“Coincidence,” he answers.
I snort. “I don’t believe in that shit.”
“Just because you don’t believe in something doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.” He frowns at me and I roll my eyes. “She was still a doll at the time.” Bill sighs. “Evan talked Isabella into letting him test her.”
“What the fuck do you mean by test her?” My pulse quickens at his choice of words.
“She had never been out in public, Kash. Garrett kept her locked at Carnage. Then she was given to Dollhouse and remained caged. Evan had decided he didn’t want to sell her, but clients wanted to see her. In person. To them, she had come so far in her training. So Evan convinced Isabella to let him take Eve to the party.”
“How many?” I run my hand down my face, pacing his study.
“How many what?”
“How many was he going to sell her to that night?” I shout.
“Four,” he whispers.
Evan was going to let four Lords pay to rape my girl. “I stopped him…” I trail off. “But the others?”
“As far as I know, it didn’t happen.”
I stop pacing and turn to face him.
“Everything became so chaotic that night. I found my best friend dead. Isabella was inconsolable when she found out Trent had been killed. And Charlotte…they needed me. I looked for Eve but couldn’t find her anywhere.” He sighs. “I had a deal with Trent. If something happened to him, I’d marry his wife to protect Charlotte, but Isabella didn’t know that. So I went to her and told her I’d marry her to protect her from getting regifted to another Lord if she’d release Eve. It wasn’t even a thought. She couldn’t get rid of her fast enough, but we couldn’t find Everett.”
“What do you mean you couldn’t find her?”
“Evan had her. It took me six weeks to track him down. He was holed up with her in a cabin. She was tied to a bed…severely beaten.” He swallows. “I thought she was dead.”
Eve told me there was lots of yelling and she thought she was in a cabin. Evan had drugged her, and she couldn’t remember much. “You said you paid three million dollars for her,” I say, trying to remember what I’ve been told.
“I did. I wired three million to Evan right then. But it wasn’t for Everett. Isabella had already promised her to me, and she wouldn’t go back on that. She wouldn’t risk her life by being regifted to a random Lord who had the possibility to take down Dollhouse or overthrow her because of Eve. I paid him the money to walk away from Everett. I was walking out of that cabin with her either way. The money was an agreement I made with him to stay out of her life.”
“He didn’t,” I grind out.
“I didn’t know that,” he snaps. “Eve never told me?—”
“He fucking had her brainwashed,” I shout, interrupting him. “You think he didn’t have his claws in her? He took your money and still managed to be in her life. To him, he had the best of both worlds.”
Bill looks away and I take a calming breath. “I thought I was doing the right thing.”
I snort. “You abandoned her.”
His eyes shoot daggers at me as he slowly gets to his feet with his hands on his desk. “I was there for her. She was in Gavin’s clinic for three months recovering from broken bones, surgeries, and withdrawals.”
I snort. “You’re proving my point. You were playing house with that fucking bitch while you left Eve alone.”
“I was there around the clock,” he yells. “Do you think Isabella fucking cared that I was her husband? No. All she cared about was that she wasn’t passed off to a Lord who was going to destroy her life.” He huffs and falls down into his seat. “Trent let her do whatever the fuck she wanted to do. I promised to do the same.” He lets out a long breath. “When Eve was ready for release, she wanted her own place. She found the house, and it wasn’t much later that your fathers were killed, and Adam was on the run.”
“How did she end up with Adam?” I demand. “Was that your doing too?”
His eyes meet mine. “You know how stubborn your wife is.” I snort at that. “She wanted to help. Her exact words were she ‘wanted to be useful.’” I get a pain in my chest at how many times I’ve heard her say she’s useless. “The missing girls were all over the news, and she wanted to do something. I set her up with a friend who then connected her with Adam.”
The detective from the private jet—Adam’s boss. “And you let her go off to Vegas.”
“It wasn’t the best decision I’ve ever made.”
I give a rough laugh at that and stand.
