Chapter Eight
REX STOOD OUTSIDE the door connecting his room to Ari’s for several long minutes. It took every ounce of willpower not to storm back into the bedroom and take her. The thought, “She’s legal,” kept looping in his head. The unbelievable relief in that one revelation was staggering. Rex had begun to despise himself over the last thirty-six hours. He finally pushed off the door and locked it for good measure before heading down to the office. He still couldn’t do anything with her or to her. Because that’s what it would be. He would be doing things to her. And while nineteen was legal, she was still too young and his prisoner for all intents and purposes.
Rex fixed himself a drink before settling behind his desk. He forced himself to take several long, calming breaths. His thoughts raced as he sat sipping his drink. What did Ari know about him? Her explanation upstairs about seeing what was in the house and making assumptions only made sense if she had experience with another family. She had just asked him for help with what amounted to kidnapping. Was she just trusting in his sense of justice because he wanted to bring down the trafficking ring? What events in her life made her suspect that he must be a part of something possibly illegal? Did she know of him? Was she a spy of some kind? That seemed far-fetched since he’d never bought a girl prior to the last auction. How would they know which girl he’d want? Rex rubbed a hand across his face. No, that all seemed unlikely. She was desperate enough to ask for help only after she thought he might not be opposed to doing something on the gray side of the law. He needed more information. Rex picked up his cell phone and dialed.
“Rex,” came the immediate answer.
“Liesel, I need info.”
“K.”
“Names Ari, Olivia, and Owen Sloane. Mother Kathryn Racoski Sloane Anders. Father deceased Robert Sloan. Stepfather Stanley Anders. I need a full background.”
A short pause then, “Got it.”
“Thanks,” he said, but the line had already gone dead.
Rex forced himself to put that problem from his mind for now. He turned to his spreadsheets and accounts that he was slowly working through. It was a painstaking project. On top of trying to figure out where the missing money had gone, Rex was trying to figure out all the family’s current business ventures, both on and off the books. That was a challenge since neither his father nor his uncle had every trusted banks and had done most of their dealings in cash. He and Tommy had worked with the various businesses they used for laundering and those that paid them for protection to create a new payment and tracking system, but it was taking time.
He was glad they had Liesel for all this, too. Without Liesel investigating, they likely wouldn’t have spotted the losses as quickly as they had. She’d tried to explain it to him in computer language, but she’d quickly lost him. He couldn’t follow her and didn’t want to try. She’d tell him when she had results, and he wasn’t worried too much because she always got the results. The accounts they had were well padded, even with the recent losses.
The first thing he and Tommy had done when they took over the business had been an immediate liquidation overseas of the drug trade. Their dads had both tried to come out of retirement when they’d made that decision. Thankfully, he and Tommy had dismantled the infrastructure that went with it at the same time, so there was nothing left to put back together.
They owned several restaurants and car repair shops that were both profitable and excellent for hiding other sources of income. He and Tommy might not want to be big names in organized crime anymore, but there was no easy way to just stop doing it. Too many other people were willing to step in and fill the void if things weren’t managed right. All that would happen then would be he and Tommy being targeted to take out rallying points. No, they probably wouldn’t be out of business in their lifetime.
He was still scanning reports when Tommy dropped into the chair behind his desk. “How’s our house guest?” he asked.
Rex looked up and gave him a small smile. “Better than can be expected. Turns out she’s nineteen, not sixteen.”
“No shit? You verify that?”
“Working on it. I have Liesel running her information.”
“Liesel?” Tommy asked,
Rex understood the question. “Yeah. I needed a full check, and you know she always gets the best information.”
“Why did you need a full check?”
Rex leaned back in his chair running a hand through his hair. “She told me she was running because she has siblings she feels are in danger from the stepfather who sold her to the traffickers.”
“What?” Tommy asked, sitting forward. “Where’s the mother?”
“Don’t know, that’s why I have Liesel getting more information.”
“So why ask now? She’s been here over a day.”
Rex hesitated, running a hand through his hair. “She basically told me she knows what kind of people have prisons in their basement. I guess she made the leap from me trying to break up the auction circuit, to being somewhere on the wrong side of the law, to… I don’t know…maybe just being desperate enough to ask for help.”
“Rex, are you sure this is something you want to get involved in?”
“I can’t leave those kids there if they might be in danger.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
Rex looked at him for a long minute before answering. “I’m not getting involved beyond that. Her age changes nothing.”
“Sure it does. Its legal.”
“Barely. And we’re not. I’m not ready to go there yet if I have to look over my shoulder all the time. Not now, maybe not ever.”
“Does she know who you are yet?”
“I don’t think so. That’s another reason I have Liesel checking things out. I want to make sure she isn’t a plant of some kind.”
