Page 31 of Secured By the Buyer

Liam’s hands settle on my shoulders. “What happened?”

“Long story short, my dad lost too much at the casino,” I say, trying to summarize a lifetime of cleaning up his messes, only for it to still not be enough. “I was already working as a maid to pay off some of his debt, but then he dug himself into a deeper hole. He had a choice between suffering the consequences or selling me, and he put his own life first. Just like he always does.”

Liam’s knuckles brush over the Mark on my nape, sending a shiver of awareness through me. “Would you like me to kill him for you?”

I twist around, staring at Liam in shock. “Are you serious?”

Liam traces the Mark with his fingertips. “I can’t let you go right now, Milo, and I can’t promise to free you in the future. What’s happening is bigger than you.”

His eyes bore into mine with a fierce intensity. “But Icanpromise to be your Alpha and protect you. If you want your father dead for what he did, I will make it happen.”

“Is your family like the mafia or something?” Fear spikes through me, my heart pounding.

He grimaces, the muscles in his jaw tightening. “We’re trying to move away from that part of our ancestry, but we’ve been racking up a lot of bodies as of late.”

“Like Caruso?” I venture, remembering the man whose life Liam had taken to infiltrate the slave auction.

Liam nods, his expression darkening.

I lick my lips, tasting mint and salt from my sweat. “So if I tell you I want my father dead for selling me into slavery, you’ll just go out and do it?”

“Yes,” he says without hesitation, his voice dangerous. “It would be my pleasure to eliminate the man who put so little value on your life.”

My stomach twists, the urge to accept Liam’s offerwarring with the part of me still clinging to my only family.

Lost in thought, I let Liam maneuver me to face forward once more and rinse the conditioner out of my hair. Once he finishes, he winds it up in a turban to keep it out of the bubbles.

When he offers a soapy loofa, I take care of my front, blushing a bit when I dip it beneath the water to wash between my legs.

I don’t protest when he takes the loofa from me and adds more soap to scrub my back. The bristles on my skin act as a soothing massage, easing tension from my muscles.

As he washes me, I finally say, “I don’t want you to kill my father.”

Liam pauses mid-stroke. “Are you sure?”

Years of being curled up on my thin, lumpy mattress, hungry and in pain after my father took out his anger at the world on me, had left me with a lot of time to let my imagination travel down various paths.

I nod, the words leaving my lips with certainty. “My shift at the convenience store paid for the mortgage and utilities.”

Liam starts scrubbing my back again, his silence encouraging me to continue. “Dad already drank and gambled away his tiny disability check for thismonth. The bank has tried to foreclose on the house a few times in the past two years, so they’ll start the process as soon as this month’s payment is missed. He never checks the mail, so he won’t see the foreclosure notice until they tape it on the door.”

The scent of lavender fills my nose, soothing me even as I say aloud something I’ve only considered during the dark moments when I questioned if living was even worth it. “In ninety days, the bank will take the house, which will put him on the streets in the middle of winter. He’ll be kicked out of any shelters the first time he starts a fight, which he’ll do, because Dad is quick to use his fists.”

My voice wavers as I map out the fate of the man who brought me into this world. “Without a safe place indoors to bunk down for the night, he’ll be sleeping out in the cold, and he doesn’t have survival skills. He’ll be dead by spring, and you won’t have to lift a finger.”

Silence fills the bathroom, the water rippling around me as Liam rinses my back and chest.

“That’s a very detailed scenario,” he says at last, not sounding put off or judgmental in the least. More like he’s impressed. “Now I understand how you turned a breakfast tray into a weapon.”

“It’s one of many I considered every time Ithought of not returning home,” I admit, the confession bitter on my tongue. “But the thought that Dad cared for me, even just a little, kept me going back to the abusive asshole. It didn’t matter that he only let me stay for the money, first from the state and then from me working.”

“Lean back,” Liam encourages.

He drizzles coconut oil into his palms and rubs it into my shoulders, his thumbs digging into my tense muscles.

I rest my head against the edge of the tub, my face tilted up toward his. “What does it mean that you’re my Alpha?”

Liam cups my jaw. “It means I’ll provide for and take care of you, and anything you want will be yours.”

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