Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
Ally winced as a fist slammed into Mateo’s gut.
Even though she was sitting twenty or so feet away from the ring, and there was no way she could hear the grunt she was sure had fallen from his lips over the roar of the crowd, she was certain she did, in fact, hear it.
Almost felt an echo of his pain.
Here she was, sitting safe and sound, whole and unhurt, while he was quite literally fighting for her. Fighting for her freedom and her life. Taking physical blows after already being beaten because he’d come after her.
As he weaved to the side, missing the next blow, and then delivering one of his own to his opponent, she wished he’d never come to Vanuatu to rescue her.
This was her fault that he was in that ring.
If he’d left her to be rescued by the Delta Force team, she never would have been in that beautiful blue water hole, they would have been safely at the airport, waiting on their ride home.
They wouldn't have been captured and returned to Azure, Mateo would still have been safely undercover, and he wouldn't have been putting his body on the line to save them both.
She’d been selfish.
It was stupid to ask for that moment in the blue water.
At the time, the hole, surrounded by rock and thick, lush green vegetation, had been so peaceful that she hadn't been able to resist. After the loud chaos of the party and everything she’d had to do there, in addition to the week of hell being kept in a cage in Azure’s basement, she’d needed a moment of tranquility to wash it all away.
But that moment had cost them so much.
“Enjoying the fight, little mouse?” Griffin asked as he trailed a finger down her bare arm, making her shudder.
“Don’t call me that,” she said, a spark of defiance that was so unlike her lighting inside her.
“Isn't that what your boyfriend calls you?” Griffin drawled, not bothering to remove his hand. In fact, he settled it on her thigh, dangerously close to the lacy black panties he’d brought for her to wear.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she said, somewhat automatically. Not because she didn't love Mateo, or because she didn't want to figure out a way to work through her complicated feelings about the last six months, but because he was so much more than that.
The word boyfriend seemed far too inadequate for the strength of her feelings for Mateo, and for all they’d been through together.
He’d taught her so much about herself, about her strengths and weaknesses, about what she wanted out of life.
He’d helped her embrace her sexuality, pushed her out of her comfort zone, and shown her what it was like to be truly seen and heard for the first time in her life.
Maybe he’d hurt her more deeply than anyone else ever had, but he’d come after her, putting everything on the line to do so, and now he was fighting in that ring for both of them.
“No? So he’s fighting to pay off a debt and own you, but you don’t even consider him your boyfriend?”
“I don’t,” she said softly, watching Mateo’s every move, willing him to win, not so he could pay off the debt and own her as Griffin put it, but because she didn't want him to hurt anymore.
“What is he then?” Griffin sounded actually intrigued, which was the only reason Ally tore her gaze away from the ring to glance up at the large man.
He was a little taller than Mateo, probably coming in at close to six feet six or seven, his white shirt strained across his broad chest, and his rolled-up sleeves showed off toned forearms. With his dark hair, golden brown eyes, scruff on his chiseled jaw, and sculpted body, he was an attractive man.
Well, he would be if he weren't a human trafficker.
She’d always believed that what made people beautiful was what was inside, the outside was just packaging.
Sure, maybe a beautiful person could get their foot in the door in jobs, or relationships, but if they didn't have anything but a pretty exterior, in the end, people didn't like them, might use them, but didn't really care about them. Griffin was nice to look at, but the way he treated others made him dirty and disgusting, and she couldn’t wait for Mateo and Prey to topple his organization and bring him crashing down to earth.
“He says he’s trained you just the way he wants you,” Griffin continued when she didn't answer his question.
The hand on her thigh drifted closer to the apex of her thighs until his fingers were pressed against her center.
Not moving, not stroking, not seeking entrance.
Just there. “He might talk a different game, but he sees you as property the same way that I do.”
“No, he doesn’t,” she protested.
“He works here, doesn’t he? You think he cares about you?
He doesn’t. He enjoys having sex with you because you're obedient and docile. I bet you’ve never fought back a day in your life, have you, little mouse?
