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She took another five minutes and got out looking so much better. Her hair wasn’t ratted, and there was some pinkness to her cheeks.
“There was a pretty woman hiding underneath all that dirt.” I complimented her.
“The dirtier we were, the less likely they were to choose us.” She confessed with a haunted look as she dressed herself “If I’m truly safe, then I’d like to be clean again.”
“How old are you?” I went out and got the food set up on the bed for us to eat.
“Twenty-three.” She climbed up on the bed with the wall at her back but glanced at the door several times to check and see that we were still safe.
She had a nervous habit of always making sure that her surroundings were clear of anyone or anything that was going to try to hurt her. That would more than likely be with her for the rest of her life.
I understood that on a basic level. I’d been around the same kind of men all my life that literally didn’t care how women were treated.
“Even growing up, I bounced around from foster home to foster home. I guess they tried to find someone that wasn’t going to be missed as much. When I went to school on the state’s scholarship fund, I was cheering for one of the big rival games when it happened. Most of the people on the trip probably thought I found a guy to shack up with because most of the cheerleaders did. Anyway, I’ve been gone for a year or more. I don’t even really know.” Elana spoke quietly as if she would get in trouble for talking to me, but when nothing happened she continued.
“There were other girls that were taken from that game, but they weren’t the cheerleaders. They separated us pretty quickly, and I didn’t see them much after those first couple of days. In the past year, I’ve seen some really horrible things.”
I reached over slowly to pat her on the hand, making sure my movements stayed in her line of sight.
“I’m really sorry that you’ve had to go through all of this. No one should be kidnapped and much less treated like you have been.” I was going to tell Luciano that I wanted in on the hunt to kill these bastards.
We kept talking for a couple hours, nothing heavy, I wanted Elana to get more comfortable. Then there was a knock.
“It’s me,” Luciano called.
I got off the bed and opened the door, but Elana was immediately closed off and curled up in distress with his presence. Her breathing elevated and she was almost in a state of panic.
“Elana, I’m going to go for now because he needs to talk to me. I’ll be back to see you soon and until then you can ask the guard for anything you need.”
Elana shook her head no but didn’t speak.
I sighed as all the progress I had made with her instantly vanished at the sight of a man.
“We need to have a female guard at the door.” I faced Luciano and crossed my arms to let him know I meant business.
“We’ll talk about that later.” He nodded and tried to get me out of the room.
“I’ll make sure that we have a female guard with you shortly,” I promised her.
The small amount of relief she showed solidified my resolve to get this done.
Luciano was pissed and began to drag me out of the room. Which made Elana’s eyes widen, and I smiled and winked at her letting her know I’ll be all right.
“You can’t be making promises like that. Or demands for that matter.” He stopped once the door was shut and shook his head in exasperation.
“Then you shouldn’t have sent me in there to lure her into a sense of security. I literally pumped her for information and got her cleaned up for you. It’s something that all the high ranking men in the house couldn’t manage, so don’t be all upset that I got it accomplished.” My hands were braced on my hips to keep them from curling into fists. I would have already punched any of my men that tried to pull this type of shit with me.
“You wanted to visit her. I accommodated that because it suited me, but you’re still mad. I simply can’t win with you, can I?” His gaze pinned me to the spot and I couldn’t help wanting to take all his clothes off right then in the hallway.
I just stared at him. I wanted to say “duh,” but I had a feeling that wouldn’t go over well. He needed to learn that if he was going to have a wife, then there would be a lot to make me happy since I wouldn’t be able to be in charge. Or I could make his life a living hell.
He took in my look and sighed. “Did you find out anything useful?” He started walking toward our room as he asked.
“She was taken from Florida and moved around the country. It appears there were about ten others taken at the same time, but they targeted girls that were in foster care or didn’t have a lot of family around,” I carefully explained. “Poor thing, she didn’t even know what city she was in right now.”
I glanced back over my shoulder at the direction of Elana’s door. “I’ll need to see her again to get more information, but I spent most of the time trying to make her feel safe and comfortable. If I pried too much, then she would have shut down and not answered any questions.” I turned my attention back to Luciano as my heart was hurting for the young woman.
“You did a good job with her. She looked relaxed until I walked in the room which is why I wanted you to try,” he complimented me. “We don’t have a female guard that I can put on her door for you though.”
