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CHAPTERFIFTY-EIGHT
Charleigh
“We have a new room for you to stay in.”
While the elevator to the club’s top floorwhirrs,I hold onto its brass railing. My legs are still shaky from the run-in with Dimitri’s gang and then the orgasm I had in the car. Being in close quarters with the Alekseev brothers right now does not make standing any easier. Or breathing, for that matter.
Dark, dangerous sensuality pours off each man. I should be used to it by now. Maybe even immune. And yet every time one of them touches me, it’s like I’ve never been touched before. It’s intensely electrifying. For a moment in time, nothing else in the world exists.
None of the pain, sadness, or betrayal the four of us have in common.
Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to them, and they to me.
Ugh. What must they think of me? Succumbing to the charms of my captors, the ones about to send me out into the world untethered. With no concern for what will happen to me after they fatten their hungry bank accounts. It’s business as usual for them, but a new level of awfulness for me.
How can anyone do something so cruel?
When it comes down to it, I don’t care what they think of me. They aren’t in any position to be judgmental, for cripe’s sake. They are hardly without their own faults.
“A new room? Where? Why?” I ask, when the elevator opens.
What’s wrong with the room I have? And why do I have to think about anything other than going to bed and sleeping for the next two or three days? I’ve never been so exhausted in my life.
I don’t want to change rooms. I don’t want to change anything. Shit, for all I know, I’m out of here this coming weekend, anyway. Can’t things just stay the same until then? Is that too much to ask?
Vadik gestures for me to follow. “When we’re here, staying at the club, the three of us live in a large suite. There is also a guest room. You will stay there from now on. We feel you’ll be safer, closer to us.”
Oh. Well, that doesn’t sound so bad.
Except the ‘safer’ part.
“What do you mean? Am I in some kind of danger?”
Or should I be asking,more danger than usual? The club isn’t exactly frequented by the town’s most upstanding citizens. From what I know, they’re nearly all criminals engaged in illegal businesses like arms smuggling, drug dealing, gambling, and laundering money, not to mention auctioning off women like me. They are never without their weapons, and regularly threaten to kill people.
Given all that, how the hell does moving me to a new room increase my safety? I’ve never been in so much danger in my life.
Safety is like health. You take it for granted until you don’t have it anymore. You don’t appreciate it, nor do you have any idea what it’s like to do without it until it’s too late.
The truth is, I haven’t felt completely safe since my mother died. When she left, it was like she took my father with her. He was still around physically, of course, but he was just really a shell of a human being.
So, I’ve been in a constant state of alert since I was ten years old. Where would my next meal come from? How could I replace my hole-y sneakers? Will I be able to get a new winter coat in time for the first snow?
Is my little sister okay?
I made it through these challenges, figuring out how to navigate a grown-up world well before my time.
But this, this shit I’m now facing is a new level altogether. One I hope most people never have to contend with. The level of uncertainty and constant threat will kill a person.
“I’m fine in the room I have, Vadik,” I say firmly.
He stops and looks at me. “You are staying in the new room. All your things have been moved. This way we can keep a closer eye on you.”
Are they concerned I’m going to get away? Or that someone is coming after me?
A little more information would be nice.
We go directly to the new place without swinging by my old room since I don’t have to grab any of my things.