” he sneered, his fingers hooking through the small piece of lace protecting her from him.
“What would you do if I took you right here and now? Nothing, am I right?”
With a yank of his fingers, Griffin tore the scrap of lace, ripping the panties right off her body, and making her skin smart where the material tore into her as it broke.
The tearing material caught the attention of some of the men around them, and they looked over to see what was going on.
More than one set of eyes flared with arousal as they saw Griffin holding up the ruined panties.
While she was sitting down, no one could see anything, but as soon as she stood, everyone would get an eyeful of her bare center, this skirt hardly covered her backside.
Even though she knew Griffin had done it to prove the point he thought he was making, that Mateo didn't really care about her and saw her as nothing more than a living, breathing sex toy, the same way he and all the other men at Azure did, she couldn’t help the tears that welled in her eyes.
But while his words were hitting their mark in humiliating her and dehumanizing her, they didn't shake her faith in Mateo. Because she knew what Griffin apparently didn't. That Mateo wasn't like him at all, that he was only at Azure to destroy it.
“I've known him for eighteen months now, and he came after me,” she said softly, returning her gaze to the ring.
Griffin was one-dimensional. All he had was trying to put her down, pretend she was an object when they both knew she wasn't. She wouldn't let his words get to her when she had a real man willing to put his entire life and future on the line for her.
What else could that be but love?
“Sooner or later, he’ll get bored with you,” Griffin said with so much confidence that the part of her that had never felt worthy or good enough tried to latch onto the words.
“Then what do you think he’ll do? Sell you back to me to make some of his money back?
Trade you for a new woman? Kill you and replace you with another?
Trust me, little mouse, men like the one in that cage you're watching as though he hung the moon, don’t have it in them to truly care about another person.
Women are disposable, replaceable. You're no different. You might be pretty, but looks fade, you might be sweet and malleable, but that just means eventually he’ll get bored.
You're nothing to me but a paycheck, you're nothing to him but a toy. You're nothing at all.”
How many times had she thought that herself?
That she was nothing, that she was an unwanted burden to both sets of grandparents, that she was just someone to torment to her bullies, that she had no friends and no boyfriends because she wasn't worthy of love and affection.
All her life, that was exactly how she felt, but not anymore.
Mateo had protected her the best he could, then thrown everything away to come after her, now he was fighting for her.
That was love. He loved her. He saw her, heard her, wanted her.
He cared about her, respected her, and pushed her because he wanted her to be the best version of herself she could possibly be.
She was more than her past, more than her insecurities, more than just the girl nobody cared about. Maybe Ally Thatcher wasn't anything special, but to Mateo she was special, and that meant she mattered.
“If I was nothing, he wouldn't be fighting so he could buy me for himself,” she said softly.
Beside her, Griffin chuckled. A cold, dead sound.
“Oh, little mouse, do you really think I'd let one of my employees buy you? You belong to me, to Azure, never to anyone else. But I’ll string your boyfriend along, let him think he has a chance at owning you in the end, all the while making a ton of money off his fighting. And for each fight he wins, I’ll let him rent you for the night. ”
August 22nd
11:20 P.M.
Mateo barely registered the throbbing throughout his entire body as he stalked through the halls toward the room where Ally was being kept.
Grateful for the small mercy that Griffin seemed to completely believe he was still with Azure, he’d just lost his mind over a woman.
For now, he was allowed to move freely, but Ally was being held under lock and key in one of the holding rooms on the main floor of the warehouse.
He’d won his fight, made a step toward paying off the debt for Ally, and after being patched up by the doctor Griffin kept on the payroll, he’d made his way straight here.
This wasn't ideal, he’d hoped that he’d be allowed to take Ally home with him, but he guessed his boss was going to hold her as collateral until he paid her off.
Or he figured out a way to get her out.
Reaching her room, he punched in the code, half expecting to find that Griffin had been playing with him for the man’s own amusement, but the light beeped green, and he was able to swing the door open.