Chapter 8

If it was truly possible for a heart to hurt, Khai's was in tremendous pain. A million times, he'd wondered what she might have endured. None of the possibilities he'd considered came even close to the truth.

Khai carried her to the couch, sat, arranged her comfortably on his lap, and held her as tightly as he could without squishing her. He inhaled her scent, knowing the next words he said would be important and set the tone for their next move.

"I love you, Grace." That summed it up.

Her breath hitched as she stiffened in his lap. "I'm broken," she finally said against his chest.

"Then we'll glue the pieces back together," he promised.

There were giant holes in her story. A year and a half of hell. He couldn't imagine how many times she'd been raped and beaten. He would find out every detail. He would know all of it because that was the best way he could be supportive. But he wouldn't rush her.

She gripped the front of his shirt and held on so tight. "You should put me in that car and let me go."

"Never."

"I'm going to make your life complicated."

"I can handle complicated."

She sobbed against him, her entire body shaking. He knew they were sobs of relief, in a way. Relief that she'd finally unloaded such a heavy burden. Relief that he hadn't abandoned her.

He would not. Yes, this was going to be challenging, but whose life wasn't challenging? There weren't options here. She was his. There was no way in hell he would or could let her walk away.

"I've got you," he whispered against her neck.

She cried harder until the front of his shirt was soaked and she finally relaxed in his arms. When she was spent, he carried her to the bathroom, set her on the counter, and wiped her face with a wet cloth.

He set his hands on either side of her hips and met her gaze. "We should pack our things and go. Jagger is waiting for us."

The thought that they were going to go to an FBI agent's house and stay with him was the looniest part of this entire thing, but he would get more answers later, and if Jagger thought Grace would be safest at his house, Khai wasn't going to argue. Her safety mattered more than anything.

He cupped her cheek and kissed her lips gently. Their first kiss. It wasn't much, but he hoped it conveyed everything. "I'm so glad your name is Grace." He grinned. "Do you know I spent the last month thinking your name started with a T, and you made up Grace on the fly to keep your identity a secret?"

She smiled back. "I hadn't said or heard my name in so long I was still thinking of myself as Tulip, but I definitely didn't want you to call me that. Tulip is a sex slave. I'm Grace."

He cupped her face and kissed her gently again. "Nice to meet you, Grace. I'm Khai. Let's move in together and fall in love."

She giggled before she sobered and grabbed his shirt. "Are you sure about this?"

"Positive. It's not something I need to mull over, love. You were it for me as soon as I found you in my bed. That hasn't changed, and nothing you tell me will make me turn my back on you."

"Okay, but I won't blame you if you change your mind. Also, I'm going to cry like ten more times today."

This time, he kissed her forehead. "I'll hold the tissues." He lifted her off the counter, set her on her feet, and nodded toward the main room. "We'll stuff what we can in my duffle and pack the rest in one of the delivery boxes." Lord knew they had a lot of boxes.

Grace mostly stood around looking lost and numb while Khai packed their stuff. He carried two large boxes and his duffle to the truck while she stared out the back window and twisted her fingers together.

On his last trip, Jagger stepped out of his SUV. "I guess you've made a decision." He looked relieved.

Khai took a breath and wiped his hands on his thighs. "I'm leery and baffled by your offer, but yes. We'll go with you for now. My every move will be to ensure Grace is safe. If something feels off, we will leave. For now, I have no reason not to trust you, and I have more questions than answers. I'm confident I'll get most of my answers from you and your people. I don't want to push Grace to tell me anything she's not ready to face."

Jagger nodded. "Understood. I'm glad she has you. I won't sugarcoat this. The road ahead will be rough. These women have been to hell. It's hard work helping them come back."

"I've been here with Grace for a month, and though I didn't know where Grace came from or what happened to her, I did know it was undoubtedly horrific and abusive. The facts I had led to no other conclusions. I've held her through countless nightmares already. The pieces are starting to come together for me."

Jagger grinned. "So, you came to your cabin for vacation and found a woman squatting on your property, and you kept her?"

Khai smirked. "You gonna tell me you didn't feel the same way about your woman when you met her? I don't know anything about Kalinda, but I do know what it feels like when the right person slams into your life. Nothing else matters. Not the whys or the hows. All I could do was love her and let her tell me what she needed to unload when she was ready."

Jagger nodded. "Yeah, it was just like that. Kally knocked me on my ass. I'll tell you about it sometime. It was a lot more traumatic than finding her squatting in my house."

"Khai?" Grace's soft voice came from the porch.

Khai turned in her direction and headed back to the cabin. "Ready, love?"

