The Bare Truth part 2

Chapter 17

The traveling cage had come to a stop in a sprawling hanger. The fluorescent lights glared off of an impressive collection of sports cars and airplanes. The Leer jet painted with the Taylor Enterprises logo was parked next to a shiny red Ferrari 458 Spider. Motorcycles were lined up along one wall. Everything money could buy, with plenty of space left in the hanger for more.

The children were separated boys from girls and lead away by armed guards. Two young women arrived to take the babies.

"Where are you taking them?" Sierra demanded.

Dorrian waived away her question. He held out his hand cordially to help her out of the cage. Sierra ignored it and clambered out on her own. Her back screamed in pain mixed with relief as she stood upright for the first time in five days. She was unable to hold back a groan.

"Well, I'm certain you would like to freshen up after your travels," Dorrian said.

Sierra resisted the urge to hit him.

"Jimmy will show you to your room."

So bag guy had a name. Wordlessly, he lead her away across the hanger and through the door on the other side.

From there, they went down a short hallway and into a gold and burgundy paneled elevator. The elevator even had that terrible canned jazz music. Jimmy flashed a security badge at the keypad and hit the button for the twelfth floor. They were on floor "H" for hanger. It would appear that this elevator would not go anywhere without a security badge.

After an awkward and quiet ride up, the doors opened.

They were in a hotel.

At least that's what it used to be.

She was looking at a hotel hallway with plush, burgundy carpets and tasteful art on the walls. From the elevator the hallway split in two directions with rows of rooms.

There were girls milling about in the halls, talking and laughing with one another. None of them were her kids. They were all older, maybe high school age. Sierra had a notion that perhaps the floors were divided by gender and age group. The girls stared at her.

There were two armed guards on the floor. Jimmy nodded to them as they passed.

They finally stopped at room 1222.

"This one's yours," Jimmy said, and held the door open.

Sierra stepped inside. Jimmy shut the door behind her and walked away without another word. Sierra waited a moment, then tried the door.

Locked.

Dorrian had bought a hotel, then modified it so the doors locked from the outside.

So she will still in a cage, but at least she could stand up in this one.

The room was elegantly appointed. The sizeable bathroom had a Jacuzzi tub. There were lush linens on the king sized bed. There was a sitting area with an over large flat screen television. Refrigerator, microwave, mini bar. What more could a girl want? Besides a door that opened.

Sierra went immediately to inspect the windows. They did not open, as she suspected. They also seemed to be tinted, shielding her from view. No hope of grabbing the attention of the people down below on the city street.

She paced the room, pondering her situation. There had to be a way out. She lay down on the big bed, trying to think.

But oh my god the bed. Sinking into the soft mattress, for a moment she didn't care that she was in a cage or that she would never see Joe again. After being dragged from her bed in the middle of the night, fighting tooth and nail to escape, and five days cramped in that cage trying to comfort inconsolable children, that bed felt like the most wonderful thing in the world. She let herself melt into it, and she slept.

She woke later to a timid knock on the door.

"Miss Christie?" a girl's voice asked from the other side of the door.

Sierra sat up in bed as the door opened, and a petit girl who couldn't have been older than eighteen stepped into the room. She had light blonde hair and freckles that reminded her of Molly. She was bearing a massage table.

"My name's Gina. Mr. Taylor asked me to come work on your back," she said shyly.

Sierra stared dumfounded at the massage table for a moment before finding her voice.

"You can tell Mr. Taylor that I don't need a damn thing from him," she said.

Gina shifted her weight awkwardly.

"Ummm.... You're really turning down a massage? Seriously?" she asked.

Put in those terms, it did seem foolish somehow. Gina took her silence as acceptance and unfolded the table.

"Uh, Maybe you should take a bath while I set up?" Gina suggested.

She did need a bath. She must smell like death. At there didn't seem to be a point in resisting at this juncture.

She shut herself in the bathroom and peeled off the filthy dress. She sat on the vanity watching the room fog up with stream as the tub filled with hot water. The sleep and the hot bath cleared her head, washing away all the chaos of the last few weeks and making room for a plan. Any plan. She couldn't just stay in this ivory tower with Dorrian the rest of her life. There had to be a way out.

She stepped out of the bathroom, wrapped up in a towel. Gina had the table set up. There was soothing music playing and aromatherapy candles scattered around the room.

"You can go ahead and lie down." Gina said.

Sierra stretched out on the table and Gina got to work. Her small hands deftly found every knot and pressed it into submission.

"How long have you lived here?" Sierra asked her.

Gina stiffened. She didn't seem to be comfortable with conversation.

"Since I was five," she said.

"And that's when Dorrian kidnapped you?"

"Well...yes."

Gina was quiet for a long time, focused on the tension in Sierra's lower back.

"He's not that bad, you know," she said finally. "He takes good care of us. I have friends here and nice clothes and books. He gives us whatever we want."

"But he took you from your parents," Sierra protested. "Don't you miss them?"

Again, Gina took a long time to answer her. She'd moved on to her impossibly knotted shoulders.

"I think I did at first. I still talk to them on Skype sometimes. But this is my home now. Dorrian takes very good care of us."

"You said that," Sierra said. "But does Dorrian let you leave?"

"Some kids have gone home," Gina insisted. "Now and again, they go home."

"How do you know they went hone?"

Gina didn't answer. Sierra found herself thinking about the goldfish she had as a little girl. The one that her parents "sent to live with other goldfish" while she was at school. She had a sinking suspicion something similar happened to these kids who had "gone home."

"You're a shifter, right?" Sierra asked her. "What are you?"

"Me?" Gina seemed surprised by the question. "I'm a swan."