“Who left the gate open?” I barked at her, and she shivered, shrugging. “Find the fuck out. I want them fired. Now.”
She left on shaky feet, still fucking sobbing as I went to my study. And as soon as I went in there I knew something was up. I checked the videos on my hidden cameras, and I watched Evangeline going through my shit. She sat at the computer and I could see over her shoulder and her face from another camera. I watched her see the worst video I’d ever seen in my life, and I watched every emotion leave her beautiful face and be replaced by dread, and intense, all-consuming fear.
I rubbed my temples. She was never, ever supposed to see what happened to Carolina. No one was. It was a stupid fucking slip that never should have happened in the first place.
I knew what I needed to do right away. I needed to call Savage.
He’s the only person she could have gone to. She trusted him with everything, he was a father figure in her life and he knew her almost as well as I did. I knew she’d want to find comfort with someone who understood.
I called his number and nearly threw up as I waited for him to pick up.
“Knight,” he said when I answered. “How can I help you?”
I tried to decipher what happened from his voice, but it was completely impassive.
“Something’s happened,” I barked down the line. “It’s Evangeline.”
“What?” he sounded wary and a little worried. “Don’t scare me, Knight, tell me what the fuck is going on.”
He didn’t know.
Was he acting?
Playing a game with me?
There was no time for questions. I just needed to find her and bring her the fuck back into my arms where she belonged.
“She’s gone,” I said plainly. “She ran away from the house.”
“How long ago?” His voice was pained, and panicked, but he somehow held his composure. I hesitated and he lost it in seconds. “Damn it, Knight, how fucking long since she’s been gone?”
“A few hours, fuck, I don’t know,” I cursed. “I had some missed calls, I wasn’t home. I have no fucking clue what happened. I just got home. Is she not with you?”
“No,” he replied slowly, and I could feel the regret in his voice. “She’s not here. I’m coming over. We have to find her.”
He cut the call and I paced the room, trying not to fucking panic and failing miserably.
I called every number I could think of. I got every man I could use on the case and trying to find her by the time a red-faced Carolina brought Savage up to my study.
“Any luck?” he asked. He looked like hell.
“No,” I said roughly. “I have three men searching for her and three others trying to find leads.”
“Someone took her,” Savage barked. “Someone fucking took her from right under your nose!”
“No,” I shook my head vehemently. “It wasn’t that… My maid saw her run off.”
“You fucking did it,” Savage sneered at me. “You broke my little girl. You fucking ruined her, you piece of shit…”
“Shut the hell up,” I snarled at him. “Shut up! We have to find her. We can fight later. We just have to fucking find her as soon as possible and make sure she’s alright. I think that should be our priority before we kill each other.”
He stared at me with his eyes blazing.
“If we don’t find her in one piece,” he said roughly. “I’m going to fucking chop your head off. If there’s one hair on her head harmed, I’m going to fucking kill you.”
“You won’t have to,” I grunted back. “If she’s hurt, I’ll fucking do it myself.”
Hours later, we were no closer to finding a lead. There was nothing. Not a fucking thing that could’ve helped us. All my guys came back with no information, and Barron and I just felt useless sitting around the house. I made him call his house repeatedly to check if she was there, and I had one of my guys drive to the amusement park, but she wasn’t there either, and he assured me he’d checked every crevice with his flashlight.
It was getting late. If she was out, and alone, she was vulnerable. I wanted to fucking hurt someone, I was so damn pissed.
“I don’t know anything about her,” I said out loud as Savage paced the room. “Fucking nothing. I never learned anything. Not about her past… Not about her family.”
Savage stopped and gave me a short, incredulous look. “You must be kidding.”
“What?” I looked up from my glass of whiskey, feeling confused. “What the hell do you mean?”
“You don’t know about her family?” he asked me, and I shook my head.
“What about them?” I asked him.
He laughed bitterly, shaking his head.
“It’s not my place to tell you,” he said roughly. “Evangeline should be the one doing it.”
“Well, she’s not fucking here, is she?” I growled at him, jumping up from my seat. The amber liquid spilled over the rim of my glass and Savage backed up.
“Calm the fuck down,” he grunted. “I’ll tell you, just calm down. No use us killing each other. We need to find her. She needs both of us.”
As much as I wanted to deny it, I knew he was fucking right. There was no way I could get to the bottom of this alone. I knew eventually Evangeline would come to him, and I needed to be ready to take her back when that happened.
“You don’t recognize her last name?” Savage asked me.
“Evangeline Lovell,” I remembered. “No, it’s pretty common. Should I?”
“Connect the fucking dots, you moron,” he snarled at me. “Lovell. Her age. Her fucking father, working for your company. You can’t be this fucking stupid!”
I stared at him blankly while my mind tried to bring up details from the dustiest corners. And then it all came together so suddenly I took a step back as I stared at Savage.
“Her father,” I breathed. “Her father was Alec Lovell.”
“Ding ding ding,” Savage mocked me with a bitter laugh and a shake of his head. “Took you fucking long enough.”
