The idea makes bile rise in my throat. “I don’t want to be around either of them.”
His other hand comes up and brushes some hair out of my face. He’s done a good job with that, too. Each bath time he’s given me some fancy conditioner to work out the matted knots still entangled there. He hasn’t washed it himself since that first time, but he sat and brushed through it after each wash. It was terrifyingly intimate but wasn’t so hard to endure. As a result, my hair’s nearly back to how it used to be months ago.
It’s enlivening, the way he touches me. The way he treats me like I’m some delicate thing, even though I have the resilience of a cockroach. I curl my hands at my sides to keep from touching him back.
“I’ll be there. I won’t let anything happen. Nothing will anyway. Dinner is a peaceful event. It’s just food. And you’ve done well in that area. You’re ready for a proper meal now.”
I drop my eyes. “Why couldn’t it have been you I marry?”
He chuckles, his breath blowing in my face. It’s hot and minty. Homely. “You do not want to marry me, El, trust me. I’m just doing a job.”
I peer up at him. “So, all this.” I gesture to his hands holding me. “Is just a job? It’s all fake?”
“I won’t lie and say you’re not enticing as hell, but yes. It’s just a job. My responsibility to take care of you. You’re not my fiancé. We don’t know each other.”
I push away from him, head hung in humiliation. I jumped the gun too fast. Stupid me, so desperate for some affection. Something I’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing in all my twenty-one years.
“El,” he says as I turn my back on him.
I carry on walking and he trots behind me. “I’ll be at dinner. Just… leave me alone.”
I’m surprised he lets me go, his presence behind me fading as I rush to the bedroom. What a fucking joke I am. How starved of human contact am I? I don’t know that man, but he gives me a couple of meals, some brushes through my hair, and some biscuits and I’m all over him like a fly on shit. I’m no better than those four-legged brutes downstairs.
I fall onto the floor and let my body sink into the carpeted wood. I still need to complete several transactions to make the money I need to get the fuck out of here. Now with this new job, I can add my official cut to that amount. I’ve never had an official cut of anything, Dad never gave me a penny, that’s why I did what I did on the dark web. When my dad blew all our money, I kept this account secret. I came up with the Drago partnership in order to make more money for myself. I never planned to stayand work for him. Or my father. I just want enough money to get the hell out of here. My target’s a hundred grand. A hundred grand to get me on a plane, halfway across the world and away from all these creeps and monsters. With this new job, plus the extra tiny fraction I’m stealing from the others, it won’t take me long.
When this deal was made, I said to myself this was the plan. These people are so stinking rich they won’t notice a grand – or five – missing from their cuts. I bet they don’t even check their accounts. They won’t miss it.
I’m so close. Every job I do, I’ll get closer. But these jobs don’t come in every day. I have to have patience. Which seems almost impossible now. On my first day here, I was fondled by two out of three guys. If I stay here longer than absolutely necessary, what the fuck will they do to me?
If they let me walk out the door tonight, I’d take the money I have and run with it. But that won’t happen. I’m a prisoner here as much as at my dad’s house. So, I need to make the best of it. Maybe I could even behave a little and keep them off my back. As long as they don’t fucking molest me again.
Dinner should be fun.
CHAPTER 12
ALFIE
She’s definitely like every other girl. Wants the fairytale, wants the knight in shining armour to come and rescue her. Also falls in love with any guy that shows her a bit of decency. Well, if you compare me to the other two men in her life, one who assaulted her in her sleep, and the other who assaulted her while wide awake, I’d say I can’t blame her.
But it’s not like that. There are no romantic feelings here, I just choose peace. Not that she’s not the most fascinating woman I’ve ever met, and as each day passes, more light flows into those eyes, into that body. She’s already unfurled from that crippled wreck to a young woman with allure. Her smile’s beautiful, her conversation is stimulating. Her overall presence is a joy to be around.
But no. No romantic feelings.
I know I could have her. Even if I’m mistaking that desire in her eyes, it’d be easy to take, but I don’t get a kick out of a girl fighting back like the other two psychos. Not that I could fill that little cunt up with my cock, anyway. Twelve days. Twelve sodding days left of The Cleanse.
I sort the dogs out in the other room, so they won’t bother her if she does show up. She’ll warm up to them. Caden sits at the head of the table, me and Fiz on one side, leaving the other side empty and free for her.
Dinner starts. She doesn’t show.
Caden’s been exceptionally quiet since his last encounter with El in the garage, and especially tightly wound since the altercation in his bedroom the night before that. Makes me wonder what really went down between them. He said he felt her up. Choked her. I’d given him a pointed look at that, and he claimed she’d spat in his face, so hehadto, which was a classic Cade move. Can never be outdone by anyone. Always has to assert dominance. He hasn’t stopped once to think about her position in all this. Of course she’s going to be in survival mode, of course she’s going to attack. She can’t choose flight, so it’s fight. And something tells me freeze isn’t an option for her either. She’s got too much fire in her.
But he experienced something up there that has him quieter and more pensive than usual. I wouldn’t be as bold as to guess he felt something for her, but I wouldn’t also not say that. Elodie has something about her, it’s not so much a damsel in distress, but a damsel in disdain. There’s a paradox to her. She wants to fight us, but I also see the desperation to give in and let us care for her. She lets me willingly enough, but that’s because I’m so good at my job. I’m good at disarming people. These two aren’t. It’s all resistance and reluctance. When it comes to Elodie, there’s a pull there. She’s tapped into my primal need to protect, and I think she’s done it to Cade too. Whether she wants to or not, whetherhewants it or not, she has, and I don’t think he knows what to do with it. He’s not acting on it, obviously, the guy’s the most stubborn person I’ve ever met, but there’s something spurring to life under that stolid exterior of his. He’s working out how to navigate it.
Fiz hasn’t changed at all, you couldn’t penetrate his conscience with a bullet. A hole’s a hole to him. He just wants to fill it and then he’ll be on to the next one. I get his obsession with it, I do. God, there’s nothing better than a good pussy to sink into after a long day. Have it glued to your tongue as it rides your face like a bull. But he’s erratic and reckless with it. The number of girls we’ve had to pay off or threaten because they wanted to report his antics is atrocious. Loosest cannon when it comes to pussy.
We’re halfway through dinner when an awkward clearing of a throat comes from the doorway.
Elodie stands hugging herself, clad in Cade’s tracksuit. I jump to my feet and stride towards her. “You came. I was beginning to lose hope.”
