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  “Lance?”

  “Christopher, been a long time and let me guess, this ain’t a social call?”

  “You were always smart, Lance. It’s what I like about you most.”

  He chuckled. “What’s the number?”

  “565-593-3565. Anything you hear about Izabella, you let me know.”

  “Got it. Same price as last time.”

  “No problem.” I hung up lying down on the non-bloody side of my bed with my hands behind my head. Staring at the ceiling, I always thought that having money wouldn’t change me. I thought the values instilled in me by my mother was stronger than the influence of having money, but when so much of it was thrown at me, and I saw how much faster I could get what I want; how much easier people respected me, it became the only reason to stick around.

  I had enough of it at my disposal, and it didn’t matter how fast I spent it, it reappeared just as fast. My father was a master moneymaker, and being his son made me a master of my own universe.

  ***

  Two weeks was all it took to hear back from Lance and as I ended his call I walked into my father's office. “Why do I have a damaged girl in one of my cells?” he asked without looking away from his computer screen. “Because to my understanding, your job is lure them in, not beat them to a bloody pulp. What is wrong with you?”

  I fell into the chair in front of him, tilting my head in irritation. “She pissed me off?”

  “And that warrants you to scar her beauty?” He lifted his head with a choleric expression. “What do you think these men pay for? Nobody wants a scarred girl.”

  “How bad was she?”

  “You’re asking after you did the damage? She was no good and she had to be put down.” He spoke as if she was an animal. “You need to watch your temper, because this is happening too often.”

  “It was only the second—”

  “Third in two months.” Actually, it was the fourth, but he didn’t know that. His face softened with a sigh. My father may be harsh around the edges, but he had a soft spot when it came to Roz and me. He may not have been in my life for years, but every Sunday he’d call to know how I was doing and he always made sure I was okay. I always blamed my mother for not allowing him fully into my life because all she did was prolong the inevitable. “If you have a problem you need to work on, take some time and work on it, but don’t take it out on the merchandise.”

  “I don’t have a problem,” I lied. “But I’ll take you up on that offer for some time away.” I smirked.

  He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest. “Where?”

  “San Diego. Reed moved into an apartment there after your visit, so I had Lance tap into his phone. Seems Reed got a call yesterday from Izabella who was in Columbia. She should be arriving in San Diego tomorrow afternoon.” Lance said Reed sounded surprised and relieved to hear from her, which meant he didn’t know where she was either. When Penny told me about the auction, I knew she had been sold to someone in the trade business, but what I couldn’t get was the buyers name. There were so many players on the board to pinpoint one and simply going to the source of the auction was harder than trying to get in the see the president of the United States. “I want to head up today and keep an eye on her, since you have the new hotel launch to head this week.”

  “That’s fine by me, but don’t do anything. I want to deliver the news myself and knowing your sister, she’d want to make it as dramatic as possible just to fuck with this Reed guy.”

  “Of course.” I stood and moved away from the chair. “I’ll have Land take over for me at the club while I’m gone.” I was about to leave when Roslyn breezed through the door in white linin pants and a bright green blouse.

  Her clicking heels carried through the room before the door slammed. “Daddy I need to go away,” she said in that whiny I-need-to-get-what-I-want-now tone. She walked around dad's ’ desk and stood next to him, placing her arm around his shoulders.

  Dad sighed, looking up at her with a bored expression. “And why is that?”

  “The heat is getting to me. I’m tired stressed out and pissed off Chris hasn’t found that bitch yet,” she said glaring at me as I stood with my arms crossed smirking at her.

  “Well, you should be please to know, Chris found her.”

  “With no help from you, Roz, so thanks,” I said.

  She rolled her eyes at me before hitting dad with that manipulative smile. “Finally, so when do we leave?”

  “You don’t go anywhere. I on the other hand leave today.” I turned for the door, yanking it open before exiting into the hall.

  I heard her footsteps as I got to the elevator keeping my head straight when she came up beside me. “What are you going to do?” she asked in an irritated tone.

  “Watch.”

  “Going to get your rocks off before we stick her in with the other dogs?” I wanted to slap the smirk off her face and watch as her face disfigured when I did it again and again. The psycho in Roslyn was something I could never understand as it was nothing like mine. Yes, we were cut from half of the same cloth, but she was something else entirely. Something I didn’t quite like, but had to tolerate because she was my sister.

  “Something like that.”

  “Remember, Reed is mine.”

  “What do you plan to do with him anyway?”

  “Make him hurt of course. There is nothing like a brother's love for his little sister.”

  I snorted a laugh shaking my head before glancing at her. “Well it’s a good thing I don’t care about you at all, huh?” She scowled as the elevator dinged, and I got in with a smirk on my lips.

  “Feeling's mutual, brother.” She was sneering at me as the doors closed with her on the other side I and was happy about that. There was only so much of Roslyn I could handle in a day, and that was my daily dose. I was too eager to get to San Diego, too eager to see Izabella, so the faster I got out of here, the faster I could finally get what I wanted.

