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As she entertained these possibilities, she bypassed her pajamas for a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. She didn’t bother with anything nice. She was sure being late would be worse than the horror of him seeing her in ratty jeans.
Thirty minutes later, she sat exactly where he’d told her to be, feeling like a teenager in the principal’s office. She hadn’t realized until now that her nice blouses and pencil skirts and heels and red lipstick had been her armor. It made her feel powerful and strong enough to exist in the same space with him for an hour at a time.
That power had been traded for a pony tail and scuffed tennis shoes.
“Laundry day?” Lindsay asked from his side of the desk.
“It’s eleven-thirty.”
“Yes. You made it. I had considered not making the offer since you so rudely missed our appointment yesterday, but Anton and I spoke and he believes we can place you with a proper master if you are still interested in pursuing this.”
She hadn’t expected that. “I-I don’t know if I can do it.”
“Fine. Leave. Hide away in your cocoon. Avoid men. Avoid relationships. Avoid yourself. What do I care?”
Here it was: the moment when he turned on her to reveal the beast behind the civilized facade. She cringed and braced herself, ready to throw her arms up in a lame and ineffective self-defense pose if necessary.
She hadn’t realized she’d squeezed her eyes shut until his warm hands were on her arms.
“You’re clenching the leather. It was just reupholstered,” he said, disengaging her fingernails from the arm rest. “I know you’re scared, and I’m not helping. The truth is, I have a lot to lose, too. I let you leave my presence after giving you enough rope to possibly hang me with. It was foolish. And now the only thing that can make any of this okay for everyone is if you’ll just take that one small step. Just trust me one more time to get you from point A to B. You will be happy at the end of this process if you’ll just trust me.”
He was as good as admitting to being a criminal. Why should she trust a criminal?
“Did Anton hurt you?” he asked.
“No.” She desperately wanted to call himSir. In spite of all the things she’d been through, there was a peace in that title. In any title. At least until they turned on her.
“Anton said you were very excited. Very responsive.”
She was always excited in the beginning when things were new and the mask of kindness was still in place.
“If I agreed to be matched with someone, how do I know I would be safe? What if he only seemed okay, and then he started hurting me later?”
Lindsay returned to his side of the desk. “We routinely check in with our girls. Early on, it’s once a week, then once a month, then every few months. When we’re sure everything is fine, it’s a yearly video call. Whoever buys you will have a contract with us. The contract may not be enforceable by law, but they know the consequences of breaking it. We willhandleanyone foolish enough to break our contract and get the girl out of there. We don’t have to do it often because we screen carefully.”
“What if he threatens me, and I say everything is okay because I’m scared of him?”
“We visit in person. Not me, but it will be someone who is fully capable of handling any issue that may arise. We will remove you from a bad situation.”
Mina’s brain finally caught up with part of what the doctor said. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t suspected as much, but to hear it was another thing. “Buy? Someone would bebuyingme?”
“Yes. Do you think we do this out of some charitable urge?”
“Would I be seeing any of this money?”
“Not a penny.”
“What if I say no?”
Lindsay’s face appeared smooth and unrippled, mild and untroubled. But his fingers gripped his own newly reupholstered leather. “Then you can go home.” His voice was tight.
“Would you still see me as a patient?”
He relaxed a fraction. “If you wish.”
Of course, because then he could keep tabs on her and know if she could still be trusted. He’d know the moment she had an urge to fill out a police report.
She wanted to know if he’d been this open with other prospects. Somehow she doubted it, and she was afraid to make him any more skittish.
