Page 25 of Auctioned Surrender

She and her team are excellent at what they do, and I have no doubt they’ll turn up information on names and the locations of the men in that goddamn club. The memory of personally learning just how women are sold to the highest bidder is something I’ll never forget, and I will do everything in my power to ensure these men are taken down and that they can no longer grab innocent girls for their warped sense of pleasure.

We’re nearing the area where we’re staying in New Orleans and still haven’t heard back from intel. “Our team is the best in the business, and they haven’t come up with squat, even on facial recognition. What the fuck is up with that, Nick? The mask he had on was small; it’s not like he was trying to hide. The name of his goddamn yacht was on the back of the card I sent a picture of. The software should have a cross-referenced match somewhere, yet our entire intel team can’t get a lock on the guy? What gives?”

“I know, Damian, and Marenah’s not sure why he’s not popping up either, but she and her team are working on it. They’re all busting their asses to figure it out. We’ll hear back from one of our divisions soon. It hasn’t been that long, let’s just hang tight.”

I’m usually the voice of reason, but I’m learning quickly that I’m not as calm and collected when my green-eyed Doll’s safety is at risk. “Roger that, Nick. You got to know Marenah better than most of us while you were taking care of her. You really think she and her division are going to get a lock on this guy?” I ask.

He turns in his seat and smiles at me as we pull up to the sky-rise we’re staying at. “You don’t know her like I do. That woman is a little wildcat! Matt has his hands full with her! Marenah isn’t going to stop until she finds our man. You heard the story about how she led the charge to get an entire boatload of people to safety after they had been abducted?”

“Little pieces, but I was working on a different assignment.”

“Yeah, well, anyone finds him other than our intel, it will be her. We’ll be ready to go once they get a lock on him. Stop worrying,” Nick says.

I nod. At no time in our past have we gone in on a target we don’t have specific intel on. This is a first, but there was no other way to get Bryanna out alive before she was sold to a man who would have condemned her to a life of sex slavery or worse. I pullout my cell and hit Brian Carrington’s phone number. It’s time that he knows while we have Bryanna, we also have an opponent worthy of his billions, who still has a very deep and dark desire to buy Bryanna at any price, and his threat if I don’t show up at his yacht was heard loud and clear.

Chapter 18

Bryanna

I hear talking and can’t make out the words, but would recognize that deep, velvety voice anywhere. I struggle to open my eyes against the light streaming in through the blinds, and finally I do, but slowly, struggling against the effort to keep them from re-closing. I nuzzle under the covers and pull the pillow lying next to me closer, inhaling Damian’s scent. The one that triggers all of my senses and causes my center to clench with desire. I lie still, taking in the surroundings and listening to the voices outside the closed door. They are too muffled to comprehend, but then Damian’s voice raises sharply, and then there is nothing but quiet until a click of a closing door sounds in the distance.

I pull his pillow tighter, letting his scent wash over me and calm me, even if just for a short while. Damian came for me, he bid on me, won me, and got me out of that auction. He’s saved me from those evil men not only once, but twice, and he calls me Doll, and he kissed me like he wanted to, and damn it if my heart doesn’t race faster every single time he’s near.

As if conjured from my thoughts, the door opens. Damian’s impressive frame stands in the doorway. He’s wearing jeans with a black t-shirt that shows off his rippling muscles and corded forearms, the ones I’ve felt holding me tightly againsthis maleness. His blue eyes are riveted on my own, fierce and intense, and I can only imagine how angry he is that I ran, and he had to chase me down, yet again.

Damian comes to stand right next to the empty side of the bed. His eyebrows raise as he takes in the pillow that I’m still snuggled up with.

I feel my cheeks heat with embarrassment, but I can’t come up with an excuse. His eyes have gone from fierce to deep and dark blue globes of swirling emotion. “I’m sorry I took off. I know I made your job harder, but I keep trying to tell you. I have to…”

“Shh, it’s okay, Doll,” Damian says, leaning onto the bed with his knee, caressing my cheek with a finger.

The way he talks to me and touches me makes everything south clench with anticipation and need, but I try to swallow the desire. I need him to understand that as much as I want his help, wish it were enough, it’s not going to be. I need to find a way back to the auction that won’t end in him following me back there. Otherwise, this is bound to be another dangerous repeat, one that could end in my family’s demise.

Brian wouldn’t have anyone but the people of the highest caliber working for him, and I can sense what a good man Damian is. He has put up with enough of my issues and deserves an apology and the truth. “I’m sorry I took off without talking to you the last time. You rescued me, and in return I stole from you, left, and caused you even more trouble. I don’t want to do that to you again, Damian, but you have to know that I can’t stay. There’s too much riding on this.”

“You’re not telling me anything that I don’t already know, Doll. Tell me what they’ve threatened you with, Bryanna. I’m pretty sure I already know, but I’d like to hear it from you.” Damian strokes my cheek with his finger.

My heart beats faster, and I want to tell him, but I can’t risk the lives of my niece and nephew or my mom who has been taking care of them so much of the time. “I know you’re trying to help, and I appreciate that, but what you won’t seem to understand is that it will put my family at an even greater risk. I can’t chance that, Damian. You might think that Brian has enough money to get the best of these people, but they have an entire industry, backed by sick people who are perhaps just as rich, if not richer than Brian. They aren’t going to give up. What they want, they get.”

Damian’s hand snakes around my back, and he helps me sit up. “Look at me, Bryanna,” he says, tilting my chin so that I do as he asks. “We had your family taken to safety well before you went on that stage. We have a plan in place to mitigate the risks to your family, all of them. Believe me, we wouldn’t put them in danger. We have eyes on them twenty-four seven,” Damian says, gazing at me with those intense eyes as he strokes my cheek.

“Are you serious? My niece and nephew and my mom too? Where are they?” I ask, pushing myself against the headboard and bringing the quilted coverlet up to my chin.

He narrows his eyes at me. “I certainly wouldn’t tell you something if it wasn’t true. They’re all doing fine and being protected. Your mom is handling things well, but she’s worried about you. We’ll let you see your family soon, but you’ll stay with me for a few days while we get a few of the details worked out. We need to find the man who wanted to purchase you. Can I trust you to stay here, Doll, or will you try to take off again?” Damian asks, smirking at me with that upturned lip.

“They’re really all safe?” I ask, glancing down at the twisted sheet I’ve managed to bundle up around my fists.

Damian’s gaze follows mine, and he covers my hands with his own, gently prying my fingers from around the material and lacing them with his. “I would never lie to you, Bryanna.We’ll give them a call a bit later. Right now, I want you to get freshened up and then eat something while my team gets a few security devices in place, okay?”

I nod, aware of the electricity that exudes from his fingers through to my own, causing my body to thrum, heating me with that same tingling excitement I feel every time he’s near.

His lips turn up into a wide curved smile.

“What’s so funny?”

“I think this might be the first time you’ve ever agreed to anything without an argument or a plan to escape and defy me.”

He has been so very kind, and all I’ve done is give him attitude and more trouble. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what to do. My family means the world to me, and what they threatened to do to them was vile.”

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