Chapter 10

Khai waited until Grace was sound asleep before he slid out of bed, tucked a blanket over her, and quietly left the room. He debated leaving her for a while before he did so. He was worried she might wake up scared or confused, and he didn't want her to think he'd abandoned her.

The truth was that he realized his life had flipped upside down and turned inside out in the span of a few hours. The road in front of them was going to be rough, and he needed more information.

Khai wanted to know every damn thing there was to know about this case so he could help. One thing was for sure—none of these women would truly be free to live their lives until the seller was caught and locked away for good.

Human trafficking wasn't foreign to Khai. He'd been aware of it in other countries. He'd known, in theory, that it existed inside the United States, but knowing and being slapped in the face with it were two different things.

When he joined everyone in the kitchen, he looked around for a moment and took in the scene. It was seriously like the command center of a rocket launch. That thought occurred to him yet again. Even the women were at the table. Everyone was doing something. Going through files. Clicking around in the computer. Leaning over maps.

"Hey," Jagger said when he noticed Khai at the edge of the fray. "She fall asleep?"

"Yeah." He rubbed his hands together. "I'd love it if you all brought me up to speed and put me to work."

Jagger smiled. "Figured you'd say that." He motioned Khai to join him in front of a computer. "I'll give you the Cliff's Notes version and let you read through the briefs. It will help if you study the names of all the players so you won't be confused about who everyone is and what their part is."

"Perfect. Thank you."

"No, really, thank you. This is an ugly, messy operation. Most of the people in this room are volunteering their time and energy to find all six women and make sure there are no others. Do you have a job you need to get back to?"

Khai shook his head. "No. I've been taking my time. I get offers from men I know from the service from time to time, but I have my savings and disability benefits from the Army. It's not enough to live off forever. Eventually, I'll get a job, but I can get by for a long time."

"Good. And you and Grace?" He left that question hanging. "I don't mean to pry. I'm just curious. None of us want to make assumptions. You've had a lot dumped on your plate today, all of it unexpected. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to run for the hills."

"Fuck no. I've known for a while that something horrible happened to Grace. I've known just as long that whatever it was, I would be here for her no matter what."

Jagger gave a small smile. "Want to know how I met Kally?"

Khai gave him a crisp nod. "Yep. Give it to me."

"The man who pretended to be her new Master and picked her up from the auction was holding her for another man who was out of town. First chance she got, she found a gun and shot him until all the rounds had fired."

Khai smiled. Good for her.

"She was naked, scared out of her mind, and sitting in the blood spatter when the police figured out she was one of our victims and called me in. Thank God because the only way anyone could've reached her was to use her slave name, Oleander. I was on my knees, literally and figuratively. She was so strong and kept insisting she wanted to be arrested for the murder. I think I was half in love with her before I got her out of that house."

"Why did she want to be arrested?" Khai asked.

"She knew the buyer and the seller were still out there. She thought the only place she would be safe was prison."

"Wow. It wasn't a bad plan." Khai glanced across the table to find Kally smiling at him.

She shrugged and nodded toward Jagger. "Jerk wouldn't take me to jail. He brought me here instead. And then he kept me. Can you believe it?" she joked.

Khai stared at her. He was certain he had a very strange grin on his face, but what he was thinking was how far she must have come since that night because, now, she could sit here and joke around about the events as if she'd gone to the movies instead of having to kill a man. She'd obviously had good counseling. Khai prayed Grace would be as well-adjusted as Kally and the others were in a few months.

Jagger was smirking. "Like she would leave…" he murmured.

Khai liked these people. Already, he knew he would fit in. He turned toward Jagger. "I have an apartment on the other side of Denver."

"Stay here for a while—if you don't mind. It'll be easier to bring you up to speed and let Grace get reacquainted with the others. Therapeutic. If either of you gets overwhelmed, hide in the bedroom."

Khai stared at him, reading between the lines. "You don't think it's safe for her out there."

"No, I don't. To be blunt, I don't take my woman off my property without protection. When we go places, we're armed, and we move in numbers."

Khai nodded slowly. It was hard to wrap his head around this part. "Do you think the seller will come after them for revenge?"

