[Lots of story.] We're allowed in without any more incidents.

You’re not really sure how to react to Arabella’s behavior, but since you haven’t strictly been keeping your relationship exclusive with her, you suppose you can’t hold it against her; that said, you have never done anything even remotely close to that before. Perhaps some form of punishment is due in the future?

When you step inside, you see several naked women in chains in the lobby—not beaten or bruised, however. There are several more men inside, and they are all bored as they chatter with each other. Some of them give you a few glances, but since there was no firefight outside, they correctly assume you’re free to roam around.

“Where do you think he could be?” Arabella whispers to you.

“Sorry to keep you away from him,” you remark.

“Jealous?” Arabella teases. “Scared that he’s bigger than you, too?”

You exhale, tugging hard on the lease she’s closer to you. “I’m not embarrassed by some fuckin’ mutant dick. However, I can leave you outside if you'd prefer it.”

Arabella tenses. “I’m kidding. I’m sorry, OK? That seemed like the quickest way to get in.”

“Whatever,” you look around, figuring the quickest way now would be to ask some of these guys about their bosses' whereabouts. You weren’t looking forward to dragging Arabella around with you. Even though you weren’t sure why the boss was keeping everyone in check and away from the women, you knew that they’d take advantage of Arabella– it could happen any moment now once the guards outside started gossiping about the fox slut that sucked off their pal, too. “Let’s not linger around too long in one spot. I’ll ask around and see where that gets us.”

“He’s probably upstairs,” Arabella says.

“Or he could be not even here, and we get roped up in getting stuck here.”

“You don’t think those guys outside would have told us if he was gone?”

“I highly doubt they even know what day it is,” you tug gently on her lease, and she follows you to the nearest man.

The man looks high when he stares up at you, but at least he’s lucid enough to talk to you. “Hey, dude. What’s up?”

“Where’s your boss? I need to talk to him.”

“The boss man himself, huh? I think he’s in the basement talking to that one goth chick.”

“Goth chick?”

“Yeah, the contractor enforcer, babe. He was whipping her this morning as we dumped cold buckets of water on her,” he chuckled absently mindedly as his eyes went above your head and followed some phantom object. You snap your fingers under his nose, and he looks at you surprised. “Hey, dude. What’s up?”

“The goth chick,” you say. “Your boss with her in the basement?”

“Yeah, the contractor enforcer, babe. He was whipping–”

“You told me this. Can I go down there and talk to him?”

He laughs. “The boss lives to have people watch. He says it’s a power trip.”

Arabella shivers, but you continue. “Where’s the basement?”

He points aimlessly behind him. “Over there. You can’t miss it. We blew the door off. Found some cool guns down there.”

“Thanks, pal. Don’t overdose.”

The man salutes and then points at an empty patch of wall. “Whoa!! Wh-what?! How did you get here?!”

Luckily, you didn’t need any help finding the blown-off door because it was the first thing you saw when walking into the adjacent room, where there were even more bandits lounging around, smoking, doing , and being harmless to you and your cause.

The basement is well-lit and is occupied by four men. These guys were dressed better than the ones outside and upstairs. They wore tattered police uniforms and flak vests with the pouches filled. Slung around them were the aforementioned “cool guns” from your guide upstairs. Suspended from a wall is unmistakable Scarlet, wholly nude but not bleeding. That said, even from the distance you spot her, you can see she’s drenched head-to-toe, with her hair damp and makeup deep in color. Perhaps from tears.

“It’s been about 2 hours,” someone says. “Hit her again.”

You thought you were going to see her thrash and yell, but inside, one of the men approaches her and injects her with something. The shivering stopped, and she let out a weak sigh.

“Come on, boss,” the man throws the syringe away. “She’s so doped up she wouldn’t allow us to use her.”

“Just give it one more day,” the guy you piece together is the boss says. “We’ll have the whole crew use her up, but I’m getting first dibs, right? You can get sloppy seconds, get dirty third, and so forth.”

One of the 4 turns around. The smaller one of the group. “Hey, we got a fuckin’ spectator.”

“I like being watched,” the man gruffs.

That’s our guy, you think.

“Who are you?” He spots Arabella standing close behind you. “Both of you.”

“Seller,” you say as you’re closed in by the men like wolves. “I’m dealing out some girls for pleasure. This one’s name is Arabella, and she’s here to be shown to you. But nothing more.”

“It’s a fuckin mutant,” the smaller one complains. “I’d rather have this bitch chained to the ceiling.”

“I don’t mind it,” another one remarks. “She’s got all the right parts anyway, so what’s it matter?”

“Standards!” the smaller one snaps. “I ain’t sticking my dick inside something that isn’t even meant to be.”

The boss grunts. “Both of you, be quiet, or I’ll make sure neither of you get anything that you want. What’s your outfit? And where do you typically operate?”

“I’m independent, and I don’t typically sell here. Word travels fast, though. I heard that this little place was turning a table in legislation.”

“Hardly been a day,” the man says.

