“So this is your room?” Julie asked. Of course it was. Like they were giving all these girls luxury suites with private bathrooms. The anxiety moved up the back of her throat and formed a lump there. Like hell he wasn’t going to make her sleep with him. They were standing in his room. There was one bed. It was a big bed, but it was still one bed, and he was a man who clearly had strong appetites.
The idea that he wasn’t going to force himself on her... it was all a lie. Maybe he was so deluded he thought she could rewind time and go back to the innocence of her crush on him. Or that she’d be so grateful for the illusion of safety that she’d...
“Yes. This is my room. I’ll bring you some more clothes in the morning.” He went back into the house and toward the door like he was leaving.
Julie trailed him back inside and closed the balcony doors behind her. “Wait, where are you going?”
“To bed.”
But this was his room. If he was going to bed then where was he going?
“I’ll be sleeping in the room next door. Julie, I will never hurt you, but I’m no angel. I can’t share a room with you unless you were to come to me and truly give yourself to me.”
She didn’t need him to re-explain what all that meant. Her mind immediately went back to the conversation at the rest stop where she’d learned he wanted to be her master and for her to come to him happily of her own free will for this treatment.
Given these ugly facts, she didn’t know why she was arguing with him about room accommodations. The space from him would be a welcome relief, but still, she was taking his room. It felt like a worse idea than the two of them sharing it. What if he came to resent her?
“But this room is yours,” Julie said.
“This whole house is mine. Mine and the other partners’. I don’t always sleep in my own room anyway.”
“Oh.” Images of him surrounded by endless willing sexual partners flooded her mind. Maybe she did still have the crush. Maybe she did still impossibly want him—because the most prominent feeling she had suddenly was jealousy.
“Goodnight, Julie.”
“Gabe. wait. I really can’t take your room. For how long?” Maybe he imagined she’d quickly fall into his arms and then it wouldn’t matter because he’d be back in here in a few days or a week.
He moved back to her, and without meaning to, she took a few steps back. But he caught her and took her hands in his. “Try to understand. You aren’t some stray I picked up on the side of the road. Your happiness and health and safety matter to me more than anything else. I don’t need a fancy room. I need you to be well provided for and to feel safe, and not in a room with barely any light. If you need something, I’m next door. If you get hungry, you’ll find the kitchen downstairs. You can’t miss it. The other girls aren’t allowed in there after hours, but you can go where you want here. My home is your home. Okay?”
She nodded. Gabe bent and kissed the top of her forehead. “I’ll see you in the morning. Try to sleep.”
Then he was gone.
But she couldn’t sleep because now that she was alone, she finally had time to review the events of the evening. Gabe was obviously sending someone in to kill Dmitri and his guys, but what did that mean for her friends? Would they be killed too? Would they be captured and brought here? Even if they were treated a little nicer and fed a little better, Gabe wouldn’t just keep them all and leave them unmolested. Would they sell them? The idea was so distressing that for the first time in months Julie couldn’t sleep.
Before, the fantasy of Gabe somehow magically rescuing her had kept her going. Now that it had actually happened, she couldn’t come up with a similarly nice mental ending for her friends—no matter how hard she tried.
34
Bright light startled Julie from a sleep it felt she’d only found mere moments ago, though the clock on the nightstand said differently. In that first brief second of wakefulness, before she opened her eyes, she was sure it was a guard shining a flashlight in her face. But the bed she was in was too comfortable—the mattress too firm and nice, the sheets too luxurious and soft. All at once the events of the previous night came flooding back.
It had been hard to sleep, but now that she was awake and the bedding had warmed and molded around her body like a big fluffy dog, it was difficult to get up. While she was afraid of what might happen with Gabe and was still trying to process a rescue that had arrived at the cost of any hope of future freedom—not that she’d really had that hope—the biggest fear overtaking all the circuits of her brain was for her friends and what would happen to them now.
For six months, those women had become her family. They’d comforted each other through difficult nights and after horrible clients. They fed each other the best they could when one among them—more often than not, Julie herself—was denied food. Umiko had been Dmitri’s favorite scapegoat until Julie had arrived, then it seemed like she couldn’t get a proper meal after that. Despite the big buffet at the mall, her stomach growled, as if broadcasting the anxiety that it might never be properly fed again.
Last night she’d been certain she couldn’t give Gabe the things he wanted, but in the daylight, things looked different, mainly because of her friends still locked away and the new dangers coming their way soon.
There was a knock on the door.
“Who is it?”
“It’s Gabe. Can I come in?”
“Okay.” Him knocking on his own door and asking his captive’s permission to come in the room was so weird, for a second Julie thought she might still be dreaming.
He dropped a pile of clothes on the bed. Brightly colored sweatpants and shorts, a lot of white T-shirts, socks, running shoes, and undergarments. “I’m sorry for the whole Workout Barbie thing. If you ever decide to be mine, we will definitely upgrade your wardrobe. There should be fresh towels in your bathroom. They’ll stop serving breakfast in the cafeteria in another hour, so you should hurry unless you want lunch instead. I need to get to work, but I’m sure I’ll see you later.”
He started to leave.
“Gabe, wait.”
He stopped and turned, a question in his eyes.
Suddenly the words didn’t want to come out of her mouth. She took a deep breath, in an attempt to steady her nerves. After a good rest, she believed Gabe wouldn’t share her or starve her, that he would protect her. After all, she’d known him—however casually—for a long time before last night. And upon reflection, his recent actions fit more closely with the man she’d thought he was, rather than the one she feared he was.
Her friends weren’t so lucky, however traumatic it might be to be Gabe’s slave.
“Julie?”
“I-I’ll do it.”
“Do what?”
“What you said you wanted. I’ll be your slave.”
His expression shuttered, suspicious. “Why?”
Julie’s gaze went to the pile of clothes on the bed. She couldn’t look him in the eyes. “I’m afraid for the other girls at Dmitri’s house. I-if you spare them, and don’t bring them back here... just let them go... I’ll do whatever you want me to do f-for as long as you want it.” She chanced a look up at Gabe and was surprised to see he looked angry. Really? He couldn’t give her this one thing if she would give him everything?