"Not really. I'm just fucking cautious. To be honest, my gut tells me the seller has no idea four women have been rescued. He got his money. He washed his hands. It's not his problem if the women escaped or their buyers were caught and put in jail."

"And what about this Master J who trained them? You said he's been arrested?" Khai cringed.

Jagger nodded. "Yes. Jovani Russo is in prison. We've questioned him a hundred times. I'm convinced he knows nothing. He was paid handsomely to do a job—train six women as sex slaves. He doesn't know who paid him or where the man is. He also doesn't know who the six buyers were. That was above his pay grade, so to speak. It seems Russo was truly an uninformed middleman."

Khai sat back and ran a hand down his face. "Jesus," he muttered.

"Yeah. It's a shitshow."

"How much does a well-trained, gorgeous young virgin sell for?" Khai asked under his breath.

"A million dollars."

Khai gasped before he covered his mouth and rubbed his chin. Jesus. No wonder they were all careful. If the seller ever decided to take revenge on these women…

"Yeah. You get it," Axel said from behind Jagger. "We're just careful."

"We can't stay here forever," Khai murmured.

"You can stay as long as you need or want," Jagger responded.

Khai drew in another deep breath. "And then there's the fact that you don't know where Grace's buyer is."

"Exactly," Jagger agreed. "We got a search warrant for his property and combed through the place. We found his own blood near the bar in the living room. That matches with Grace's statement that she knocked him out with the fire poker. What happened after that is anyone's guess, but I'm going to assume Chekov woke up, cleaned up the mess, and took off. Maybe he even left the country. We're still digging into the possibilities, but so far, he's in the wind."

He could come after Grace. Shit.

"I guess we're staying here for now," Khai muttered.

"Good choice." Jagger tapped the computer screen. "I'll let you look this over so you can catch up." He scooted the computer toward Khai and then rose. "Ask anyone if you have questions."

"Thank you." Khai grabbed the mouse, leaned on an elbow, and dove into the intricate world of human trafficking. He immersed himself for so long that when he leaned back to stretch his neck, he realized he'd been gone from Grace for over an hour.

Khai shoved to his feet and nearly jogged up the stairs. He opened the door quietly in case she was still sleeping. And then his heart nearly stopped.

Grace was wide awake. She was sitting against the headboard, hugging a pillow to her chest, staring into space. She didn't even glance in his direction as Khai slid into the room and shut the door.

"Grace?" He approached slowly and sat on the edge of the bed.

Still staring blankly across the room, she said, "I spent three months sort of pretending none of it happened. I stuffed it into the back of my mind. I spent every day existing. Eating. Sleeping. Showering. Repeat. It's so real now." She dropped the pillow, pulled her knees up to her chest, and set her chin on her knees.

Khai tentatively reached out to set a hand on her head. "I'm so sorry, love."

She chuckled dryly.

"What's funny, Grace?"

"I told you I was sorry a million times. Now, it's you."

He crawled up, sat next to her, and wrapped an arm around her. It was so hard to know what to say. What did she need? He would give her the moon, but he wasn't sure the moon was what she wanted.

"It's so loud down there, and everyone is working so hard to solve a crime I was a victim of, and I'm sitting up here paralyzed and numb."

Khai leaned over and kissed her temple. "That's okay, Grace. No one expects anything from you. Everyone understands."

"Do they? I'm such a coward. First chance I got, I ran and found someplace to hide."

"You had a good reason. We all understand that. If I were duped by a police officer, I wouldn't call the cops again for anything."

She released her knees and leaned into his side. "I know this sounds absurd, but I feel trapped. I'm more scared now than I was before. I'm stuck in this house. I don't even know these people. I can no longer ignore what happened to me. I'm not Goldilocks living in the bear's house, eating his food, and sleeping in his bed. I'm not Tulip. I'm not a sex slave any longer. I'm Grace Scarponi. Who is she?"

"All of your feelings are valid, love," he assured her. "We'll figure out who Grace is. I promise. And we'll make sure she leads a long, healthy life filled with laughter and joy."

She scooted away from him, dropped onto her side, and curled up in a ball, facing the room.

He slid down behind her, spooned her, and set a hand on her hip, trying not to crowd her, but at the same time, he wanted her to feel his presence.