"I think so." She glanced down. "I put shoes on," she joked. At least she could joke.

In the coming days, he would glean more and more about her odd behaviors. Apparently, she had not had shoes for eighteen months. Had she had clothes at all?

After another quick look around the cabin, Khai shut and locked the door and stuck the key under the flowerpot.

Grace rolled her eyes. "You do realize that makes it much easier for someone to break in."

He pulled her into his embrace. "What I know is that key brought you to me and kept me from replacing the windowpane. I'll never stop putting it there. You never know when someone might wander by and need a place to sleep. Why should I stop them?"

"You're a good man, Khai Dervis."

"Ready?"

"No, but let's do this."

He took her hand and led her toward the vehicles. Jagger was still standing outside, leaning against his car door. The other man with him held out a hand toward Grace. "I haven't introduced myself. I'm Boyd Lampros, another FBI agent working on this case."

She shook his hand, but she was shaking. "Grace Scarponi."

"So nice to meet you, Grace." He shook Khai's hand next and then handed Khai a business card. "My number is on there in case we get separated. You can follow us, but I wrote the address on the back just as a precaution, too."

Khai helped Grace into the truck and reached across to buckle her in. After rounding to his side, he climbed in, turned on the engine, and looked over at her. "You okay?"

"No."

He smiled and leaned closer, taking her hand and lifting it to his lips. "At least I know you're not lying when you're so blatantly honest. I'll worry if I ever ask you if you're okay and you say yes."

"Maybe one day it can be true," she whispered.

"That will be my life's goal. Now, listen to me, love. You're my top priority at all times. Not these agents, not the women you're going to see. No one else but you. If you're ever uncomfortable with something, tell me, and I'll get you out. If you don't feel right about staying in Jagger's house after we get there, we'll leave."

"Do you have a house in Denver?" she asked.

"An apartment, yes. It's nothing fancy. More like a place to sleep."

"I've never asked you what you plan to do for work. You said you came out here to take a break, but you can't continue to cater to me forever."

He stroked her cheek. "So what if my break is longer than I expected? I get disability benefits from the military. I have options. Someday, I'll want to find work, but I'm in no hurry."

"Oh." She looked down at her lap.

"What are you thinking, love?"

"I'm thinking I'm so wrapped up in my own head that I don't always say the right things."

"No reason to worry, love. I understand." Khai put the truck in drive, turned around in the grass in front of his cabin, and followed Jagger and Boyd down the gravel driveway.

If someone had told him a month ago that he'd be in a relationship with a woman who had him wrapped all the way around her pinky, he would have laughed in their face. How could he have met a woman since his only plan had been to sit in his fishing boat and relax? He hadn't intended to come face to face with a living soul.

He wasn't sorry, though. He'd never be sorry.

Grace looked out the windows with wide eyes as he entered Denver. He'd plugged their destination into his GPS at the first light they'd come to, just so he'd know approximately where they were headed.

"It's been so long since I've seen…anything."

He grabbed her hand and squeezed it, hoping soon there would come a day when he could take her places. The zoo, musicals, restaurants. Anywhere. For now, they were moving from one hiding place to another.

Khai followed Jagger into a gated residence. He parked behind Jagger's vehicle around the back of the house and jumped down from the truck to round it and help Grace out of her side.

Jagger joined them. "Let's go inside. Kally is waiting for us."

"That's Oleander, right?" Grace said.

"Yes." Jagger nodded toward the house just as someone stepped outside.

Khai had to assume this was Kalinda. The thin blond woman ran forward and nearly collided with Grace, knocking her hand out of his as they collided into each other in a hug.

Grace started crying again. Not surprising. But so did Kally, who eventually held Grace out a few inches. "I can't believe you're here."

"I can't believe it either." Grace swiped at her cheeks, brushing the tears away before glancing toward Khai. "This is Khai. I've been hiding in his cabin for three months."

Kally's eyes went wide. "Wow. That's a long time to hide. I'm glad Jagger and his men found you. I'll warn you, though. Marigold and Jasmine are also inside. They came as soon as they heard you were located."

"Gemma and Nora, right?"

"Yes." Kally grinned. "It takes a while to rethink people's names, but you'll get it." She looked up and down Grace's frame. "You look great."

"Physically, I feel good. Khai has been feeding me well. Emotionally, I feel like stepping out in traffic."

Khai flinched at that announcement. He couldn't blame her but hoped she wasn't too serious.

Kally didn't flinch. "That's normal. It will get better. I promise. We have an amazing counselor we're all working with. Dr. Langston is fantastic. She knows our saga. You'll love her because you don't have to repeat every single detail of our captivity. She's heard it all."

