Page 25 of Heart of Stone (Dark Billionaires)

“I have a photo of his driving licence, hang on.”

She waited whilst he pulled it up, taking it out of his hand and presenting it to Saffron. “Have you ever seen this man? Has he… visited you?”

Saffron zoomed into the image before shaking her head. “I don’t think so, but I wasn’t always sober when I was working. Graves would inject us to prevent us from escaping. To get us addicted, keep us coming back for more.”

“Inject you?” Kate asked.

“With heroin, mostly.”

A harsh noise came from Rhys’s throat. “Do you need us to get you any?”

Waves of icy blonde hair shook around Saffron’s face. “I’ve been trying to escape for a while, to wean myself off it without him knowing. I…” Her lips pressed together. “No, I don’t want anything. Perhaps some food, if you have any.”

Rhys’s smile was tight, but he offered Saffron a hand up. “We can get you some food. Come and look at some of the take-away menus I have. The Indian down the road is quite good. The chippy next door to them isexcellent. We also have…” His voice trailed off as the two of them retreated down the corridor.

The hand that landed over Kate’s own startled her.

“Stop it,” Warren ordered her. A soft frown appeared on his brow.

“Stop what?” Her eyes flashed to his before darting away again. Thoughts of guilt were swirling around her head, dragging her down into an endless whirlpool.

“This was not your fault.”

Perhaps not entirely, and certainly not directly, but the fault arrived at her door all the same. “Saffron can take my bed, if she wants it. I’ll sleep in here on the sofa.”

Rhys appeared in the doorway. “Er—no need. She can sleep in my room and I’ll have the sofa. Or one of the others. We’re getting an Indian in. Did the two of you want any food?”

“I’ll have a gulab jamun,” Warren said.

Kate shook her head. “No, thank you.”

“One for each of us, Rhys.”

Rhys disappeared as Kate stared at Warren. “I said I didn’t want any.” She didn’t even know what gulab jamun was.

“And when we used to stop off and get sweet and sour chicken with salt and pepper chips from the Chinese shop after school, you’d always insist you didn’t want any.”

She bit her lip, knowing exactly where he was going with this.

“Then as soon as we sat down on the bench, your grubby little fingers would find their way intomyfood.” Warren sat back in his chair, his legs spread wide. “Sound about right?”

Unable to stop a grin spreading across her face, Kate shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe?” she said, her voice higher than usual.

Warren’s laugh was a deep rumble that warmed her chest. “That’s the first time I’ve seen you properly smile since I found you.”

Her eyebrow quirked up. “Found? Is that the word we’re using now?”

Warren yanked her chair forward. Its ear-splitting skid across the wooden floor made her wince, but Kate yelped in fear of being dislodged, grabbing onto his arms to steady herself. “What would you call it, kitten?”

“Kidnapping?”

His arms gripped either side of her chair, imprisoning her where she sat. “So if I told you that you could go home right now, would you?”

The thought of endless final notices on debts she couldn’t pay almost made her feel ill. “I don’t know,” she whispered, her voice wavering.

“You’d never see me again,” he told her, eyes sparkling, jaw ticking.

Her answer was even fainter the second time round. “I don’t know.”

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