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“My aunt never left her room when Gabriel was there until, gradually, she didn’t come out at all. She was so unhappy, and nothing I could say or do made a difference.”

Watery pressure started burning behind her eyes at the mental image of her aunt’s frailty during the last few months of her life.

“How did you manage to break away from them?” Desmond’s voice drew her back to reality.

“I had been pleading for Julia to come downstairs with me. It was her birthday, and the housekeeper had made her favorite meal and let me make a birthday cake. She wouldn’t come downstairs. After George, Amelia, Gabriel, and I ate, I went into the kitchen to cut Julia a piece of the cake when Gabriel came into the kitchen … Thankfully, Julia decided to come down soon afterward and was looking for me. The next day, Julia sent me home, and I was never asked to visit her again. She died six months later.”

“They didn’t try to make you go back to visit after she died?” Desmond asked.

“They tried. I ran away.”

“That’s how you met Nadia,” he stated.

“Yes. She kept me safe.”

“Friends like that are hard to come by. I have a friend like that myself.”

“Friends like that are worth their weight in gold.” She didn’t know how her life would have turned out without Nadia’s encouragement and steadfast refusal to let her be mowed down by her family’s pressure to conform to their emotional demands.

“So, you see, I won’t be much help to you. I’ve been out of the loop for several years.”

“There’s a way to end your estrangement and put you back in your family’s good graces.”

“Hell would freeze over before I—”

Desmond opened a drawer in his desk to remove a folder. Opening it, he spread several photos within her sight.

Sliding to the end of her seat, she saw the pictures seemed to be of a large village with wide-ranging ages of the villagers milling or sitting outside their homes. Her heart sank at the children playing in the background as their parents sat in front of several fires.

“I have less than a month to find out where Gabriel will be moving them to. My greatest fear is that several of the women and children will be misplaced in the move, if they haven’t already.”

“Gabriel is behind what is going to happen to them?” she asked with a catch in her throat.

“Yes, but I’m sure George and Amelia are aware of his plans.”

She couldn’t walk back into their spider web. She wouldn’t have escaped in the first place without Nadia.

“Haley, look at me.”

She lifted her eyes from the pictures. Desmond’s gaze pierced hers with command.

“I will protect you.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“I think I do. I have spent enough time with your family to be aware of how toxic they are.”

Haley’s lips curled in an unamused smile. “Just think how poisonous they are when you aren’t there, watching their behavior.”

“It doesn’t matter. I can protect you. They will be afraid to make you angry or go against what you want.”

“That’ll never happen in a million years,” she scoffed.

“It will,” he countered firmly.

“Why would this time be any different?”

“Because you’ll be mine.”

Eleven

Knocking on the door, Desmond impatiently waited for Haley to answer. He was fucking tired, and his eyes burned from staring at a screen for the numerous hours he had put in today. It was nearing ten, and he wanted nothing more than to go home, shower, drink a glass of his favorite whiskey, and give in to the mental exhaustion causing yet another migraine brought on by mental fatigue. Masking the pain as Haley opened the door took all of his effort.

She partially opening the door a crack, her head barely popping out behind the wooden door. “What are you doing here?” she asked skittishly, as if ready to slam the door in his face if he made the wrong move.

“Let me in.”

“I was in bed. We can talk tomorrow,” she demurred.

The last thing he wanted was to stay out in the hallway when the three other tenants on the floor could upon them at any second.

“Quit wasting time; let me in,” he ground out, his head splitting open from the pain of his migraine.

“Sorry.” The door inched closed as she began to move her head away from the opening. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Using the flat of his hand, Desmond pushed the door open, shouldering Haley aside as he stepped inside the apartment, closing the door behind him.

“Leave now, or I’ll call the police!” she shrieked at him.

Desmond ignored the demand. “Do you have any Tylenol? My head is killing me.”

Flabbergasted, she stared at him before turning on her bare feet to walk into the powder room that was tucked in a small hallway to the side of the door.