"Sounds great."

Khai could read Grace well. She was nervous and struggling to hold it together. He was concerned she might feel bombarded when they got inside. He would guide her past everyone and into a quiet room if she showed signs of stress.

Kally wrapped an arm around Grace and led her toward the glass door.

"It's going to be chaos for a few minutes," Jagger warned as he stepped next to Khai. "These women are bonded in a way we'll never understand. The first three talk to each other nonstop. They'll never meet another soul who understands them as well as they do each other."

"I get that. Is there someplace I can take her to be alone if she gets overwhelmed?" Khai asked as they followed the women into the house.

"Yes. Top of the stairs. The first room on the right is a guest room. It's yours for as long as you'd like. It has a Jack-and-Jill bathroom attached to another guest room. Use both rooms or just one. Whatever you need."

"Thank you." They stepped inside a few seconds behind the women, and the scene stopped Khai in his tracks.

Two things stood out. One, the four women were in a giant group hug that broke his heart into tiny pieces. Two, the kitchen looked like the command center for a rocket launch. The large table was covered with computer equipment, monitors, laptops, stacks of manila folders, and loose notes.

There were far more people here than he'd expected.

Boyd came in behind them and joined a group of men.

Khai glanced in Grace's direction. He didn't care nearly as much about making proper, pleasant introductions as he did about making sure Grace was holding it together.

She glanced back at him for a moment as her three friends led her into the living room. This entire space was a great room, so Khai could still see her, but the slight distance would allow him to speak more freely with the men he was about to meet. When he was relatively certain she was okay for now, he faced the group of men.

Jagger made the introductions. "Everyone, this is Khai Dervis. He's been with Tulip, whose name is Grace Scarponi, for a month." Jagger pointed at the first man. "Khai, that's Damon Albertini. He's been an informant for the FBI for years. He spent three years looking for Gemma after she was abducted, and he eventually purchased her in the auction."

Jesus. This was intense. Khai nodded as Jagger moved to the next man. "Axel Dunbrack. He was undercover with the FBI for a year, trying to nail down the cult he'd infiltrated for human trafficking. Unfortunately, the woman he fell for, Nora, was the next victim. She was the third woman we rescued."

The next man held out a hand. "I'm Robert Suthers. My wife, Ella, and I own a club called Roses and Thorns. Damon, Jagger, and I go way back. I"m not sure if you've been told this yet or not, but my club is somehow mixed up in this trafficking operation. The club logo is what's tattooed on your woman's inner thigh."

Khai inhaled sharply and jerked his attention toward Grace. She wasn't listening to them, however. He was kind of grateful she wasn't witnessing his shock.

"You didn't know," Robert muttered. "Shit. Sorry."

Jagger set a hand on Khai's shoulder and squeezed as he informed the group, "There are a lot of things Khai doesn't know yet. He's in for a world of information."

Khai drew in a long breath. Why did he feel the need to explain himself to these men? "Grace and I haven't…"

"It's okay," Jagger said quietly. "Trust me. We all understand."

Khai licked his lips. "Well, there's a lot Grace hasn't told me."

A woman in a suit was standing on the other side of the men. She seemed out of place, but she finally introduced herself. "I'm Diane Malinsky, the agent in charge of this case. Jagger and Axel both work in my department, and they're running the operation from this kitchen." She waved a hand around. "As you can surely tell."

"I noticed you have a slight limp," Jagger pointed out. "Army injury?"

"Yes. Two years ago. My leg was crushed under a Humvee. Long rehab."

"Ah. Sorry to hear that. Thank you for your service," Diane stated.

Khai nodded at them.

"So, you have military training," Axel acknowledged. "Never know when that might come in handy. We still aren't certain what we're dealing with, but it's deep, it's ugly, and it has a lot of money behind it. The mafia is involved."

"A human trafficking ring…" Khai was still trying to wrap his mind around those. Human trafficking wasn't something he'd ever permitted himself to picture occurring right under his nose in Denver.

Everyone nodded.

Khai shuddered. He also fisted his hands, thinking about what he might do if he was ever face to face with any of the men who'd touched Grace.

Damon must have read his body language. He smirked. "Yeah, you get it, man. Join the club. It's good for the women to have each other to help heal, but the boyfriend club is pretty fucking important, too. If you have any questions, feel free to ask any of us. We'll get all our numbers plugged into your phone this afternoon. Every one of the women responds differently to trauma, so they each have their own idiosyncrasies, but in the end, they lived together in hell, and they need each other to climb out of the abyss."

Jagger pointed toward a new cell phone box on the table. "That's for Grace. I assume she doesn't have a phone."

