Chapter Four
REX STOOD IN the shower early the next morning. It didn’t matter that he’d been up for hours. The picture of the beautiful girl in the room next door had kept him up all night, even after he’d jerked one off. He’d lain awake for hours, imagining her tiny form in the massive bed of the adjoining room. It was the sweetest kind of torment. But he couldn’t help but be disgusted by himself. He hoped this was a fluke and that he wasn’t becoming attracted to the girls he was supposed to be saving.
Rex had no plans to act on his desire. It didn’t matter, though. He’d still bought her, and she was traumatized. He couldn’t do a damn thing about wanting her, no matter how much her curvy form pushed his buttons. He’d tossed and turned, trying every trick he knew to distract himself. He’d perfected quite a few of them over the years. The things he’d done in the name of family over the years plagued his nightmares. Things were better now that Tommy had taken over, but it didn’t change their history.
Tommy had pulled back on the drug running that had often required violence to keep the dealers in line. They’d expanded security and business investments, but there were certain things that couldn’t be avoided. Debt collecting and straight up revenge during territory disputes always left him feeling unsettled.
This morning he felt a new kind of unsettled. He’d never brought a woman to this house. How could he? His and Tommy’s fathers had run a powerful but ruthless family business. As it turned out, no one in the next generation had really wanted it, but he and Tommy had done the best they could with it. It was still a life of crime and violence and Rex refused to marry some mafia princess and produce another generation for it. He took his pleasure when he needed it, but not for more than a night and never in his family home.
Rex forced his thoughts away from his pretty house guest to the new challenge he had. He needed to gain her trust to a degree and get all the information he could from her about what went on behind the scenes. He’d been working on this ring for three years and all the other participants were all friendly enough, but no one ever dropped enough information for him to make things stick in a takedown. Rex decided the best thing to do was to take some time and get to know her. If he could figure out what made her tick, he could use that as leverage.
He grimaced to himself. It sounded so cold and calculating. That shouldn’t surprise him anymore. It’s how he was raised and even though it hadn’t come natural to him in the beginning, it had been ingrained over time through practice and even a few beat downs from his old man. Mercy didn’t earn you any in return when you were a Nardone.
Rex dressed casually and waited until after ten, when he knew the personal shopper he’d called first thing this morning would have had time to deliver clothes to the house. He forced himself to knock softly in case she didn’t want to answer or was still sleeping, but her soft voice floated through the door almost immediately. “Come in.”
Rex opened the door slowly before stepping into the next room. He forced himself not to get any closer. He didn’t move further than just beyond the doorway, but she still eyed him warily.
“How are you this morning?” he asked, keeping his tone soft and even.
To his surprise, she gave him a small smile. “I’m okay. I guess I have you to thank for these?” she asked, plucking at a long blue tunic and some dark leggings.
He returned the smile. “I figured you’d like something besides a robe or lingerie.”
“I appreciate it.” She paused, then continued. “I can’t believe this is real. The last five days have been…” she trailed off with a small shudder, “hell. Thats really the only way to describe it.”
“I know, that’s what I’m trying to fix.”
“Right, and I want to help. I’m just not sure… I don’t even want to think about it, and yet it’s all I can think about.” She looked up, her too large eyes shining with tears. “You know?”
And he did. Rex had seen the fear and horror on the faces of not just the girls up for auction, but for the one dragged back, sometimes literally, to be shown off.
“I do. You’re safe here now, though. Do you want to come downstairs for breakfast? I’ll show you around if you want. I’ll introduce you to Tommy and Betsy. Tommy is my cousin, and this is his house. Betsy is our housekeeper and she’ll take care of you while you’re here.”
Rex watched her face fall before she asked, “Oh, don’t you live here?”
The question took him by surprise. “I do, but it’s technically not mine. I have my own townhouse, but I’m never there. Tommy and I are in business together and our offices are here.”
He could tell that the explanation didn’t tell her enough, but she didn’t ask any more about it. “Sure, yeah I’m kind of hungry.”
Rex stood and reached for her hand to help her up. He watched her hesitate for a split second before taking it. For some reason, he felt proud of her for that. After all she’d been through, she’d reached for his hand and that took guts. She knew almost nothing about him, and she was going out on a limb and trusting him just a little. He let go of her hand once she was up and led the way out of her room and downstairs.
“This is the dining room. Betsy makes sure that breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served in here. If you need something in between, I’ll show you where the kitchen is, but there’s also a phone in your room that you can call down with and someone will bring it up.”
Ari’s eyebrows shot up, but she didn’t say anything. He led her to the side of the room where a huge breakfast was laid out buffet style.
“Is this for three people?” she asked incredulously.
Rex gave a light chuckle. “No, there are potentially five of us in residence at any one time, but no one besides Tommy and I are here now. Plus the staff who work here get the meals when they’re on shift.”
