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I try to shove down thoughts of one of the little girls they fostered last year. Sadie was a wild spirit, even after losing her entire family in a house fire, but Colin and Jan beat that out of her. Locked her in the closet for days at a time without food or water, beat her until she could barely breathe, and one day took it too far. They told the foster agency she ran away, and because every other kid in the house was more afraid of the devil they didn’t know, we all kept our mouths shut.
I still hear her screams when I close my eyes at night.
The guilt hits me the same way it always does, right in the gut, knocking the air right from my lungs and forcing me to look away from the man before I can take in any of his features. Maybe this is my karma for not protecting her. Maybe I deserve all that awaits me behind the heavy warehouse doors.
We’re near the docks. That much I knew before the trunk even opened. The familiar scent of Lake Michigan mingles with the stench of fish permeating the air. But I don’t need anyone to tell me where I am or what I’m doing here, because I already know. My foster brothers tried desperately to protect me from where Colin would take them at night, but neither of them were the same after the first time, and although I can only guess what happens here, I can assume it’s sinister enough to change the only two people I’ve trusted since my parents died.
I step forward, and a hiss drags its way up my throat. The cold concrete makes my bones ache, and each step is excruciating, but the alternative will be worse, so I keep moving, not bothering to look at the man standing beside the door or the one on the other side of the room whose eyes peruse my body, leaving nothing but filth in their wake.
It’s not until I’m shoved into a small room and my body slams into another that I finally look up. It’s a woman, her hair shaved and chopped in places, her skin black and blue, and dried blood drips from her nose.
She’s huddled in the corner of the small concrete space, her fear-filled eyes stealing the breath from my lungs.
“Better be good if you don’t want to wind up looking like this slut.” He chuckles and slams the heavy metal door behind me, locking me into a fate that’s worse than even my nightmares could conjure.
Ace and Tommy were meant to save me tonight. But they were too late, and now I’m beyond salvation.
CHAPTER FOUR
ACE
Tommy and Clara help us check into the hotel and to get Mia settled. She doesn’t seem uncomfortable with me by any stretch, but I’d be an idiot not to notice how the tension falls from her shoulders when Clara is around.
Does that mean I’m going to let her go home with them? Not a chance in hell. But I’ll accept their help when they offer it if it’s the best thing for her.
The penthouse suite at the Marriott is a world away from the shitty apartment I’ve had for almost a decade. Spending money on nice shit always had guilt washing over me in nauseating waves. I didn’t deserve to have anything more than I needed to survive, and that shitty apartment and the mattress on the floor were exactly that.
The way Mia’s eyes tracked over every expensive inch of this place makes my stomach clench, but I needed to give her the best of everything. She has no reason to forgive me, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight tooth and nail to get that forgiveness, and if that means spending an ungodly amount of money to book this place out for the next month while I find a suitable apartment and have an adequate amount of security installed to ensure her safety, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
Clara ushers Mia into the main bedroom in the suite while Tommy stays behind. He looks almost as out of place in this hotel room as I feel, but he doesn’t let his discomfort show. He has a little more experience around the finer things in life than I do, having worked for the Saint James family for almost ten years. But people like us don’t forget our roots or where we came from. Once a dirtbag, always a dirtbag.
“Are you sure it’s a good idea for her to stay here with you?” he asks quietly.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” I snap, the exhaustion from the last few days finally settling over me. I need a shower because I stink to high heaven, and then I need to close my eyes for a few hours.
My phone hasn’t stopped blowing up with work shit, and I have to get to my apartment and pack up the key pieces of equipment I need. A hotel isn’t the most ideal place to be hacking, but it’s just going to have to work in the interim.
He sighs and drags me further from the door the girls disappeared through. “We have no idea what she’s been through, Ace, but I’m more than comfortable making some assumptions. I know what she means to you, and I know you don’t want her out of your sight, but what about what she needs? Do you think she’s going to be okay waking up in the middle of the night in a strange place with a guy she hasn’t seen for the better part of a decade?” he challenges.
I open my mouth to respond, but I snap it shut immediately because he’s right. Mia would be better off with someone else, someone who can be gentle with her as she gets used to a world she hasn’t lived in for so long, but I can’t let her go. I can’t allow her out of my sight, much less out of the building.
“That’s what I thought,” he says smugly.
I sigh and rub a hand over my face. It’s been too fucking long since I slept to make a case for why exactly she needs to stay here, especially when he’s not exactly wrong.
“Look, Ace. I’m not going to push you on this. I get it. Believe me, I do. But I’m going to leave Mia with a phone and my number, as well as the Saint James family.” I open my mouth to argue, but he holds his hand up to silence me. “I know you don’t like it, and again, I get it, but they’re good people who will go to the ends of the earth for the people they think are worth it, and I can tell you as soon as they realized Mia was helping Clara, she became one of those people.” He claps his hand on my shoulder, a rare touch from the man who has always despised it. “All I’m asking is that if she wants to leave, if it’s too much for her and she asks you for space, you give that to her.”
I glare at him for a few seconds, but no matter how badly I want to argue, I know I can’t because he’s right. It would be selfish of me to keep her here if she doesn’t want to be here, if she doesn’t want to be with me. The idea burns my chest, but I can’t be selfish with her, not after the horrors she must have seen in the years since I knew her.
I give him a sharp nod as Clara appears in the doorway, worry etched into her features. I’m glad Tommy found her. The tortured boy who had seen more than anyone deserves to see in their life, found a light so bright she can guide him through his own darkness, just the same way Mia always has for me. Even when she was gone, she was the guiding light I needed to keep going, and now that I have her back, there’s nothing I won’t do to keep her safe, to protect her from the cruel world that has already hurt her so much.
She glances over her shoulder before closing the distance between her and Tommy. He immediately pulls her into his arms once she’s within range, and I don’t miss the way the tension melts from his shoulders as soon as she’s in his arms.
“How is she?” I ask.
Clara sighs, her eyes closing for the briefest of moments before meeting mine. “I think she’s okay. I…” She hesitates. “I don’t know what she went through before she found herself with Lombardi, but I get the impression it was pretty horrific.” She draws her bottom lip between her teeth and lets out a breath. “I asked her if she was comfortable staying here with you. Not because I think you’ll hurt her, I just…I want to make sure she feels safe. She said she was fine, that she didn’t want to be a bother to any of us.”
I flinch. She doesn’t want to be a bother to us? She doesn’t want to interrupt our lives? Doesn’t she realize my life has been on hold for the last eight years? That every spare second of every day has been spent looking for her? Searching in the darkest parts of the web, looking in every corner of the world for any sign of her? The only thing that would be a bother is if I lost her again.