"She doesn't. You're right. Not for lack of trying. She hated me buying things for her. I stuck to the necessities so she wouldn't freak out and shut down on me," he shared.

"Normal. We've all seen that," Axel said, nodding.

Khai looked around at all of them, trying to decide where to start. "Tell me about this tattoo."

Jagger leaned over a laptop in front of him, clicked a few keys, and then turned the monitor so Khai could see it.

"Jesus," he murmured.

"It's worse than it looks," Damon added. "Are you sure you're ready to hear all this?"

Khai drew in a breath and nodded. "I'm positive I don't want to know any of this, especially knowing it happened to Grace, but mark my words, I served three tours of duty. I've seen things no one wants to see in their entire lives. Human suffering that confounds modern minds. I can handle a tattoo. That doesn't mean I won't wince with every new piece of information. Not because I'm a pussy but because my woman suffered these atrocities."

Jagger clasped his shoulder again. "We all understand that."

Damon pointed toward the tattoo. "The man the women all knew as Master J, whose real name is Jovani Russo, hired someone to come to the house shortly before the women were all sold and put that tattoo on them. He didn't tell them what was happening. They were blindfolded and held down by many men while the tattoo artist did his work. Most of them didn't even know it was a tattoo they were getting. All they knew was pain and panic, wondering what the hell was stabbing them in the inner thigh so close to the most delicate parts of their bodies."

Khai gritted his teeth, trying not to visualize this hell.

Jagger picked up where Damon left off. "The artist also inserted a small chip under the tattoo. Most likely, Grace doesn't even know it's there. No one else knew. We discovered it because Gemma was experiencing pain in that area. Damon felt around, realized something was under the skin, and called me to come scan it with an EFT meter."

"What the fuck?" Khai growled as low as he could.

Diane spoke. "Don't panic. It's not a GPS locator or anything. The technology doesn't exist for something like that. It's more like the kind of chip you would put in a dog or cat. It has information on it."

"What kind of information?" Khai gripped the back of the chair in front of him so hard it was a wonder it didn't break in half.

It was Robert who responded. "This is where things get dicey. Apparently, the chips were originally programmed to say, Property of Roberto Moretti. That's the name I was born with. Moretti was my father's surname."

Khai frowned. This was fucking confusing. "Wait, so you're somehow connected to this crime?"

"Implicated," Robert amended. "And yes. The seller obviously used the exact logo for my club to tattoo the women. He then included my name on the chips. It's possible no one might have ever known about the chips, but we suspect in the event any of these women escaped or ever found themselves in a position to have that chip scanned, I would be framed for the crime."

"That's fucked up," Khai growled.

"Very." Robert frowned. "And I'd like this asshole found and punished more than anyone in this room. It's also important to note that my father and Damon's were close friends and members of the mafia. They were murdered many years ago, a week apart. Three years ago, another member of the Italian mafia, Salinardi Romano, was also murdered. He was Gemma's father. Everyone in his compound was killed that day, and Gemma went missing. She was the first woman brought to Jovani Russo's house to begin training as a sex slave."

Khai was struggling to keep up. It was so fucking complicated, and his blood boiled every time someone referred to his woman as a sex slave. It was impossible not to react.

"We're overwhelming you," Diane pointed out. "Let me wrap up the part about the tattoos. Whoever our informant is, we assume he's working for the seller. He probably designed those chips and arranged for them to have that specific data on them. However, once Jagger scanned the first one, he went to work cracking into the data. He unlocked all six chips. Our informant knew that, and he uses the limited number of characters available on the chips to feed us information."

Khai took a step back and ran a hand over his head. "Can you fucking remove it?"

Jagger grinned. "Absolutely. As soon as Grace is ready. We used a female doctor who works for the FBI. She not only removed the chips from Gemma, Kalinda, and Nora, but she also removed the tattoos. All that's left is a small scar that will probably disappear over time."

Khai turned toward the women to find Grace looking at him. She was sitting on the sectional with the other three women. She had her bottom lip between her teeth.

Khai didn't like the look on her face. "I'm sorry. Excuse me," he said in the general direction of the men before he headed directly for Grace.

When he reached her, she rose and wrapped her arms around him.

"Why don't you go upstairs for a while? I bet Grace could use some quiet," Kalinda said. "Did Jagger tell you where the guest rooms are?"

Khai nodded. "Thank you." He threaded his fingers with Grace's and led her toward the stairs. Without a word, he ushered her up the staircase and into the first room on the right, shutting the door immediately behind them.

Without stopping, he swooped Grace off her feet, carried her to the queen-sized bed, and sat on the edge, letting her settle on his lap.