Minutes ticked by before she spoke. "I feel like I'm floating outside my body. My life has these compartments. It's divided into sections. There was my childhood—carefree and fun with my grandparents. Laughter and fishing and playing in the lake… Then there were the years of sickness and death as they both grew old and died. The years I became a caregiver and had no other life… Then, I moved to stage three. I moved to the city and started making my own way in life. I got to do that for about fifteen minutes. Stage four was a year and a half of being treated like an animal." She shuddered.

Khai held his breath and gently stroked her hip as she spoke.

"I don't know what to call stage five. It's like a weird limbo where I hid out, pretending none of the prior stages happened. I don't know why I didn't contemplate drowning myself in that lake. But it was during that stage that a man walked into my life who didn't want to own me or treat me like dirt. He respected me and made me feel like I mattered."

Emotions welled up in Khai, making it impossible to respond.

"And then…boom. Today, I'm yanked out of that pretend life. It was never real, anyway. It was an illusion. All in my head. Now, I'm forced to face my demons, and I'm tired and lonely. And that sounds ridiculous because I'm finally surrounded by people who care and want to help. But I'm disconnected, and it's oddly lonely. And I don't want to go back downstairs and face them. I'm just so…tired." Her voice trailed off.

It occurred to Khai that Grace had shared more and said more words today than she had cumulatively over the past month. He was grateful that she was no longer holding back, but he didn't know quite how to respond in a way that wouldn't make things worse.

He scooted closer to her and slid his hand from her hip and around to her torso so he could hold her tighter. He wouldn't tell her this, but he was pretty fucking scared himself. Scared that he might lose her in this mess. She might look up one day and realize he'd been her transition boyfriend. It could happen—sort of like a rebound boyfriend.

Suddenly, she flipped onto her back and looked up at him. "I have a question, and I want you to tell me the truth."

"Always, love."

"This morning, before the FBI showed up, we were having a pretty serious discussion. You said you wanted more from me. You said a lot of things. Do you still feel that way after everything you've found out since then?"

"Yes. Definitely." He didn't hesitate. "I feel even more strongly about you now than I did this morning."

"But, how can you? I'm broken and far more of a mess than you suspected."

"I see it differently. I see a woman who is so fucking strong that she got away from her abuser the first chance she got. She walked for miles to get away—with no clothes and bare feet. She was resourceful enough to find a place to stay, food to eat, and clothes to wear. She didn't drown herself in the lake. She persevered. And now that I know more about what you've been through, I'm even more in awe of your strength."

She stared at him and then licked her lips. "There's a tattoo on me and a fucking chip under it. The girls said I can get them removed."

He nodded. "You can. If you want, I'll have Jagger arrange that immediately."

"Gemma said no one can possibly be tracking me through the chip. Do you think that's true?"

"I'm positive, love. For one thing, it would need a large battery to work for more than a few minutes. For another thing, I trust Jagger. He's an expert on those chips. He wouldn't lie to me. Plus, if someone had been able to track you, they would've done so weeks ago."

She nodded. "Right. Okay. Well, I hate it, and I want it off me."

"Done. What else do you need immediately?"

"I need you to have sex with me. Will you do that?"

His breath hitched, and he stared at her, blinking. "Grace…"

She rolled her eyes and turned her head away. "See? You don't look at me the same as you did this morning. I knew it."

He rose above her so fast that he was straddling her body on his hands and knees before she realized what he was doing. "Grace, look at me."

Her eyes were wide as she turned her head to face him.

"Do not put words in my mouth, love. I didn't say any such thing. You just asked me to have sex with you out of the blue. Give me a few seconds to form an appropriate response."

"You mean to figure out how to tell me no," she snarked.

"Grace Scarponi, as much as I love this spunky side you're dragging out into the open, you don't get to tell me what I'm thinking or feeling."

"I'm just being real."

"Nope. You're way off base. Do I want to have sex with you? No. I want to make love to you for hours until all you can do is feel. I want to make you moan and cry out my name. I want to watch your mouth fall open and your eyes roll back. I want you so sated that you're limp and sex-drunk so that when I slide my cock into you, all you can see are stars. That's what I want to give you. But I think you're in shock right now, and I would never want you to make a rash decision while you're trying to find yourself. That would be selfish of me."

