lead in here. No questions. No looks. No nothing
. Got that?”

“This doesn’t sound good
, Tony. What is this place?” Goosebumps started to invade my arms and neck. Something about this place just seemed to be off and it dawned on me that this was not a ‘house’, but rather, a prison.

“These girls have expiration dates on them. We use them for seven years and after that—”

“Don’t say it! Don’t tell me that we kill them here!” I was enraged at finding out what a terrible business our family was involved in.

“Ha, no dude
, we don’t kill them. We just hold them here for a discounted price until we have enough to ship them back to Moscow for Lok.”

We were discounting them? What the fuck was I stepping into. This life was definitely not for me.
I loved women. Uncle had always told me to treat them with utmost respect and that they were the happiness in our lives, however now I saw the real definition of what women were to him, and it had me disgusted.

“Snap out of it. It’s not that bad.
Just think about it; they do this for seven years, every day. Their holes get too big.” He chuckled, nudging me in my arm.

This shit was downright ugly. How could my family be this cruel? I thought our business was about having fun and the girls loved their jobs, but apparently
, I had been wrong.

“So after seven years
, they get to go back home? So it isn’t a one-year contract; it’s a seven-year contract? I guess that’s more money saved up for them if you want to look at in on a brighter side.”

Tony started shaking his head
. “So pure you are. There is
no
money for them. There is no home for them. We send them up to Lok. Remember? He has a business to run there, too.” He shook his head, as if trying to figure out why I was so bothered by it all.

“Come on
; let’s go. We don’t have much time. There are still seventeen more runs to do after this one.”

***

I didn’t even try to wrap my head around it. I was still reeling from what I had seen when we walked into that place, which was like walking into a horror movie. The lights flickered. The ground was dirty and wet. The sounds of men moaning and screaming their pleasure, paired with cries from the women they were fucking, came from every direction. The smell of sex, cigarettes and alcohol seeped through the walls, the floors and the ceiling.

“Go straight and take a left
. It’s the red door on the right. Go in there and wait for me. The guy that runs this place, his name’s Roger. Tell him who you are and wait for me there. Don’t wander around.”

I had barely anything to say when Tony spun around and disappeared out of the hallway, leaving me alone.

Following his orders, I came upon a blood red door that had a doorbell on the side of it. It looked broken, but when I pressed it, the door almost immediately unlocked. Cautiously, I walked in. The stench of sex and rotten semen immediately made me nauseous.

I was about to spin around and walk back to where I
had come from when a deep voice greeted me as the door closed behind me.

“Fifteen or thirty minutes?” he asked.
“Short or tall? Come on, kid; you here to fuck or to look stupid?”

“I’m Tony’s cousin, Ryan.” I didn’t know whether to shake his hand or to just stand there as he examined me.

“Where’s Tony?” Before I could answer, the man himself answered his own question. “Oh, never mind. He’s with Alexandria.” He extended the last part of her name before he burst into laughter.

Was this guy on drugs?

“Who is Alexandria?”

“She’s a waste of space is what she is.
Been here a year, in the biggest room, and is not allowed to see anyone. I shouldn’t have agreed to babysit his baby girl.” He started laughing hysterically again, which only made me more curious.

Alexandria. Tony
had never mentioned anyone by that name.

“Which room is she in?” I asked
, wanting to confront him and ask about what Tony was up to in that room, not to mention find out more about this woman.

“She’s in the room with the black door and no number.
You should go get him before he does something stupid.” Roger had put his serious face on. I didn’t know if he was concerned or was pissed off that this girl was wasting a room. Not only that, from his weird laughter to his sudden change of attitude, I was becoming suspicious about what the heck was truly going on.

Walking out of Roger’s dingy office, I headed down the hallway. There must’ve been about thirty rooms back to back.
Judging by the distance from each door to the next, the rooms couldn’t have been bigger than a closet.

As I turned the corner, I saw the black door.
I paused  when I heard Tony’s voice talking to someone, then walked slightly towards the door. Pressing my ear against it, I listened, hearing them talk without difficulty.

“You promised me that you would get Vera out. It’s been a
two years. I need to see her.” A woman’s voice sounded like she was weeping.

