Chapter Two
THE DRUGS THEY’D given her were wearing off. Ari did her best to control her rising panic with breathing and keeping her mind off what was coming. She didn’t know which she was more nervous about, that this man who’d bought her was probably going to rape her, or how angry he might be once he realized the auctioneers had deceived him. It had taken every ounce of her self-preservation skills to keep her mouth shut when the man selling her had announced her age as sixteen. Either Stan had lied to them, or they’d decided sixteen would get a higher price than nineteen. And it seemed whatever the reason, they’d been right. No one else had sold for as much as she had. Her mind boggled at a quarter million dollars being spent to buy a human. To buy her.
Not that she didn’t know money. Ari had grown up with plenty. Her family had been fine even after her father’s death. Once Stan had come along, the funds had seemed to dry up. First they’d moved into a nicer home, but then suddenly there hadn’t been money to pay the bills. When Ari asked about the home they’d lived in before Stan and her mom married, she’d been told it was gone, sold. He’d moved them into a three-bedroom crap apartment in a seedier part of town. Ari had a feeling her disappearance had something to do with the small trust fund she had. If she wasn’t around to claim it in two years, it would revert to her mom, and likely Stan. Should she tell her “buyer” the truth?
Ari tabled that decision for now. She’d need to know the man a lot better first, but it was unlikely that he was a good man since he was here buying her. Her mind flashed back to the moment their eyes had met over the crowd. The look in his eyes hadn’t been the disgusting lust she’d seen in many others. When he’d met her gaze, a feeling of safety had descended, which was ridiculous. It was probably just some lingering side effect of the drugs, honestly. Finally, the loudspeakers went quiet and, one by one, the girls around her disappeared. Since the drugs were wearing off, nearly all of them were crying. Some were borderline hysterical. Ari was glad she hadn’t let herself get out of control.
A hand yanked her to her feet and pushed her across the room and out the door. Her eyes searched wildly and latched onto the strangely familiar gaze. The man who’d bought her was waiting. A shove had her stumbling into him, and he caught her with strong, but gentle hands. He growled at the man who’d pushed her. “I suggest you show a little more respect for what is mine.”
The man visibly paled.
Ari let herself be tucked into the man’s side. He led her down a sterile hallway toward a door with an exit sign. Before they stepped outside, he took off his suit jacket and wrapped it around her. She was barefoot and steeling herself for the cold ground, but the next thing she knew she’d been swept up in his arms and he was carrying her out the door and depositing her in the back of a black sedan before sliding in next to her. The door shut behind them and the car glided smoothly away from one hell. Probably just to take her to another, but for the moment Ari let herself sag into the seat with relief.
Ari tried to lean away from the man next to her, but she was shaking in cold and fear. She tried to keep still, but her teeth quickly started to chatter. The man next to her let out a deep sigh and pulled her onto his lap. Ari squeaked and even though she knew it was useless, she tried to push him away. She wasn’t ready for this yet. It was only a car ride, but she’d counted on a little more time before he took her.
“I can’t wait to get you home,” he said loudly, almost too loudly close to her ear, and she froze. Why the hell was he telling her this. Did he think she didn’t realize why he’d bought her? “I’m sure they clean these cars, but you never know who was in it before you.”
The news that they weren’t in his car made her freeze. What was he trying to tell her? She turned slowly to look at him and met his eyes, and what she saw there made her pause. It wasn’t lust or cruelty; it was… calculating.
“I need you to sit still and be a good girl.”
There was a plea in there. What the hell did that mean? She knew he could make her sit still. Hell, he could tie her up and shove her on the floor or in the trunk at this point, and no one would try to stop him. Something in his gaze told her he had no intention of doing that, though part of Ari told her that was ridiculous. She couldn’t tell his intentions from his eyes. He was a lowlife flesh trader, damn it. He’d just bought her at a freaking auction.
Ari weighed her response carefully and then decided to play along. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir.”
He cupped her face with both hands and the relief she saw on his face had her reeling. “Thank you, good girl. Now let me hold you. I know you’re cold.”
He pulled her head against his shoulder, and she felt his lips on her hair. She would have stiffened, but words that were barely a whisper reached her ear. “I’m not what you think. This isn’t my car. I’ll explain. You’re safe though, I promise.”
