“Put her in your lineup for the next show. Then we can give her back.”
Anytime I rescued a slave and told them what was going on, they were silent and cooperative. They didn’t talk to the other models, and usually kissed the ground I walked on. When I returned them to their families, the fathers were always crying the hardest. “Alright.”
Carter smoked his cigar again. “Who knew being a hero could make us so much money?”
“We aren’t heroes,” I said coldly. “Real heroes don’t get paid.”
“Money or no money, without us, those girls would never get out.”
“And what about all the rest?” I asked. “We leave them to their fate just because they don’t have a rich family member to buy them out.”
“Even if they did, you know we can’t save them all. If you bought every slave in the joint, the Skull Kings would definitely be onto us.”
Saving an innocent woman for a paycheck didn’t make me feel like a good man. There was nothing noble about what we were doing. We were both greedy, and there was no sugarcoating that fact.
“Tomorrow, then?” Carter knew I already agreed to the terms, but he must have picked up on the hesitancy in my voice.
“Tomorrow.”
* * *
I walked to my building in the dead of night alone. I didn’t take a woman home with me because I wasn’t in the mood. I could have had any woman in that club that I wanted, but nothing interested me that night.
I made the call and placed the phone against my ear.
Innocent and beautiful, she answered. “It’s one in the morning, Conway.”
I sighed in relief even though there was no real reason to be scared. The sound of her voice was the greatest assurance that I needed. She meant more to me than I ever told her, and the idea of someone taking her the way so many other women were captured made me sick to my stomach. She was the only woman in the world who turned me into a gentleman. Only when she was present did I behave. “Are you home?”
“It’s one in the morning on a Tuesday. I’m sleeping, obviously.”
My little sister was a grown woman, but I would always see her as a little kid. She was living in Milan because she was studying to be a painter. She went to a fancy art school on my parents’ money. Since my parents lived in Tuscany, they were a five-hour drive away. I was the eldest son of my family, so it was my job to look after her. “Just wanted to make sure.”
“You don’t need to check on me, Conway. If I need something, I’ll ask.”
“You’re too stubborn to ask for anything. We both know that.”
She sighed into the phone again. “Can I call you tomorrow? I have to be up at sunrise.”
“We both know you aren’t going to call me.”
“Well, call me tomorrow, then.” She hung up before I could get another word in.
My paranoia got the best of me, and I acted on my fear too easily. My sister was a beautiful woman, taking after my mother with a few attributes from my father. When I was growing up, my father never let her do anything alone. He watched her like a hawk constantly. When she moved away for school, I’d never seen him so shaken up about it. It was hard for him to let go.
But I realized it was even harder for me to let go.
Now I was as protective as he’d ever been, especially in this cruel world. Women were treated like dogs, sometimes as currency.
I never wanted her to know that.
There was a deep underworld right outside her door—but she was too innocent to see it.
* * *
Ten walked in the door right on time, her hair and makeup done. She was in jeans and a t-shirt, the typical attire I’d always seen her wear. Her hair was thick and curled, framing her face perfectly and accentuating her features.
I was standing at my table with my sketchbook.
She stepped inside the room and immediately undressed.
I didn’t even have to tell her to this time.
I looked up from my notebook, and I took her in her beautiful skin. It was unblemished and unmarked. Perfectly smooth and polished, she had the skin of a doll. Her complexion only enhanced the curves of her gorgeous figure. With a tiny waist I could wrap my hands around and an ass that looked plump, she was nothing but perfection. The fact that she achieved such beauty with no effort made her even more of a goddess.
She was all natural.
I grabbed my notebook and walked over to her in front of the mirror. “You’re learning.” I stood behind her and stared at her shoulders. They were perfectly straight, the muscles on either side totally symmetrical. My fingers rested directly over her spine, and instantly, she took a deep breath in response.