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Me? I’m looking for my wife.

I see at least four women lines up on a makeshift stage, each stripped down to their bras and panties. Our arrival, followed by Dallas killing two men in front of them has the women screaming, huddling together, but when I lift my gun up, firing athird shot—a warning shot into the ceiling—every single fucking person down here goes silent.

“I. Want. My. Wife.”

That’s all I have to say. From behind a curtain I didn’t notice at first, Loni comes stumbling out. She’s also been stripped down, and if my magazine had enough bullets in it to kill every other man in this cramped room (save Dallas, of course), I would have.

Instead, I throw open my arms. The sob she lets out as she runs right toward me despite the weapon in my hand will stay with me the rest of my damn life. Same as the way she squeezes me tight before gasping out, “Adrian, it’s you. It’s you. You came for me. Oh… youcame.”

I close my arms around her, still keeping my gun in my grasp. Anyone who makes a move toward my wife will get shot, I swear to fucking God—and theyknowit. If not me, Dallas has at least three more rounds in his gun, and these rich fuckers down here… I don’t think there’s a single weapon between them.

With my free hand, I rub Loni’s back. My hand shakes as I do. “Of course I did, princess. I made that mistake once. I will never fucking do it again. You hear me? I willalwayscome for you.”

She dissolves into tears that scald me through my dress shirt. She’s only been down here for an hour at most—nothing like the two months where Haven was missing—but even onesecondwas too long. I suddenly have a moment of clarity when it comes to Connor and the way he guards his Haven so fiercely.

I’ll do the same for Loni.

No. I’ll doworse.

As Dallas uses the threat of his gun to get the men to gather on one side, the terrified women on the other, I can’t bring myself to release Loni. So I don’t. However, I do slip my hand inside of my suit jacket, pulling out my cigarette case.

She shivers. I make a soothing sound in the back of my throat. “It’s okay. I still got you.”

She nods. “I know. Baby… Iknow.”

I kiss the top of her hair. Then, palming the cigarette case, I remove my jacket as efficiently as I can until I have no choice but to release her for a few seconds. She gasps, and I hurriedly help her climb into my suit jacket to help her cover up.

I’ll find her clothes. Her shoes. That’s at the top of my to-do list so that Loni isn’t half-naked and vulnerable a moment longer.

But first…

Pulling her back into my embrace, I pop open the cigarette case. Nicholas Reed’s card is right on top.

I smile.

As soon as I take care of my wife, I’m making a phone call.

TWENTY-EIGHT

LONG LIVE THE KING

LONI

It takes a week before Jack Collins calls Adrian and tells him that he’d like to see him at his office. My husband had refused to go back to the Fortress after he whisked me away out of it wearing nothing more than my bra, my panties, and his suit jacket.

He was about to search the hidden backroom for my clothes, but the shock that set in after I was forced at gunpoint to remove my clothes before being assaulted made it so that I clung to him like I was fucking velcro. I couldn’t let go of him. It was like I had this terrible feeling that, if he released me, I’d be up on that stage, sold like a piece of cattle, and sent home with some stranger to do whatever the fuck they wanted to me.

I didn’t tell Adrian why I was behind the curtain. As the most recent addition to the afternoon’s monthly auction, they separated me from the other girls so that any man who might be interested could visit me in the back and get an idea of my worth before I went on the stage.

One faceless man—because masks, damn it, they wore thinmaskswith their business suits—squeezed my tits. Another slidhis hand inside of my underwear, palming my ass. Two came in, murmuring on a shared deal, then shook hands. Another pinched my pussy through my underwear. The last one grabbed my hair, only murmuring his appreciation when he yanked and I squealed.

He wanted a squealer, he told me, then tugged one last time for good measure before slipping back out into the shadows.

My clothes were thrown in a pile so high, it made my stomach crawl to think about how many other women were put through this same degradation. I didn’t care if I ever saw that shirt or those jeans again. My shoes? I could buy a hundred pairs of shoes. I just wanted to leave.

He ordered Dallas to stay behind and he did. I think it stunned the enforcer to see what his father was capable of; Adrian confirmed that neither he nor Dallas had any idea that Jack was selling ‘undesirables’ in a basement auction to very wealthy businessmen all over the country. Dallas even killed two… no,threeenforcers since Adrian had to lead me out past Luke’s dead body… Adrian’s cousin killed the men who saw nothing wrong with what was going on in the shadows.

When I stopped trembling so much, I decided that I might forgive Dallas for being the one to track me down in Bridgewater.