I realized how fucking bad this was. How fucking awful she must’ve felt, alone and lost in that moment. Seeing the video of Carolina, and now this… My head felt like it was exploding.
I grabbed Barron’s lapels and slammed him against the wall.
“We have to find her,” I uttered in panic. “We fucking have to, Savage.”
“I know,” he managed to get out. “Don’t you fucking think I know that?”
Twenty-Four
Evangeline
I was taken into the house and sat down in a foyer. I didn’t see him again that day.
I was amazed by the changes in the house since the last time I’d been there. I’d seen girls like me in the house before, but never as many as there were now. They walked around in see-through fabrics that swept behind them, pretty, expensive lingerie covering their best assets. They were all brunettes, but then again, I’d always known his type.
A maid came up to me, one I recognized from before. She was sweet and told me she’d be able to help me with whatever I wanted, but it was very important that I got some rest. I needed to lie down before I came down with something. Walking around in such heat, and with my feet bare as well, was not the smartest move I’d made.
She gave me something to drink, a cold, milky liquid that made me drowsy as she led me up the stairs to a room I’d never been in. I wondered why I couldn’t have the one I used to stay in, but I felt so deliriously tired I didn’t even think to ask about it. Instead, I just followed her and nodded to everything she said. There was an en-suite with my room, and there were extra blankets and sheets in the closet. She told me someone would bring some clothes for me and I’d be able to eat in the evening.
Then came the humiliating part. I had to strip down in front of her, and I did it only because I knew I had to. I’d been forced to do it before.
She inspected my body up close, every part of me. I knew I wasn’t as painfully thin as I was before, but I didn�
��t know how displeased she’d be when she saw me naked.
“You’ve put on weight,” she said.
“I’m… sorry,” I muttered. “He didn’t like me skinny. I wanted to look beautiful for him.”
She pinched at the skin on my tummy and I flinched.
“You think this is beautiful?” she mocked me, shaking her head incredulously. “It’s a good thing you came back when you did, girl. We can save what was almost lost.”
I obediently put on the nightgown she gave me, a silk and lace slip that barely covered my ass. She didn’t give me any underwear to go with it, and she tucked me into bed. It felt oddly maternal, just like these maids always did. It made me long for my real mother. What would she have said had she known what my life had come to?
I felt sleep pulling me under, and my eyes fluttered closed long before the maid left the room. The last thing I saw was her watching me, taking notes on her clipboard.
Home sweet home…
When the not-so-little-anymore girl came home from school, she was in for a surprise.
She’d been away at boarding school for the last year. Her daddy had sent her to France to complete a full school year there, and when she first found out about it, she got really upset. She didn’t want to leave the only daddy she had, but he’d made her. He promised her so many beautiful things if only she went away. And the only thing the girl wanted to know was why. It was so very obvious from his pained expression that he didn’t want her to leave.
But he made her go anyway, and it had been a full year since she’d seen Daddy.
Now, she was being driven home, and she felt like a different girl altogether. In just a few short months, she’d be turning eighteen and she’d really be a grown-up then. But for now, everyone still considered her a little girl. She wanted to get rid of that as soon as possible.
She got out of the car once it parked in front of the house. She drank in the sight with hungry eyes. It had been her home for the past ten years or more, and she had grown used to its walls and familiar structure. But this time, things seemed different.
She realized just how very different they were when she walked inside.
There were girls everywhere. Girls she’d never seen before, girls who were merely a few years older than her. They gave her curious looks, and some of them giggled when they saw her and whispered behind her back. She was confused, and she ran up the stairs to knock on her daddy’s door. She was upset already, because he hadn’t come to pick her up at the airport himself.
“Come in,” her daddy said, and she barged into his study with her arms crossed in front of her body. “Hello, Evangeline.”
“Who are all these girls?” she asked right away. He didn’t even look up from his computer when she stepped inside. It cut her deep. “Why are they all here? What’s going on?”
Daddy sighed and filed his papers away, shutting his computer down. He finally looked at her, and his eyes seemed filled with pain as he stared at her. He motioned for her to sit down across for him while his eyes drank her in, from her nipped-in waist to her blossoming breasts and suddenly long limbs.
“You’ve put on weight,” he told her.
“A little bit.” She blushed as she took a seat. “Why am I here? It seems like you’re not happy to see me at all, Daddy.”
She saw him flinch at her use of the word, but he merely shook his head and let it go.
“It’s time we talk about some things, Evangeline,” he told her simply. “I need you to understand what your daddy does in his free time. I run a club, Evangeline, do you understand?”
“What kind of club?” she asked, furrowing her brows. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“It’s a private gentlemen’s club,” he explained slowly. “Everything a man could possibly want. At a price.”
Her heart pounded as she listened to him. An idea blossoming inside her. Was this her chance for revenge, for peace of mind?
“So, all those women…” she let her words trail off.
“They’re part of the club,” he nodded. “They’ve willingly been sold, or are in the process of it.”
“S-sold?” the girl stuttered. “You say it like they’re animals.”
