Page 20 of Teach Me How To Fly

“There will be twelve new girls and I need you to bid and win the auction for the best of them,” he explained and let the fork fall on the plate. “I don’t want the McKnights to win in front of us. We need to have the best girls out there.”

“We’ll surely have the best of them. No need to worry about it,” I replied with such ease that I felt horrible for myself. “You know I’m always winning the right ones. The ones who’ll provide us the most money.”

I was sick just thinking of what I’d just said. But I had to play it hard to maintain Lukyan’s trust, even though I would’ve let it all go.

That’s what I had to pretend to be. A mischievous, unscrupulous man who liked to play with children’s souls and bodies. A man who found pleasure by watching them getting raped and exploited by the richest men alive in the United States.

I wasn’t proud of myself and I’m sure my dearest Annalise wouldn’t be proud either.

That’s why she didn’t have to find out what I was doing for her father besides killing people. Because killing people wasn’t as bad as trafficking children — but if she ever found out, I’dexplain to her that even though I was the one buying children at auctions, I was also the one saving them and giving those girls the life they deserved. Or at least, me and Tyler, my technology guy, tried to.

“Finish eating. We’ll be leaving in twenty minutes,” he informed me as he stood up from his chair and walked away from me.

His leaving shocked me considering how much Lukyan loved to leave the table once everyone finished eating their food. It didn’t bother me though. I didn’t want to have him close now.

Over the years, since he first instructed me to lead my father’s organization, I tried to convince myself that I was a bad man who liked seeing children suffer. A man who… but I couldn’t.

I was nothing like my father, nor like Lukyan. But two years ago, when I saw the mobsters molesting a poor girl after an auction, I decided that no matter how much I needed to keep my family’s legacy, I knew that was not who I was. So that’s when I started working on my own to save the children.

As I let myself fall into my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed I finished eating and Olivia already started clearing the table. I looked at her and I saw a flinch of emotion cradling up her face as she was already scrutinizing me.

“I sense that you’re trying to say something and I’m mostly not wrong with my intuition,” I whispered to her and she gulped at my words.

Her facial expression explained to me more than her silence did. She seemed like she wanted to tell me something but she couldn’t.

She started to analyze the surroundings, searching for any familiar face who could’ve heard what she was going to say. But she kept silent and took a napkin from the table, pulling out a pen from her apron and writing something on it.

I furrowed at the sight of her and the confusion grew inside my head. She took the napkin and folded it into a ball, then threw it at me and left with some plates in her hands.

I picked it up and put it in my pocket as I heard Lukyan’s voice speaking on the phone. He seemed angry, which concerned me a bit.

“Everything all right?” I asked as I turned on my heels and faced him.

“No! The McKnight’s are fucking with us and I’m not going to let them win. We’re buying all the girls, no matter what. And we’ll be selling them all to McKnight’s enemies. They have no idea what they’re going to be facing. “

His tone of voice sent a shiver down my spine because I knew something bad happened. He seemed to have his limits tested and I was the only one who knew how he behaved in such situations.

“We have the control, Lukyan. Calm down and let’s leave. The auction will be starting soon.”

He mumbled some swears between his lips and as we were leaving the house, my mind still flew to the napkin in my pocket.

What did Olivia write on it?

“Four hundred thousanddollars for the McKnights! Four hundred thousand dollars once.”

“Four hundred and fifty thousand,” Lukyan growled and lifted up the little circle that had his number on it.

The man smirked at me and moved the microphone closer to his mouth. Our girl was already trembling from each of her joints and I wished I could do something to help her.

“Four hundred and fifty thousand for the Makenova’s! Let’s see! Can we get more for this pretty little woman right here? Four hundred and fifty thousand once. Four hundred and fifty thousand twice.”

“Five hundred thousand.”

Killian McKnight’s voice cut through my head and I felt my blood rushing down my entire body. Lukyan tensed beside me and I knew the bid was higher than we expected for a girl like her. But she was going to make the most money because the Latinas were the ones the richest men were looking for.

I had to do something. I had to go over my limits and win over the McKnights tonight.

Even though he liked winning and having the most profitable girls, he didn’t like to buy them at such a high price. He thought they weren’t worth a dollar, but he had to go to auctions to have them.

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