Was it really, though? It wasn’t as though Catalina was giving herself to Torres willingly.
“Hi, Angelo,” she said, glancing up at me from beneath a thick fringe of lashes.
“Hello,” I replied stiffly, already trying to figure out an escape route. I hated my reaction to her, knowing how wrong it was. I didn’t want to think of her as a beautiful young woman, even though that was what she was becoming. In my head, she’d always be that little girl who’d followed me around the compound. Yet now I was picturing her with someone like Torres. I was imagining her with her clothes torn off, forced to her knees, and with him shoving his cock at her. Would she cry and fight him off? If she did, it would only end up worse for her. Hell, he might even like it that way.
“I’m glad you’re back. It feels like ages since you were last here.”
“Yeah, it’s been awhile.” I wasn’t going to tell her I was happy to be back, though. I wasn’t. I’d forget this place even existed, if I could, though I knew that would mean forgetting all about her, too. Being here and being around her filled me with a whole heap of emotions I didn’t even want to process.
“It doesn’t matter. You’re here now.”
“Have you ever thought of leaving here, Catalina?” It was a dangerous question, and it had come from my mouth before I’d even had the chance to consider the repercussions.
She blinked up at me. “Leave here? No. Where would I go if I did?”
“I don’t know. Out there.” I gestured toward the tall, stone walls that surrounded the compound. “Into the big, wide world.”
She gave a strange laugh. “On my own?” She shook her head and glanced down at the ground. “I don’t think I’d get very far. I don’t know how the real world works. Besides, my place is here. All my friends are here, and even though I know we’re not related, you and the master feel like family to me. The thought of being anywhere else scares me, and I have everything I need here.”
I wanted to tell her that she wouldn’t be staying here forever. This wasn’t a sanctuary for her, however much she might feel like it is. It was more like a breeding pen, where my father was the farmer and he was fattening up his little lamb until the day she was ready to be driven to the slaughter. She must know this, and her acceptance of it infuriated me.
Did I want her to wail and rant against the injustice because I felt like I couldn’t? I was infuriated by her lack of rebellion against what was going to happen to her, but maybe it should be myself I was infuriated by? I was standing by and allowing this to happen, after all.
“There’s only one thing I would change,” she said suddenly.
“There is?” I was expecting her to say she would change how she’d been sold at a young age, but she didn’t.
“Yes. I wish we were like we were when we were younger. It all seemed so easy back then. Comfortable, you know? Now things are...”
“Not comfortable?” I threw in.
She shrugged. “Just different. Sometimes, I don’t see you for months on end, and then, when you come back, it feels like I don’t know you at all. That’s what makes me sad. I don’t care about the rest of the world and what they’re doing, or what’s going to happen to me in a couple of years. I only really care about you.”
I pinned my hands at my sides, holding back the urge to reach up and touch her smooth, soft cheek. But if I gave in and touched her now, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stop myself from taking things further.
“Angelo!” I jumped as the bark of my name came from my father, cutting across the courtyard. “Stop loitering. We have work to do.”
“I’d better go,” I told Catalina, already stepping away. I was relieved to be rescued by my father’s shout.
“Bye, Angel,” she said shyly.
But I didn’t respond, turning away from her to protect myself from the sight of the disappointment I knew would be on her face at me leaving.
And how I was letting her down, once again, just as I did every time I left this place and didn’t take her with me.
Chapter Twelve
Present Day
WAKING UP IN A COMFORTABLE bed with Angelo’s arms wrapped tight around me was the happiest moment of my life. For a moment, I just lay there, listening to the steady inhale and exhale of his breath, and absorbing the warmth of his skin. I allowed myself to imagine this was how life was now—only me and him, and a shared bed, and we weren’t on the run.
Angelo stirred behind me.
“Morning.” He planted a kiss on my shoulder.
I wriggled around to face him, hoping I didn’t look too much of a mess and that my morning breath was bearable. “Good morning. Sleep well?”
“Yeah, though I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Anyone could have come in during the night, and I probably wouldn’t have been any the wiser.”
By anyone, I knew he was talking about Silas Cassidy and Elliot Torres.
“Well, they didn’t, and we obviously needed the sleep. We missed out on the night before.”
He swept my hair away from my face. “I wish we could stay like this forever.”
“Me, too.” I pressed a kiss against the hand that had touched my hair. “You know that’s the first time I’ve ever slept in a bed with someone else.”
“Yeah?” He seemed pleased, though I doubted this was news to him. “I’m glad I’m your first.”
“You’re my first everything,” I said, snuggling closer to him. I wished I was his first everything, too. I hated knowing he’d had other women before me, and I was jealous of every single one of them, even though I knew nothing about them. But I could hardly have asked for him to remain a virgin for the past six years while I came of age. Okay, I wished I could have asked him to do exactly that, but as I’d said to him earlier, we couldn’t change what had happened in our pasts.
