enough. She just turned eighteen… I look at the date again and flip back to the first page.
Fuck. It was her birthday… she was taken on her fucking birthday.
I inhale a deep breath, but it doesn’t feel like I’m getting enough air. I don’t know why I do it, but I force myself to finish reading her background check.
Parents deceased. Only living relative... a sister, Ella Rivers. Violet just got out of high school, and she was enrolled in the local college, but the semester hadn’t started yet. She didn’t even have the chance to go to a single class… and now she never will. Now, she’s on the road to being beaten, enslaved in a world full of hate and sex. Instead of going to college, she’ll be used and abused, until they either kill her, or she kills herself.
“Fuck,” I growl, wanting to scream. I shut the folder and toss it onto the table in front of me. I lean forward, holding my hands in my head, running my fingers through my hair. What the fuck am I supposed to do?
I can’t let myself feel anything more for her then I already have. I can’t let her in. Above all, I cannot save her from the monsters hidden in plain sight, not when I’m part of the reason she is here. I’m weak. I can’t let her go. I can’t save her, and it’s killing me.
I scrub a hand down my face, and then shove from the couch, heading toward the kitchen. I open one of the cabinets that contain my favorite whiskeys. I grab the first one I see and open it, bringing the bottle to my lips.
She’s nothing. Just another body, another job, another dollar bill. I tell myself this over and over again. I greedily drink from the bottle as if I’ll find the answer to all my problems at the bottom of it. The whiskey coats my insides with warmth.
Why do I want to save her?
Because you couldn’t save her.
I want to throw the bottle in my hands against the wall but instead, I continue drinking. I drink for hours, or at least I think it’s hours. When I push up from the floor, my steps are unsteady, and I lean against the wall to stop myself from falling over.
Fuck. I squeeze my eyes shut to stop the world from spinning around me. I walk into my bedroom. I sound like a herd of elephants as I do, slamming into walls and knocking over some shit on one of my tables, I don’t fucking know. Then I cross the threshold into my room and I see her.
Violet. My tiny kitten. So fucking perfect. So fucking beautiful. A temptress I’m willing to fucking risk everything for? I sag down onto the mattress beside her. The urge to hold her is so strong I grit my teeth and damn near sit on my hands to stop myself from doing so. Then, as if the universe is testing my control, Violet rolls over, snuggling into my side.
I press my nose into her hair. She smells like me, and roses, fucking roses. My mouth waters over roses, and I don’t fucking understand this... her, me, what the plan is. I don’t fucking get it but while I have her in my arms, I’m going to relish in her touch. I’m going to fucking hold her until I can’t anymore, until the morning light enters the windows.
“Fuck, Kitten, what am I going to do with you?”
7
Violet
I’m warm. Overly warm. So warm it feels like the sun is beating down on me. I want to lean into the warmth, reach out and touch it. I groan into the soft sheets beneath my hands. Soft sheets? I don’t know what it is yet, but something feels off... like I’m not waking up in the same place I went to sleep at.
“No. I’m sorry... I didn’t…” a voice shouts beside me.
My eyes pop open, fear clinging to my insides like sticky honey. My gaze sweeps over the room, until they land on Ivan lying beside me. His face is scrunched up, pain and sadness painted on his features.
“No. No. No. It can’t... she can’t be gone…” Ivan roars, and I push off the mattress, gripping onto his thick shoulders. Is he having a nightmare? What’s happening to him? I shake him or try to at least. His arms flail back and forth, his fists are clenched, and they land heavily against the