“I might have saved you…”
Saved me?
“But let me be clear: I have no problem silencing you.” His eyes flash, his threat clear.
“Understood,” I breathe out.
We stare at each other for a long moment, both refusing to look away or even blink.
“How did you find me?” I finally gain the courage to ask.
He smiles, sending a shiver down my spine, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out my ID, holding it up before handing it to me. I take it with shaky fingers, staring at it, barely registering how he backs away, deeper into the room’s shadows.
“Watch your back, BriarRose,” he says, before disappearing entirely through my window, pulling it shut again behind him.
23
STALK HER
KOEN
Now
What the fuck happened?
I’m standing in the alleyway that runs beside Briar’s apartment building, concealed by shadows, watching her pace the length of her bedroom through the wide, dirty windows of her shitty-ass apartment.
She lives here.In this hellhole disguised as an apartment building.
I’d gained access to her room in two seconds with a simple switchblade. The door to the building itself doesn’t even have a lock. Security is a joke. The drug addicts passed out on the first floor landing, the ones with needles half-stuck in their arms, even more so.
Last time I saw Briar, she had it all. Money, opportunity, dreams, and the ambition to bring them to reality. But something happened… Life had rolled her, tested her, drained the spark from her eyes.
Her edges are sharper, her voice colder, but that fire—that bold, beautiful fire that drew me to her in the first place, is stillthere. Hidden, buried even, but it still simmers inside her like an ember, flaring back to life when you’ve stoked it.
I’d seen it last night at the warehouse, in the way she refused to be a victim, and tonight after I’d held her by the throat and stared deep into her eyes. She didn’t cower, cry, or plead for her pathetic little life.
No.
My little Rose has thorns and she’s not afraid to use them.
What the fuck happened? How did she end up here? In this neighborhood, in the warehouse, in this life?And don’t get me started on her fucking back.
It takes everything in me not to storm back up into that apartment and chastise her for not taking better care of the wounds. That piece of shit. He’d struck herfourtimes. Guilt weighs heavily on me every time I think about it.
We’d been watching the warehouse, my brothers and I. It belongs to Matteo Carroza. Aidan had his reasons for wanting to fuck up his day, and I saw no reason to stand in the way. I was sure the Russians were the ones responsible for the sudden boom in the human trafficking business in the city the last few months. But, last night confirmed one of my worst fears: the Italians had jumped into the game too.
The night raised a lot of questions and I’m going to need some answers. I plan on continuing the Irish’s long-standingfuck youto the human trafficking industry. And I don’t give a fuck if it’s Irish, Russian, Italian, or whoever the fuck’s territory, it doesn’t have a place inmycity.
Briar liveshere. They weren’t just bringing girlsthroughthe city, they were picking them up right off the streethere. The moment they did that, the second they touchedmygirl, they made it fucking personal.
I watched them drag her out of that van, and I recognized her immediately. Almost couldn’t believe my eyes. Aidan hadwanted to move in right then, butIstopped him. Attacking on the street, out in the open like that, wasn’t good odds. I’d opted to wait. And that decision cost Briar. Those marks on her back… my fucking fault.
I walked away from her, all those years ago, to keep her safe from this world, and here she was,drowning in it. I thought I was protecting her by staying away, but did I really just abandon her to face it alone?
Now that I know, I can’t make myself leave. I can’t leave her unprotected. The men who targeted her before… they could be back, and the thought of them touching what’s mine…
My hands tighten into fists.
