Her own fucking family sold her.
The words cycle through my mind over and over again as if they’ll start making sense, but they’re not going to, because something so heinous is unfathomable. What kind of parents would do this to their child? This is the one thing in our world that turns my stomach. I can deal with the drugs and the guns, the murder and the violence, hell, I even enjoy those things, but human trafficking is where I draw the line, and the fact that anyone could do that to the sweet angel laying on the couch in my office makes me want to burn the entire fucking world to the ground.
“Storm,” Snow says softly, her eyes darting between me and Ayvah like she isn’t sure which one of us she should comfort. I should be the one to wipe her tears away, but I can’t risk being close to her, not when I’m this wound up. I need to go kill the assholes who thought they could buy someone in my club before selling them on to a vile future that I can’t begin to comprehend, but I can’t leave her.
Doc steps away from the lounge and his eyes burn just as bright as the anger in my chest. We’re on the same page when it comes to this shit, and while I’ve never pried into his past, if his reaction every time this comes across our desks is anything to go by, I think he has a past with it.
“I’m sorry,” Ayvah cries as she buries her face in her hands.
My eyes dart between her and my sister. What is she sorry for? None of this is her fault. She didn’t ask for this. She didn’t ask to be sold. She didn’t ask for her family to be fucking cunts. None of this is her fault and if she keeps that shit up she’s going to find herself over my knee with a red ass.
I stop in my tracks at my own thought. Where the hell did that come from? I have never thought about punishing anyone. I’ve spanked women during sex, sure, but that’s all fun. The urge I have to bend her over my lap and remind her that she’s worth more than her piece of shit family have given her credit for is foreign.
I take a deep breath and approach the lounge again, taking my spot kneeling beside her and immediately pull her hands away from her face. “Hey,” I murmur so as not to scare her. “None of this is your fault, Ayvah, and I don’t want to hear another apology out of those pretty pink lips, do we understand each other?”
Her tear-stained eyes widen, the dark makeup smudged down her cheeks in the form of tear tracks. “Okay. I just… it’s been a lot, and I don’t know what I’m going to do now. Everything I own is in my parents’ apartment, and even if I can get it without them seeing and trying to sell me again, whoever they’ve taken money from is going to come after me,” she sobs.
Before I’m conscious of the decision, I carefully lift her from where she’s laying and turn, sitting back in the center of the lounge with her cradled against my chest. The moment she’s settled, her hot tears soaking through my suit, calm envelops me. As if her touch alone can bring me peace. The thought is preposterous, how can someone I’ve just met make me feel more settled than I have since the day I realized dad had taken over as head of a mafia family?
“I’ve got you, baby girl. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.” The words slip from my lips before I can stop them. I don’t know where they’ve come from, but I can’t bring myself to regret them.
I don’t need to look up to know my sister is staring at me like I’ve lost my fucking mind, and hell, maybe I have, but I’m not going to allow Ayvah to ever be hurt again.
Doc comes back into view looking slightly calmer, but the way his jaw tics tells me he’s anything but. “I’m sorry your family would do such a thing, darlin’.” Doc’s voice is strained, but Ayvah doesn’t flinch when he brushes the back of his hand over her forehead. “Your fever is coming down so I don’t think you need any further medical attention, but I want someone to be with you for the next twenty-four hours to monitor for any lasting side effects.”
“I don’t have anyone,” Ayvah says, her voice full of dejection and sadness and I can’t fucking stand it. The only people I’ve ever wanted to shield from the world are members of my family, but somehow the woman curled around me has found her way under my skin in such a short period of time.
Snow’s eyes meet mine, questions dancing in the blue. “You can come stay with my husband and I,” she offers. “You’ll be safe with us and we can work out the rest once you’ve had some time to process everything.”
“No,” I growl. “She’ll come back to the estate with me.”
The room falls quiet and I feel Snow and Doc’s eyes boring into the side of my face. As a rule, the only people we ever bring to the estate are family. Partly because we have some trust issues after our head of security turned on us and Wynter and I were held hostage in our own home, and partly because it’s a space our parents cherished and we don’t want to do anything to taint that. But it feels right to take Ayvah there, especially after all she’s been through tonight. She needs to feel safe, and the estate is the safest place in the city.
“Oh no.” Ayvah pushes against my chest as if she thinks I’m going to allow her to put any distance between us, and I suppose she doesn’t know me well enough to know once I’ve set my mind to something, that’s what’s happening, regardless of what the people around me think. She’ll learn though. Eventually she’ll realize that arguing with me is futile. “I couldn’t inconvenience you like that. You’ve already been so kind and have had me seen by a doctor, and I’m not in a position to owe anyone anything right now. I just need to figure out how I’m going to get my stuff from my parents, I have a little money saved, maybe enough to get me out of the city, and then I’ll work it out from there.”
I have to take deep breaths through the anger that rises in my chest and the thought of her being in another city. I don’t know what it is about this woman, but everything inside me is telling me she belongs at my side, and I don’t think I’m in a position to argue with that right now. “I will get your belongings from your parents’ house once I have you settled at the estate.”
Her chocolate brown eyes meet mine and my breath stutters in my chest. Fuck, she’s so beautiful. How is it possible to be so fucking stunning? I’ve been with my fair share of women over the years. You don’t get a reputation as the city’s most eligible bachelor without fucking your way through every model and socialite that wants to find their way onto the front page of the tabloids, but I’ve never been taken aback by a woman like I have since I locked eyes on her.
Ayvah looks around the room at everyone staring at me like I’ve lost it and a deep blush touches her pale cheeks. Fuck, that color pink suits her. I wonder what her ass would look like after a spanking. I’d like to see my handprints covering the milky globes. “Oh, I don’t think that’s a good—”
“I know we haven’t known each other very long, baby girl, but something you’re going to learn very quickly is that when I make a decision about something, it’s going to happen. Now, once Doc here has signed off on you going home, I’ll take you back to the estate and we can worry about everything else tomorrow, okay?” The next word out of her mouth better be some kind of agreement because I’ve had enough of arguing with her and she’s soon going to find that arguing with me is futile. I’m always going to get my way because a man doesn’t get to where I am without knowing how to get exactly what I want. And right now, all I want is Ayvah safe in my home where I know no harm can come to her.
