My coronary heart tightened in my chest. I wasn’t positive how lengthy it had been since I had heard somebody speaking about me in that means, speaking about me like they really gave a rattling about me. It harm, for some cause, however in a great way. Like ripping off a Band-Assist.

I put a bit an excessive amount of stress on the door, and it creaked open. Each Morgan and Paulo glanced round, and I attempted to rearrange my options to look as impartial as attainable.

“Oh, Selina,” Morgan blurted out. “I didn’t understand you have been in there …”

“I used to be simply getting a e-book,” I replied. I spotted I wasn’t even holding one, making my excuses look type of ineffective.

“Uh, however I made a decision I wanted a glass of water,” I added swiftly. I brushed previous the 2 of them, however internally, my thoughts was reeling. I didn’t know precisely learn how to deal with myself proper now; there was part of me that was scared of Stefano turning up right here, pulling me again into the whole lot as soon as extra, however there was one other a part of me—a dominant a part of me, extra dominant than I might care to confess—that felt as if it was possibly the place I belonged. A lot as I wished to get out, that life was all I had identified, possibly all I used to be good for.

I made it to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water and took a protracted sip. You’re going to be okay. They’d talked about defending me right here. That was what I needed to keep targeted on. So long as I didn’t fuck this up someway, that wasn’t going to vary.

No less than, that’s what I needed to inform myself.

Chapter Seven – Paulo

I let loose a groan and leaned again from the desk, rubbing my fingers over my eyes. I wasn’t positive how lengthy I had been awake, however I ought to in all probability attempt to get some sleep.

Rising to my toes, I started to tempo the small house of my workplace, attempting to burn off a number of the power that had been coursing via my system all day. We had acquired one other message from Stefano that morning, a extra direct menace—an image of her with the eyes minimize out, in a compromising place. I didn’t even wish to assume how out of it she was when this had been taken. I knew he will need to have used the medicine to maintain her compliant and prepared to do no matter he wished, and taking these footage, for the sake of promoting was in all probability a part of that.

I had torn it to items and tossed it within the trash, however I hadn’t been in a position to cease serious about all of it day. I wanted to do one thing about him earlier than he made some type of transfer towards her. He didn’t appear to be letting up, and it had been almost two weeks since she had arrived right here. If he hadn’t misplaced curiosity by now, and if his messages have been beginning to develop extra intense of their aggressiveness, he wished us to be scared. He wished us to really feel as if we’d be higher off simply handing her again over to him, and I wasn’t going to let that asshole get to me.

I used to be going to take him out.

That’s what I had been up all evening determining. I wasn’t positive the place he had been sending the letters from, however I had gotten the handle of the brothel he had pressured her to work out of. From there, I deliberate to see the place bank cards and money spent in that place had been used afterwards; I had a few contacts within the monetary division of some main banks, and they’d have the ability to monitor him down quickly sufficient.

I hadn’t advised Alex about this, and I didn’t need him to seek out out. I knew he would inform me not to do that, and there was no means I used to be going to be pushed off this. I wasn’t going to let that bastard get anyplace near her, not after the whole lot she had been via. She deserved an opportunity to heal, even when she didn’t appear completely enthused about taking it. Even when she didn’t wish to see this via, not less than I might preserve her out of the grasp of that monster.

However I had come up towards a lifeless finish in attempting to smoke him out, and it was beginning to get to me. I knew I simply wanted to provide my contacts time to get again to me in regards to the data I had requested, however there was nonetheless part of me that wished to make a transfer too. Now. Quick.

I wanted one thing to eat. Usually, once I was annoyed like this, I might have simply gone and had one other drink—or three—to take the sting off. Hell, on nights like tonight, I used to be nonetheless tempted.

The home was quiet as I made my means via it; it wouldn’t be lengthy until we received extra women in. Alex and Morgan have been already planning one other assault on a brothel, and there could be different women who wanted the house right here. However, for some cause, I simply wished Selina to have it to herself for some time. I felt as if she wanted it, one thing straightforward and quiet the place she might start to get well.

Regardless that she had been largely maintaining herself to herself the previous few days, the few glimpses of her I had seen, she was beginning to look an entire lot higher. She was nonetheless fragile, nonetheless seemed as if she would possibly break if she moved too rapidly, however once I caught her smiling, it appeared real.

Now that she was up and about a bit extra, I might see how laborious of a toll this life had taken on her. She was skinny, virtually painfully so, and it seemed as if she had been wrung out and left to dry. However it was extra than simply the way in which she seemed. It was in the way in which she carried herself, too. Within the expression on her face, the way in which she jumped when she heard somebody coming and didn’t anticipate them. The best way her eyes darted round to absorb each little element of the room and everybody inside it, as if she was taking inventory of their intentions in direction of her, what they could need from her. Generally, I wished to the touch her shoulder, inform her she had nothing to worry right here, however I knew she wouldn’t have believed me. I knew she wouldn’t have trusted it. It was going to take a protracted, very long time earlier than she believed that folks wished one of the best for her, that they wished her for another cause than what she might give them or do for them …

“Paulo?”

I finished in my tracks once I reached the kitchen and located, to my shock, that Selina was standing proper in entrance of me, within the glow of the fridge gentle. She was wearing a protracted tee and a pair of shorts, her lengthy, slender legs beneath, her delicate naked toes pressed towards the tile.

“What are you doing right here?” I requested her, stunned. She often hid out in her room if she might handle it.

“I … I used to be hungry,” she replied, as if defending herself towards some accusation. “I got here right here for one thing to eat. I’m allowed to do this, proper?”

“After all you might be,” I replied. “Your urge for food coming again now you’ve received that shit out of your system?”

She smiled barely.

“Just a little,” she admitted, wrapping her arms round herself protectively. Her cheeks seemed a bit flushed, as if she felt uncovered.

“Go forward,” I replied as I poured myself a glass of water. I paused for a second, simply watching her as she took out a juice and sipped it. Even within the pale blue glow of this gentle, she seemed stunning—her lengthy purple hair tumbling into her face, her flippantly freckled pores and skin virtually ethereal.

“What’s it?” she demanded as she caught me taking a look at her.

“Nothing,” I replied. “I’ll depart you to it. I’m sorry.”

“No, I … You don’t need to go,” she advised me rapidly, her voice cracking barely as she spoke. I frowned, cocking an eyebrow at her.

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