Page 72 of Devious Secrets

“It’s fine.” Blood drips down her hand and rolls off her wrist onto the floor.

“It doesn’t look fine.” I look around for a napkin but find nothing. “Where’s the kitchen or a bathroom? You need something to wrap around your hand.”

“What the fuck happened?” A familiar booming voice shakes the glass on the tray from behind me.

I sigh, then slowly turn around, still squatting.

“The steins broke, and she cut her hand,” I try to explain, but he’s glaring down at me from the entrance as though I’ve committed the worst of all sins.

I suppose to him I have. I didn’t obey his little command to stay in the office.

“How bad is it?” Ivan pushes past Alexander to get to us.

“They’re all broke.” The woman frowns and looks down at all the shattered glass.

“Not the steins. Your hand.” Ivan’s voice tenses as he squats down, grabbing her wrist to inspect the injury himself. “It’s deep.”

“It will be fine. I need to wash it, though.” She starts to stand, and he still doesn’t let go of her hand.

“Put it up over your head to slow the bleeding.” Ivan raises her arm up into the air. “Let’s go.”

“I can handle it,” she argues, but he just keeps walking with her, holding her wrist up.

“Don’t touch that,” Alexander snaps when I reach for the broken shards, thinking to finish cleaning up the mess.

I pull my hand back and get to my feet.

“I was just helping.”

“You’re supposed to be in my office.” He shakes his head. “Just once. Just one fucking time would you listen?”

“I went to the bathroom, and I heard the glasses crash. I only came down because I heard her. She’s hurt.” I jerk my hand in the directionIvan had taken her.

Now that I’m standing and not distracted by the injured woman, I take in my surroundings.

“Oh my God.” It’s like I’ve stepped into another world.

Every inch of the club drips with elegance. Crystal chandeliers hang from the black marble ceiling. Walls trimmed in gold. It should be too much, but it’s the perfect amount of sex appeal and elegance.

“That guy, the first night when I was in that room, he said something about an auction.” I step over the broken glass; the implications sink like lead in my stomach. Everything makes an awful kind of sense now.

“Is that… were you auctioning off women?” I’m not sure what I expected to find down here, but not this.

“I should have tied you to my desk.” The darkness of his expression sends a chill down my spine. He doesn’t even have the moral compass to look guilty.

“You put women in these cages? And the men… what…? They drink and play cards and when they feel the need to get their dick wet, they take one out to play with?” I wrap my hands around the thick black metal bars of one of the cages.

“The women put themselves in the cages.”

What? Why? They wouldn’t possibly do that unless they had to, right? “And that makes it better?”

“Megan. A lot of things happen down here. Some of it you won’t like; some of it you’ll be indifferent to, and none of it is any of your business.” He steps around the glass and heads straight for me.

“Where are the women now? Do you have them locked up in one of your tower rooms?” I look toward the hallway whereIvan took the girl. “Is that girl one of them?”

He stops and heaves a breath.

“I don’t sell women.” Each word is said with finality. Like it’s important that I believe him.

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