“I used every chance I had to get back to her, to find her, but there was no escaping the estate without severe punishment. It became clear to me that Viktor wasbuilding. His empire as it is today was at its beginning when he grabbed me. There were only a couple other kids at the estate. I realized we were his trial run, and before he invited his first Buyers, he tested every method he had for breaking us in. Your friend Rafe was there.”
I froze. “You know Rafe?”
“Yeah. Right before I was bought for the first time.” He shook his head. “Hell of a coincidence. I hadn’t realized he was your sharp shooter until that day I came to watch Creed. It only solidified further that I wanted all four of you out of there. Rafe had felt like a kid brother when I was at Viktor’s. I never forgave myself for leaving him in that place, but I was young, selfish, and by the time Icouldgo back for him as a Buyer, he was gone. Sold off to some Buyer somewhere.”
“Is that why you didn’t go with me to see him in LA?”
Alexander shrugged. “It’s been a long time, and I’m pretty sure Rafe thinks I abandoned him on purpose. In some ways, I did. I had to.”
My frown deepened but I waited for him to continue his story. I needed to know his truth.
“We tried to escape. Rafe and me. But…we didn't make it. We were caught trying to sneak through the fence, and after that, I think it made Viktor escalate his plans. He put a group of us in his courtyard and gave us switchblades,” he continued, his voice hollow. “‘One hour,’ he said, ‘kill or be killed’. I don’t think he cared if we all died. It was a sick experiment to him, and if it weren’t for the hope that Florence was out in the world somewhere, needing her big brother, then I probably wouldn’t have tried as hard as I did to stay alive. Of course, thatdidmean killing. By the end of the hour, only three of us were left standing—me, Rafe, and a girl named Sarah. Viktor said only one of us could win a prize. He said it’d be to leave the estate, and as soon as he said that, I went after Sarah.”
Alexander’s fingers shook against mine.
“I killed her,” he whispered hoarsely, “thinking I was earning some semblance of freedom, but instead—”
“You were sold,” I said, exhaling.
He nodded. “That night before the Buyer came is when I carvedTo the great escapeinto my bed at Viktor’s. I thought maybe, even if the Buyer was cruel, they’d have something I could use to find Florence.”
“Who were they?” I asked.
He lifted his free hand and tugged the collar of his shirt down. He tapped one of the more faded, stretched out pieces of ink. It was of a skull wrapped in barbed-wire, and I recognized it. I’d seen the same on Rafe’s rib cage. “A man,” he said, letting his collar fall back into place. “I was never given his name, just commanded to call him Sir. He bought me at fifteen for five grand and four years.”
Shock overcame me. “That’sit? For four fucking years?”
“Like I said, Viktor was just starting out. To Viktor, back then, that was a great deal,” Alexander explained. He grimaced. “But part of me wishes I hadn’t been a guinea pig. As far as I know,he doesn’t sell kids to that particular Buyer for longer than a few months now.”
I tried to think back to when Rafe first got that particular brand. He’d been young, too. Maybe seventeen. And Alexander was right. Viktor only sold Rafe for a month to that Buyer. “W-what did he do to you that would cause the contract to be so short?”
He lowered his voice. “I’ve blocked most of it out,” he admitted with a tense shrug. “I do remember getting dropped back off at the estate, unable to walk and being severely malnourished. Viktor had to get me intensive medical care from a discreet doctor. I’d been nineteen by then, but I looked like I was twelve. It took a year before I was stable enough to bevaluableagain in Viktor’s eyes.”
“Wait.” I stopped and turned to him. “I would’ve been at the estate by then. You’re not that much older are you?”
“Twenty-eight,” he told me and offered a small smile, “and yeah, our paths crossed once or twice when I was allowed to visit the estate and the courtyard. I stood before Buyers a few times, but I was still too weak and sent back to the doctor. It’s why, though, when I heard Halden bought Creed, I was invested on getting you all out, not just Florence. I knew what you all had been through. I was…sentimental, I guess, in a demented, fucked up way.” He took a breath then and pried his hand from mine. “Alright. Enough reminiscing for now. I’m sure they’re ready, so I need to go change.”
“Ready?” I asked, siting up as he slipped from the bed and padded toward the door.
He tossed a small smile over his shoulder. “Clean up the best you can and come out when you’re ready. It’s time you earn your wings, Raven.”
?Arden?
When I stepped out of my room, they were waiting for me, the four of them. It wasn’t the four I wanted, but it was the four I had, and it occurred to me as I stared sadly at Mickey, Monty, Heath, and Alexander that they’d all been incredibly kind—minus the kidnapping, forced marriage, and, well, Monty. So maybe not that kind, but far kinder than anyone besides Creed had ever been to me. My walls were finally starting to come down, but I still wasn’t ready to fully trust them as I did Creed. Still, without my permission, Alexander had become the one I measured the room by. If he was calm, I was calmer. If he was watching me, I felt… steadier. I think now, looking back, that itwasbecause we shared the experience of Viktor. He was the closest thing I had to an actual Creed.
Mickey was the first to move. He crossed to me with easy confidence, stopping close enough to crowd my space, hands clasped in front of him like he was holding himself back from hugging me. It was the first time I’d seen him outside the heat and clatter of his restaurant, without the chef coat or thelow light softening him. Cleaned up, he looked unmistakably like Matthias. They had the same dark hair, same thick brows, and the same Italian bone structure that made both of them impossible to miss. But where Matthias carried sharpness, Mickey carried volume. His suit was well-cut and expensive, stretched slightly across broad shoulders, worn like he expected to move in it, laugh in it, maybe spill something down the front. In fact, they were all dressed for an event, Alexander in a suit as well with Monty and Heath in formal evening wear.
“When I had to separate from my brother,” Mickey said softly, his throat working, puppy-like deep brown eyes captivating me in their warmth, “I felt like the world was ending. So if you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to, but…” He jutted his chin toward Monty.
She had something small in her hand. She stepped to me and offered a black card. “This is yours,” she said with a mischievous grin, “and we’d like to go break it in, if you’re up for it.”
Confused, I took the card and turned it side to side, letters glinting across it. It was a credit card. Withmyname on it.
“I know you said fashion isn’t your thing,” Monty explained, “but we’vegotto get you some new clothes, bitch. That dress is well overused at this point.”
I blinked down at the mini dress she loaned me two days ago.With everything, I hadn’t thought about changing, let alone bathing. I still didn’t even have underwear on. Embarrassment flared. “You’re all dressed like that…for me?”
Mickey flashed a cocky smile and straightened his lapels. “Well, I don’t get dolled up just for anyone, but I thought the lady of the house demanded it.”
