My eyes locked onto his, while I attempted to wipe away sticky tears on my cheeks.
His forehead furrowed. “I’m a bastard—I know that—but I’m not normally this nasty. I truly am sorry for what I’ve done—for kicking you and treating you so cruelly. You don’t deserve it.” His green gaze remained unreadable, locked from all emotion, arms rigid by his sides.
I nodded, swallowing back the strange feelings that were so real, yet years too late. “I understand. You can’t stand to suffer what happened in the past.”
He nodded. “Just…” He sighed. “Let’s agree to disagree. No matter what you say or do, you’ll never get me to believe you. I’ve lived for too long believing things others wanted me to believe, and it’s brought me nothing but hardship. I know what I saw. I know what I feel. She’s gone, and I won’t have her memory tarnished.”
His shoulders slumped. “Just… accept and let’s move on. Okay? It’s best for both of us.”
I hung my head, not wanting to look into his familiar gaze. He wanted me to drift away—to stop reminding him of the pain inside.
He was weak.
“I’ll accept that.” Lowering my voice, I pleaded, “But please let me go. Drop me off at the nearest police station, and I swear on my life you’ll never see me again. Just please—” My voice cracked again. “I don’t want to be sold.”
For the longest moment, he stared at the ground. Thoughts flashed over his face, ideas forming then discarded. Hope remained in my heart but I knew it was hopeless.
He raised his head. “If there was something I could do, I’d do it. I’d let you go, truly. But this is above my head now. Things are going on that even I’m not privy to and I can’t go against orders.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
He smiled sadly. “Won’t. He’s the only person that’s ever been there for me. Thick and thin. He took me from my ruined beginning and gave me an empire to rule. I’ll be forever grateful and won’t go behind his back.”
My heart panged for his loyalty, for his love. The love I wasn’t worthy of.
My head hung and silence fell between us.
I didn’t say a word—no acknowledgment of his decision or argument for my freedom. It was over.
After a minute, Kill nodded as if I’d accepted his skewed promise. Pressing his lips together, he closed my door and climbed back into the driver’s seat.
It was done. I’d fought and lost. He’d argued and won.
Our time was over and I now had to face the future.
The next time Kill stopped the car we were at the harbor.
He parked and climbed out, coming to open my door and offer his hand. It seemed the fight in the car had given him closure and he treated me like any other girl he’d been told to sell.
Not that I knew what that was like, of course.
Taking his hand, I slid from the SUV. Squinting against the midafternoon sun, I asked, “How many?”
His eyes remained emotionless as he slammed my door and locked the car with the remote. “How many what?”
Taking my hand again, more out of imprisonment than togetherness, he led me toward the dock and the glittering teal ocean. His grip was dry and warm, encircling my fingers in a way that made my body sing with electricity. He could deny he knew me. He could yell and fight against everything I’d tried to show him, but he couldn’t hide the connection between our bodies.
“How many girls have you trafficked?” Sadness sat on my chest. I hated to think that this man could be involved with something so wrong. It was worse than theft… It was tantamount to murder. Effectively cutting a woman’s life span into the will of an owner who might grow bored of her within a few hours.
Not to mention the horror they would endure before their—my—last breath was taken.
Kill tensed, never looking at me. “You’re the sixth and last. If you must know, I refuse to involve myself in crime, regardless of what you think of me.”
My feet stumbled. The magazine covers and the praise of helping the community popped into my mind. Everything pointed to him behaving within the law. He’d come from crime—there was no doubt about that—but I had the feeling he’d turned his Club from the dark and into the light.
“It was a fucking blessed day for all when he took over the Corrupts and made us Pure Corruption.” Grasshopper’s voice echoed in my ears. If that was true—then what the hell was this about?
“What do you mean?”
His boots crunched on gravel as my jeweled flip-flops that Grasshopper had given me slapped quietly. My left leg and foot danced with color in the sunshine while my scars caught the light in a mixture of shy disfigurement.
“Stop asking questions,” Kill muttered, closing the distance between us and a white speedboat. The port wasn’t too busy, only a few clusters of people and vessels moored to creaking riggings.
“Why did you agree to sell me and the other women, then? If it goes against your beliefs, it must be something big. It can’t be for money—you already have more than enough from stock trading.”
He gave me a sideways look, surprise flicking. “You’re right—it’s not for money.”
A skipper with sun protection smeared thickly over his nose and a baseball cap covering his blond hair jumped from the speedboat as we slowed to a stop. “You Kill? Jared called and said there was a change of plans.”