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I climbed into the front of the car next to Damyan and began to drive, glancing at her in the rearview mirror every now and then. She was staring between the two of us, tears coursing down her cheeks, her makeup smudged, her skin covered in goosebumps. Her eyes kept darting towards the door, as though she was planning to throw it open and make a break for it at any second.
Arriving back at the penthouse, I helped her out of the car and took her through the back of the club towards the elevator. I knew the rest of the Mafia bosses would likely still be drinking themselves into a stupor, and I was fine with that. I didn’t want anyone to know what Damyan and I had just been doing. I knew it would raise too many questions, and I didn’t want anyone thinking I was willing to work with human traffickers, just because I had bid on this girl to save her.
Fifty thousand. I had paid in cash, upfront, not wanting to wait around any longer than I had to. Was that all she was worth to these people? She was beautiful, there was no doubt about it, with her blonde hair, crystalline blue eyes, and porcelain skin, but they weren’t just paying for the way she looked. No, they were paying because they knew it would be enough to get her to shut up and take anything they forced on her. Was her consent, her freedom, really worth that little to them? The thought made my heart pound with anger in my chest. If I had a few more men with me, I would have gone to that place, and …
"Where are we?" Mina asked, her voice squeaky with terror as she looked around the penthouse. Damyan headed straight to the drinks cart to pour himself something strong, probably to try and deal with my idiocy.
"Our home," I told her, as I gently eased my coat from her shoulders. She grabbed onto it, hanging on for dear life and shooting me a frightened look, as though I was trying to strip her down. I lifted my hands from her at once.
"We have a spare room through there," I told her, pointing towards the door on the far side of the living space. "It’s got an ensuite. You can get cleaned up and rest in there, and we can talk in the morning."
"Talk about what?" she asked. There was an edge of defiance to her voice.
"About what we’re going to do with you," Damyan cut in. She glanced over at him, her eyes wide, but she seemed to take the implication. She hurried over to the room and closed the door tight behind her. I heard the lock click into place and cocked an eyebrow at my stepbrother.
"You don’t need to scare her," I remarked to him.
"And you didn’t need to get us involved with this in the first place," he shot back. I headed over to pick up where I had left off with my drink earlier, pouring myself a generous measure.
"It’s not a lot of money," I remarked. "Not for us."
"The money’s not what I’m worried about," he replied through gritted teeth. I could tell he was pissed, though he was doing his level best not to let me see it.
"So, what’s the issue?"
"You know what the issue is."
I sighed. I did. He was concerned about what it would look like for us to buy a girl like this. How people might read into it. That it might make us look like hypocrites in the stand I had taken about allowing our territory to be used for human trafficking.
"I couldn’t just stand by and let that shit happen," I replied. "Besides, she’s going to be out of here in no time—"
"You know that for sure?" he demanded. "She’s a mess. We can’t just put her out on the street again, or she’s going to get snapped up by the same fuckers who did this to her."
He had a point. I didn’t want her to get pulled back into this again, and she clearly didn’t know how to handle herself. It seemed like she was new to this world, and that could leave her vulnerable to exploitation in the future.
"Well, I’ll keep her around for as long as it takes to work out what we’re going to do with her," I replied. "A couple of weeks, tops."
"A couple of weeks?" he exclaimed, shaking his head. "You know that’s not a good idea, Maxim."
"It’s not long," I replied dismissively. I didn’t want to argue with him about this. I could hear the shower running in the guest bathroom; at least she was making use of our facilities to get herself comfortable. I could talk to her in the morning, when she was better rested and more able to wrap her head around what was going on here.
"If something comes of this—" he began, and I shook my head.
"You know I can handle it," I told him. "Don’t you?”
He sighed and then nodded. The two of us had been working together for the better part of three decades now, and he knew he could trust me. I wasn’t going to do anything that might put the business at risk long-term. It was just one girl, after all. What was the worst that could happen?
"I’m going to bed," he told me, turning on his heel and heading towards his room. "I’ll speak to you in the morning."
I lifted a hand to wave him off and then stood there with my drink, alone with my thoughts once more. I was trying not to let myself overthink this. It was just a single girl, just one girl, and there were plenty of men in our position who paid for the company of women, right? It wasn’t that weird for us to do the same.
Even if I had no intention of laying a finger on her. She was barely half my age, if that, and I wasn’t going to take advantage of the position of power I had over her right now. It was written all over her face, how scared she was, how fearful she was about what was going to happen to her. I wished I could find some way to get it through her head that we weren’t here to hurt her, we were here to help her, but after the shit she had been through to bring her to this point in the first place, it wouldn’t have surprised me if she didn’t believe a word that came out of my mouth.
I finished the rest of my drink and headed through to my room, which was the one right next to hers. I paused outside her door for a moment, considering knocking, but I figured she needed her rest right now more than she needed me to come in there and try and make her feel better.
Tomorrow, I would do what I could to get her to feel better. But now? But right then, I needed to sleep. And hope my stepbrother hadn’t gone and decided I was crazy for what I had just done.
Chapter Six – Damyan
