Chapter 1

After my parents died in a car crash, my aunt's family said they'd take me down to the Gulf Coast to clear my head.

But the moment we landed, they secretly moved me to the Cape District.

On the night of my twenty-second birthday, my cousin Phineas Baxter shoved me into an iron cage in the lower hold of a gambling ship.

"Joey, take my advice. Be good and you'll suffer less."

There were seven or eight other girls locked in the cage. The youngest looked about eighteen.

Three hundred buyers sat under the dim lights, waiting to inspect the goods.

To drive up my price, Phineas played a video for the crowd. Me at my parents' funeral, sobbing until I fainted.

My cousin Maggie smiled at the buyers. "My little cousin's always been a naive little thing. A few threats and she goes right along."

A major buyer came over and pinched my chin, complaining I was too thin, too timid.

Phineas quickly handed over my student ID.

"College junior, never had a boyfriend. Clean and obedient."

The buyer crouched down and stroked my face.

"She really is a pretty little thing. If it weren't for putting together a sincere apology gift for Mr. Stephens, I couldn't bear to let her go."

My heart skipped a beat.

Mr. Stephens?

The Finn Stephens who'd spent three years looking for me, who'd nearly torn half the Gulf Coast apart?

1

Phineas gripped the back of my neck and pushed me into the iron cage.

My knee cracked against the bars, and before I could steady myself the door had already locked behind me.

The cage wasn't even half a meter high, packed with seven or eight girls in rags.

All I could do was pull my legs up and grip the bars, looking out at him.

"Phin, let me out."

Phineas smiled, still that same gentle face.

At my parents' burial, he'd held the umbrella over me. When I was hospitalized with a fever, he'd told me that from now on he'd protect me.

But now he reached through the bars and patted my cheek.

"Joey, the second you got on this ship, you stopped being my cousin."

"Why?"

I stared at him.

"Pauline Baxter already took the house, the car, and the settlement money my parents left me. What else do you people need?"

The smile faded from his face.

"Who ever thinks they have too much money?"

"I'm nine hundred grand in gambling debt. You're pretty. Sell you once and it's covered."

Just then the hold door opened, and a guard came in carrying a bucket of water.

The iron door hadn't latched fully. I kept my eyes on the gap, and the moment he bent to set the bucket down, I slammed the door open and bolted.

I'd barely gotten two steps up the gangway barefoot when someone yanked me back by the hair.

Phineas dragged me down and pinned my shoulder with his elbow.

"You actually thought you could get away?"

The pain blacked out my vision, but I clung to the steps.

"I want to see Pauline. There's no way she'd agree to this."

Phineas was quiet for a moment, then suddenly let go.

"Fine. Ask her yourself."

He dialed Pauline, crouched down, and held the phone to my ear.

My voice was shaking hard.

"Aunt Pauline, Phin says he's going to sell me. Tell him to let me go and I promise I won't call the police."

There was no shock on the other end. Only a tired sigh.

"Joey, stop it. The money Phin owes isn't from ordinary people. If he can't pay it back, he'll die."

"So my life is what pays for it?"

She paused, and her tone hardened.

"After your parents were gone, who arranged the funeral and took you in? The family's in trouble now. What's so wrong with you helping out once?"

Slowly, my hand loosened on the steps.

Phineas took the phone back and laughed into it.

"Mom, told you she'd come around."

The call ended. He shoved me back into the cage and tossed in half a hardened piece of bread.

"Look pretty tomorrow. You're the first one up for inspection."

The hold went dark again.

Beside me, a small, thin girl quietly edged closer and pressed half a cracker into my palm.

"I'm Cara Ramsey."

"They patrol every forty minutes. Don't try anything reckless. You'll get caught."

I didn't take the cracker.

In the faint light leaking through the door, I saw a vent in the top of the cage, one of its screws already loose.

"Cara."

I looked up at it.

"Do you know where it leads?"