Lie (Betrothed 8)

I couldn’t let these girls go right now. There were only two men standing in my way, but this was just the top layer of a much bigger organization. If I freed all their slaves, there would be consequences. I couldn’t deal with it right this second. “There’s nothing I can do right now.”

“Heath, please.” She squeezed my hand.

“We have to leave them right now. But I’ll come back.”

That wasn’t good enough for her. She shook her head. “I know you can do it now—”

“I promise I’ll take care of it later. You need to trust me.” I’d never been a hero, never cared about anything but myself and my money, but right now, I would do anything she wanted. I would take off my ring for good and give it to a homeless person if that was what she wanted. My heart was broken at the way she’d been treated, and it changed me all the way down to my core. It nearly made me want to cry, knowing how hard he had to have hit her to make her face look like that.

She looked like she still wanted to argue, but she eventually gave in. “I trust you…”

I couldn’t drive the armored truck around, so I told Steel to return to the Underground with the money and I’d take a cab.

Hadn’t been in a fucking cab in so long.

When we were both in the back seat, I stared at her against the opposite window, looking outside, wearing my shirt with a bruised face. “Damien’s place?” I wasn’t sure where she wanted to go first, but I doubted she wanted to go home and be alone.

She kept her eyes out the window with her arms across her chest. “No. My apartment.”

I gave the driver the address, and we took off. It was only a few blocks away, so the drive wouldn’t be long. I caught the driver glancing in the rearview mirror, trying to get a better look at the half-naked woman sitting in the back seat. She’d been through enough, and the last thing she needed was another admirer. “Eyes on the road.”

His hands swerved on the wheel slightly, and the car almost crossed the center line into the other lane.

I was surprised he’d picked us up in the first place. I was shirtless and covered in violent tattoos, while looking pissed off. If he’d paid better attention, he might’ve noticed the gun in the back of my jeans.

We pulled up to her apartment minutes later, and after I handed over the cash, we went into the building and up the stairs to her floor. Once we arrived at her apartment, I saw what they had done to her front door. They’d worked on the keypad lock until the mechanisms broke. The door was still slightly cracked, exactly as they’d left it when they took her away.

If this had been the setting of her kidnapping, I was surprised she wanted to come back.

She was the first one to walk inside. “I want to take a shower…”

I followed behind her and shut the door even though it couldn’t lock anymore. She was usually candid with her thoughts, so she would have asked me to leave if she wanted me gone, but she didn’t give me any directions. “Are you sure you don’t want me to take you to Damien’s?” He had a big place with plenty of rooms, and being under his roof would probably make her feel a lot safer than staying here.

“Yes.” She walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. “I’m fucking starving, but I’ve got to get this shit off me.” She pulled my shirt off her body right in front of me and tossed it onto the back of the couch. “Thanks for letting me use it.” She walked into the bathroom, leaving the door open. Maybe she was so used to being naked she didn’t think twice about undressing in front of me.

I kept my eyes averted and didn’t stare.

When she was in the shower, I pulled the shirt over my head and entered the doorway.

The shower curtain was closed, so I couldn’t see her. Steam quickly filled the room and fogged the bathroom mirror. With my arms crossed over my chest, I leaned against the doorframe, my eyes down even though I couldn’t see anything. “I’ll get you something to eat. What do you want?”

“Anything. I haven’t eaten in days.”

I took a deep breath and felt my eyes squeeze shut when I heard about her mistreatment. I had no idea how long she’d been in that cage naked, starving, and beaten while I slept peacefully in my bed every night.

“I’d just eat something here, but I don’t have anything.” She raised her voice over the sound of the running water.

“I’ll be back.” There were a few places nearby I could walk to in five minutes.