AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My heart tightened in my chest. I wasn’t sure how long it had been since I had heard someone talking about me in that way, talking about me like they actually gave a damn about me. It hurt, for some reason, but in a good way. Like ripping off a Band-Aid.
I put a little too much pressure on the door, and it creaked open. Both Morgan and Paulo glanced around, and I tried to arrange my features to look as neutral as possible.
"Oh, Selina," Morgan blurted out. "I didn’t realize you were in there …"
"I was just getting a book," I replied. I realized I wasn’t even holding one, making my excuses look kind of useless.
"Uh, but I decided I needed a glass of water," I added swiftly. I brushed past the two of them, but internally, my mind was reeling. I didn’t know exactly how to handle myself right now; there was a part of me that was terrified of Stefano turning up here, pulling me back into everything once more, but there was another part of me—a dominant part of me, more dominant than I would care to admit—that felt as though it was maybe where I belonged. Much as I wanted to get out, that life was all I had known, maybe all I was good for.
I made it to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water and took a long sip. You’re going to be okay. They had talked about protecting me here. That was what I had to stay focused on. As long as I didn’t fuck this up somehow, that wasn’t going to change.
At least, that’s what I had to tell myself.
Chapter Seven – Paulo
I let out a groan and leaned back from the desk, rubbing my hands over my eyes. I wasn’t sure how long I had been awake, but I should probably try to get some sleep.
Rising to my feet, I began to pace the small space of my office, trying to burn off some of the energy that had been coursing through my system all day. We had received another message from Stefano that morning, a more direct threat—a picture of her with the eyes cut out, in a compromising position. I didn’t even want to think how out of it she was when this had been taken. I knew he must have used the drugs to keep her compliant and willing to do whatever he wanted, and taking these pictures, for the sake of advertising was probably part of that.
I had torn it to pieces and tossed it in the trash, but I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it all day. I needed to do something about him before he made some kind of move against her. He didn’t seem to be letting up, and it had been nearly two weeks since she had arrived here. If he hadn’t lost interest by now, and if his messages were starting to grow more intense in their aggressiveness, he wanted us to be scared. He wanted us to feel as though we would be better off just handing her back over to him, and I wasn’t going to let that asshole get to me.
I was going to take him out.
That’s what I had been up all night figuring out. I wasn’t sure where he had been sending the letters from, but I had gotten the address of the brothel he had forced her to work out of. From there, I planned to see where credit cards and cash spent in that place had been used afterwards; I had a couple of contacts in the financial department of a few major banks, and they would be able to track him down soon enough.
I hadn’t told Alex about this, and I didn’t want him to find out. I knew he would tell me not to do this, and there was no way I was going to be pushed off this. I wasn’t going to let that bastard get anywhere close to her, not after everything she had been through. She deserved a chance to heal, even if she didn’t seem entirely enthused about taking it. Even if she didn’t want to see this through, at least I could keep her out of the grasp of that monster.
But I had come up against a dead end in trying to smoke him out, and it was starting to get to me. I knew I just needed to give my contacts time to get back to me about the information I had requested, but there was still a part of me that wanted to make a move too. Now. Fast.
I needed something to eat. Normally, when I was frustrated like this, I would have just gone and had another drink—or three—to take the edge off. Hell, on nights like tonight, I was still tempted.
The house was quiet as I made my way through it; it wouldn’t be long till we got more girls in. Alex and Morgan were already planning another attack on a brothel, and there would be other girls who needed the space here. But, for some reason, I just wanted Selina to have it to herself for a while. I felt as though she needed it, something easy and quiet where she could begin to recover.
Even though she had been mostly keeping herself to herself the last few days, the few glimpses of her I had seen, she was starting to look a whole lot better. She was still fragile, still looked as though she might break if she moved too quickly, but when I caught her smiling, it seemed genuine.
Now that she was up and about a little more, I could see how hard of a toll this life had taken on her. She was thin, almost painfully so, and it looked as though she had been wrung out and left to dry. But it was more than just the way she looked. It was in the way she carried herself, too. In the expression on her face, the way she jumped when she heard someone coming and didn’t expect them. The way her eyes darted around to take in every little detail of the room and everyone inside it, as though she was taking stock of their intentions towards her, what they might want from her. Sometimes, I wanted to touch her shoulder, tell her she had nothing to fear here, but I knew she wouldn’t have believed me. I knew she wouldn’t have trusted it. It was going to take a long, long time before she believed that people wanted the best for her, that they wanted her for any other reason than what she could give them or do for them …
"Paulo?"
I stopped in my tracks when I reached the kitchen and found, to my surprise, that Selina was standing right in front of me, in the glow of the fridge light. She was dressed in a long tee and a pair of shorts, her long, slender legs beneath, her delicate bare feet pressed against the tile.
"What are you doing here?" I asked her, surprised. She usually hid out in her room if she could manage it.
"I … I was hungry," she replied, as though defending herself against some accusation. "I came here for something to eat. I’m allowed to do that, right?"
"Of course you are," I replied. "Your appetite coming back now you’ve got that shit out of your system?”
She smiled slightly.
"A little," she admitted, wrapping her arms around herself protectively. Her cheeks looked a little flushed, as though she felt exposed.
"Go ahead," I replied as I poured myself a glass of water. I paused for a moment, just watching her as she took out a juice and sipped it. Even in the pale blue glow of this light, she looked beautiful—her long red hair tumbling into her face, her lightly freckled skin almost ethereal.
"What is it?" she demanded as she caught me looking at her.
"Nothing," I replied. "I’ll leave you to it. I’m sorry."
"No, I … You don’t have to go," she told me quickly, her voice cracking slightly as she spoke. I frowned, cocking an eyebrow at her.