“I’ve just never seen you like you were last night. It really would be ok you know. To start something. We’ll figure it out.”
Rex shook his head. “No. Even if I could separate the parts of my life, it doesn’t work like that, and you know it. Look at Kayla and Jack. They both walked away over a decade ago and it still followed them.”
Tommy looked thoughtful before replying, “It’s not the same, though. They don’t have the resources we do.”
“Thats a hell of a euphemism for hired guns and blood money and you know it.”
Tommy shrugged. “We’re working on it. I’m just saying you don’t have to punish yourself your whole life for what we were born into and inherited. Especially because you’ve done more than anyone to fix it.”
“It’s not an option. That’s not somewhere I can go with a barely legal captive.”
“She asked you for the help though. She must be alright with it to some degree.”
“And that makes it better?”
Rex watched as Tommy thought that one over before saying, “No, but it means she understands that ends sometimes justify means.”
“The answer is still no. She ended up here because I fucking bought her, Tommy. That’s no way to build something.”
“Who are you trying to convince that this is a bad idea?” Tommy asked quietly.
Rex glared at him before getting up and stalking out of the office. The door slammed shut behind him and he leaned against it. He forced himself not to hit anything. It wasn’t Tommy’s fault that he’d poked at every reason Rex himself had come up with why he could pursue something with the blue-eyed beauty he’d bought. Now that he knew she wasn’t a child, it made it hard to ignore the possibilities.
He’d tried like hell to banish every one of those thoughts before, when he hadn’t known how old she was. Now that she’d admitted her actual age, did it make his thought ok? Rex couldn’t let himself give into that though. He’d sworn off the thought of anything beyond a hook-up when he’d realized that the life he was destined to lead destroyed good people. He’d lost his big sister to it and even though he’d gotten the chance to see her recently, he couldn’t stomach the thought of another person he cared about looking at him with the disgust he’d seen in her eyes when she’d left their home so many years ago.
Rex let his head drop back against the door. He was going to need to burn off some serious energy soon if he didn’t get laid. Cursing his lack of restraint, he climbed the stairs slowly. He used the time to run over every argument he’d ever used with himself to stay away from any kind of actual relationship.
This girl with the big blue eyes that had never looked like a child to him. So much so, that he’d actually broken down and bought her on attraction. She tempted him in ways he’d never experienced. What would it take to make the haunted look in her eyes go away? If she had an inkling of the way he lived his life, would she want the protection he could offer her? The luxury and the life of ease? Even if it came from means that weren’t perfect? He didn’t know and damn it, he had no right to ask.
Rex eased the door open and crossed the room on silent feet to listen at her door. He heard nothing except the television. Hopefully, she’d taken his advice to get some rest and wasn’t lying in there fretting. The desire to enter the room and hold her, to assure her it would be alright was overwhelming.
The thought of her pretty red ass last night made him hard, but the thought of her tears almost brought him to his knees. Rex wanted to make it better for her. He couldn’t, though. He could never offer anyone that life. It would be up to Tommy and maybe Liesel to have a family when they felt the time was right. Rex would work beside him to leave a legacy that his future nieces and nephews could be proud of.
Rex left the door and changed into a t-shirt and some workout shorts. He’d go punch and run his angst out. Then he would be able to think rationally again. He hoped.
After an hour running on the treadmill music as loud as he could stand it in his ears, followed by another hour with the heavy bag throwing punches and kicks, sweat rolled off his skin and soaked his clothes, but he finally felt like his thoughts were back under control. He headed back upstairs and was standing under the hot spray of the shower when his phone pinged. He didn’t rush. That was an incoming email, hopefully from Liesel, with the information he needed. He washed and dried off with deliberate movements. He had to keep himself under control.
After he’d dressed in slacks and button-down shirt, he finally allowed himself to pull the email on his phone. He scanned the email quickly, but close enough to verify that Ari had told him the truth. She was of age. She’d been enrolled in nursing school and the brother and sister she’d talked about definitely existed. As did the clues that she might be right about them being in danger. That made him breathe a little easier.
He steeled himself and then went to door joining their rooms. He knocked softly. If she was still sleeping, he wanted her to get the rest she needed. He didn’t need to worry about that, though. Her voice floated through the door, “Come in.”
Rex pushed open the door and stood in the doorway. “Are you hungry? Its nearly lunch.”
“A little.”
“Alright, lets go get something to eat.”
She got off the bed and followed him. He led her to the bathroom first and he let her pull the door part of the way closed. He was right outside. She wouldn’t get far even if she tried to get back out the window. Plus, her delicious backside should deter her since it was just enough curve to prevent her from getting through it. He listened closely, but she did nothing out of the ordinary. He held her elbow as he took her downstairs. It was exquisite torture just to touch her like this. His length hardened at the thought of what else he might touch and how it would feel, but he tamped those feelings down ruthlessly. So much for hoping his workout would fix that.There was little he could do about the physical evidence except hope she wouldn’t notice.
