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“Stop calling him that. You’re making this sound like Harry Potter.”
“Well, I’d call him by his real name if you didn’t have a hissy fit about it.”
“Just don’t say his name in my house or around Pearl.”
“The name doesn’t seem to bother her.”
I’d punch him in the face right now if we were in the same room. “It bothers me.”
“Whatever. Even if we were stupid enough to do that, it wouldn’t work. He’s blackmailed her, so she wouldn’t run even if she had the opportunity.”
“Blackmailed her how?”
“He took a friend of hers. Said he’ll kill her if she tries anything.”
That was cruel. “She’s probably already dead—or worse.” Slaves didn’t last long, not with masters like Tristan and Bones. They usually died from internal injuries because they were pushed around so much.
“She’s not gonna do anything to jeopardize her friend. I put a tracker in her, but that was unnecessary. She won’t run.”
We were running out of solutions.
“Believe me, I don’t agree with any of this. When I think of what happened to Pearl, it makes me sick.”
My stomach suddenly filled with acid. I never wanted another man to touch her ever again. I’d die before I ever let that happen.
“When he first offered her to me, I said no. As much as I wanted her, I said no. I knew it was wrong. But he pushed it on me and became offended when I didn’t take his offer. And I would have fucked her, but she told me no. So I didn’t.”
I wasn’t sure why Cane was telling me this. What he did with his dick was none of my concern.
“I don’t want Pearl to get the wrong idea.”
“But you’re fucking her now, right?”
He paused over the line. “Technically, no.”
My eyebrow rose at his response. “No?”
“I tried a few times, but she said she didn’t want it. I could have just forced it on her, but something stopped me. I never considered myself to be compassionate. Whether I fucked her or not, her situation wouldn’t change. But I guess I felt guilty or something…”
I couldn’t do it either with Button. But he didn’t know that. “Then why do you still have her?”
“I told her I was going to take her back to Tristan. There was no point in keeping her if she stayed in her room all the time. But she asked me to keep her. She said she would make it worth my while if I did…”
“So you blackmailed her?” I shook my head.
“No,” he said quickly. “That’s not how it happened. I treat her much better than Tristan does. She can eat when she wants, bathe when she wants, and I don’t smack her around. I’m not into that shit.”
“Anymore.”
Cane didn’t object to the insult because he knew he’d earned it. “She’s treated like a human being when she’s with me. Tristan…let’s just say he makes Bones look tame.”
Now I really did feel bad for the girl.
“But there’s nothing any of us can do. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time…unfortunately.”
“She must really be something. I can’t see why you’d agree to this deal unless she was.”
Cane didn’t say anything.
I thought it was odd that Cane was a sympathetic person. I considered myself to be ruthless, but he made me look gentle. The fact that he kept this woman around without getting his dick wet was a little unbelievable. “Are you fond of her or something?”
“I think she’s sexy. Thought it the first time I saw her at the airport. But that’s it.”
My relationship with Pearl started off the same way…until it changed. “Pearl is gonna be pissed at me…but at least I tried.”
“She’ll have to get over it. This happens to thousands of women all over the world. It’s shitty, but it’ll never change. We can’t save them all. She’s lucky we saved her.”
She saved herself. “Yeah…”
“She’s probably not going to want to talk to me.”
“Me neither. I’m sleeping in a different bedroom tonight.”
Cane chuckled. “That’s rough.”
It would be the first time I’d slept without her since we got married. It sucked. “Hopefully, she’ll come around.”
“Eventually.” She couldn’t be pissed at me forever. It wasn’t like I personally had anything to do with trafficking. It’d never been a business I was interested in. I wouldn’t say my living was completely innocent, but we did our best to stay moral as much as possible. I didn’t sell my stuff to known terrorists.
I hung up and tossed the phone onto the table. The fire was going in the fireplace, and I had a whole decanter of scotch to drink. Button was in the master bedroom down the hall, probably already in bed but unable to sleep.
I didn’t want her to sleep alone. She usually got cold in the middle of the night, and she used my body as a heater. Her leg was always wrapped around mine by the time I woke up in the morning. She was all over me, actually. Not to mention, she still had nightmares once in a while. She convulsed in bed, and I was there to chase the terror away.