“I don’t know about you,” he said, stretching, “but I’m starving. We only had one meal yesterday.”
“Yeah, you’re right. We must have slept for twelve hours.”
“We obviously needed it.”
“Where can we get food around here?” I didn’t think I’d seen any other buildings nearby.
“Some motels have a breakfast bar. I should have asked when we checked in.”
I bit my lower lip. “Is it safe?”
“Yeah, this place seems pretty quiet.”
I didn’t want to hope, but I had to ask. “Do you think your father and Elliot Torres will have lost track of us by now?”
He gave me a wry smile and raked his hand through his hair. “Honestly, Catalina, I hope so, but I have no idea. I don’t want to take any chances, though.”
My stomach sank, and I knew my dream of staying snuggled up to him in bed wasn’t going to materialize anytime soon. “You mean we have to keep moving?”
“Yeah, I think that’s for the best. But we can grab breakfast first.”
I trusted that Angelo knew the best way to keep me safe. Though I didn’t want to, I swung my legs out of bed to use the bathroom and then get dressed for breakfast.
I pulled on a clean t-shirt and caught sight of my naked wrist. “Oh, my bracelet is gone.”
He frowned at me. “Gone?”
“Yeah, the bracelet your father gave me for my birthday. It was on my wrist when we left the compound, and now it isn’t.”
“How long has it been missing?”
“I have no idea.”
“Did you have it last night? Could it have come off with your clothes when you undressed?” He bent and picked up the t-shirt I’d been wearing and checked the sleeves and gave it a shake. No small chain dropped out.
I tried to think back. When was the last time I’d had it? I remembered it being on my wrist the night we’d left, but after that, I had no clue. I’d been kind of preoccupied by everything else that had been going on.
We searched the room, checking the bed and shaking out the sheets in case it had gotten tangled up in there. I even went into the bathroom and checked the tub
from where I’d had my bath last night. I didn’t know why I was preoccupied with losing the bracelet—it wasn’t as though it meant anything to me sentimentally, not really. But still the loss of the item sat with strange unease in the pit of my stomach.
“You’ve still got your necklace, though.” Angel nodded toward my throat.
I put my hand up to cover the pendent with my fingers, reassuring myself it was still there. “Yes, I do. It doesn’t matter. It was only a bracelet.”
A bracelet that had been given to me as not only a birthday present, but also a goodbye present, from a man who had told me I was like a daughter to him, but who had also sold me off to another man. I remembered his warning to me about Torres being a man with certain preferences in the bedroom, and a shudder worked its way through me. Right now, sex with Angel was just about my favorite thing in the world, but it could have been very different. I didn’t know what it was that Torres liked to do to women in the bedroom, but while spanking and a little nipple biting was fun and sexy, I had the feeling he would have taken things to a whole different level.
“You still hungry?” Angel asked, jerking me from my thoughts. He frowned and added, “You need to eat. You look pale.”
I forced a smile. “Yes, breakfast would be great.”
“Take your stuff with you,” he instructed as he packed his belongings in his own bag and slung it over his shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll be fine, but if we need to leave in a hurry, we don’t want to be forced to leave everything behind.”
I nodded, grateful to have him with me to suggest things like that. I’d never have thought of it otherwise. Once more, the feeling of being way out of my depth swept over me. The world was a big and complicated place, and I worried that I would eventually get lost in it.
We left the motel room, and Angelo took my hand as we walked. I still felt exposed and vulnerable, but with his fingers around mine, he gave me the strength to get through it.
“Have you got a breakfast room?” he asked the guy sitting behind the counter in reception. It was the same man who’d been manning the desk last night—the one with a penchant for eighties horror paperbacks.
“Sure have. Just keep going, and it’s out the back. Help yourselves.”
“Thanks.”
“Hey,” he called out, sitting up straight. “You folks get your car fixed yet?”
Angel and I exchanged a glance and Angel shook his head. “No, not yet. Someone has towed it for us. They’ll come and pick us up when it’s done.”
“Well, let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”
“Thanks.”
We both wanted to get away, just in case he asked any questions we weren’t able to answer, and we hurried through the building to where he’d directed us. Mercifully, we found the breakfast room empty. It was nothing like the array of foods that had been at the diner, but I didn’t care. I was hungry, and the scent of fresh coffee and the sweet dough of warm pastries filled the air. Angelo poured coffee for us both, and I set about loading a plate high with cinnamon buns, toast, croissants, fruit, and yogurt.
He took one look at my stacked plate and laughed. “How many people are you feeding?”
“Just me. I worked up quite an appetite last night.” I gave him a sly smile and he cocked an eyebrow.
“Are you flirting with me, Mrs. Green?”
I stood on tiptoes and kissed him. “Nah, I’m too hungry to flirt.”
We chose one of the tables and sat opposite each other. I alternated mouthfuls of coffee with pastry, neither of us talking.
