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She’d thought Reyes an absolute monster when he’d put a hand to her throat, giving her a warning about what he could do to her if he wanted to. But he hadn’t actually hurt her. Of course, he’d definitely caused her pain on the runway, but now she understood why he’d felt compelled to do so: to show he could command his newly bought slave. He was playing his role, supporting his cover.
“Angelica, I need to be honest with you. I hadn’t intended to buy you like I did, especially since my plans depended on Engles having his way. I acted on impulse when I started bidding for you, because I knew that not only would you be tortured, but you’d be dead within a few days and I couldn’t have lived with myself. But dammit, Engles is the key to my mission.” He shook his head several times in a row. “Now, however…”
“This could already be a shitfest for you.”
“To put it succinctly. I bid against the most powerful man in the organization, short of Scorpion himself.”
She frowned as she met his gaze again. “You’re asking for my help, aren’t you? That’s why you’ve told me all this.”
“Yes, but there’s something else you should know before you make a decision. These people, Angelica, they’re evil personified. If they question who I am and what I’m doing, I’ll be dead and you’ll be auctioned again. So you’ll need to think about that.”
He ran a hand through his hair and glanced at the place he’d chained her up, shaking his head. “Shit, I should have been up front with you from the beginning. I should have asked you straight out for your help, the moment I brought you back to my home. I should have laid it all out as soon as I removed the shackles in the guest room.”
At that, she slid from the table and punched him in the shoulder, a thump that caused his brows to lift as he stared down at her. “Yes, you should have, and why didn’t you? Did you think I would refuse, especially knowing that you saved me from a true sadist like Engles? I would have forgiven what you did. Now I don’t know what to do.”
“I thought I had a better shot at pulling the whole thing off if I forced your submission. If you’re not willing to cooperate, or you can’t pull it off, though, all the work I’ve done is for nothing.”
“Can’t you just go to the party without me?”
He snorted. “There’d be no point. I’m on thin ice as it is. If I didn’t show up with you, the whole thing would be over.”
“So it’s all on me.”
“I don’t want you to think of it that way. That’s unfair to you—you never asked for any of this. If you can’t continue, I’ll walk away. I’ll figure out a new strategy and rebuild. It’ll mean a shift in direction, no question. But this current plan will be dead, that much is true, and right now I’m okay with that. No one deserves to be ripped from their lives and I promise you that if you decide to return immediately to your old life, I’ll see to it that you’re safe from Starlin.”
She nodded several times, processing, running the numbers, thinking through everything he’d told her. Reyes needed her to play the role of a woman bought at auction to sustain his mission. And if everything he’d said was true, on some level she owed him. But she’d have to be subservient to him, willing to do anything in public to prove her submission.
“How long have you been building this cover?”
“Decades.”
“Seriously? It took you decades to be able to join this freak show?”
He nodded. “They’re extremely protective of their organization. I’ve done things I’m not proud of to prove that I’ve embraced the lifestyle.”
“Jesus.” She rubbed her forehead with her fist. “And you’d give this all up if I said the word, if I said I wanted nothing to do with it, if I couldn’t play this role, if I just wanted to go home and be done with it all?”
He nodded solemnly, and she believed him.
Angelica searched his eyes, seeing once again the man she’d been so attracted to back at the Ocean Club, for all those months. She hadn’t been wrong about him after all, even if he was a different species and his cover meant that he did things she knew she wouldn’t approve of.
But could she really do this? Could she step into the role of sex slave and perform well enough to secure his reputation? Could she keep her opinions to herself, her eyes lowered, her voice submissive as she spoke? Or worse, if the situation called for it, could she engage in certain activities publicly in order to sustain his cover? Or would she end up jeopardizing his mission by saying or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time?
Beyond what her role would entail, however, was the prospect of returning home. He’d just told her that she could go back to her life if that was what she wanted.
She was an accountant who worked long hours in her firm, but wasn’t that crazy about her occupation. Mostly she worked the kind of overtime she did to help support her mother, who’d been ill for years. Her aunt was with her now, so Angelica wouldn’t truly be missed for another week or more, but all of those essentials reminded her why she’d gone to the Ocean Club in the first place.
Her life had become a rut.
If she went back now, nothing would be materially different. Of course, she had no idea if her job would be waiting for her when she returned, but she could always look for another accounting job. It was more than that, though.
As she stared into Reyes’s eyes, she understood his purpose, why he felt called to stop others from being abused as they had been. “How long do you think you’d need me in this role?”
His eyes lit up. “Just for tonight. After that I could fake your death, which would go a long way with Starlin. I just need to parade you at the party for a few hours. It won’t be pleasant, however. That much you really do need to understand.”
“But it would only be for tonight.”
“Exactly.”
She thought about the other women who’d been auctioned off tonight, and somehow she came to her decision. The least she could do was give Reyes’s plan a chance.
“Okay, then. I could do this for one night. I know I could, and I think I owe you that. It’s clear to me that you saved my life and that if you hadn’t bid against Engles, well, I don’t want to think about what I’d be going through right now.” She glanced briefly at the leather pouch on the shelf and repressed a shudder.
