Page 22 of Convict's Game
Lust might have taken over my senses, but that didn’t stop my brain from filling in the picture. Slowly, I touched his collar, puzzle pieces fitting together.
“You know about the others. You’ve been watching. Are there cameras on us?”
He didn’t deny it.
I took a short breath. “You’re monitoring the people who run this place. Why? No, wait, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know what interest your gang has in theirs. But if you act this evening, you’ll mess up everything I’m trying to achieve.”
His gaze skimmed my cheek and held on my mouth. “Which is what, exactly?”
“Why do you need to know? You’re a stranger.”
Convict caught my hand and flattened my palm to his chest. His heart thumped under my touch, the heat of him bleeding through. “Because that fast beat says otherwise. Why does my heart know you, Mila? Why can’t I stop thinking about you? You say stranger, but I know you.”
“No, you don’t.” I pushed past him to gain space. My panic returned like an old friend, but I wasn’t scared of this man, only of the way he turned my head.
Convict tracked me. “Tell me why I shouldn’t throw you over my shoulder and take you out of here.”
For a terrible half-second, I almost agreed. Then I shrank back from the notion. This evening, I’d be leaving anyway, heading to the next destination where I’d find Jacobs, then I’d get out.
Yet even though that plan had been well thought through, I hadn’t counted on feeling sorry for a misguided girl.
The solution was right here in front of me, and my backup plan had yet to reply.
I beseeched Convict with my eyes. “I can’t go, not yet, but there’s someone else who can. If you’ve been watching, you’ll have seen Annabelle. She’s just a child. She has no business being in a place like this. She’s in real danger, and if you want to rescue someone, let it be her.”
His dark eyebrows dove together, the movement tugging the scar that led back from his temple. “How can she be in danger if you’re not?”
“Because I’m not what you think I am, and I have resources she doesn’t. Please, will you do it? She’ll be back at any moment.”
“I came here for you.”
“I don’t need a hero. Annabelle does.”
Convict searched my gaze, his jaw tight. I had him. He wanted to do good, and I’d offered him the chance on a platter.
The door flew open, and Annabelle stumbled in, alone.
She clutched a piece of cotton wool against her tawny brown skin, tears lining her eyes. I went to her. Her gaze locked on me then behind me to the shadowed corner where Convict remained.
Annabelle took an intake of breath, her eyes rounding.
I held my hands out. “Stay quiet and listen. I know you’re scared, and you should be, just not of us.”
She shook her head, her focus never leaving the threat in the room, the unknown male.
I continued. “I don’t know what you’ve been told, but this auction is no fairy tale where some gallant billionaire is going to pluck you from poverty and treat you well. That’s a fantasy. The reality is you’ll be sold to some old, gross, and maybe even violent man. A predator who won’t see you as a person, only a purchase because that’s exactly what he did. Bought you for no-holds-barred sex. There will be nothing to stop him once you’re in his clutches. He’ll fuck you as often as he likes with whatever he likes. If you refuse, it’ll turn into rape. There are no rules. No one protecting you. The girls who go through this come out changed for the worse. Do you understand?”
As I spoke, Annabelle’s focus came to me. Another tear leaked down her cheek. “I asked the guard if I could leave. I said I’d changed my mind. He told me tough luck and laughed.”
The bastard. I gritted my teeth. “My friend can get you out.”
She swallowed. “I… I want to. I’m scared. But if I go home empty-handed…”
Fucking hell. I was right. She’d been put up to this.
“You need money?” Footsteps at my back told me Convict approached. Stopping directly behind me, he held something out to Annabelle. It was a wallet.
“What’s this?” She took it, turning it over to reveal a logo of a skull with a bandanna over its lower face.
