Highest Bidder

Teams

Mr. Blackbourne clears his throat from behind me, and begins to speak.

“Gentlemen and lady. We have gathered here this evening to discuss what information each team has gathered, and to devise a plan to bring down those involved in human trafficking, and bring all the girls home safely. Slay team, you first.” Mr. Blackbourne orders.  Mr. Slay stands up, seemingly holding the same position on the team as Mr. Blackbourne, and begins talking.

“Mr. Blackbourne, we haven’t been able to acquire any more information than the last time we spoke.” He starts, then smiles, and looks around his group, “As brilliant as my team is, we don’t have anyone quite as tech savvy as your Victor Morgan. We think we should see about getting a bird’s team to go undercover. We have a list of potential--”  

“No!” I yell, as loud as my voice would allow without breaking and squeaking, slamming my hand on the table. I didn’t know what a bird’s team is, but I had a pretty good idea, that somewhere in there is a girl.

“Sang, do you care to explain what you’re objecting too, please” Mr. Blackbourne, questions, and my cheeks flame.

“Well, no, maybe, I’m not sure. If bird is code for something involving a girl, then no.” I say quietly.

“Mr. Blackbourne, can your bird repeat that?” Mr. Harris ask, trying to look around Silas. A few chuckles from the boys closes to me, has my face flaming even more.

“She’s objecting to using girls, or as we call them, birds” Dr. Green speaks up.

“She’s not--” one of the boys that came in with Slay, starts, but trails off.

“No she is not.” Mr. Blackbourne grits out.

“Hey, That’s the girl from the auction!” somebody exclaims from Slay team.

“Yes, and she is under our protection.” Mr. Blackbourne grumps.

“Why isn’t she with a bird’s team?” Mr. Harris questions

“Complications. Now, do you want to hear what we have? So we can close this.” Mr. Blackbourne grits out.

When no one say another word, Mr. Blackbourne taps me on the shoulder.

“Tell your story, Sang. Please tell us everything you can remember. No detail is too small.” Mr. Blackbourne states.

Looking down, I start thinking through the last few…well, days, it has literally only been days. Two warm palms land on each of my shoulders, encouraging me, giving me a feeling of safety. A feeling of safety I have never felt before nor ever expected to feel. Looking up, I begin to speak, making sure to look every person in the eyes. As I walk around the table, I find Victor typing on his phone. I watch him type as I speak and realize he is typing everything I am saying. Taking a look around, I see several other

phones lying out on the tables; some pushed an arm length away. Clearing my throat, I speak louder, if this helped, then I would give them my best. I can’t be shy now, now, I worried about someone else. I made sure to give every detail down to smells and sounds, and how many turns we had made, and so on. I did my best to speak clearly, and slowly. I wanted them to have everything I had. Jenna, Jade, and all the other girls depended on these guys to save them. They needed someone to make them safe too.

When I finish, nobody says a word. I look around to each team individually and find, shock, anger, sadness. When I get to my boys, I’m shocked to see their expressions are the same as the other’s, they had heard most of this story already. North has a death glare on his face, while flexing his fist. Silas places his hand on North’s shoulder, while flexing his other fist. The two of them looked terrifying. Luke and Gabriel both looked angry and sad, Dakota seemed to be counting with his eyes closed, while Victor looked like he is playing the piano on the table, as he furrowed his brows together and thought. Nathan is gripping the edge of the table, his face red, and looked like he can take on the whole world all on his own. Stretching my neck back, I see Dr. Green, and Mr. Blackbourne looking down on me, an almost too calm facade. Smokey grey eyes stare down at me, the anger just underneath. Dr. Green looked fine, but his jaw is clenched, and his upper lip is coiled up, like a snake ready to strike. Slowly, everyone starts to move, but the silence continues.