Chapter 30 Roderick #2
“When he first came in, he was nice enough. He’d been coming in for a while, but he’d never picked me before.
He always picked random girls, and as far as I knew, he never chose the same girl twice.
” She fidgets. The words clearly make her uncomfortable as her fingers tap on the desk as her leg bounces.
“But one night he came in and picked me. I remember the other girls being jealous because the girls who had gone with him before never had a bad thing to say. They always raved about how nice he was, how handsome he was, and how he would take them for ice cream and out to fancy dinners. He wasn’t anything like our typical clients, and while some people purchased for the sake of an escort, that was usually only the older girls.
We’d never experienced anything like that before, so I could understand how it might have been appealing to them.
They were often disappointed when he didn’t pick them a second time.
We all sit watching, hanging on her every word .
Jake and Trent might know where she came from, but they don’t really know her.
Trent knows more than Jake, and while I guess it’s possible, she’s told him more during their time together, I don’t think that’s the case.
Not with the way he’s looking at her. But I have a feeling they're about to find out, and with the way she’s all but curling in on herself now, it might be worse than what we’d learned about her before.
Fuck, I don’t like this.
“In the beginning, it was just like the other girls said. Randall was kind and gentle. He would take me out to see movies, treat me to food, and buy me things. He took me to a penthouse hotel that he told me he lived out of. Even going so far as to give me my own room with my own things, things I’d never dreamed of having.
He never once pushed me for more and didn’t try to sneak into my bed at night.
Hell, he’d never even touched me.” Her voice shakes, and she looks down at her lap.
I have to fight against the urge to comfort her, despite that being something I’m terrible at.
I can tell just by her body language that she feels embarrassed admitting this to us.
She shouldn’t.
She was only a child, and he used that against her, took advantage of her shitty life.
Before I can speak up, she takes a deep breath and pushes on.
“Over the next year or two, he would come back multiple times a month and buy my contract out for a few days, only to treat me wonderfully while I was with him. During that time, he gave me everything I could ever ask for. He bought me books, let me use his gym, and even got me a personal trainer. I got stronger and smarter, and protecting the girls was easier than ever. I gravitated toward him. He was one of the first people I wasn’t afraid to touch.
I would hug him when he came for me, happy to see him.
I wanted his approval and his attention.
” The sadness in her voice is impossible to miss.
“I thought he cared. Some of the other girls had families they’d been taken from.
Randall sounded a lot like what they described fathers or even older siblings like.
..” Her words trail off, her eyes glaze over as if lost in a memory, and it takes everything in me to stay where I am.
The urge to shake her loose from it, from the hold Randall still has on her, is stronger than it should be.
“Looking back at it now, I could’ve easily killed him back then.
He so rarely took any precautions with me.
” Her eyes fall closed, but not before I see the pain in them.
“But I didn’t want to,” she scoffs, and I know that she’s taking the blame for this.
She couldn’t have known what this would turn into. It’s not her fault.
How was she supposed to know that we would be here someday? She was a child, and he knew exactly how to play the game. He always does.
We didn’t even realize what a monster Randall was until just recently. We knew he was a corrupt politician and a terrible person, but we didn't realize how evil he was.
I wonder if Jake knew.
I fight to keep my mouth closed against the urge to reassure her. I don’t enjoy seeing her like this, but I know she has more to say, and it’s not my place to comfort her. If I try, I'm afraid she might stop talking.
Kratos leans forward, placing his hand on her back.
She startles at the contact but doesn’t pull away.
“He tricked you, Jade. You were a child, and he used that against you. Randall knew exactly what he was doing. He used your desire to be normal and cared for, and that's on him, not you. Only a monster would even think to do that,” he tells her, and while she nods in agreement, I don’t think his words are having the effect he hoped for.
She turns her back to him again, but he doesn’t drop his hand.
“It was a slow change. I didn’t even notice it at first. He called me his pet, and at first, I loved it.
The other girls were jealous that he only ever took me, but I didn’t care.
I wanted to spend as much time as I could with him.
He always said I belonged to him and that someday he would buy out my contract and I would never have to go back.
I was so excited. I wanted that. I wanted to be his and stay with him. ”
Her voice is low, and I know this can’t be easy to admit, especially to a room full of people.
“One night, he took a call, and I don’t know who he was talking to, but he sounded angry.
I’d never heard him so much as raise his voice before that, so I went to listen.
He told whoever it was that he was working on finding the one responsible and he would deliver them to him, but he wanted to be able to keep me when it was all over.
Of course, he didn’t know I was the person he was looking for.
It wasn’t hard for me to put two and two together, but he had no reason to suspect me.
Whoever it was must’ve told him no because he started yelling about how I was his and nobody else would have me before he hung up. ”
“Did you ever find out who it was?” Jake asks, and she shakes her head.
“No, but I’d like to assume it was someone higher in Sin. It would make sense that he came in and took a new girl each time. He was trying to weed out who was taking down the buyers and eventually taking down the rings.”
Jake nods, his brows furrowed, deep in thought.
“I met you once, you know,” she says to Jake, a ghost of a smile pulling at her lips when his head snaps up. It’s clear Jake has no idea what she’s talking about, though.
“After that phone call, Randall kept me for two more days. I tried to act like nothing had changed, but everything had, and I think he knew it. The next day, he got a call from your school about how you were sick, you’d thrown up or something, and needed a ride home.
Your driver was having car troubles or couldn’t make it.
Randall bitched the entire drive to get you about how useless he was and how hard it was to find good help.
I didn’t even know Randall had kids, but when we pulled up, I was in the back seat, and you crawled in. ”
I look between them, searching Jade’s face for any hint that she might be lying, but I come up empty. Why would she lie about something like this?
“You all but collapsed in the seat, and all I had to do was look to see you really were sick. I didn’t even know if you registered I was there before you were out, but about halfway back to your house, you started whining in your sleep.
Randall was already so upset he kept yelling at you to suck it up.
You couldn’t, though; you were so out of it there's no way, I doubt you even heard him. I didn’t want you to get in trouble when you couldn’t control it, so I crawled over to you and rubbed your head in an attempt to soothe you, the same way I did the girls when they had nightmares.
You couldn’t have been much older than I was, and you were just like the girls I’d sworn to protect, helpless. ”
Jake somehow looks even more confused as he racks his mind for the memory. His eyes move over her from head to toe as if he’s just now seeing her for the first time.
“You quieted down, and he stopped yelling. When he finally got you home, you looked up at me half asleep and told me I was your guardian angel.” A soft smile curves her lips, and it’s unreasonable, but seeing such softness directed at him has me clenching my teeth hard enough I’ll be lucky if I don’t end up cracking one.
Jake’s eyes go wide, and I’m almost positive his face flushes, though it’s hard to tell from across the room.
“I remember. He dragged me out of the car and up to my room. I fell asleep again and didn’t wake until the next day when my mom brought me some soup.
I had the flu and was convinced I was dying for the next four days.
By the time I woke up, I thought I had imagined you, part of the fever, a way for my brain to deal with time with my father.
” His eyes soften as he puts the pieces together.
“After that, Randall brought me back to his penthouse, and it was the first time I got to see the monster he truly is. He was cold and detached for the rest of the evening, but not unkind, and when we ate dinner, he gave me a glass of wine, telling me he wanted to have one good night before I left…”
She trails off, looking around the room, meeting each of our gazes before she takes a deep breath.