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"That’s not—" I began, but she was already turning away from me, shutting this conversation down before it could go any further. I couldn’t blame her. She was clearly in a whole lot of pain right now, struggling to keep her head on straight, struggling not to let the horror of this situation get to her. She knew what she had been sold for, and even though Maxim and I had no intention of following through on that, it must have been hard to believe we didn’t have any plans for her.
She hurried back to her room, and I heard the door lock behind her. She wanted to be left alone but probably thought it was only a matter of time before one of us made our move. I sighed and ran a hand over my shaved head. I got the feeling this girl was going to be a whole lot of trouble, a whole lot more than I could have imagined, but shit, it was better than letting her fall into the hands of men who would have used and abused her, right?
That’s what I had to keep telling myself. Or I was going to find a reason to back out of all of this, and I knew my conscience wouldn’t have let me live with it.
She was so vulnerable. So young. Thrown into the middle of this world she clearly didn’t know much about, because someone close to her had racked up a debt they couldn’t pay without her. The thought of it sent a stab of rage through my body, but I did my best to push it down.
We would figure out how best to handle her and get her out of here, back to whatever life she wanted after the mess she had been through. At most, she would be here for a few days, and then, we’d never see her again.
Even if the thought of that made something twinge in my chest.
Chapter Seven – Mina
I unlocked the door as quietly as I could and stuck my head out of my room, glancing back and forth to make sure there was nobody else up yet. Chewing my lip, I held my breath, listening to the quiet. Okay, it seemed like the coast was actually clear …
I slipped out of the room I had been sleeping in for the last couple of nights and closed the door behind me, wincing as it clicked shut. It was so early, I had to believe that they would still be asleep, but I didn’t want them waking up and catching me in the act of snooping around the penthouse while they were asleep.
I was just trying to get a better idea of what was going on here, what exactly was expected of me now that I had been here a couple of days. I kept waiting for the penny to drop, for that knock to come at my door and one of the guys to step inside and tell me it was time for me to make the money they’d spent on me worth it.
Because that was what this had to be about, right? There was no way it could have been anything else, I was sure of it. No way it could have been innocent. Men like that would only have paid that kind of money for a woman if they were getting something out of it. The thought of being paid for like that, bought and sold as though I was nothing, made me feel sick. How could I live with myself if I had to hand over my body to these men without any question for what I wanted, how I felt about it?
But this world I had been thrown into, it wasn’t like anything I had experienced before, not by a long shot. Not by a hell of a long shot. I might have grown up in a Bratva family, but it was nothing like this. Not with the way my father had squandered my grandfather’s power and fortune within a matter of years.
But these guys? They clearly had some serious money to their name. Antonov, that was what they were called. I'd heard the name a few times when I’d hidden outside my grandfather’s office as a little girl, and I knew they were influential in this city. I hadn’t yet set foot outside the penthouse they’d been keeping me in, but why would I need to? This place was incredibly luxurious, exceptionally well-appointed, a far cry from the dismal pit I had been living in with my father …
My father. I couldn’t even think about him without feeling that angry pang in my chest. I still couldn’t believe he had done this to me, but the longer it went on without him trying to do what he could to help me, the more clear it became that this was exactly what he had intended. How drunk had he been when he had agreed to this? How fucked out of his mind? How deep in the hole had he ended up, to sell me like I was nothing more than a piece of meat, not the daughter who had done everything in her power to care for him over the last few years?
If it wasn’t for me, I was sure he would be dead. And maybe that was the problem. He had become so reliant on me to do everything possible to look after him, it had never crossed his mind that I had a life of my own, that I was my own person, with my own goals, my own dreams, my own existence. I had been so dedicated to him; all I had been able to do was focus on keeping our heads above water.
And now, I had been sold off to these two men who I didn’t know. It was surely only a matter of time before they took what they had paid for. And I didn’t know how to feel about that. It wasn’t that … Okay, I had to admit, it wasn’t that they weren’t attractive, but I could never been genuinely attracted to men who had done what they had done, who had paid for me like I was just a toy to be bought and sold at will.
Maxim, the older one, had promised me that he wouldn’t hurt me. But how far was that going to stretch, exactly? How far was that going to go? I didn’t have any idea. What did they count as hurt? There was so much I needed to know, so many questions I needed to get to the bottom of, I didn’t even know where to start.
I padded into the kitchen, wearing the pajamas that had been left for me yesterday morning. They were expensive, comfortable and soft, not the kind of sexy lingerie I would have expected them to purchase for me. I hadn’t owned clothes this nice in a long time, relying on thrift stores or just whatever my friends were giving up.
I had dreamed of this kind of luxury before, of a stocked fridge and a wine cabinet full of expensive bottles, but I had never imagined it would come to me like this, and it screwed me up to think about it. Was this the only way I would ever have access to this life, if I … if I sold myself for it? I didn’t know.
Damyan, the younger of the two men, had cornered me in the kitchen the other day to talk to me about what was going on. He didn’t seem much clearer about it than I did, though he did seem shocked when I told him I had been sold by someone. Wasn’t that what he had expected? Or was he just kidding himself, believing that I had done this because I really wanted to, and now he had to contend with the reality that I wasn’t exactly pleased to be here?
Well, I wasn’t going to go out of my way to make him feel comfortable about my presence here. I wasn’t going to lie to protect his feelings or make him feel like he had done the right thing. They had bought me at an auction, as though I was an old piece of furniture being sold off at a yard sale. I had never felt so low in my life, so used, so exploited …
I was about to get myself something to eat—I was ravenous, having hidden out in the bedroom most of the time for fear of what might be expected of me if I came outside—but before I could so much as open the fridge, I heard a voice behind me.
"Oh, you’re up."
I spun around, feeling like I had been caught in the act, and found Maxim leaning in the doorway, watching me with interest. My eyes widened, and I thought about trying to dart past him and towards the bedroom, but he was blocking my way out. I didn’t know if it was on purpose or not, but it made me feel trapped, as though the walls were closing in on me.
"Sorry," I blurted out. What the hell was I apologizing for? They should have been apologizing to me, for what they had done …
"It’s fine," he replied. "You hungry? You want something to eat?"
I hesitated for a moment before I nodded. I felt as though admitting to any kind of weakness was dangerous around these men, and I couldn’t figure out why. Maybe because I feared how they would exploit it if they saw it. I didn’t want them to think I needed anything from them, not a chance in hell. It felt like I would have been laying myself out on the line, letting them get closer to me in a way I didn’t want.
"It’s fine; I was going to make myself something before I went to the gym anyway," he continued casually, brushing past me to open the fridge and get himself something to eat. He pulled out a smoothie leaning on the inside of the door and offered me another bottle of juice. I took it, our fingertips brushing together for a moment, and snatched my hand away from him as though it had been pushed on to a hot stove.
He eyed me for a moment, clearly noticing how on edge I was. I chugged the juice, not looking at him. He must have known why, right? He must have known what I was preparing myself for. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, there was only one thing they would have brought me here for.
"What are you staring at me for?" I demanded bluntly after a long pause. I wasn’t going to pretend like I didn’t notice it. He shrugged.
