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“The Institute,” she said, taking a deep breath. “It’s, um, it’s like…” Her eyes filled with tears. “They buy women and they sell them to others. They’re like a middleman. Women get sold to them and then they have auctions. If no one buys the woman, then they, um…” She choked up. “I can’t.” She stood up off the bed and paced. “I can’t believe this is happening.” Now I remembered, from that night at the club, when the assholes had talked about how I was going to be sold to The Institute.
I shivered slightly but refocused my attention on Gabby.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “I mean, it’s really awful—terrible—but why are you so upset?” It was kind of par for the course. Gabby had grown up with shit like that happening.
“I asked him to run away with me,” she continued. “To get out.” Gabby paused for a moment when she said that, her eyes betraying something to me, something that didn’t need to be said. I understood it clearly. Given the chance, I would run away too. At least, I used to think I would.
Shaking my head, I asked, “What did he say?”
“That’s when he told me about his mother.”
I frowned. “Oh.”
“He said he would get me out,” Gabby said. “That he would help get me out, get me in WITSEC until he could take them down, but…” She trailed off and we both stared ahead, the conclusion bright as a neon sign in our brains. There was no taking them down. Levi would die first, and Gabby would be forced to watch.
Suddenly Gabby turned to me, filled with eagerness. “Look I’ve been doing some research about the Pavoni Princess. Maybe you can help. You can take them down.”
“What?” I asked, actually throwing my head back. “Gabby I’m sorry, but no. I’m not a princess.” Her brown eyes were so big and beseeching. I felt like such a tool, but me take down the Beast? Was she insane? Her entire body deflated, sadness filling her up like toxic gas.
I quickly changed the topic. “Can you explain it to him? Explain what’s really going to happen?”
She threw up a hand in frustration and walked away. “He just kept repeating witness protection, witness protection. He doesn’t understand there is no hiding from the Family, at least not with the government. He’s so determined to get his mother back.”
“Did you tell him about The Institute?” I asked. “Tell him that…that his mother is probably dead?” A long, painful silence followed my question. When she spoke the shame and sadness in her voice was so deep the word sounded like the death howl of a dying dog.
“No.”
My face twisted in a sorrowful grimace. “Gabby…”
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“How could I?” She rounded on me. “You try being the one to tell your boyfriend that. It’s the one thing he has of his family, and my family took it from him.”
“I know.” I sighed. “What are you going to do?”
“I’ve stopped returning his calls, stopped seeing him.”
“That’s not going to stop him.”
She fidgeted with her coat. “I, um, I made a call to his original precinct, to 69. I, um, I told them he’d been compromised.”
My hand flew to my mouth in a gasp. “He’s going to hate you.”
“He won’t know it was me for awhile.” Gabby tugged hard on the edge of her coat. “And it’s better than him being dead.” Silence fell again. She walked back and forth, pacing across the floor. I waited for her to share more information, or for her to come over to me. It was like she didn’t want comfort, like there was a war going on inside her head.
I understood that.
All at once Gabby stopped her pacing and looked at the clock on the wall. “I have to go. I only had thirty minutes.” She didn’t say anything else, we didn’t exchange hugs.
When she left, sadness clung in my gut like a dead weight. I wished I could help her somehow. I wasn’t a princess though. When she closed the door, I was back to staring at it, but this time my thoughts weren’t about myself.
When the door opened again, I was still thinking about Gabby.
Beast walked over and scooped me up off the bed, carrying me out of my room. At first I stiffened, fearful of the new way he was holding me and certain it was going to end badly. Then my fear transformed into complete shock.
He’s carrying me?
“Did you enjoy your friend?” he asked as we walked down the hallway like it was perfectly normal for him to be carrying me this way.
