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"I've assigned five of my best men to her, as of last night. Twelve-hour shifts for the foreseeable future. They'll go where she goes, and their communications systems are plugged straight into my command center. They'll report anything untoward, and their orders are to eliminate the threat."
Okay, that was a relief. "I've got some jobs lined up today, but I'm going to cancel as soon as it's a civilized hour. Anarchy's going to be here at Braun's all day, packing her stuff and working. After we finish at Avalon tonight, she'll be coming home with me. My security is top of the line."
"If you need to go to work, go to work. My boys won't let anyone near her, Jasper. Dominic's men won't even know they're in the vicinity."
Jasper snarled under his breath as the coffee pot stopped bubbling. He poured a cup and, retrieving the phone from its uncomfortable spot between his shoulder and ear, wandered over to sit on one of the stools. "I can't leave her. I know it will present an opportunity for them, but I'm not willing to use her as bait. Not if there's the slightest chance they could slip through the net and take her. Are you guaranteeing they won't?"
A second of silence. He heard Atticus's palm rasp over his beard. "No. I can't, not one hundred percent. My team is good, the best, but there's always outside factors that can interfere. Okay, I'll update them and tell them you'll be on site throughout the day. Shift swaps take place at oh-nine-hundred and twenty-one hundred hours, so I'll make sure the replacement shift is stationed outside Avalon tonight and that they tail you back to your place."
"Thanks. What about Dominic? Do we have any plans to deal with him?"
"We're compiling all the data we have on him—routines, routes to and from various destinations. The logistics team is scouring the mansion blue prints, identifying security alarms, guards, and anything else we may have missed. They've already noted some upgrades to the internal systems."
What he said next might kill him, but it had to be done. "What if you send me in? Dominic would let me walk right into the house. I can do some reconnaissance, map out the security, relay it back."
"No." There was no hesitation in his friend's voice. "We both know what happens if you go back there, Jasper. You're not getting free rein of the house, you'll be neutralized and tossed into a cell. It's not you he wants anymore, is it? He told you that himself. He's after another child to abuse, one of your blood. He thinks blackmailing you into knocking Anarchy up and giving him the baby will work. Threatening to do the job himself is a catalyst. If by some miracle, he gets hold of her, he might rape her to make a point, but not for procreation. You understand that, right?"
Oh, he understood. If Dominic touched a hair on her head, he'd lose both hands and his dick before Jasper gutted him like a trout. "She'd be the lure to draw me in. Once he had us both, he'd use the same methods he employed when I...when I..."
"When the fucker manipulated a young boy into violating a girl he cared for."
Jasper squeezed his eyes shut. He had cared for her. Pretty little Leigh. She'd caught his eye one morning while he was training in the gym. Thirteen years old and pumping iron for the required ninety minutes allocated to him, and she'd been watching him from the doorway. Eleven years old and the picture of innocence with those blue eyes.
She'd smiled shyly at him, he remembered with a pang in his chest. So sweetly. Her fingers waggling at him in a silent hello before she dashed away at her mother's call.
It had grown from there. She'd found him every morning, wherever he was, and watched him until she whisked away, leaving him with confused feelings. It was forbidden to talk to anyone else but Dominic and Rita; half the time, he didn't even want to do that. But Leigh...she'd stirred the subdued humanity inside him, day by day, until he plucked up the courage to murmur hello to her.
Not looking at her. Not giving anything away to the cameras positioned around the mansion.
They began to talk, little more than whispers, and he never looked at her directly. He'd known he was breaking the rules, and stupidly, he thought they weren't being noticed.
Until almost a year later, when one morning, Leigh didn't appear to disrupt the monotony of his day. Instead, he'd been ordered to shower and take the vitamins left on his bedside table before reporting to Rita's lab. He remembered walking down the hall, feeling weak at the knees, and like he'd taken a blow to the head. Pressing his hand against the wall to brace himself, horrified by the swift and unstoppable erection that tented the front of his sweatpants.
Suspecting the vitamins weren't what they were supposed to be.
Jasper wiped sweat off his brow as he remembered being dragged the last few feet into the lab by his step-mother. Her hands had been all over him, stripping him naked, taking his vitals. Her voice, so falsely sweet, murmuring commands in his ear as she squeezed his cock.
He wanted to be sick as memories of Leigh, strapped down and as naked as he, tried to drown him. As what happened next scarred him for life.
"Jasper. Jasper!"
"Need a minute," he rasped to Atticus, setting the phone on the counter and stumbling off the stool. He sank down to his haunches, pressing his back to the coolness of the counter, and dropped his head between his knees. Schooling his breathing to calm his heart, he tried to convince himself it wasn't his fault.
They'd been drugged with hormones and fuck knew what else. Leigh had been laced with fertility hormones, and it had taken him a long time to realize she hadn't been fully conscious. Doped with one of Rita's concoctions. He'd been given a homemade version of Viagra, a cocktail to make him hard and force him to perform. Over and over again.
He dug his hands into his hair, driving his nails into his scalp so pain prickled over his skull. When that didn't work, he raked them down to his nape, dragging them down his neck and around to his collarbones.
A pair of bare feet appeared in front of him.
Anarchy.
No, she couldn't see him this way. Not like this.
When he tried to rise, a warm hand landed gently on his head, running soothing fingers through his hair. "It's okay, Jasper." Her voice was soft and husky, telling him she hadn't been awake for long. "Just take a minute."
She was far too good for him, he thought in despair. That was why he couldn't let her go.
***
