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I slumped in the back seat of the car, my brain wracked with a migraine as I worked over all the possibilities, my muscles feeling like loose gelatin. Maybe I’d made everything worse by coming to see Julian. I’d gotten him hurt. How could he ever forgive me? But that was Julian, eager to forgive, happy to forget. Maybe that was all of us.
 

I curled up on the stained upholstery and rested my eyes as we flew through the city streets, my future unknown yet again.

eighteen

Asher

I came home to an empty house. An empty fucking house. I’d called her name through the empty spaces, ransacked her room, ran out to the back property, until I’d finally found I was dead fucking alone. I’d shoved my foot in my mouth this morning, thinking she was angry at me and ready to go. Was there a chance they’d come to take her, right from under my nose? The vibration on my phone alerted me to an incoming call and I picked it up, praying it was her. The voice that greeted me sent a shudder through my veins.
 

“Mr. Strong? It's Shoshanna, I don't have much time, but it seems that Allie's been returned to us. I know how much she means to you, if you want to see her again you should come quickly.” The line was dead before I could even form a thought.
 

“Fuck!” My heart rattled in my chest as I launched behind the wheel of my Mercedes and headed to the interstate, back to the city, back to the warehouse on the industrial side of Newark, back to get my girl.
 

Twenty minutes later I was parking in the very same spot I’d parked to pick her up. Right in front, ready for a hasty exit if needed. I’d hated the feel of this place and was only too glad to be rescuing her from its hollow, dark hallways and sex-scented sin. I only prayed that I could get my hands on her before someone else did. I’d move heaven and earth for her. She was the sun I revolved around. Anger burned low in my gut as I hurried to the side door, nodding at the doorman and flashing my identification, before heading back into the bowels of the warehouse.

I was relieved that there was no guard posted outside Clancy's door as I’d seen before, so I let myself into his office. His head shot up instantly, along with another familiar face.
 

“What the fuck is this?” I grunted, my jaw clenched rigidly.
 

“Seems Allie ran away.” Clancy caught my eyes with a disappointed look. I rolled my eyes and shoved a palm through my hair. “Eve. Call her fucking Eve.”

“Did she tell you to call her that?” A cigarette-choked, nasally voice piped up from the corner.
 

“Why the fuck is she here?” I’d recognized Eve’s foster mother instantly. Too bad I hadn’t noticed her car in the parking lot when I’d shown up.
 

“Well, she returned the product, you see.” Clancy’s eyes lightened just as my gaze turned a sinister shade of jet fucking black.
 

“Where is she now?” I bellowed as my fists twitched at my sides.
 

“Shoshanna has her in back. Preparing her for the next client. If you just sign here, we can get the money wired back to your account, less a twenty-five percent handling fee. You understand, all that waxing and wardrobe isn’t free, ya know.” Clancy turned his glance to Eve’s foster mother with an awkward chuckle.
 

“Fuck the money. Where is she?” I launched across the room, finding the other door in his office, the one that led to the rear hallway and innards of the building, was locked. “Open this fucking door before I take it off its hinges,” I seethed, leveling him with a glare.
 

“No, I’m afraid you can’t do that. Contract was void the minute she came back here. Like a repossession, she reverts to company property. It’s always been our policy to avoid unfortunate…ah…situations. I’m sorry it didn’t work out. Perhaps there’s another girl we can find who’s more to your liking.” Clancy shoveled more bullshit at me, making me angrier with every word.

“There’s no other girl. That’s my girl. Open the fucking door now.” Before I could think twice, I wrapped my fingers around his neck and tightened. My mind raged. I saw only her, needed only her. She could be meeting with some other son of a bitch right now.
 

“No, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Clancy repeated as my palm tightened at his throat, my muscles clenching with a force I hadn’t had to use before.
 

“You’d better bring her to me before I snap your fucking neck and step over your dead body to get to her. Promise you, she is mine. I will find her, and I will kill any one of you useless bastards to do it. I suggest you make the right decision.”
 

The terrified man’s body went limp as his eyes shut tightly, one palm digging in the pocket of his trousers.
 

He produced a set of keys a moment later.
 