  Chapter Five

  Christopher

  Sitting in the car at the San Diego airport I waited, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel while gazing out the windscreen. I’d been here twenty minutes, parked some distance away knowing she would arrive any minute. From the conversations Lance overheard her plane should be landing any minute now, so I had timed it perfectly. Then, my fingers stopped as the exit doors opened, and there she was. I paused gazing at her without care. Her beauty was unlike any, and though her hair was shorter and she was a bit smaller than I remembered, she was still my beautiful Izzy.

  The camera from the seat beside me was instantly against my face as I zoomed in getting a better picture of the beauty that was my Izabella. She stood with a hand over her eyes to shield out the sun as she moved her head back and forth then up and down the street. With skin still that creamy colour that I remembered my eyes zoned in on a bruise on her face that instantly caused anger to surge through my body. Someone had hurt her, and knowing where she had been for the past twelve months, it wasn’t hard to guess that this wasn’t the first time. With her back now to me and in simple jeans and a sweater, I snapped picture after picture for her portfolio.

  I hated knowing someone had hurt her. That she had spent a good portion of a year being destroyed by another man. Penny had told me she and Reed walked willingly into that hotel where the auction was held, and she didn’t walk out with Reed. Reed confirmed my suspicions even further when he went to the White Lotus. I checked the cameras, and it wasn’t the first time, or the second or the third. He had been dropping cash at those tables every day for two weeks before he borrowed that money from Pete. Reed didn’t just get rich overnight, she had to pay for it and now I doubted she even knew all the money was gone.

  A horn honked in the distance before a black truck pulled up to the curb. As Reed got out, she ran toward him. I removed the camera from my eyes and threw it on the seat. As I watched them interact I knew instantly that I was wrong. I thought Reed had forced her
; took his own sister to that auction and simply fed her to the wolves, but that wasn’t what happened. She willingly went with him and fed herself to the wolves. I couldn’t believe it, but the proof was right there. Why would she do something like that knowing what those men were like? Sure, I knew her family had money problems, but if she could have pushed her pride aside and answered just one of my calls I would have helped her. I would have saved her the embarrassment and pain she was about to feel with knowing that after all that pain and suffering she went through, that she was returning to the same penniless existence that she had before.

  They got into the truck and drove off as I followed one car behind, keeping them in sight the entire time. Reed parked near the beach and I followed watching as they exited the car and moved down the sand toward a bar closer to the water. I wanted to follow, didn’t want to take my eyes away from her for a second, but I forced myself to stay still for a little while. With my head against the headrest I stared at the ceiling before closing my eyes. There was something inside me, something that hurt with the intensity of a hot branding iron to the skin. It was pushing me, making me do these things that broke my moral code.

  I wasn’t always like this. I spent most of my time at home; I helped my mother with whatever she needed, and I tried to help Izzy as much as I could. I tried to be the best at everything, and to use what my mother taught me as the stepping stones to building a good life.

  When I was with Izzy when we were fifteen, she would look at me, stare into my soul and say that I was a beautiful person inside and out. That she would always love me no matter what. The day she dumped me was the day I broke. That was when everything stopped making sense and I wanted nothing more than to be alone. That was also when I called my father. I wasn’t going to take him up on his offer because I had planned on going to college nearby so I could stay close to Izzy, since I knew she couldn’t afford to go to college herself. The end of us was also the end of me. I think that was why I wanted her back so much. I needed to feel like my old self again. For us to be Chris and Izzy against the world, and not the world against me.

  I didn’t follow them the rest of the night since I already knew where Reed’s apartment was. Instead I called my father before heading to a nearby bar, and swallowed a few shots before stumbling back to my hotel. The next morning the ringing phone woke me, and as I glimpsed at the screen I groaned, flinging it across the room before falling back against the pillows and closing my eyes.

  Less than a minute later the door busted open and the clicking heels of my pain in the ass sister entered the room. “Wakey wakey brother. It’s a brand-new day and it smells like revenge is in the air.” Her annoying voice was enough to send the headache I didn’t have a minute ago into overdrive. She opened the blinds and I squinted against the light before closing my eyes completely.

  I groaned when I opened them again before sitting up against the headboard and rubbing my head. “Why are you here? And how the hell did you find me?” Glancing up at her as she stood at the edge of the bed with her arms folded, my eyes almost burned out of my head at the sight of her attire. What was with this woman and glitter? Was that like a thing she thought guys liked because I could barely look at her since the gold top she had on shimmered even more when the light reflected off it.

  “Please, this is the swankiest hotel between here and that God-awful apartment Reed calls home. I figured you were either dead or drunk when you didn’t answer the door or my phone calls. Dad’s already here and it’s almost noon, so we have to get this show on the road.”

  “Why the hurry?”

  “Dad has to get back to some hotel crisis and after this I have a trip planned to the Virgin Islands. So hurry up, I’m eager to see Reed’s face when he sees me again,” she smiled mischievously.

  I rolled my eyes but I was eager to get this over with too. The sooner dad had Izabella, the sooner I’d have Izabella. Roslyn was still standing there, and she looked like she had no intentions of leaving, so I swung my legs off the side of the bed and stood. She gasped, jaw dropping at the sight of my nakedness and my very hard dick. I smirked. “You’re free to go now. Or you could stay and help me out with this.”