“Vera is good. She’s a
house girl You know that she’s being taken care of. No guys are touching her, so she’s safe.” There was a pause before Tony spoke again. “Baby, trust me you know I love you, and very soon we will leave with Vera and start a whole new life together.”

They were talking about my Vera!
My girl… the girl that I loved. Who was this girl talking about Vera? Was she her relative? Why was she being kept in this warehouse and was it even possible to get someone out? I had so many questions for Tony, but before I could blink, the door opened and Tony was pointing a gun in between my eyes.

“I told you to go sit in the fucking office! Why are you so fucking hard headed?!” He gritted the words out, about to lose a fuse. Staring into his eyes, I dared him to pull the trigger. One. Two. Three. Four seconds it took him to see sense as he slowly removed the gun from my sweaty forehead.

Something moved behind Tony’s back… and that was when I saw her. The woman was Vera. Though as she moved closer, I noticed that she was an older version of her yet just as beautiful.

J
ust as soon as I opened my mouth to ask her what was going on, though, Tony slammed the door in my face.

+++ House Of Aces Book #2 +++

Coming mid March

Read Pame
la Ann’s upcoming novel,
Havoc….

WARNING:

Please be advised that this book contains violence, graphic sexual acts, drugs, consensual and nonconsensual sex, language and situations intended for MATURE readers only.

This novel is not for the faint of heart. So if you have any strong aversions about such subjects, this novel isn’t for you.

Havoc: A Novel

At the age of eighteen, Ana Walters lost her mother, her home and her freedom. Within a week after her mother's burial, she was sexually abused by someone close to her. A few months after the assault, she was still trapped. Then one day, she managed to escape her living nightmare.

The after effects of her abused state started to haunt her.

With all the never-ending hurdles, would Ana finally be free of her demons?

Prologue

When I was ten, my father was shot in a gunman’s rampage in the mall’s food court. It had been a Saturday, and since my mom had worked weekends, it had become our ritual to spend time shopping, eating out and then watching a movie afterwards.

It had started
out as any other day, nothing peculiar; it had been the hustle and bustle of the usual weekend packed with families and kids everywhere. Then, out of nowhere, just like in the movies, a sound of a gun fired somewhere echoed across the domed-glass food court. There had been that eerie, sudden silence of people frozen as they realized what that blast of sound had been before the cacophony of people screaming for help and pure terror took its place. People had begun stampeding all over the place. It had suddenly become havoc and chaos everywhere I looked.

Dad had taken me in his arms, holding me against his chest
tightly before he’d started to join the mass chaos. We had been barely moving because people were pushing against each other and someway, somehow, Dad dropped me from his hold.

In
the blink of an eye, the rounds of the deafening noise of fresh bullets being released without mercy rattled the place as people screamed and ran away from the scene. Blood, dead people and the injured had been scattered before me while I had stood there in my pink, frilly dress, wide-eyed, scared but frozen in fright. It had been then that he’d found me, the dark eyes of the masked man had zeroed in on me as his next target, as if in slow motion.

I had seen the steely determination in those unforgivable depths of his soul as my heart pounded in the back of my ears, eyes focused on his forefinger, inching to the trigger to shoot me on the spot. My father had pushed me with great strength, screaming my name as he shoved me past the garbage bin so hard that I black
ed out.

There had been only o
ne thing I had been certain of before darkness had taken me, the last shot that rang in my ears had been directed towards my father.

I was never the same after that.

It had been traumatizing to go through something so horrendous and still attempt to live like a normal kid again because, let’s face it, I wasn’t normal anymore.

I had secluded myself from any human contact as much as possible. I couldn’t be in a place where there were too
many people around me without having a panic attack seizing me to unconsciousness.

Therefore, my mother
had decided to have me homeschooled.

Five years later, Mom remarried again. Bob, her husband, had a son who was my age named Doug. He was nice, friendly and very attentive. He became my best friend after only a month.

For years, I had never thought one of those people would hurt me. After all, I had loved them like they were my
real
family. Little did I know that, sometimes, even good people had dark thoughts—
desires
—to get what they wanted at any cost.