“No, sweetheart.” Daddy laughed out loud. “They have everything they could possibly want, and they all agreed to this. They get paid handsomely for their services.”
“So they’re whores!” she exclaimed, giving him an incredulous look. She pushed her chair back and sprang to her feet, feeling suddenly sick. “What you’re doing here is wrong. Very wrong.”
“It may be,” Daddy said. “But it’s what’s been paying for everything you’ve ever wanted, sweetheart. Everything you wished for, every gift, was paid for by this.”
She felt very sick all of a sudden, and pressed her palm over her mouth to stop herself from retching.
“I don’t like that,” she whispered, but he merely shrugged.
“I don’t really care, Evangeline,” he said. “It is what it is. You’re almost eighteen now. It was time you found out.”
“That you’re running a brothel?” she spat out at him.
Daddy got up very slowly, smoothed down his shirt, and walked up to her. His smack reverberated through her whole body.
“Don’t disrespect me again,” he told her calmly. “I want you to be a good little girl for me, and not fucking talk back like that. Understood?”
She nodded, biting back tears and caressing her burning cheek. “Yes, Daddy.”
“Good girl,” he said sweetly. “Good fucking girl. Now, I’ll see you at dinner. And I expect you to be on your best behavior after the way you’ve acted tonight. Got it?”
She nodded again, holding back the tears of humiliation that were threatening to spill from her eyes. She went back to her room and spent the rest of the day thinking about what she’d just found out.
Empire Sin…
A club that could get a rich man everything he’d ever wanted.
At a price.
And she came up with a plan.
She’d have to give up her body.
But the price Carter Knight would pay for her would be worth it.
His life would go up in flames, and maybe, finally, she’d feel sated when she’d had her revenge.
The next morning, I padded to the bathroom barefoot and in the slip I’d been given the night before.
This was what I was now. Just a toy, just another one of the Empire Sin girls. Now a bad one too, because I’d abandoned my owner and broken the contract he’d signed when he fucked me in front of my daddy. I should’ve felt bad, or maybe at least worried, but the only thing on my mind was the deep sadness I felt, and the fear that cut deep.
That video clip kept replaying in my mind and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, no matter how hard I tried.
I’d just come out of the bathroom when I bumped into a girl.
“Are you Evangeline?” she whispered, and I gave her a long, strange look.
She looked like me, just shorter and skinnier. But she had the same long brown hair and green eyes, though her face had a smattering of freckles over her nose which mine didn’t.
“Y-yes,” I stuttered. “Why are you asking me that?”
She giggled and gave me a long look.
“You know he makes us all look like you?” she asked bitterly. “You know he calls us all Evangeline when he fucks us?”
My blood ran cold in my veins as I stared at her. This couldn’t be true.
“He makes us call him Daddy,” the girl confided, giggling, when I saw someone come up behind her.
My mouth ran dry as I looked up at him.
“Hello, Daddy,” I said softly.
The girl in front of me froze up and stared at me with wide doe-eyes.
“That’ll be all, Livia,” he told her, and she scurried down the hallway. We both knew she’d be punished for that later.
He kept looking at me, even when she was gone, his eyes burning with something
close to anger.
“Daddy,” I muttered, and he extended a hand towards me. “Oh, Daddy.”
He pulled me into his arms and I let myself sob against his chest, because I needed him so very badly in that moment. He held me close, cooing and smoothing down my hair as I cried. He made it all better just like any daddy should, but when I pulled back from his arms, the familiar ache wasn’t gone from my chest just yet.
“Sweetheart,” he said gently. “Welcome home.”
“Thank you, Daddy,” I whispered. “Thank you for always taking care of me.”
Barron pulled me close again and kissed the top of my head.
“Daddy’s here, darling. Always,” he promised me.
I didn’t know why it made me shiver.
Twenty-Five
Carter
I was worried out of my fucking mind. I had four guys searching for my girl, and all of them were coming up completely empty. Savage had gone back home after calling me every name in the book, and I was left to worry by myself. He’d promised me he’d help me find her, and I had a feeling he’d stay true to his word. He seemed completely obsessed with Evangeline anyway, and maybe him being a dirty old man would finally prove to be useful.
I knew I had to do something else to keep myself busy, and since Savage had told me to connect the dots, I decided to do some more digging into Evangeline’s past. The events that shaped her life took place more than ten years ago, and my memory was somewhat hazy, although I remembered the important details of the whole ordeal. I remembered her father, and I remembered firing him… It was all my fucking fault. My fault her innocence was shattered and my fault her family fell apart. And I was too fucking self-involved, too worried about my own shit to realize what my family had done to hers.
I went to my office in the city and leaned back in the chair where I’d had Evangeline help me what now felt like a lifetime ago. I fired up my computer and looked for all the information I had on her father, on what we’d done to her family. And as I scoured the information, I tried to forget about the last time I’d seen her father, and what a wreck he had been.
Vengeance: A Dark Billionaire Romance (Empire Sin) Page 16