Her mouth fell open as he spoke. For a moment, she didn't respond. And then she grabbed his T-shirt at his hips and squeezed. "How about you try to see this through my eyes?"

He did a partial push-up to lower himself so that his face was a breath from hers. He dropped a kiss onto her lips. "Tell me, love."

She was a bit flustered as she tried to continue. "The reason I haven't had sex before is not from some misplaced desire to remain chaste or some shit before marriage. I just didn't have time to think of something like that in the years other girls were experimenting. I had to hurry home from high school to help my grandparents. I nursed my grandmother for years after I graduated. I did everything for her. I didn't get to date or even leave the house. And I'm not complaining. I loved her, and she needed me. I never once felt like I'd drawn the short straw. I was so lucky to get to spend that time with the two people who took me in, raised me, and loved me unconditionally."

Khai understood where she was coming from.

She drew in a breath and kept going. "I was only in the city for a few months. I barely had time to get settled, let alone date or have sex. I may not have saved myself for some religious reason, but I wasn't going to jump into bed with a stranger."

"I get that, love," he whispered.

She tugged on his shirt. "I've never had an orgasm, Khai. Never. But I've been driven to the edge of one a thousand times. It was cruel on a level you can't begin to imagine."

He shuddered. The thought of someone rubbing his cock every day and never letting him ejaculate made him feel violent. Thank God Jovani Russo was in prison. If the man were still roaming the streets free, Khai might have been inclined to hunt him down, cut his dick off with a butter knife, and feed it to him.

"You know I have nightmares," she said softly.

"Yes, love."

"Half the time, I dream I'm being punished for some infraction, and I'm scared and running and trying to get away before they can stuff me in that fucking dog kennel."

"I understand that now, yes."

"Well, that's not the only nightmare I have. The other half of the time, I'm restrained to all four corners of a padded bench, and men are touching me—flicking my nipples, tapping my clit, or stroking my inner thighs. They do so for hours, making me so horny that my own arousal runs down between my legs and drips onto the bench and even the floor. Usually, I'm blindfolded, so I can't see how many men are watching or how many touch me. I can't anticipate their next contact. They leave me hanging for so long that my stomach hurts and my brain turns to mush. Sometimes, I go into my head and try to ignore them. There's nothing more humiliating than being forced to maintain hard, pointed nipples and a swollen clit. Forced to the point that I would beg someone to please fuck me or at least let me come."

Khai gritted his teeth. She was right. He couldn't fathom that kind of torture. He knew she wasn't just talking about a dream. That had been her reality. "And you never accidentally had an orgasm?"

She shook her head. "No. There was only one time that happened. It was Daffodil. She came once. The rest of us had no idea what happened to her or how she was punished. She disappeared for a week. We assumed she was dead. And then she was back. She never spoke of it, but then again, we never spoke much at all. The risk of being punished was too great."

"Jesus…"

"Make it stop, Khai."

He flinched. The nightmare? Shit. She needed him to respond, though, so he did. "I can do that."

Her eyes went wide. "You'll have sex with me?"

"No. I'll make you come. I don't have to have sex with you to make you come."

She hesitated. "That's not fair to you."

"Oh, my love, it's more than fair. It would be my pleasure and always will be."

"Can I make you come, too? Will you show me how?"

"Grace, someday you will make me come. But not today. Sex isn't something we'll be keeping a tally about. I will always make sure you're satisfied first, over and over, if that's what it takes to make your eyes roll back. You will come multiple times to every one of mine. There will be days—like today—when you're the only one who reaches orgasm."

She frowned. "Don't you, uh, need…"

"Nope. Is my cock hard? Yes. It always is when you're around. But men are not all animals. We can control our dicks. You've spent far too much time surrounded by the scum of the earth. I'll do my best to chip away at how you were treated until you wake up one day with a totally different outlook on sex and love."

She gave him a coy smile he'd never seen before. "You can at least try."

He chuckled. "It will be my pleasure, love. How about, for now, you let me kiss you? Really kiss you. Not a peck. A long kiss that leaves us both panting."