He watched her nod slowly and then work her way down the trays, taking a heaping pile of food before heading to the table. He watched her surreptitiously. He wasn’t judging, but you could tell a lot about a person, in his opinion, by watching someone eat. Ari ate with gusto, but also with an innate grace of someone who’d had some type of society training. The girls Rex had rescued before now had mostly been girls from the streets, but Ari handled herself differently. How had a girl like that ended up on the auction block? He was pretty sure she’d mentioned a stepfather, but no one else yet. Rex worked his way through his own breakfast and watched Ari go back for more coffee and sit back down at the table and lean back in her chair.
“I seriously hope you have a gym here. If the food is always this good I’m going to be a blimp before long.”
Several images hit Rex all at once. Ari sitting with him at this table for many mornings to come and her small curvy body glistening with sweat after a hard workout. Both thoughts had him shifting in his seat and willing his hardening cock down. He shoved those thoughts aside with a mental curse. He had no business imagining either of those things. Instead, he put a smile on his face and slowed his eating a little while he answered. “We do, it’s downstairs. If you give me some sizes I’ll have some clothes sent over for you.”
Her mouth dropped open, but she quickly snapped it shut. “Thank you. You’ve been nothing but kind so far, so I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am anyway, and I appreciate it.”
“I guess you haven’t had too many people doing nice things for you recently.”
Ari’s face darkened, and she was quiet for a long minute before saying in a low voice, “No, I haven’t”
Rex felt those words like a punch in the gut. He very much wanted to find the people who’d been in her life and beat them down in ways he usually hesitated to use. He hadn’t been an enforcer in a long time, but you never really forgot those skills. After he’d come home from college to find Tommy in charge, he’d had an open conversation about wanting to be on the business end of things, and to his surprise Tommy hadn’t balked at all. His own father had tried to pitch a fit from retirement, but Tommy had told Rex to let him handle it. Rex’s father had never brought it up again.
He finished up his plate and when he was sure he was in control of his reaction he stood. “Ready to get the rest of the tour?”
Ari’s answering smile was bright and Rex found himself wishing he could make it show up more. She stood up and followed behind him. He showed her the entertainment room and the library on the same floor as the dining room. He pointed at the last room on that floor with the doors closed. “This is our office. I need you to stay out of here unless Tommy or I ask you to come in, ok?”
Ari’s eyes widened, but she nodded slowly. Then he led her downstairs. There was another TV room, a library, and a gym with a locker room.
“Well, that’s pretty much it. There’s a tablet with a library link in the library if we don’t have what you like. If there’s something specific you want let me know. And think about the courses you need to take. You’ll probably be here a couple of months, so I want you to make yourself at home and finish school. When the time is right, I’ll help you set up a new life and that will be easier with a diploma.”
He watched her bite her lip, and a look passed over her face he couldn’t place. She didn’t say anything else, though, just nodded.
“I’ve got to meet with Tommy, make yourself at home,” he said and spun around abruptly, leaving Ari standing in the gym alone.
Ari watched Rex leave the gym. Her immediate reaction of disappointment shocked her. She shouldn’t be disappointed that her “owner” had left her alone. She should be relieved, damn it. Ari took a few minutes to compose herself and then went back upstairs. She didn’t stop outside the office, but she did slow down and listen hard. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t hear anything other than a muted hum of conversation. Were they being quiet on purpose, or was the office soundproofed? Either way, that was interesting. What went on in there that was so important?
Ari shook her head. Not her business. Her only goal right now was to find a way to get the hell out of here. She had to get home to Olivia and Owen.
As she climbed the stairs, Ari let herself think back over the last three years of her life since Stan had entered it. Ari’s mother had moved her and her siblings to a small but nice house in the Chicago suburbs after her father’s death. Not just his death, his murder. It had taken Ari two years to get the truth. Her father had been gunned down in a familia turf war. She hadn’t even known what that meant at the time, but so many things had made more sense after that. Ari had gone to a Catholic private school with the children of all her father’s “friends.” Turned out those friends had been his employers. One of the things he’d bargained for was her entrance to the exclusive private school that not only taught academics but acted as a sort of finishing school.
Only after his death had her friend Valentina told her he’d been trying to broker a marriage for her into one of the families he worked for. Even now, the thought made her shiver. She’d grown up spoiled and adored by her father. She couldn’t imagine him selling her in marriage, but now she would never know because he was gone.
After some careful financial digging, she’d found the “life insurance” that her family was living on had been basically a monthly stipend from her father’s employer. Combined with the money he’d stashed, they had lived a comfortable, if sparser, life than before. Ari had withdrawn from her fancy school and gone to the public one. The luxury cars had disappeared, and a minivan took their place. And while she had grieved her father, their family had been safe and stable.
