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Sometimes she woke in the night screaming from nightmares. Usually, I could hold her and calm her down, but some nights she left the room to sleep in her own bed, saying she couldn’t bear to be touched.

Those nights were the worst.

I had to do something, anything, to make her feel better. I was finally able to convince James to let Cara leave the apartment to attend her classes. Although it disgusted me to say the words, I told him I wanted my “sex slave” to be educated in case I ever needed to bring her around any of my lawyer friends, and he acquiesced.

One day, I went home early from work so I could beat Cara getting back to the apartment before her classes ended. I’d bought her a new laptop and paid for all of her classes. I set the laptop up with a bow on her bed, and when she came home I explained that she could go back to school.

So the men were no longer parked outside, and Cara was able to come and go freely, which was a huge relief for both of us. I noticed, though, that she still didn’t leave the apartment much, except to go to class. She was still so scared and traumatized by everything she had been through.

And we didn’t dare try to move her out of my place full-time yet, in case James found out. He still checked in on Cara and me regularly, making sure I was still happy with my “present” and that she hadn’t gotten away.

One of those nights when Cara didn’t want me to touch her, I went into the kitchen and made her some tea. She was always drinking tea, although I couldn’t stand the stuff, and I knew it soothed her. I sat at the edge of her bed and handed her the mug.

“Thanks,” she muttered tearfully. She’d had another nightmare.

“I just want you to know that you can take all the time and space you need. I can’t imagine what you’ve gone through, and I’m so, so sorry you got mixed up in all this. I can’t tell you how sorry I am that I’m involved in this; the guy I worked for before James would never have done anything like this. I just want to keep you safe, whatever it takes. And I want you to feel like you can trust me. We will figure this out and get you completely free. It’s just going to take some time, but I’ll do anything to make you happy,” I promised softly.

Cara just stared off into space as she drank the tea, her mind clearly a million miles away. She got like that sometimes. She was there, physically, but it was like she couldn’t see or hear me. I think it was a response to trauma.

I took the mug from her hands and tucked her in.

“I love you, Cara.”

She still stared ahead, unblinking, unseeing.

I went back to my room and tossed and turned all night, not getting a minute of rest.

Chapter Nine

Cara

As we sat down for dinner at the apartment on what had become the usual weekday night routine for us, I noticed William looked stressed. In fact, he’d been acting more anxious than usual lately. Since I cared about him, I wanted to make sure he was okay, but I was also afraid to ask what was wrong in case it had anything to do with my situation.

“Something wrong, babe?” I asked tentatively, reaching over to give his broad shoulder a quick squeeze. “You seem a little tense lately.”

William cut off a bite of his chicken parmesan, picked up his fork, then set it back down again. He exhaled heavily. “Yeah, I am. Because James is off his fucking nut and creating problems left and right. Not just for me, but for everyone.”

Uh oh. That didn’t sound good.

“Like how, do you mean?” I asked nervously.

“Like he’s a total sociopath and not as great of an underboss as he thinks he is. In fact, he’s pretty terrible at his job. He keeps offending people and fucking up deals, and it’s tearing the family apart. And I’m the one who has to follow behind him cleaning up his messes and making sure there’s no incriminating paper trail.

“Which I’m used to,” he continued, as if to himself. He had never opened up this much to me about his work. “Because it’s my job, after all. And of course, they pay me well. But it’s not like a normal job with a normal boss, where if you have a complaint you can take it to the fucking HR department. If you have a complaint with the mob, you typically end up dead.” William covered his face with his hands, rubbing his eyes. He looked exhausted. I hadn’t realized just how much of a toll his job and James were taking on him.

I reached across the kitchen table and grabbed his hand in mine reassuringly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were dealing with all that. Is there anything I can do to help?”

Although he still looked tense, William smiled wryly. “You already do plenty to help me relieve stress, babe, trust me. And honestly, this is a good thing for you. If James keeps fucking up like this, it won’t be long before the Cohens bump him from his position, or he gets himself assassinated.”

I cringed. I was no fan of James, but it was still weird to hear him reference death so casually.

I pushed my food around on my plate, my appetite lost. William was silent for a moment, then said, “That’s not the only thing that’s bothering me.”

I looked up from my plate.

“The way I feel about you is real, Cara. I hate the way that we found each other, but I love having you in my life. I hate that this is basically a hostage situation, even though I don’t want it to be. I wish you were free so you could trust me. I would do anything to make you happy,” he said earnestly, tears welling in his gray eyes.

I took a minute before responding. It was hard for me to put into words what I wanted to say.

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