She licked her gorgeous, swollen lips. "I'd like that." She reached up and cupped his face. "Men have had their hands all over my body, but you're the only man who has ever kissed me."

His heart seized. Holy fuck. No pressure.

Khai cradled her face in his hands, tipped his head to one side, and kissed her. He didn't hold back. He kissed her deeply, dragging his tongue along the seam of her lips until she opened for him.

She moaned into his mouth, her hands gripping his shirt and then sliding up his body. She clutched at his back with her fingertips. She met his tongue in a duel, panting into his mouth. When she started to writhe beneath him, he tucked a knee between her legs and pressed his thigh against her pussy.

Grace was so fucking responsive. Was it learned? Or was it him?

When he released her lips to trail kisses to her neck, she whimpered, squirming hard, pressing her pussy deliberately against his leg.

Khai licked her earlobe and breathed into her ear. "Damn, you are sexy." He slid a hand down to cup her pussy over her jeans. She was hot, and holy hell, she was also wet. Even the denim was damp.

She groaned and gripped his shirt, tugging it with her fist.

Khai slid his hand up to cup her breast over her T-shirt and bra. He easily found her nipple and flicked it as he lifted his face to watch her.

Grace panted and bucked. There was a smile on her lips. She was blissful already, even though she hadn't come yet.

Khai shoved her shirt up above her breasts and brought his mouth to the creamy flesh between the cups of her bra. He slid his tongue under the lace edge, found her nipple, and flicked the puckered tip.

"Oh, God…"

He lifted his face. "That's it, love. Don't hold back with me. Not ever. Come whenever you want to." He would never tell her to wait or withhold orgasms from her. She'd lived in that hell for a year and a half. She needed permission to writhe and cry out and orgasm as often as possible.

When she lifted her hips clear off the bed, he reached for the button on her jeans, popped it open, lowered the zipper, and eased his fingers down into her panties.

Her eyes rolled back when he found her clit and circled it. "Oh, God…" she repeated, her voice breathier. "Please…"

"Yes, love. I'll get you there." He squeezed his hand lower so he could drag his finger between her wet folds and then over her clit.

Grace arched and stiffened, holding her breath. "So close," she cried out.

Khai eased his middle finger into her pussy. Jesus, fuck, she was tight. Of course, she was, but damn. Her pussy gripped his single finger hard. He curled it forward to find her G-spot and, at the same time, ground his palm into her clit.

Grace screamed. Her entire body convulsed—not just her pussy but her arms and legs and chest. She shook so hard it was difficult to hold on to her. She tipped her head back, elongating her neck as unintelligible sounds left her mouth.

She was so fucking perfect. Khai had never seen anything more humbling in his life, and he prayed to God she would give him this a million times in the next seven decades.

She didn't drop her body down to the mattress and turn into liquid, so he kept stroking her, pushing his finger in deeper while finding her clit with his thumb and rubbing it.

Her head came back to center, but her eyes were rolled back. Her mouth was open. She even spread her legs as wide as she could. "Khai…" she groaned.

"I've got you, love. Let it feel good. Let it build again. The next one will be better."

Her head rolled back and forth, and she groaned, but she didn't tell him to stop. In fact, she released his shirt to set her hand over his and apply pressure.

"Do you want me to add another finger, love?" he asked, his voice gravelly with lust.

"Yes… Please…"

Khai added his ring finger, gently easing both in and out of her, going deeper each time.

Her mouth fell open wider; her breath became shallow and erratic. She pressed hard against his hand, keeping him where she wanted.

Khai dipped his head to her chest, nosed the lace down to expose her nipple, and drew the tight pink bud into his mouth.

Grace whispered over and over. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."

Khai dragged his teeth gently over the swollen bud while he rubbed her clit harder with his thumb. He could feel the growing pressure building as her legs stiffened and her breaths came less frequently.

He released her nipple with a pop. "Come for me, love. Come on my hand. Show me how good it feels."

She cried out as her orgasm took her over the edge yet again. Her pussy clamped down on his fingers, pulsing around them. She writhed and whimpered until she finally let her body drop down against the bed, sated, panting, and smiling like she'd won the lottery.