Ari’s eyes welled up with tears. She turned her face into his shoulder and wordlessly she cried. She kept the deep sobs that were bubbling up inside her clamped down, but it felt good to let the tears out. Maybe she was a fool, but she believed him. Her body reacted so violently to that thought that he tightened his arms around her. Strangely, that felt comforting, and not restrictive as it probably should. Ari thought it possible she might really be losing it now. The last four days had been too much, and her brain was becoming unhinged, but she couldn’t stop it.
Ari didn’t know if it was minutes or hours later, but the car stopping jolted her awake. She tried to jerk upright, but powerful arms still circled her. He held her close to him as he climbed from the car once the door opened, and he carried her up the steps of what could only be called a mansion. The door opened before them and a dignified-looking man with steel gray hair in a suit greeted them. “Good evening, sir. I see we have a guest. Will she be staying?”
“Yes, please have the adjoining suite to mine readied.”
“Very good.”
They kept moving, and a door opened further down the hall. “Rex, how did it… oh fuck what did you do?”
Ari risked a peek and had to stifle a gasp. This was a another imposing man, though she didn’t think he was quite as big as the one holding her, he definitely wasn’t small.“I… they were getting suspicious. I had to prove I was all in.”
The other man’s eyebrows drew together. “That makes sense. How much?”
The man holding her, Rex, the other stranger had called him, hesitated briefly, then sighed before answering, “Two hundred fifty.”
The eyebrows shot up now. “Just to not be suspicious?”
The man holding her growled and a wry smile appeared on the other man’s face. “Ah, like that is it.”
“It’s not like anything.”
“Whatever, dear cousin. At least this one looks close to legal. Consent first, eh?”
“Fuck you, Tommy.”
“Somehow I doubt that. Don’t leave too much of a mess for me to clean up. Take some time to get her settled, then we need to talk about your next move now that they won’t be ‘suspicious,’” he said using air quotes.
Rex didn’t sit the girl on her feet until he’d entered the bedroom of his suite. The room next door would be ready soon, but he needed a place for her to go until that was done while he talked to his cousin. He watched her eyes widen at the sight of the bedroom, but she said nothing. He walked into the bathroom, and he felt her trailing after him.
“I have some things to go over with my cousin. Your room isn’t ready yet. So you can stay in here for now,” he said, taking several towels out of the cupboard. “We have a lot to talk about, but not tonight. For now, I want you to know that I didn’t buy you for the reasons you think. I have absolutely no intention of hurting you and I promise to help you in any way I can. I’ll explain more tomorrow because you need to rest and I need to be sure the sedatives are out of your system, ok?”
The large blue eyes that almost seemed too big for her face blinked up at him several times before she nodded.
“What’s your name?” he asked her.
“Ari,” she hesitated for a minute before asking, “What’s yours?”
Rex hesitated, but there didn’t seem to be any harm in telling her. “Rex. I’m going back downstairs for a while. I’ll give you at least an hour. Please take a bath and feel free to use the robe on the back of the door. Someone will be by to take you to the room next door. Please don’t try to leave.”
Another couple of slow blinks. “Yes, sir,” she whispered.
Those words shot straight to Rex’s dick. He loved those words, but they shouldn’t be coming out of this… child’s mouth. Fuck. He couldn’t bring himself to say anything, so he just nodded jerkily and backed out of the room with quick steps. He was careful to close the door softly, so he didn’t scare her.
He took several long, deep breaths to steady his racing thoughts. Maybe he needed to pull out of this charade. If he was finding himself attracted to the jailbait these men bought and sold, it meant he needed out because he had no intention of being like them. He wanted to bring each of them down and watch them squirm as they were exposed for the sick fucks they were. Except now he felt like one of them. He’d never felt an attraction to even one of the girls before tonight. He frowned, disgusted with himself.
Downstairs, he went straight to the home office he shared with his cousin. He knew as soon as he shut the door and got a look at Tommy’s face that he had some questions to answer. He walked to the side of the room where they kept the liquor and poured himself two fingers of the whiskey kept there.
“Rex, what the hell? A quarter million? To prove a point?”
