Fuck. She was going to get herself killed. She’d never get off the property with all of Dmitri’s men patrolling. Even if she did, they’d hunt her down. They were professionals. They hadn’t avoided prison this long by being drooling morons.
Gabe pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed as he strode down the hall and down the stairs.
“This is Dmitri,” the slimy little worm said on the other end. Refined my ass.
“I want to buy her,” Gabe said without preamble.
Dmitri chuckled. “Who? Julie? She’s free for the night. It’s on the house.”
“No, I mean I want to buy her and take her out of here. I want to own her.”
“I find that very hard to believe. Julie is not our best.”
“So you’ve said. And like I said, she needs a proper firm hand. She needs to be punished in ways you don’t have the imagination for. Anyway, I want her. You were retiring her anyway, why not make a little money in the parting? You know she’ll never escape me.”
It was true that if Julie was ever to come to him on her own and give herself to him, he would train her, and that would include some punishment no doubt, but everything he’d said to Dmitri since he’d stepped inside this house was designed to not show weakness.
“So you think you’ll get a cheap bargain, do you? Is this like—what do you Americans call it—a garage sale?”
Dmitri had been in the country long enough that he knew what Americans called everything. He just liked to feign confusion and play the ‘new to the country’ card.
“No. I’ll pay your price. Name it.”
“All right. I’ll call your bluff. Five-hundred thousand. Still interested?”
“Done,” Gabe said. He opened the front door and strode across the lawn, his eyes immediately finding Julie on the ground with guns trained on her. “Your guards are about to shoot my property. Let me break this up, and then I’ll wire the money to you.”
“Very well. Let me speak to one of them.”
He pulled the phone away from his ear. “Gentlemen, hold your fire.”
Gabe’s gaze shifted to Julie in the passenger seat. She’d been quiet for a long time, and he’d been too lost inside his own thoughts to push her, but now he wanted answers.
“I want to talk about what happened. I want to know how you came to be with Dmitri and I want to know what they did to you. Don’t leave anything out.”
As Julie slowly unloaded her story on him, Gabe clenched the steering wheel so hard he was afraid it would come off in his hands. But somehow he kept the car intact. What she managed to share with him with only a few tears was harrowing. All those men. All those months. The abuse from the guards. Constant threat of death. Being imprisoned like that.
And now what the fuck was he doing? He was taking her to the house. Another fucking mansion she’d be a prisoner in and never get to leave. A place where they were training women to be literal slaves. They may have agreed to the arrangement, but it wasn’t as if Julie had agreed to it. But then, he wasn’t selling her either. Or sharing her. He didn’t know exactly what he was going to do with her, but he wasn’t going to force or hurt her. Eventually she would come to him on her own. Maybe. If she wasn’t too traumatized for that. All he cared about right now was that he’d gotten her away from Dmitri. She’d never be hurt like that again.
“Gabe?”
“Yeah?”
“W-will you tell me where we’re going?”
“I’m taking you to my house. It’s a bit of a drive. We should be there in another hour.”
“Okay.”
She looked scared, but not scared enough to try to get away from him. Gabe suspected her fears were about the same kinds of things that had made her nervous about him on their date. And maybe more things now in light of her past few months of hell.
“Gabe?”
“Yes, Julie?”
“What are you going to make me do?”
There was a rest stop less than a mile up the road. Gabe took the exit and eased the car into the near-deserted parking lot at the far end. He turned off the ignition and shifted in his seat toward his anxious captive. If possible, she tensed more, as if this stopping of the car meant he was ready for her sexual services. He was glad he hadn’t eaten at the buffet. The very thought of what she no doubt imagined was about to happen made it hard to keep down the food from Dmitri’s party. But Gabe wasn’t sure he could have this conversation without letting her see his face and giving her every opportunity to try to find something she could trust there.
“Julie, listen to me. I’m not going to make you do anything. I am not a rapist. I’m not a pimp.” Well, not exactly, he thought. But better to ease her into the nuance than try to explain it outright.
“But you paid a lot of money. I can barely understand the concept of that much money. Surely you want something out of me in return. And you said I was yours now.”
He watched as she mentally seemed to calculate what she thought she could be okay with giving him, and little of it was likely on the menu of the things he would actually demand of her should she ever truly submit to him.
“You are mine. It’s the only honest way to look at it. And I do want things from you. A lot of things. But none of it has anything to do with you owing me some debt. Yes, I paid half a million dollars. But I paid a ransom. I didn’t pay for your services. Half a million was what Dmitri demanded to set you free, and that is what I paid. I would go back and pay it again. I would have paid more. But you don’t owe me a debt. I am plenty comfortable. I don’t need your indentured servitude. And I definitely don’t need it given unwillingly.”
“Okay, I don’t owe you a debt, but you want things. What things do you want?”
Gabe sighed. “If I tell you, you might get out of this car and run. Then I’ll have to chase you down and drag you back. I’m not going to force myself on you, but you can’t go back to your old life. If Dmitri or one of his men sees you out in the wild, you’re dead or right back in there again. And once you see the operation at my house, you become a liability to me as well. So yes, I’m locking you away. I know that’s a felony. I understand it’s evil. But, I’m not going to rape you or beat you or starve you or in any way bring harm upon you, and I won’t allow anyone else to, either. If it takes you time to trust that, fine.”
He didn’t add that although he was angry and horrified by what she’d been through, now he didn’t have to feel guilty about taking her because there was no free life for her out there anymore. Not after Dmitri. Being Gabe’s prisoner in a nice place where he wouldn’t let anybody hurt her and all her needs would be met was far better than someone finding her body in pieces in a dumpster somewhere a few months down the road. It was beyond fucked-up that a few months ago the kindest thing he could have done for her was leave her alone, and now the kindest thing he could do for her was take her captive.
Julie stared out the window, and Gabe wondered if she was contemplating that escape. Despite what she must be thinking, she had to know it would be suicide to run from him. Where could she go outside Dmitri’s reach? Wasn’t the devil she knew better? The devil who had already done the decent thing once?