THE WIFE'S GAMBIT: CONTRACT MARRIAGE

CHAPTER ONE

My cheek flared with heat, the echo of the slap rang still in my ears, and time seemed to slow as the sharp pain radiated throughout my face. I stumbled back at the impact, my hand found my face impulsively, I lowered my head in case he tried to slap me again.

“You're going to keep acting stubborn, huh?” Marco snarled, pulling me by the hair and lifting my face to meet his. “Do you know how much money I lose every day because of you?”

He grabbed me roughly by the face, his breath reeked of cigarettes and alcohol, I wished I could cry but I had run out of tears somehow, anger and humiliation simmered within me but I was helpless against him, if I tried anything funny they could hurt me worse than they already had.

“I will break you, you don't want to work right? Let's see how you do two more days without food.” He hissed, letting go of my face he stormed out of the room leaving me to the mercy of two Samoan-looking men.

I crumpled up in a corner in the empty room, to the men it would seem as if I were crying but in reality, I was plotting my escape. I had everything figured out, if I was going to escape this brothel it was tonight.

Tonight, more girls were to be brought to the brothel, and the number of security had reduced because a good number of them were out on the lookout for the authorities making tonight the best time to escape. I had been brought here over two months ago, and I refused to cooperate with them, resulting in physical abuse from Marco and sometimes the men in charge of me.

The loud music from the Club reverberated through the walls and I knew exactly where Marco was. It was a Friday night after all and he was probably extorting money by introducing one of the girls to a rich pervert who needed his balls played with for the night. Disgusting.

I raised my head from my knees, carefully scanning my surroundings and when I saw they weren't looking, I began to wheeze loud enough for them to turn around to know what was going on.

“Is she okay?” One of them asked the other and he shrugged in response. “Hey! What's wrong with you?” He boomed, referring to me.

“Water, I need water.” I croaked, looking at them with pleading eyes.

“Are we supposed to give her that?” The second man asked.

“I don't know, the boss only said, she ain't supposed to have food, he didn't say nothin’ about water.” The first man responded, “Get her some water I'll check on her,” he added heading towards me as the second guy left.

I slowly pulled out the pen-like taser from my bra. I had stolen it from one of the stripper's bags in the changing room. I clicked the button to activate it and when he got closer I tased him.

“I'm sorry, you seem like a good guy.” I frantically apologized, taking his gun and keys from his belt and swiftly ran out of there before the second guy came back.

I made my way through the halls, it seemed empty as anticipated, most of the girls were at the club looking for potential customers and so were most of the security. There were so many doors leading to God knows where but I was headed for one.

I pushed the door open and entered the changing room, the room was bright, occupied by vanity desks and costumes. Some of the strippers were getting ready to dance, the room was noisy with their chattering and the combined smell of various Arabic perfumes made the air almost unbearable to breathe in. I tried to blend in but was spotted by one of the dancers.

“Bunny?” she whispered, dragging me behind a changing screen. Here, we weren't allowed to know each other's names, because of security reasons. “What are you doing here alone?”

“Gypsy, thank goodness I ran into you,” I breathed a sigh of relief, Gypsy stood before me dressed in her costume.

“What are you doing trying to get yourself in trouble?” She whispered, her eyes widening in realization, “Are you trying to…?”

“They'll be looking for me soon, I need your help gypsy this is my only chance, please help me.” I pleaded.

She contemplated for a while and pulled me to the restroom, she put her blonde wig on my head and gave me her hoodie and a pair of shorts. Using a concealer she dabbed on my facial bruises. “I can't believe you're going on with this, what if you get caught? Do you even have any money with you?”

I shook my head in response, “Unbelievable,” she exclaimed, digging her nails into her bag, “Here, this is a quarter of my earnings tonight, use it to take a train back home or something, you owe me big time.” She handed me a wad of cash and pointed to an exit door that only strippers used which led to an underground garage. “Go now.”

I gave her a quick hug before scurrying towards the door, Gypsy was what one could call a circumstantial friend, we met out of circumstance and took a liking for each other. She had begun stripping longer than I had been brought here and she was the original idea to my escape plan.

I made my way to the garage, it was quiet except for the reverberation of the loud music coming from the Club. I was nearing freedom and it felt too good to be true.

“Hey you, stop right there!” A voice called, stopping me right in my tracks, the voice was unfamiliar so I knew it wasn't one of those guys in charge of me. My fingers wrapped around the gun in my pocket, I could pull it out and threaten to shoot them, but I had no gun experience, using the gun wasn't necessary, and he hadn't made any threatening moves.

“Where are you going?” he asked, his footsteps echoing against the floor as he moved towards me.

“Um…I'm going home, I just finished my shift.” I lied, hoping he would buy it.

“What do you work as?” He asked, his footsteps growing louder and closer.

“A bartender,” I lied again.

“But I just saw you come out of that door, that's where the strippers change.”

“Yes, my friend works as a stripper, I needed some cash to go home, so I went there,” I replied, my grip still on the cold gun in my pocket.

“I'm gonna have to take you back in there to confirm.” He said, and immediately I took out the gun and pointed it at him, he didn't have his out so I was lucky.

While he had his hands up, I slowly backed away from him, till I got to a corner and ran in the direction. I heard his request for backup before chasing me down, I needed somewhere to hide, if they caught me I was dead.

I ran to a car and slid underneath it hoping they wouldn't check there, the car reeked of gas and motor oil and the scent of exhaust smoke lingered, making it even worse than the smell of the changing room.

They ran to the part of the garage I was in and I saw three pairs of legs from underneath the car.

“Shit, we lost her.” One of them cursed.

“She couldn't have gone that far,” The other tried to reassure him.

“We're dead, Boss Marco is gonna kill us if he finds out.” The first person spoke again with panic laced in his voice. I recognised his voice as the guy who had gone to get water earlier. “Dude, you had her, why didn't you do anything?” I figured he was talking to the guy that stopped me earlier.

“You said she had brown hair, how was I supposed to know she'd wear a blonde wig?” He barked back, obviously frustrated.

“Let's just spread out and find her, she's probably hiding somewhere in here, I already paged Mamba and asked him to be on guard for anyone leaving, all we have to do now is find her, okay?” The third person spoke calmly. They left after he gave directions on where to look. When I was sure they had left the area, I crawled out from beneath the car, crouching.

I tried moving across to the next row of cars but I was spotted by one of them. He called for others and began chasing me. I spotted a man about to get into his car. I figured he was a guest and was leaving, “Help me!” I cried, running up to him, he looked at me like I was crazy but when he looked up and saw the three men chasing me, he figured out what was going on, and began to get into his car like he didn't want anything to do with it.

I stopped him just before he closed his door, “Please, help me they're going to hurt me!” I cried, tears finally making their way to my eyes, I knew what would happen if they got ahold of me. They approached the car and grabbed me, apologizing to the man, they dragged me away while I kept screaming for help from him.

Eventually, he got down from his car, “Hey!” He called and they turned to look at him, “That's no way to handle a woman.”

“Sir, we would ask that you not get involved in this.” The third guy told him but he approached them stopping right in front of me.

“How much for her?” He asked, looking down at me, this man towered a good foot above me and I felt a bit intimidated.

“Excuse me,” The second guy asked, as they were all clearly confused.

“She's a worker here right, how much for her freedom?” He asked again, folding his arms around his chest.

“You want to buy her freedom?” The third guy asked, shocked.

“For myself, yes.” He responded, looking very serious.

“You're gonna have to meet The boss.” The second guy stuttered.

“Lead the way.” He replied and they led him upstairs, dragging me along with them to Marco's office.