“Just…tell her we’ll give her enough money to start a new life somewhere else.”
“I already offered her something like that, but…I don’t know how to explain it.” Gabe seems just as frustrated as Ivan about this. “I don’t think…I mean, I don’t think she is equipped to be on her own.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Ivan growls.
Gabe takes a deep breath, struggling to find the right words.
“Ivan—boss,” he corrects, “this girl is in bad shape. Physically…as well as mentally. When I ask her what I can do to help her, she tells me she wants to die.”
Ivan pushes off the table and gets up. I sigh, but follow his lead. I slip back into my dress shoes and button-up shirt, but I’m not putting that fucking jacket back on. Ivan doesn’t say shit to me about it either, thankfully.
We take the elevator down to the basement and exit into a long hallway.
When we pass the first door, I come to a sudden halt. It’s a big iron door with a food slot, like a prison door. Next to the door is a large window that allows me look into the cell that holds nothing but a dirty mattress.
The room, if you can even call it one, contains four white walls without windows, a cold concrete floor, and nothing else. My mind flickers to Violet and the thought of her being locked up in a place like this. It’s so absurd, it’s hard to imagine, but when I meet my brother’s gaze and see the look of guilt and shame one his face, I know it’s true.
I shake my head, trying to get the image of sweet, gentle Violet locked up in this hell hole out of my mind. We continue walking down the hallway, passing three more of those same cells, before Gabe stops in front of one. I clench my jaw, my gut tightening.
“She has been here for a week and hasn’t eaten anything. I’ve tried to bring her food from the canteen…even candy bars. She won’t eat.”
I look through the large window into the cell. It looks like all the other cells, the only difference is the small women curled up on the mattress.
She’s turned away from us, a mop of dark brown hair cascading across the pillow tucked beneath her head. My eyes roam over her tiny form. A long, simple dress covers most of her body. Some of her back is exposed and what I find when I look at the creamy white skin makes me want to punch the concrete wall before me.
“Are those whip marks?” Ivan sounds as if he’s appalled.
“Yes, she was brought in with them. I’ve tried tending to the wounds, but she doesn’t want anyone to touch her.”
“Probably because someone beat the fuck out of her,” I say through clenched teeth. Both Gabe and Ivan’s eyes swing to mine as if they’re shocked to hear me say something. My heart pounds furiously. If her parents did this to her, I want to take a belt and beat the fuck out of them until they feel the same pain.
“The first few days, she just cried and screamed, begging me not to hurt her when I came into the cell…even though I told her I wasn’t going to. But now…she just lies there. Almost catatonic.”
“And she doesn’t want to leave?” Ivan asks once more.
“No,” Gabe answers with a shake of his head, his eyes moving back toward the cell. Ivan runs a hand through his hair, frustration riddling his features.
“Well, we can’t fucking leave her here. I promised Violet I would shut this shitshow down. There is no way I’m going to go back on my word to her.”
I stare straight ahead at the tiny body lying on the mattress. The raised black and blue marks on her back make the acid in my stomach rise into my throat. She needs someone to save her, to put all her broken pieces back together, and I wish I was a good enough man to do that.
Silence settles over us as we all look at her through the small window. The clearing of Ivan’s throat breaks the silence.
“Would you take her? Until we can get something figured out?” I blink, pulling my gaze away from her to my brother.
“Are you seriously asking me to take her home with me?” I’m surprised. I’m the least responsible person ever. I fight for a fucking living, I fuck everything with a vagina, and I’m pretty sure I’m addicted to Adderall. Giving me this woman—this girl—is probably worse than sending her wherever he planned to fucking send her.
Ivan gives me an impassive look. “Yeah, I’m fucking asking you. I guess I could tell you you’re taking her, but I’d rather you just fucking agree. It would make all of this easier.”
“I’m going to go…” Gabe takes a couple steps back, as if he knows he should get out of here before shit hits the fan. He’s smart to do so. I’m fuming mad that Ivan is talking to me like he fucking owns me, like I’m one of his fucking men.
“You might be able to boss these fuckers around, but you can’t boss me around,” I growl, clenching my hands into fists. I want to punch this asshole in the face. He doesn’t have the slightest clue of how bad of an idea this is.
Everything my hands touch turns to shit—everything. The last thing I need is some broken girl coming into my life. I’m not the fucking man to save her, or even help her. I’m the kind of bastard who will leave her worse off than she is right fucking now.
“Roman…” Ivan’s features soften, but frustration lights in his eyes. “I know you’ve got your own shit going on, but I don’t have room for her. I can’t have Violet stressed out during her pregnancy, and I don’t want to just send her somewhere. She’s going to be terrified and will most likely end up talking about this place. We paid the other girls off so they would keep quiet, but she obviously doesn’t care about cash. You’re the next best thing—hell, the only thing that can keep this from taking a turn for the worst…if that’s even fucking possible.”
I grind my molars in anger. Fucking Christ, I am not the man for this job, and I don’t know any other way to tell him other than to prove it to him, and the girl, she doesn’t fucking deserve that.
“You know I’m not capable of caring for someone else. I barely have my own shit together.”
“I know, but it won’t be forever. Just until I can figure out somewhere for her to go, maybe a woman’s shelter or something, but I need to make sure she’s not going to off herself as soon as we send her off. I can’t have this on my conscious—it’s already maxed out. I don’t know what else to do with her.” Ivan shrugs. Tension riddling his body. With all the new changes taking place here, he’s spending more time here than at home, and when he is not around Violet, he gets irritated.
I look back at the nameless girl in the cell. She needs someone—anyone—anyone but me. If I’m all she has, if I’m the only fucking thing that can help her right now, I guess I’ll have to be enough. With a nervous twist in my gut and a sheen of sweat on my hands, I nod my head.
“What’s that mean? Yes? No?” His eyes bore into mine.
“Yes, I’ll fucking do it,” I grit out, wishing I didn’t have to fucking admit it aloud. Ivan smiles, a real smile, each of his sparkly white teeth showing. Why the fuck is he so happy?
“Thank you, brother.” He clamps a hand on my shoulder, and I have half a mind to shrug it off. He shouldn’t be thanking me. He has no fucking idea what he just condemned this girl to. I’m an asshole on my best days, and a bastard, a crazy asshole, on my really, really bad days. If she’s afraid of Gabe, I can’t imagine how she’s going to feel when she sees me.