Her mother had worked as a secretary at a law firm, and that’s where she’d met Stan. Stan had swept in and offered to take care of everything, and Ari’s mother had gladly handed it all over in a whirlwind courtship and marriage after just six months together. The ink on the marriage certificate hadn’t even been dry the first time Stan had cornered Ari to try to grope her. Her rejection had been swift and loud, which had resulted in him accusing her of coming on to him. Ari’s mother had been on Stan’s side from the get-go. Ari had done everything she could over the next six months to stay out of his way. She’d gotten two after-school jobs and spent all her free time she had with friends. She’d managed to be out of the house for almost three weeks when her mom had told her Stan was away on business, so she risked going home.
The following morning had found her in the hospital with a broken wrist when she had “fallen down the stairs” after Stan came home unexpectedly and defended himself from Ari’s “advances.” Stan had sent her mother home and waited with her. On the way home he told her she needed to keep her jobs, but make sure she was home every night, or her younger brother and sister might end up where she was now.
Ari didn’t know why, but Stan had left her alone after that. She’d been so afraid that he was going to come on to her and she wouldn’t be able to say no that she’d thrown herself at a nice guy from school and punched her v-card at her junior prom, just so Stan wouldn’t be her first. Still, he’d never touched her. Not once. Not until six days ago when he’d raped her in front of the men he planned to sell her to. It was confusing, and she still didn’t know why he’d backed off. Maybe her mother had gotten suspicious? She didn’t know, and she didn’t care.
Now she was only worried about what he might do to her brother and sister, since she wasn’t there to look out for them. After Rex had left her last night, she’d gone over every inch of her rooms and decided that the small window in his bathroom would be her best bet. She couldn’t get to the ground, but she thought she might be able to get to the roof from it. Then find something to climb down from there.
She was sitting in the room she’d been given trying to decide when the best time to make her escape was when there was a knock on the door. “Coming,” she said, loud enough to be heard. She opened the door and stopped. There was an older woman standing outside the door with an armload of bags.
“Mr. Rex had some more clothes delivered, but he’s busy, so I figured I’d bring them up for you. I’m Betsy, I run the house.”
Ari stared open-mouthed for a minute before her manners kicked in. “Please come in. Thank you.” She looked at all the bags. “There’s so much.”
Betsy nodded. “Mr. Rex wasn’t sure of your size, so he ordered multiple sizes of everything. The store will take back what doesn’t fit.”
Ari gaped. These bags were not from cheap stores. There were brands here she’d only ever read about in fashion magazines. “Why would he do this?” she murmured, more to herself than as an actual question.
“Mr. Rex is a good boy. He wants you to be comfortable here since you’ll be staying a bit.”
“Hm,” Ari said in a bid to agree without actually agreeing. This generosity made her uncomfortable. It made it harder to think about trying to get away. He really was trying to help her. It didn’t add up though. She understood what he’d told her about bringing down the trafficking ring, but this seemed excessive. It felt like he was trying to buy her, even though he already owned her. What more did he want? He’d said he wouldn’t hurt her, but he was going to want something in return for all this.
“Well, thank you for bringing it up. I’ll try everything on and get the things that don’t fit back to you before dinner.”
“Wonderful. I’m going to start cooking when I go back downstairs. Do you like pork roast, dear?”
Ari’s mouth watered. It wasn’t that she hadn’t been eating before her abduction, but it was always quick cheap meals. The quality of the food in her house had gone down over the last year. When she’d dared to ask about it once Stan had smacked her, told her that her spoiled days were over, the money was gone. Ari had been stunned. Her father had left them with plenty. The payments from the familia had stopped with the marriage, but Stan was a lawyer. They should have been comfortable enough. She’d known better than to ask again after that, though.
“I do, thank you. I can’t wait,” and she meant it. A good meal in her stomach before she tried to get away would go a long way toward her being able to survive on the streets for a day or two while she figured out how to get her siblings. Ari pushed that thought from her mind as Betsy left her alone.
She would never wear all these clothes, but she decided to let herself stop worrying just for a few hours and enjoy it. She tried on bags and bags of designer jeans, beautiful shirts, underwear, bras, workout clothing, and pajamas. There were even several pairs of shoes to choose from. Ari quickly picked the sturdiest jeans, a warm sweater, a coat, and boots to wear later tonight. Ari packed up the clothes that didn’t fit in the bags and put the clothing she was “keeping” in the closet of the room she was staying in. Might as well make it look real right? She allowed herself to put a few of the cheaper, but practical pieces in a book bag she found in the packages and stuffed it under the bed for later.
Satisfied that she was as prepared as she could be, she put her clothes on from earlier and headed down to dinner.