Chapter 1

A hand pressed down on my mouth,
pushing my head into the mattress. I instantly woke up, panicked, as a man’s hard body came down on top of my frozen state.

F
luttering my eyes open, I took in the dark room and the hard pounding of my heart against my chest before I saw Doug’s glittering eyes looking down on me, murderously.

This was the second time he’
d done this in a week.

The thought of what he wanted again made me want to scream and ask for help.
The fleeting thought vanished when he finally spoke, though.

“Don’t you fucking move or say a fucking word, Ana. I will make your life a fucking living hell if you scream. Don't fuck with me.”

My tears started to pool in my eyes as I looked in fright at Doug, my stepbrother. His brown eyes appeared dark and haunted as he pulled my shorts down and hastily pulled my underwear off. With his palm still pressed on my mouth, I silently wept while I heard him undo his pants and the sound of the zipper being pulled down.

Doug immediately parted my legs as he positioned himself in between them. He roughly entered me in my dry state
, which burned and pained me, yet that didn’t deter him.

He grunted once he
had fully entered me as he started to pant like a possessed maniac. “You don’t know how long I have wanted to fuck this sweet, tight pussy and pop your cherry. I used to jackoff watching you sleep, but now it’s all mine to have anytime I want to, Ana. Your pussy’s gettin’ wet; you’re starting to like this, aren’t you? Don’t worry, baby. I have more coming.”

I squirmed when he lifted my hips and made himself go deeper in me. He then let go of my mouth as he sought for my breasts.
Before he let go, he didn’t fail to warn me again. In my confused and messed up state, I didn’t even think twice; I numbly follow Doug’s order.

He was going in and out of me roughly and I winced from each and every onslaught. His hand and mouth manically bit and sucked my breasts, which I found weird and uncomfortable. Doug’s pace started to pick up.

“Ana, I love you. I love how tight you are. I love you, Ana.” He instantly sought my lips, and when I tried to dodge the kiss I knew was coming, he grabbed my chin and made me open my mouth.

I noticed that the longer the strokes, the less painful it g
ot for me. I also was aware that when I just tried to be still and not fight him off, I wouldn’t feel the burning.

So, I did just that. I lay there and waited for Doug to finish.

Doug had taken my virginity two days ago, just a week after we’d buried my mother. My mom had been Doug’s stepmother, thus making him my stepbrother. His father, Bob Mitchell, was beyond heartbroken and had found solace in the bottomless depths of Jack Daniels.

I
had never really known my father. Mom had met Bob in Hawaii, our home, when he had been on a business trip and they’d married a month after. Of course, Mom had moved to Seattle with Bob and his son, Doug. I had been fourteen and Doug had been fifteen. Doug had always been a good stepbrother. He had been sweet and always looked out for me. That was why when he had attacked me two days ago, I hadn’t seen it coming.

Doug hissed as he grabbed my hips and pounded
into me harder, making my queen-sized headboard bang loudly against the wall. Even with the loud noise, I doubted if Bob would be woken up by it. Bob had been passed out by this time on a nightly basis.

I felt Doug still before he pulled out of me and came all over my stomach.

After he was through, he bent over and kissed me then grabbed his shirt off the floor and wiped my stomach clean.

Brushing
my tears away, I curled up into a ball.
How long will Doug keep doing this to me?
I wanted to run away, but there was nowhere to go. I didn’t have any other family to speak of. Doug and Bob were my only family.

I still
ed when I felt Doug slide next to me on the bed.
Fuck, was he planning to sleep here from now on?

He pulled me close and whispered into my
ear, “We have to get you on birth control soon. I don’t like wasting my nut like that. I will get you some tomorrow, ‘kay?”

I closed my eyes and prayed for mercy. “I don’t want this
, Doug. I don’t want you to keep using me. Please, stop this. I know we’re all in pain with Mom’s passing, but, please, you have to stop.”

“You just think that now, Ana. But you love me
, too. You just don’t know it yet. You have nowhere else to go, baby. If you want to stay in this house, you have to let me have you. Dad is passed out drunk all day, so I get to choose the rules in this house. You got that?”

I reluctantly nodded.

“Good. Now go to sleep, Ana.”

He was right
; I had nowhere to go. I was at his mercy.