Page 71 of Hidden Heir

“I…” My heart skips a beat and then I reach for his hand. The moment he touches me, tears flood my eyes and suddenly I’m on my feet, winding my arms around his body. “I was so scared we were going to die.”

Leon abandons his crutches and hugs me back tightly. “Me too,” he murmurs softly, his lips brushing against the top of my head. “But we made it. You saved us.”

“I keep expecting to wake up back there,” I whisper, knowing Leon is the only one who can understand how terrifying that prospect is. “Like this is all some kind of weird dream.”

“I’d tell you that we’re safe but I share the same fear.” He pulls back slightly and cups my face. “But we really are safe. And if we’re dreaming, at least we’re doing that together.”

He looks at me with such affection that my heart swells in my chest, and for a moment, I forget everything else. There’s just him and me gazing into each other’s eyes with racing hearts and warm flushes kissing our cheeks.

And then I remember. I can’t give my heart fully to him, not when he has so many ruined lives on his hands. I pull back from him, returning his hands to his crutches then settling back on my bed.

“For a moment, I forgot,” I whisper, wiping my eyes. “You come in here and it feels like everything is perfect until I remember.”

“Remember what?” Leon frowns, tightly gripping his crutches.

“What you do for a living.” I look up at him and pain flashes in Leon’s eyes.

Then he nods. “I know.”

“It’s the reason this happened. I don’t mean Paul. But I wouldn’t have run if you weren’t involved in something so cruel. And I can’t…” I pause and shake my head, “I can’t accept that.”

“What are you saying?”

I lock eyes with Leon and my heart jumps up into my throat. “I’m saying that regardless of how we feel, regardless of what we went through together, we don’t have any kind of future if you continue to involve yourself in human trafficking. So you have to make a choice.”

I swallow hard. “Me, or your business.”

31

LEON

It’s not a hard choice to make.

I knew my answer before the words were even fully out of Brooke’s mouth.

Her. I choose her.

Before Brooke came into my life, I was blind.

As a child, I’d been horrified when my father introduced me to the line of work we were in. I suppose I distanced myself from the truth over the years, staying away from the hands-on aspects of the job and focusing on the paperwork instead. They were no longer people but mere numbers on a page buried in lists. They were products being shipped from all over the world without so much as a blink.

I didn’t think about them beyond that and I didn’t care.

Brooke has changed the way I see things now. Not only with her reaction, but the words she said to me while we were in captivity which still resonate weeks later. Brooke and I barely survived that ordeal, and the scars of such trauma will run deep for years to come. I have surely sent countless people to similar fates and I can’t ignore that. My disconnect has been ruined and guilt sits heavily upon me.

“You,” I say, gripping the rubber on my crutches. “It’s not even a choice, Brooke. Do you understand that I would do anything to keep you in my life? Absolutely anything. What Paul did…” I shudder slightly and my grip tightens. “Well, let’s just say the way I look at things has changed. I shake my head. “I was disconnected. I didn’t view them as people. For years they’ve been nothing more than numbers in a spreadsheet. We tend not to think too much about where our food comes from or who makes our clothes. That’s how it was for me. They were products. Had I allowed myself to think any other way I wouldn’t have been able to do my job.”

It’s such a pathetic excuse. Two months ago I would have laughed at the very idea of putting an end to such a huge money maker. But the way I see it now I have to. Not just because of my own experience, but also because of the bombshell Brooke dropped during what we thought were our last moments alive.

“I want a future with you,” I say softly. “And I want a future with Tiffany.”

“I understand,” Brooke replies. “Disconnecting yourself so severely from something completely removes the impact so I do understand. But it can’t continue.”

“It won’t.”

“You have to promise me.” She fixes me with a hard look. “Because I will not raise my daughter around such cruelty. If at any moment I find out you’re still involved I will take her and leave. You will never see either one of us again.”

“I swear it.” It’s the most honest I’ve ever been. “I will swear it every day from here on out.”

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