That came with its own risks. He could go back on any deal. He could turn on the crew, and I had no idea what that could mean for Tyler.
My head hurt. The information overload was doing a number on me, and I was shutting down.
Tyler touched my cheek, his careful gaze taking in my face. “His confession is a problem for tomorrow, aye?”
I nodded slowly. Tonight, I was done with talking, or anything else involving other people.
“Wait,” Terrence bleated.
Tyler reached for the prisoner’s blindfold and pulled it over his eyes then came back to me. Without a word, and ignoring the man’s demands, he ran one arm under my legs and picked me up.
I curled in against his chest, my eyes closing. Something inside me cracked open all over again. This time, I wasn’t sure how to patch it back up.
Chapter 38
Tyler
No words came from Dixie on our drive to the warehouse. Nothing more than a soft, distracted smile when I tried a question. She’d shut down. Overloaded, no doubt, but it filled me with dread. The whole fucking night had.
For years, I’d done this shite without a care. Hunting men. Hurting them. But the precious, delicate force that was Dixie facing off against her own demons had broken something inside me.
We entered the warehouse, and I guided her steps to the back lift. Entering the central corridor meant conversation. People. I sensed how little she needed that.
“Tell me what I can do,” I asked.
Her voice was barely a whisper. “I don’t know.”
Seeing her like this fucked with me in ways I didn’t know how to handle. What would help? What would she want? The lift carried us upwards, but as it moved, a memory hit. The words from the man in the bar. Fucking Lex who’d offered her a path back to her old job. His smug ask, like she was something to be shared by men who wanted her.
I hit button five, the cam girls’ floor.
The door slid open. I took her hand and led her out.
Past the occupied rooms with their sounds of orgasms and smacking flesh. The smell of sex. Men buying glimpses at something they couldn’t have. Her world, the one she’d clawed her way out of.
If the asshole was in one of them, I didn’t care.
She wasnae here for him.
In the last of the row, the room she’d used when too scared to go home, I closed the door. “Use me, doll. In any way ye need.”
Dixie gazed back, at last, light returning to her eyes.
She had to know I was here for her in whatever way necessary. I owed her in more ways than I could count. Abduction, obsession, possession. She had the right to the same before throwing me away.
Dixie’s beautiful gaze stayed on me, then my lass crossed the room to the camera.
And switched it on. The control in her hands, and rebuilding herself in the way she knew how. On her terms.
Chapter 39
Dixie
Last time I’d used this room, it hadn’t been kitted out for work. That was different now, and under the blinking light of the camera, I drifted over to a wall of shelves and equipment, selecting music. ‘In My Bed’ by Rotimi.
Next, I picked out a black mask and a purple one. The kind that covered your upper face but still let you see. I returned to Tyler, out of sight of the camera’s range, its focus a side-on view of the bed.
Carefully, I drew my gaze over him. Checking his intent. He took the mask and set it in place, partially concealing his beautiful face. Then he kicked off his boots.
