Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
For a second, I forgot who Matt was. “Oh, Shawn,” I said out loud when I should have only thought it. I buckled my seat belt. “At least that’s the name he told me.” I tried to mask the bitterness, but it came through.
As he pulled out of the garage, he said, “Matt’s a good guy.”
“Of course you would say that,” I muttered.
“True. But he really is. First, I should clear something up for you. The name on Matt’s birth certificate is Matthew Sean. The spelling of Sean is different. But staying close to the truth when you are lying is best. Thus, he wasn’t lying about his name, as I don’t think he spelled it for you. And he concealed the truth for the people in that room.”
How could I fault him for that? There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for my family. Hell, that had been the reason for my capture in the first place.
“Second, Matt’s business with Ruin is for my sake. When Lizzy got pregnant, he volunteered to look for him so I could be safe for our growing family.” I widened my eyes and turned to face Connor. He bobbed his head but didn’t glance my way. “You see, Ruin ruined my life at boarding school. He and a group of his friends, sanctioned by a teacher, made my life hell. I won’t get into the details, but they had a fight club. The loser gets fucked, literally. And Ruin liked being the winner, so he’d pick on us younger boys who couldn’t defend ourselves.”
I glanced at my nails, sorry for the boy who was now a man. “I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault. But you and I have a lot in common. And I have every intention of using any resources available to me to stop him.”
“You have my vote,” I said.
He was silent a second as all the energy I’d put into hating Shawn dissipated.
“You know something else I’m sure Matt didn’t tell you?”
I looked up. “What’s that?”
He gave a quick glance and said, “He didn’t ask your brother to pay him back the money he paid for you.” I clamped my mouth shut. Dumbly, I hadn’t thought about any of that. “If you haven’t figured it out yet, he doesn’t care much about money.”
“That’s easy for someone who has it,” I shot back.
“Maybe. But Matt’s a different guy. He had a studio apartment in Chicago. You’ve seen his parents’ place. He could afford a lot more.”
Everything he said made sense, but I still had questions. “How much did he pay for me?”
Though I’d been in the room, I hadn’t been in a position to see the screens of the tablets Ruin had given the buyers to use.
“Two million.” Connor dropped that bomb and I coughed.
I might have spluttered if there had been any liquid in my mouth. Suddenly dry, the words out of my throat felt like gravel. “Why so much?” It seemed like a dumb question. Could I really place value on a human being?
“From what I understand, Ruin didn’t run a typical auction. It was a one-time bid. Highest bidder took the prize. Matt didn’t know what to bid but wasn’t going to risk losing.”
A thought hit me. “But he did lose.”
Connor nodded, though his focus remained on the road. “Based on the outcome, we think the original winner may have hit one too many zeros in his zeal to get his bid in. As you recall, he didn’t have the funds to pay.”
What had I been worth to those sick bastards? Two hundred thousand? Twenty thousand? Two thousand?
“I know what you are thinking,” Connor said, breaking into my thoughts. “The point is, Matt thought you were worth two million, even knowing he might never get it back.”
I felt like crying and chalked it up to pregnancy hormones.
We reached yet another underground garage, and I wondered when I would be able to walk the streets in the light of day again. I missed the sun and the heat on my skin. I followed Connor to an elevator after he parked. Only the elevator didn’t move as he pressed a card to a reader. A second later, the back of the elevator opened, and we stepped out into a little room. When the back elevator door closed, a security panel opened on the wall in front of us. Connor keyed in a code and moved closer as if his eye was scanned before a hidden door opened.
“Wow,” I said. “What kind of club is this?” I was thinking it was like a war room for mercenaries. I never in a million years would have guessed his answer.
“A sex club.” I coughed and tried to mask it as if clearing my throat. Connor thought I was amusing. “It’s okay. Most would never suspect.”
My only thought was, what kind of sex club needed Mission Impossible high-level security with secret doors and eye scanners?