Page 26 of Deviant

The stowaway in question lowered to her knees again. “I don’t know what you want from me, Mast—” She cut off, swallowing hard. “Sorry.”

Before Jax could reply, I grabbed him by the shoulder and ushered him from the room. “Have you considered taking her somewhere to get help?”

“Of course I have. She has no memory, so I can’t contact family, and when I mentioned getting the law involved to help her find out who she is, she went fucking crazy on me. Total hysteria, man. She sees me as her fucking savior or something.”

“She seems scared of you.”

“She is, but I’m tame compared to the sick fuck who had her before. I can’t figure out why, but she seems to trust me.”

“Do you know how long they had her for?”

“No, but based on the way she acts, it was long enough to wipe out her identity.” Jax’s face fell. “She reminds me of the old man’s favorite slaves. He spent a lot of time on them, if you know what I mean.”

The thought made me sick.

I peeked at Alex, who stood at the stove with her back to Jax and me. She pretended not to listen, but I was positive she’d heard every word. And part of me wondered if she compared herself to the girl in Jax’s bedroom.

Did she see what I did?

Alex hadn’t chosen this, but she’d submitted. She loved the fuck out of me, but there’s that saying thata duck is still a duck. Our relationship was fucked, and no matter how we dressed it up, she’d always be a victim.

My victim.

For her sake, I had to do better by her.

“Babe, c’mere.”

“Just a sec,” she said, transferring an odd-shaped omelet onto a plate. As she made her way across the room, I couldn’t help but smile. She couldn’t cook worth a damn, but not for lack of trying.

“Think you can go in there and talk to her?”

“I can try.”

“That’s my girl.” Then I kissed her because she deserved a thousand fucking kisses every day for putting up with me.

12. Kindred Spirits - Alex

She liked to tilt her face back and close her eyes. Angel didn’t say much, but she didn’t have to.

I knew she was soaking up the sunlight.

We’d been walking for about ten minutes in silence. Rafe made me carry my phone, location services enabled, so he could find me. It hadn’t been a request, but it wasn’t done entirely out of possessiveness either.

“Is he your Master?”

I jumped, her voice startling me after so much companionable quiet.

“Um, no. He’s my…my fiancé.”

God, how I loved saying that. How I hoped it were true.

“Oh.”

Oh?

I’d only known her for a couple of hours, but I was finding that she was a woman of few words. She hadn’t said anything during lunch beyondpleaseandthank you.

“We do have a…I guess you could call it a different type of relationship. It works for us.”

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