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Exhaling a loud huff, I climbed out of the van first and, without so much as looking, could hear the commotion behind me as the other girls followed.
“Follow me,” Ben said, and led us in through the metal door and down the stairs toward the basement. “Not you. You stay here,” he instructed Skylar.
“Where are you taking her?” Ariella asked.
Did she still care about me after what I’d done?
Her glance toward me was brief as she clutched Izzie tight to her chest, holding the little girl in her arms. Maybe I imagined it, but she didn’t look angry like I would have expected.
Was it disappointment? Perhaps sadness.
Or I just didn’t want to see that she hated me. That was as much a real possibility.
“That’s none of your concern,” Ben said.
“Who’s the kid? We haven’t been apart long enough for her to be yours,” Ben said.
He reached for Izzie, prying her from Ariella’s grip.
“No!” Ariella shifted her body, protecting my niece from his grabby hands.
“What do you want with her?” I asked. “She’s just a kid.”
I didn’t know what Ben planned to do with the girls, but I suspected it wasn’t good. I’d seen the handful of women in the basement, and from what I’d gathered previously from Jayden, they were being trafficked.
“Fine. You want her. She’s your responsibility,” Ben said as he shoved Izzie into my arms.
Shit.
What did I know about kids?
Izzie’s eyes filled with tears and her bottom lip trembled before the dam broke. “I want my Daddy!” Izzie wailed, squirming in my arms.
She didn’t want me to hold her, not that I blamed her. We weren’t best friends. She probably knew I wasn’t keen on her, and she obviously was making it clear she didn’t want to be stuck with me either.
“You’re going to be fine,” Ariella said, gently rubbing Izzie’s back. “Skylar isn’t going to let anything happen to you. Isn’t that right?”
The look she shot me sent a shiver down my spine.
“Yes, that’s right. You’re safe with me,” I said, holding Izzie on my hip.
I wanted to put her down. I wasn’t used to holding a kid, let alone thirty or maybe forty pounds that had latched itself around my neck and hips.
The kid had no intention of loosening her grasp on me.
“You’ll protect her, at all costs,” Ariella said and leaned in close to my ear. “Or so help me, I will hunt you down and make you suffer Jaxson’s wrath.”
Ariella was right. I feared my older brother far more than I feared her.