The questions were valid and not unexpected. “I know, alright? I don’t know what happened. One minute I was thinking about how to even try to… buy… a girl without giving myself away and then she was on stage. I didn’t even think about it. And then there was a bidding war. I don’t know why. I just couldn’t bear the thought of losing.”
A look of sadness and understanding passed over Tommy’s face. “I see.”
“No, you don’t. I’m not one of them. I have never ever… ugh… you know that.”
“How old?”
“Sixteen.”
Tommy whistled. “Close.”
“It doesn’t matter how fucking close,” Rex exploded, running a hand over his face. “She’s a girl and I refuse to ever be what those assholes are.”
“Have you ever felt that for any of the other ones?”
“Of course not.”
“Then I don’t think that’s the problem.”
“Then what is the problem, Tommy? I just bought a child because I couldn’t help myself.”
“Have you done anything about it?”
“Of course not.”
“Do you plan to?”
Rex hesitated. “No. I’m going to get the information I need to help her start over and let her go.”
Tommy studied him a moment before saying, “Sixteen is awfully close to eighteen.”
Rex glared. “Not close enough.”
“And if she were eighteen?”
“Nothing would be different. That’s still too young, plus I just bought her. Bought.”
“I’m aware. For a cool quarter million. And I’ve never seen you act like this about a woman.”
“She’s not a woman, she’s a fucking girl!”
Tommy gave him a penetrating stare. “She looked an awful lot like a woman to me.”
Rex growled at his cousin. “You are not helping.”
“I didn’t know you wanted me too.”
Rex glared. “You’re the boss, Boss.”
Tommy laughed at him. “As if you ever pay attention to that. Look, if you like the girl, keep her around until she’s legal. She really is close. I can see why you went for her, honestly. She’s exactly your type.”
“She’s too young to know anything about being my type.”
Tommy rolled his eyes. “Rex, we were sixteen the first time my dad took us to the club.”
Rex opened his mouth to respond, then snapped it shut, then tried again, “That’s different.”
“How?”
“We’re… us.”
“You mean we were born soulless mobsters, so it doesn’t matter?” Tommy asked bitterly.
Rex slumped. “Pretty much. We’ve always known our path. This girl came from who knows where, on who knows what kind of path. Even if I am attracted to her, it’s not fair of me to take away her choices by keeping her here and trying to make her into what I want.”
“What does she want?”
Rex shrugged. “No idea. I told her I’d talk it over with her tomorrow and promised she wouldn’t be hurt or disturbed tonight.”
“You really are a dumbass.”
Rex’s head snapped up. “What do you mean by that?”
“You really think after all she’s been though for however long she was with those creeps, she believes that?”
Oh shit. Rex hadn’t thought of that. His look must have told Tommy what he was thinking. “She’s probably upstairs, either in shock or panicking. You need to explain everything to her tonight if you expect her to relax. Call doc if you need to.”
Rex shook his head. Doc could get them more sedatives, but he didn’t want to do that to her. Tommy was right, though. He was going to have to explain tonight or run the risk of her doing something out of fear.
“I’ll talk to her tonight. I’m going to the kitchen first. I didn’t think about it, but she probably hasn’t eaten today.”
“Good idea. I’m not going anywhere tonight, so let me know if you need anything.”
Rex nodded and left the office. When he got to the kitchen, Betsy was waiting for him. “Mr. Rex, hungry are you? You skipped dinner tonight.”
He smiled at her. Betsy loved him and Tommy like a mother. Hell, she’d been a better mother than either of theirs. They were both the definition of cool and detached. He’d always wondered if they’d known what they were getting, marrying Nardone men. Had they been that way always, or had this life made them what they were? Not that it mattered. His life had been left to tutors, nannies, and household staff. The only constant being the housekeeper, Betsy.
“I am actually. I also have a guest. Can I have a tray to take upstairs with all the good stuff?” He gave her the smile he knew she loved.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What’d you do? Find a stray?”
“Something like that,” he murmured, but he doubted that she’d heard him, as she was already bustling around the kitchen. He saw two covered bowls of soup, thick slices of homemade bread, water, cocoa, and cookies. He shook his head. All his favorites. When she brought the tray back to him, he took it and kissed her cheek.
“Thanks, Betsy.”