“Wise decision,” I spat, releasing him instantly before he fell back into his chair and rubbed at his neck.
 

“And she’d better be long fucking gone by the time I come back through here,” I ground out, gesturing to the useless, good for nothing foster mother Eve had been given. Her eyes widened for a moment before she picked up her purse, rummaging for her keys inside. “I’d better not see you again,” I said before walking through the door and slamming it behind me. One step closer to my girl, one step further away from those trying to stand in my way. I would lay flat any man or woman who got between Eve and me. No more. We’d waited long enough. Our lives were starting now, together.

I opened every door I passed, spying the waxing room, the hair salon, even a vast walk-in closet devoted to hundreds of sparkly, short dresses. The thought that her life had brought her here at all ate at my heart. But it was up to me to make her forget all of it, banish it from her memory and replace it with devotion and love.
 

I came to another door in the hall, praying to God it wasn’t this one, because this one was the last stop. This door led to the showrooms.
 

The rooms men used to assess the women. Touch them. Decide if they were the right fit.
 

I cringed, imagining someone else’s hands on her. I slid open the door, finding an empty room, a pair of sneakers on the floor—the pair I’d told Peggy to buy for her. An empty hanger dangled from a rail and a pile of clothes was bundled in the corner, a pair of jeans and a torn white shirt, bits of rust still embedded in the fibers of cotton, among them.
 

“Eve.” My heart broke. She’d slipped through the gate. She’d left on her own. She’d left me and walked away from us. Clancy hadn’t come to get her like I’d assumed. It was even worse. She’d left me after my revelation yesterday. I’d gone too far, read her wrong, and now she was here, and I’d fucking lost her. I’d lost everything.
 

I took a slow breath, my fingers twitching with thinly veiled anxiety. What if she still needed me? I made my decision and spun the knob on the final door, barreling through the darkened corridors and past rooms, glancing in one-way mirrors like a rabid beast, searching for the soft curve of her shoulder, the dip of her thigh, the glint of her billowing dark hair.
 

“Eve!” I hollered, not caring who heard. “Eve!” I sped by each window, desperate to find her.
 

“Mr. Strong.” Shoshanna dipped out of one room, nodding with a look of remorse.

“Where is Eve?”

She didn't answer, just watched me with expectant eyes. “Where the fuck is she?” I sped across the hall and clasped the woman’s elbow. Shoshanna’s eyes darted from my murderous glare, to the door she’d come from, then to my hand grasping her elbow. “You may want to go help your boss. I left him choking in his office.” I released her and crashed into the one room I hadn’t checked. Eve stood stock still on a pedestal, her hands trembling as she clutched them over her abdomen while a stranger’s eyes roamed her form.
 

I nearly launched across the room when the man raised a palm and stroked down the delicate angle of her neck. “Eve!” I rushed to her side, sending the older man tumbling back into the leather chair, whiskey splashing across his large belly. “Eve?” I whispered, turning her gaze to meet mine. Silent tears burned hot paths down her cheeks and cracked my heart into a thousand tiny shards.

“Oh, baby. I’m so sorry.” I pulled her down from the platform and into my arms. “Jesus, tell me he didn’t touch you. Tell me I’m not too late.” I stroked a hand through her hair as she sobbed on my shoulder, her delicate arms wrapping around my torso and beneath the dark fabric of my coat as she melted into the warmth of my embrace.
 

“I’m so glad you’re here,” she sobbed. “I’m so glad you're here.”
 

“I’m not leaving you again, not ever. I swear it, Eve. Never again,” I said, my tone low before I gathered her into my arms, carrying her like a small child through the doorway and down the long hallway. I exited out of the first door I could find, the vibrant sun burning my eyes and making me feel so, so thankful I had her and we could go home now. Eve didn’t seem to register anything as I carried her across the parking lot, her hands wrapped around my neck, her nose tucked beneath my ear as her sobbing ebbed and flowed.
 

“Julian!” she cried as I was setting her down into the seat of my car. “Julian! We have to save Julian!” she shrieked and tried to dart past me and back into the building.
 

“Wait, wait, where is Julian?” I rushed, trying to stay calm in the face of her hysteria.
 

