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She fisted her hands. “When I left Juilliard, I wandered around New York for a couple of weeks, hiding where I could, eating anything I could find. It was hard. Real hard. Someone told me about this place... a shelter, kinda. But it wasn’t a shelter...” She shuddered, remembering the horrors of that house in DC. Girls killed ruthlessly for the pleasure of the men in black robes... Some ritual she’d never understood but had been forced to watch from the side of the room. Damian Sinclair, the man who owned the house—manor, she’d been told to call it—was some sort of cult leader and he’d taken an interest in Emily. Said she had something special about her and that she’d be held in great honor once he’d taken his rightful place of power. Then he’d gone away and been killed.
She and the other girls escaped after that. Another six months on the street had left her addicted to drugs and starving as she prostituted herself to whoever would have her.
“Emily?”
Emily looked up into David’s kind green eyes. He didn’t need to know the details. “I just ended up in one bad situation after another. Geoffrey...” She shook her head. “It’s the better of all the other places I’d been.”
He sat back down next to her and hugged her to him.
She lost it. Loud sobs escaped. Waves of sorrow and anger washed over her. David held her, rocking her gently as all the anguish from so many years escaped. Memories flooded her mind... of cold rainy nights, of hard cement floors, of faceless men doing as they pleased to her. Remembering the hell of withdrawals, the warmth of the whisky, the pain of sexual training.
It all washed over her like that storm Geoffrey found her in. The memories raged like thunder and lightning, seeming to never end.
Until the winds softened, the rain turned gentle, and the moon peeked its bright face out from the clouds.
Then, at last, the storm of emotions ran dry and a peace settled over her. She gave a last deep inhale and closed her eyes.
After several long minutes, David kissed the top of her head. “I’m so sorry that happened to you, Em.”
She sat up and stared at her hands. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For losing it.”
He cupped her cheek and tilted his head. “Don’t apologize.” He shook his head and grimaced. “I can’t believe...” He pressed his lips together. “I was willfully ignorant of what went on in that place. I should have known better.”
Emily shook her head. “Geoffrey makes sure no one knows.” She bit her lip and blinked. Now two people knew. “You have to pretend you don’t know, David. Geoffrey will...” She shuddered. “You can’t let him know you know. Please promise me.”
David frowned and searched her eyes. “You’re not going back there.” He jumped up and started typing into his phone as he paced the room.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
He paused and smiled at her. “I’m telling Becky to backdate your hiring files. You’re a respectable girl who’s worked her way up in my company.”
Emily’s brows knit together. “What?”
“As of now, you are my employee. You don’t work at the Café. You’ve been my assistant since Becky went on maternity leave and you’re doing an amazing job.”
Emily’s jaw moved as she struggled to respond.
He gave her a stern look. “If anyone asks, you’ve been my assistant for three months.” He continued typing into his phone.
“But David—”
He drew his brows together, shaking his head. “You deserve better, Emily. I’m going to make sure you don’t ever go back to the Café. I’ll find you a place in my company where you’ll make enough money to stand on your own two feet and not be dependent on that bastard Geoffrey ever again.”
“But David—”
He arched a brow and Emily closed her mouth. She waited as he typed into his phone, tapped a few times, and then smiled. “There. You’re officially one of my employees.”
She stared, not knowing what to say. “Wh-why are you doing this?”
He grimaced. “I can read between the lines, Em. And I know some of the story of you running away from Juilliard.” He gave a small shrug. “I want to help. I don’t want you to be ashamed to be here. To face your father.”
She stared at him for a long moment. After so many hellish years, in the span of just a few weeks, she’d met two incredible men who wanted to help her. But neither of them seemed to understand how dangerous it was to cross Geoffrey. “David, you can’t do this. Geoffrey will—” She stopped and bit her lip.
“Geoffrey will what?”