Finally, I sat back, my hands on my distended belly. “I’m done,” I announced, though my plate looked as though I’d barely touched it, still with several croissants remaining.
“Might be an idea to take some of those with us.” He looked around for some paper napkins to wrap the remaining food in.
Nerves flipped in my stomach. “Angel, what are we going to do now?”
His lower lip vanished as he sucked it into his mouth, his top teeth digging in. “I think we need to keep moving.”
“Can’t we stay another night? No one knows we’re here.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to stay in one place too long. I have no idea if my father has any clue as to where we are, but we can’t take the risk.”
“But we don’t have a car now.”
“I know. It’s going to involve some more walking. Are you okay with that?”
I didn’t think I had much choice, but I wasn’t going to make him feel bad. “Of course. I’ll do whatever we need to do.”
“I keep thinking about what’s going on at the compound right now. Do you think the other women know what’s happened?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Even if they haven’t been given all the details, I think they’ll be able to make a good guess. Yolanda’s a smart woman. She already knew there was something between us, maybe even before I did, and she warned me that something like this was going to happen.”
“Your father didn’t see it, though. You’d think he would have considered that we’d fall for each other if he pushed us together physically like that.”
“I don’t think my father knows how to love. To him, everything is business. He also probably thought I didn’t have it in me to betray him. I’ve grown up doing everything he said, without question.”
“Except this one time,” I added.
“Exactly.”
“I’m sorry I came between you and your father.”
“Don’t be. He treated me like shit growing up. I should have stood up to him sooner.” He gave a snort. “Not that I’ve even stood up to him now. I’ve just run away.”
“Because we had to. You did it for me.”
He smiled and locked me in his gaze. “For us.”
I thought for a moment and then asked, “What about the other women? Is there any way we can help them, too?”
He twisted his lips thoughtfully. “Is it what they’d want?”
I thought back to Yolanda and the others. Yolanda had been at the compound for the better part of twenty years. The place was home to her now. And many of the other women had been taken off the streets and were already selling their bodies before they’d even been brought to the compound. If the compound was broken up, would they thank me for it? They’d end up with nothing, back on the streets, most likely. Was that worth their freedom?
“I... I don’t know,” I admitted. Yet here I was, running from that life. If they’d been given the same opportunity, would they run, too? My heart ached for the other women—but Yolanda in particular. She’d been like a mother to me, and I missed her already. But the same thing would have happened if I’d stayed. I would have missed her if I’d been taken by Elliot Torres anyway, but that didn’t make things any easier.
“Besides,” he continued, “I wouldn’t know who to trust. There’s a reason no one has busted the compound in twenty-plus years, and that’s because my father knows who to pay off to make sure people turn a blind eye. If we went to someone—even someone like the cops—there’s a good chance we’d end up being the ones in custody.”
I had to take his word for it. Other than what I’d read about in books, I had no experience of the outside world. Just being out here terrified me, but I was even more terrified by the idea of going back.
Chapter Thirteen
Present Day
I HATED THAT I WAS forcing Catalina to leave the comfort of the motel, but we were fed and rested, and it made sense to keep moving before anyone else caught up with us. At some point, the car we’d dumped would be spotted and reported to the cops, and considering this was the nearest place to that location, they’d probably stop by here and ask questions. The two of us showing up yesterday, soaked to the skin and with no car to speak of, would most likely have stuck in the mind of the guy on the desk, and then they’d get a description of us both.
There was no point in us going back to the room.
We slipped out the back door of
the breakfast room and found ourselves outside, around the back of the motel. Mercifully, the rain had stopped overnight, but the ground was still damp underfoot. The sun was out, though, and the combination of damp earth and warm sunlight made everything smell fresh and new again.
In an unusual burst of optimism, I hooked my arm around Catalina’s shoulders and pulled her against my side for a squeeze.
“Hey.” She giggled. “What was that for?”
“Just had the sudden feeling that everything was going to be all right.”
She grinned up at me, the dappled sunlight catching in her hair, and my heart soared with love for her. “Yeah? Me, too. We can just live like this, can’t we? We’ll be...” She hesitated as she thought. “Nomads. That’s the word.”
“Yep. We’ll hike, and camp, and find motels when the weather turns.”
“And eat pastries every day, and have sex every time we stop.” She was warming to the topic. “That sounds like a good life to me.”
I kissed the top of her head, inhaling the scent of her hair. “It does to me, too.”
But already my good mood was fading as I thought about the logistics of making that happen. The weather was already turning, and winter would be around the corner soon enough. When that happened, we’d need to find somewhere inside to stay, and a roof over our heads cost money. We had a few hundred dollars, that was all, and that wouldn’t last us long. Plus, we needed to eat, which would also need money. Even if we were able to make it day to day, I knew she wouldn’t want to live like this for long. She was a young woman, and she’d grow tired of all the moving around. She’d want to have friends, and maybe even a job of her own. One day, she might even start thinking about having a family, and there was no way we could live like this with children who needed schooling.
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