  She shrieked before turning and rushing for the door. “You fucking disgust me, Chris.” The door slammed at her departure as I laughed all the way to the bathroom.

  Thirty minutes later I was in my car parked along the curb outside Reed’s apartment. Impatient, I tapped my fingers against the wheel, pissed off by the fact that I couldn’t go inside. I couldn’t have Izzy know I had any hand to play in this, so I kept still, looking out for when she arrived.

  My father and two of his men were already inside and as for Roslyn, she wanted to make an entrance. They arrived earlier and saw when Izzy left dressed for a run. I smiled hearing about it. She always loved running and could even kick my ass in a race from time to time. The eagerness inside me intensified as an hour later I watched her walk up the block with a smile on her face. She was holding a small pink box and every time she looked at it she smiled brighter.

  When she disappeared into the building I counted two minutes before Roslyn pulled up in a black town car and walked into the building. With a sigh I watched and waited. Izzy would be hysterical knowing her own brother got her into this situation, but I would be the one to save her. She wouldn’t deny my love knowing I had rescued her from the savages trying to sell her again. She’d thank me. She’d love me, and I would finally have what I wanted.

  The street was vacant as I watched my father exit first, getting into the same car Roslyn left earlier; and then his two goons, one cradling Izzy in his arms as she was passed out. I knew they had drugged her and was only holding her that way so no one would ask questions. They took her to an awaiting car parked behind me before taking off down the road.

  Dads car sped off soon after without Roslyn, while I exited my car. I took two flights of stairs to the second floor and walked right into apartment 6B. I was going to leave, honestly and truly I was, but he caused this. He hurt her and now I was going to hurt him.

  Roslyn stood glaring at him as he sat with his head in his hands defeated. At the sound of me entering they both looked up. “You,” he said with realization as I smirked.

  “Chris. What are you doing here? I told you not to interfere.”

  “Too bad, I’m interfering. This fucker deserves it,” I said enraged charging forward.

  Reed instantly stood with a vengeful gaze when I rushed him. Reed was taller than me but I was bigger than him. I had spent a lot of time in the gym perfecting my skills and it was high time I used them on a worthy opponent.

  The punch landed right in his jaw causing him to stumble back, but he quickly regained his stance rushing forward to grab my shirt before pushing me down into a table. He punched me in the cheek, but I was able to manoeuvre my body to get back the upper hand. I punched him a few times in the face before moving down his torso and landing a few in his ribs.

  I could hear Roslyn yelling at me to stop, but I couldn’t. I wanted him dead and buried like the scum he was. He used her and hurt her, and he expected to get away with it. Well fuck that. I was judge in this courtroom and I was sentencing him to death.

  Blood coated my knuckles, and it pained as the skin must have ripped open, but I didn’t care, I did it again and again and again until he stopped moving.

  Feeling satisfied I let go of his shirt and pushed to my feet, huffing and puffing air into my lungs as Roslyn dropped to her knees to examine him. “You fucking lunatic, look what you did!” she cried. Blood covered Reed’s entire face and he wasn’t moving so I had no clue if he was alive or dead. Not that I cared. I didn’t bother responding to Roslyn; couldn't care less what she thought. She was a psychopath just like me because although she wanted revenge on him, she wanted him to love her even more. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have cared if I had beaten him or not, and she definitely wouldn’t be fucking crying. I walked out and got in my car eager to go get m
y reward.

  Three days after getting back to Vegas, I went to the valley. My father owned an entire mountain that was about an hour's drive from the Vegas Strip. The house on it was his, and in the basement was where he kept his products.

  When I entered the house, I took the back entrance in and a few stairs down to the old converted wine cellar. There I found a dimly lit hallway with twenty steel doors and behind each door was a six by ten cell. The girls in them didn’t require much room since this was only a temporary stop before being sold. The men fed them twice a day, nothing heavy since most of them refused to eat, and when they did eat, they puked it out.

  I found Izzy’s cell, watched her through a small looking hole in the door. She was lying naked on the mattress on the floor, curled up into a ball. My heart clenched at the sight, wanting to free her but she wasn’t ready. It had only been three days since she was brought here, and I figured a few in captivity would weaken her mind enough so that when I rescued her she’d be nothing but indebted to me. The last two days I’d spent watching her, and bathing her was nothing but euphoric for me. I could tell she felt it too, always looking at me with wondrous eyes whenever I touched her. She needed me. She wanted me to free her, but was too afraid to ask.

  I got the bathing tools from one of the guards and they opened the door for me, locking it as soon as I was inside. As I entered her head lifted and turned watching the bucket in my hand before moving up toward my face. I was wearing all black, and the hat on my head was pulled down over my eyes, concealing most of my face as I kept my head facing down.

  Motioning her to come forward with the wave of my finger, I turned on the hose and started filling the bucket. She stood on shaky legs and walked toward me with her head down toward the floor, stopping in front of me. The man who broke her before had trained her well. There was no tears or anger and she followed my command without a fight. She was perfect. I wanted to throw her on the bed and reward her for her good behaviour, but alas my dick would stay strained behind my jeans because I knew I would soon have her in every way.