“A few people might’ve left before you took over. I heard some other factors that captured my interest. However, it wasn’t just the rumors that got me interested. It was also the lack of patrols from the town that made me think that this was a profitable visit. Was I wrong?”

“Let’s dust this freak,” the one in the back growls. “I don’t like him.”

Your fingers twitch. “Let’s relax. There’s no reason for you to overreact. If you want me to leave, I will.”

“How much for the cat lady in the back?” The boss says. “One night with her, and I’ll have a better answer for you in the morning.”

“She’s just a preview,” you explain, but he doesn’t like the answer.

“I want her. If I don’t get her for the night, I’ll have you join this little girl, too. You can watch me fuck her in the morning and then all my men. I have I want to test. I doubt you have the stamina like me, so I’d like to see how long it takes her to give out. You have my word. I won’t break her, however. I will not be overworking something that’s not mine to keep forever.”

“Listen–”

Arabella tugs your shirt. “This isn’t going to end the way you want it to. I can spend the night with him, Master.”

Your eyes flick to Scarlet, her naked body stretched as her arms are extended above her. Her eyes are drooping, and her mouth hangs slightly open. Her lips cracked, and her complexion pale. You want to talk about this more with Arabella, but it seems you’re pressed for time.

“If that’s what you want, we can make that happen. I have questions, though.”

“Deal,” he snaps his fingers, and his men approach you. “Take her to my room. Have her get ready for me. I’ll be up soon, I imagine.”

Uncertainty rolls up your back as you hand the lease to the short guy. He grunts and yanks Arabella toward me. “Come on, you fugly little thing.”

You bite your tongue but look at the boss. “You can ask your questions. Have a seat.”

Scarlet rolls her hand over and mumbles, but she’s too high to know what’s happening. You take a seat, and you both share a table. Tools of are displayed, unissued, and clean. You point with your chin. “I gotta address the elephant in the room. What’d she do to deserve the special treatment?”

“She’s a firecracker, that one,” he explains. “She bit the throat of one of my better men and shot three others before running out of ammo. I hit her so we didn’t bruise her cute face. She’s also a private contractor who found her files here in the office. Her name’s Scarlet.”

“She did runs against you?”

“Yes,” he says. “And had a few other separated contracts out of state. I wanted to know her employer, but she has a tight mouth. I didn’t intend to resort to such harsh methods, but she’ll break.”

“Anyone else involved?”

“We thought so, but the bitch was burning all the contract papers in the office. She should have started with her own because I might have let her go. She’s got friends here, or maybe those friends were the ones you ran across. Say, why don’t you take off that mask?”

You shake your head. “Not going to happen. I have to be careful. You don’t just sell girls for pleasure. I’ve stolen women across the nation, and the only reason why I haven’t been caught is because I keep myself tucked away from everything with eyes.”

The man laughs so loudly that you almost think he’s seen past your act. He leans in and points a finger at you. “You are smart. Why don’t you scrap your whole business and join me instead? Never worry about such matters. You’ll have a whole crew of men that’ll protect you from everything underneath the Japanese influence. Plus, you’ll also get your share of new women to sell. For a cut of the profit, of course.”

You smile, needleless because of your mask, but roll your wrist as you lean back. “You’re not the first to offer me such a position, but I’m afraid I like working by my own rules and pace. I don’t need to tell you that this business is dangerous anyway. Slaves? Come on. Still frowned upon these days, though many seem to practice it.”

He nods, almost looking disappointed. His dark eyes move to the table and then to the girl. “Any more questions?”

“What’s got her doped up?”

“Just some downers. Muscle relaxants. Sleeping medicine, but some shots of adrenaline. If I had to be honest, I would be amazed that her body has taken it so well. The last guy we did this to died after the first few hours. Scarlet’s been like this almost all day,” he says as he stands up and strolls to Scarlet. She can only manage a weak turn of her head as he spits on her and then backhands her across the face. You stand up and shadow him, unable to do anything.

He then leans in and presses his lips against hers, and that’s when she finally struggles… Enough to get slapped again. She spins around a few times, straining her toes to stop spinning. You clear your throat. “Think you’d want to sell her to me?”

He laughs again, this time even harder. “Absolutely not. I’m keeping this one for me. Even when she does crack and spill the beans, I plan on tricking her into thinking I’m letting her go, maybe releasing my dogs on her when she runs off. It’ll be one Hell of a hunt. I’ll pound her every night in front of my boys, maybe let them get in on it in groups every so often.”

The man grabs her hair and pulls up on it. She grunts and whimpers weakly. “And you’re going to learn to like it, Scarlet... Anyway, I’ll let her rot here for the night… No worries about her getting free any time soon. Meet me here at noon tomorrow. I’ll be using your girl tonight. See her limits and whatnot.”

“You’re not going to have anyone watch over her?” You ask.

“No, no…” My guys will be drunk. They’d likely her while I’m gone, and I can’t be letting that happen.”

“You trust your guys so much that they won’t come down here?”

He thinks for a moment. “You think I’ve only done this to women? I ain’t picky. I’ll fuck a man, too, if it sends a message.”

“Noted.”

“Goodbye, Stranger. See you soon.”