Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
I figured I’d crash in the den tonight and let her have my room and then tomorrow we’d start to figure out the rest. Now, despite the long flight and a burning desire for a hot shower and sleep, I wanted to talk to her, get this over with.
I got a reply from Tommy who acknowledged my, “I’m home. Exhausted. I’ll msg you tomorrow.” with a quick reply.
I dropped my phone on the island and opened the fridge. There was a note magneted to it by a frame containing a picture of my twin nieces eating from a big double layer birthday chocolate cake with their fingers, chocolate all over their faces. The note was from Sarah, our family housekeeper, she was a nanny to me and my siblings when we were kids. She now bounced between my house and the girls’ houses. The note said she’d done groceries for me and she’d see me Monday. She had totally stocked my fridge. I’d told her before I left to stock extra and she took that seriously, for sure. She’d asked questions but all I told her was that I might have a houseguest for a while.
I grabbed two bottles of water and passed Felicia one. She was still standing near the door, holding a handbag, and looking pale and lost.
“Sit,” I said, motioning to a sofa, “We need to talk.”
She sat on a sofa hesitantly. My text alert went off and Zack confirmed he’d been at my condo and left just as he watched me pull into the parking garage.
“Let me see your bag, please?”
She handed me the bag.
I opened it and dumped the contents on the coffee table and then ripped the lining out to ensure there were no bugs. All that she had in the bag was a lip gloss, mascara and eye pencil, package of Kleenex, tin of Altoids, a wallet, and her passport. I went through it all and then put everything back in the bag and put it on the table.
“I need the collar,” I said and leaned over, motioning for her to let me unfasten it.
She flinched. I gave her a look. I regretted having to give her that look because I knew it was a threatening look that told her not to give me any hassle but I didn’t need her having a meltdown. Her eyes widened and she moved closer to me so I could remove it.
“Shoes.”
She removed her heels. I put those, the bag, and her collar all in a plastic trash bag and tied the bag to the arm of a lounge chair out on the terrace. I’d get her other things brought up in the morning after Zack had properly swept for bugs. I had a good idea of what to look for, but wasn’t taking any chances. I closed the sliding glass door and came back to the sofa, opened my bottle of water, took a swig, and then spoke.
“My father died right after he bought you for me. My brother and I were loyal to him, loyal to a fault, and we did a lot of his dirty work. A lot. But we did not know even half of who he really was. He did some bad shit. We thought we knew what that bad shit was, but turned out we had no fucking clue. I had zero knowledge of Kruna prior to last week. I had zero knowledge that he purchased you for me before he died. As a gift. A surprise birthday gift.”
She jolted.
I continued. “My brother and I are gonna determine an exit plan for selling our shares. We want nothing to do with a business like that. Due to the fact that the resort is run by some very dangerous people we cannot do this hastily. When I was told my father purchased you for me as a gift my first instinct was to tell them to cancel the order.”
She had a full-on body shudder but was staring blankly at me.
“But I realized that it would be unsafe to do that. I needed to go there and play along. This benefited you because that gave you an opportunity to get outta there. I know they struck the fear of the devil into you to ensure that you coming to me, a perceived important man to them, was risk-free because you had an impeccable record at that hellhole. I don’t know how you came to become an asset or a…uh…slave or whatever they call you, but we’ll get to that part later. For now, for starters, I need you to know that I am not your Master. I do not intend to keep you as a slave. I want sweet-fuck-all to do with Kruna but as it’s run by extremely dangerous people, you and I need to handle things very delicately. I would have liked nothing better than to free every single person enslaved there, but that was not an option for me so because you were sold to my father for me I had an obligation to fulfil that transaction with those men. I did the only logical thing I could do under those circumstances. I went there, met them, let them think I was on board with their lifestyle, and I collected you. I will not hurt you. I aim to hurt no one who isn’t a danger to me or the people I care about. I can help you get your life back. Maybe not your old life, exactly, but we’ll see what we can do. It may take time and we may have to be creative about it so I gotta ask you to be patient to protect both of us while I figure all this out. No calls whatsoever and no leaving the apartment alone – for now at least.”