They ate lunch in silence. No one else joined them. Rex waited for her to finish eating before he started talking. “Liesel was able to use the information you gave me to verify your identity and your story.”
Ari didn’t say anything. She nodded and kept her eyes lowered so Rex continued. “I’ll take all this to Tommy. I agree, your brother and sister may not be safe right now. I need him to authorize more investigation and a plan if I’m going to do this.”
“I understand. Thank you,” Ari said, still not looking at him.
“Don’t thank me yet. All I said was that I’d talk to him. That stunt you pulled last night doesn’t help.”
“I know,” she whispered, her voice thick with tears.
“Ok, lets go back upstairs. I’ll meet with him this afternoon.”
“Can I go to the library, please? You can lock me in there, right? If I have to watch any more mindless television, I might lose it.”
Rex studied her for a minute. “I’ll take you down and you can pick some things out, but you’re going back upstairs.”
“Ok, thank you,” she said with a small smile.
Damn it, she needed to stop thanking him. And she definitely needed to not smile at him.
He guided her downstairs and waited the few minutes that it took for her to pick out some books. Back upstairs, he had her use the bathroom again with the promise that she could shower later that night before locking her back in her room. Rex left the room as fast as he could to keep himself from doing something stupid.
He went to the office and to work some more on their bank records while he waited for Tommy. After comparing six months of statements from one of the decimated accounts, he finally found what he was looking for. The interest percentage hadn’t been calculated correctly from the bank’s rate to what they actually deposited. He made a note of it and sent the information back to Liesel.
As he was settling in to start another review, Tommy came in and sat down.
“What’s the news?”
“I found a disconnect between our interest rate and what was being deposited at Wellchester.”
Tommy nodded. “Very good. What were the figures?”
“About two hundred fifty thousand over six months. I didn’t go back further, just sent it to Liesel so she could contact the bank and have them fix it so that figure will probably go up.”
“Did you get anything else back from Liesel?”
“Yes, Ari’s story checks out. Including the fact that her siblings are likely in danger staying with the stepfather.”
“How do you want to proceed?”
“I’d like to set a tail to make sure they haven’t changed locations. If they haven’t, I’ll go in with my team tomorrow and get them. If they have moved, then I’ll wait for the new location before I go in as soon as I can.”
“Tomorrow?”
“This guy is getting desperate. The bank accounts are dry. He’s got his wife drugged to within an inch of her life according to physician records.”
“And the bio dad?”
“Dead, shot in a turf skirmish between the Malone’s and the Ricci’s.”
“A principessa?”
Rex shook his head. “No, he was a lower level grunt. Probably trying to work his way in with the Malone’s and got killed before he could. Made enough for his family to be comfortable though.”
“So she’s already familiar with how family business is run? Rex, it’s rare that we come across someone we want who already knows how our lives work. She obviously trusts the system enough to work it for her own benefit.”
“No, I’m not going there. if her father was killed by guys like us, she’s probably not going to want to get involved further, especially not with kids to take care of,” Rex reasoned. Ari had already lost so much because of men like him in the gray area of the law. Even if he wanted it, he knew she’d never go for it.
Tommy shrugged. “If you say so. What will you ask for in return for your help?”
Rex looked at him stunned, “What would I ask for? This is rescuing kids. I don’t need a reward for that. It’s part of what I’m already working toward.”
“True,” Tommy murmured, “but what if she could help you with that too?”
Rex stared and Tommy continued. “Ask her to help you set up the sting at the auction. If she’s actually of age, you could get her to play the part needed to get them to relax. We wouldn’t need to fake her death.”
Rex gaped at him. He wanted to smack himself for not thinking of that. It was a brilliant plan even if it did feel somehow wrong to ask it of her. She didn’t have to know he would help her no matter what. He’d ask, and he was sure she’d agree. This would give him a whole new level of credibility. Returning with a well trained pet… Rex’s thoughts stopped there.
“I can’t. How could I train her to be a submissive? I love playing, but asking her to put herself through something like that after what she’s already been through?”
“Exactly. She’s already done it. She’ll know what’s happening. And this time she’ll go in knowing that she is safe and so is her family. I’m not making it an option. That’s our price.”
If looks could kill, Rex would have Tommy dead on the floor. But they couldn’t and as much as they worked together on things, Tommy’s word was law. Once he put his foot down, there was no arguing. Fuck, even pretending to dominate her was going to get to him. Ari would never know it, but he would.