Iwalkedoutofthe en suite with steam following me and grabbed the black T-shirt I’d left on the back of the desk chair. Master was dead asleep on the four-poster double king–sized bed among all his pillows and silk sheets. It looked like some ancient Turkish scene. I had a meeting with a buyer. We needed to settle on the price of a girl and sign all the papers. Amazing, isn’t it, that there was paperwork in human trafficking? Oh, but there was. How would we blackmail them later on when they pissedhimoff?
Master grunted, and unfortunately, that was a sign he was waking up. I rolled my eyes at the needy drama about to ensue, which meant I was going to be late, never mind that I was starving. I kept my back to him, pretending I didn’t know he was awake while I gathered the patience of a thousand gods.
“Good morning,” he greeted me as I stepped into my jeans. I could tell by the tone that he was smiling.
For a few seconds, I didn’t know what to do. Usually, he’d snore until lunch time. “Morning.”
“What? You’re mad at me?”
Again, I couldn’t help rolling my eyes, grinding my teeth, and scowling, but before I turned to him, I put my mask of severe Stockholm syndrome back on. Leaning the weight of his upper body on his elbows, he leered my naked chest. He bit the tip of his tongue while smiling.Jesus fucking Christ. Again?I hurried to put the shirt on, wanting to cover myself and leave. I couldn’t take being touched by anyone at that moment. I just wanted to leave and have some fucking breakfast before the meeting. I sighed. Obviously, I had no choice. The longer I avoided appeasing him, the more of my time he’d waste, so I walked over to him, leaned down, and kissed his lips.
“No. But I gotta go. I have a bunch of crap to do,” I said, lifting myself away from him.
“Is this because I asked you to join Mael at his party next week?”
I grabbed my black hoodie and put it on, covering my head even though my hair was still dripping wet. It wasn’t a good look. Despite my tallness and muscles, it made me look younger, which was the most dangerous thing one could do around him. I wasn’t cold at all, but I needed another layer between him and me and to hide my nails digging into my palms.
“Tristan, answer me,” he said through gritted teeth. He hated when I defied him, and lately, I’d been really pushing it. I wasn’t sure why I was so short fused. I sighed, thinking I needed to reel that in.
“No. It’s not,” I said without facing him. Too many seconds passed before I added, “I just have a lot of shit to do. Talk later.”
I had just grabbed the doorknob and turned it when he raised his voice to say, “If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to. I know you guys don’t get along—”
“No onegets along with him.” His feet shuffled on the carpet. While holding the knob, I turned to face him. Yeah, that wastoo far. He was glaring at me, and the vein on his forehead was pulsing.
“I just knew you’d keep him safe for me. But if you don’t want to go, then you don’t have to.” He rushed closer to me. There were about two meters between us, and that’s all I could take. At the same time, Master often played this game where he said the opposite of what he meant. He was commanding me, letting me know this was my last chance to agree before I had to face serious repercussions. My entire existence was heavy. At that point, I would’ve given my left arm to avoid going to Monaco. This wasn’t the first time I’d avoided going there. It just didn’t feel right. The hair on the back of my neck was standing at the thought of going.
Against every instinct and thought, I said, “I’ll go... Obviously, let him know I’ll need him to pick me up from whatever hotel.”
Elation filled his eyes, lips, and cheeks. “That’s perfect. You deserve the best, my beautiful prince, so you’ll be at the Monte Carlo. Ooh, it’s gonna be perfect. I’ll be able to come to you every night. Instead of me having to fly here for only a few days. You know I hate this long-distance bullshit, right?” He was staring at my lips.
Leave me the fuck alone.I swallowed deep. Sweat started covering me, the lack of space was suffocating me. My body was burning. If he touched me, I would scream. I’d already given him enough. I needed to get the fuck out.
“Right, but we have no other choice. We were the ones who said you only trusted me to take care of this site. I never wanted to be taking care of girls. Don’t you like the money I’ve made for you for your family—”
“Don’t mention my family. If I could kill them all, I would, for you—”
“Everything is organized, and we’ve gotten so many American politicians to buy girls. Isn’t that what you wanted? I’m only trying to make you happy—”
“I know.” He had to take a deep breath, his patience disappearing, but maybe if I pissed him off, it would also turn him off and I could finally leave. “I know I’m asking a lot of you. I just… I have a feeling about that weekend. And you know Ionlytrust you.”
I looked at his lips and he kissed me. His hands held my hips. Every muscle in my body tensed and my hands fisted. Still, after all these years, I hated this shit. His tongue dipped into my mouth, dominating mine. I opened my palms on the side of my body, but I was still as tense as a wooden board.Stop!I wanted him to stop, but instead, he sucked on my lip, and his palm curved against my nape, pulling me closer to him and holding me in place. I felt disgusting, and the nausea started coming up when I realized I wouldn’t be able to brush my teeth. Then I pulled away hard. His glare softened into this pitiful expression, with eyes of wanting, begging for more.
I wanted to wipe my lips of his saliva, but that would just get me a good slap on the face and maybe even a black eye.
“I really have to go. The client I’m dealing with right now is an asshole.”
He chuckled. “Go.”
“Lunch time.”
He nodded, still smiling. “Lunch time.”
The minute I stepped outside the door, I wiped my mouth with the sleeve of my sweater and leaned against the wall with my eyes closed tight and my chin up, taking deep breaths and trying to regain sanity. I hoped we all fucking burned to death before lunch. I had to accompany his stupid inbred son to do I didn’t know what.This is all a motherfucking trap. I know it’s a trap. Or maybe he’s still trying to test if I can remember my past.
I could still smell him, feel his hands on my skin, his tongue. To ground myself, I fell back against the wall several times, allowing the wall to tap the back of my head, then took my hands out of my pockets and raked my wet hair, pushing the hoodie off.
Every night, I had to convince myself to stay the course. I’d check every plan in my head. I’d gathered so much information on all the buyers, tracked the money to every bank account. There was enough evidence to destroy almost all of them. No one knew all I knew. Several entire governments and clergies were involved. This was global. The training center I worked at was one of thousands.