“At Judy’s house. We have to call an ambulance. He’s hurt!” she confessed before her eyes, wide with fear, finally caught mine.
 

“Okay, okay. I’ll call them right now.” I eased her back into the seat, this time being sure to belt her in. I dialed the police.
 

I explained the situation to the dispatcher, saying I believed someone to be hurt at the hands of their foster parent at Eve’s old address. The dispatcher then asked whether I would be on the premises to speak to police officers when they arrived. I kindly explained I wouldn’t until she mentioned that to press charges, I would need to be present. I finally got off the phone, sliding in behind the wheel of the car, then turned to my sweet, broken girl.

“I want to take you home, to my house. I want to draw you a hot bath, massage every inch of your body until this day goes away, then hold you in my arms until you drift off to sleep, but there’s one more thing we have to do.” I leveled with her sadly. “If you want to press charges against Judy, we have to go back and meet the police there right now,” I said. “We’ll do whatever you want to do, but Eve, I think you should press charges.” I reached a hand out to cup hers, intertwining our fingers and giving a gentle squeeze. I was there for her, no matter what she wanted.

“Okay,” she said, her voice stronger than I expected. “Okay, I’ll go back.” She tightened her fingers in mine. “But not to press charges. For the boys.” Her eyes held mine, unwavering, and at that moment I saw into her heart. I saw every beautiful thing that resided in her lonely soul. The love she carried in her heart was boundless, and I just prayed someday she’d find a place for me in it.
 

“Okay. So we go back for the boys. The rest is up to you.” I nodded, dropping her hand and then turning the key in the car, feeling terrified and thrilled all at the same time. She was so much stronger than I imagined, and if it were possible, I fell even deeper in love with her.

nineteen

Eve

We arrived at the house in which I’d been a slave after the cops had shown up. Three cruisers in the yard, an ambulance in the driveway, and my brother sitting in the back of it, a paramedic trying to treat the slash at his temple.
 

“Mason! Grant!” I called before Asher had even put the vehicle in park.
 

“Miss!” an officer called as I launched across the lawn.
 

“I’m their sister!” I yelled, almost jubilant that this was all finally over. The boys, me, we could escape now. We didn’t have to survive this anymore.
 

I reached Mason and Grant, lingering next to the ambulance waiting on Julian. I enveloped them in tight hugs as tears ran down my cheeks.
 

“Sorry, he’s going to have to go to the hospital now. You can seem him there. Visiting hours won’t be till morning though,” one responder informed us before pushing my brother’s bed back into the ambulance.
 

“Wait!” Julian called and tried to stand, looking wobbly. I met him just before he fell back onto the thin mattress.
 

I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him tightly. “I’ll be at the hospital,” I said in his ear. “I love you.” Tears spiked my eyes as Julian’s gaze caught mine.
 

“Love you, too, big sis,” he said, flashing me that cocky half grin that I’d been subjected to the last few years.
 

“Thank you,” I whispered as a policeman stepped in, gently pulling me away.
 

“Race ya there!” he called before the door shut.
 

“So I assume no next of kin?” the policeman asked, referring to Mason and Grant, each underage.

“They’re going home with me.” I locked them in my arms.
 

“And that would be where?” The officer scribbled on a pad.

“Uhh…” I stumbled, mind racing, trying to think of an address to give him.
 

“Seven thirty-three Eagle Crest, up in the mountains,” Asher replied, stepping up to our group. I beamed, loving him more every single minute.

“Thanks, Mr. Strong.” The officer wrote the address on his pad, then flipped it closed.
 

“How ya doin’, boys?” Asher patted Mason on the back, his dark eyes warm and welcoming. He had so much genuine concern for everyone he met. He was the only true gentleman I’d ever met in my life.
 

“Well, I’ve checked their IDs. I know one is about ready to age out, but outside of a few visits, I don’t see the problem with them staying with you. I’m sure it can be established that the three of you, fourth including your brother, have formed a stable family unit these last few years. It will be a lot of paperwork, but it looks like it might be worth it to you.” He smiled. “We’ll be in touch. Call me with any concerns at all.”