business friends need—need some convincing,” she informs him in yet another stuttering whisper. The shame of what she’s had to do hit her like a freight train.
“And the drugs?” he asks.
“Cristian started giving them to me when I turned twenty-one. To help relax—”
“To make you more compliant,” he cuts her off.
She nods her answer. There’s an undeniable change in the atmosphere as if the curtains are now drawn and she’s sitting in a darkened jail cell. Her cell guard is sitting in front of her and scrutinizing her every move.
“It became heavier doses and when—when I refused, he—he and his men started with the needles.”
Her trembling hands slide up and down her bare arms. She’s cold and shivering now, her stomach beyond knots.
“Okay,” he says softly. “We don’t have to talk anymore for now. You can go and get some rest if you need it.” His voice is gentle but it doesn’t soothe her.
Instead, she’s on her feet and rushing to the bathroom in the hallway. Slamming the door shut, she loses the little lunch that she had into and onto the toilet.
Chapter Twelve
Unable to sit and listen to her vomiting any longer, he leaves the house through the back door and walks down the path to the shaded gazebo.
He relaxes his fists during the walk and pockets his hands. The doggedness it took for him not to reach out and touch her, to hold her, and protect her was all too crushing. Even now, he’s feeling something fierce. These feelings shock the fuck out of him.
Years of self-control made him an expert at wearing the mask. He’s never faltered once with it especially when needed but he came too fucking close with Ariana. There’s an indescribable pull with her. There’s an innocence to her that still hasn’t been tarnished even through all of this.
For Christ’s sake…if ever he had considered wanting a woman next to him, he’d need a queen not a damsel in distress. And Ariana screams damsel.
Still…there’s a pull.
For fucks’ sake. She’s thirty-three years old yet barely a woman. It’s no surprise really since hearing her tell him what little she did say about her history. She’d been habituated her whole life to become a servant to the Romanos. A servant in every way.
The drugs. The mental and most likely physical abuse she must have endured was gut-wrenching to hear even in his business. This is why Kings were never in the business of dealing people. Everything else, they can live with. People though? Especially women and children? Never.
Yet, she survived. Over fifteen years, she lived through and survived.
She’s fighting but he can see that she doesn’t quite understand what will happen to her or what she needs to do. She’s become a submissive in every area of her life thanks to this debt. In her mind, she still doesn’t believe that she won’t end back with her tyrants. Her body may be free of them but her mind is still trapped in their cage.
He’s going to have to tread carefully. Whatever happens, his intentions won’t be to break her. Or what’s left of her.
Speaking of debt, he pulls his phone out of his pocket and dials Stella. But it’s Derrick who answer’s his wife’s phone with a grumble. He can hear the sound of baby Rian laughing in the background so it must mean they are on some kind of family outing and Stella is doing the driving. God be with his brother and nephew if that’s the case.
“Problem?” Derrick grumbles.
“Stell driving?” he asks in return.
“If that’s what you wanna call it. What’s up?”
“Never mind,” he answers Derrick.
“Well, we’re pulling up to you in about ten minutes. We can talk then,” Derrick responds, surprising the shit out of him.
Derrick hangs up without a goodbye and he pockets his phone with a grin. Knowing Stella, they should be pulling into that driveway in half the time.
She does…right on cue. Not saying that Stella is predictable. Far from that, in fact. She just drives like a fucking lunatic.
He hears the sound of the trio laughing before he can even see his brother’s family.
Derrick swears Rian is going to be an early walker. It’s a possibility. The kid is growing up way too fast and big for his age. Rian’s just a few months shy of his first birthday.
“What did you get out of her?” Derrick asks when he reaches the gazebo. Stella is right next to him holding a laughing baby.
“Not much yet,” he replies. “Just some background