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The shock in the room was palpable. Had any woman ever dared to oppose those three? Were they the kind of men who were not going to take no for an answer? I needed to know.

“Victoria…” Theo moved even closer, his face full of hurt.

No. Ofpity.

“If I wanted to escape from here don’t you think I would do so by now?” I asked harshly. “I’m not chained up like some princess in a tower. I could have taken the chance to run. But running is not enough because this isn’t only about me.”

Tristan’s eyes sharpened with alertness.

“Explain. Please.”

“I’m just a pawn in a bigger game. A hostage, kept to ensure my brother’s compliance. Until he is free of the debt, of the mafia, of any deals they pushed his company into… I won’t be free even if I change an owner,” I couldn’t help but bare my teeth like a cornered animal.

“I see,” Tristan said, his face blank.

He made a motion towards the door with his head and the two other men followed him outside.

When the door closed shut after them I staggered to a chair and collapsed into it.

Of course, the additional complications weren’t worth it. It was one thing to buy a woman from a slaver like she was a piece of meat. It was another to deal with her family, some guy they weren’t interested in, as well. They didn’t care about my brother and didn’t want to be involved in this situation. This was exactly the result I expected.

Why did it hurt then?

Seeing a ray of sunshine and then being cast back into darkness was much crueler than never letting me see the light of hope.

I let the tears stream down my face. In a few minutes I was going to pull myself together, as always, but I gave myself the luxury of vulnerability for just this moment.

I didn’t notice the door quietly open.

“You’re crying?!” I startled at Matthias’s voice. It was full of panic. “Oh gods, we made you cry…” The big, terrifying man folded to his knees in front of me. “Please, don’t cry…”

The last tear fell down with my surprised blink. I was completely thrown out of my spiraling dark thoughts by the sight of the brash, dangerous man on his knees, pleading.

“Tell me what I can do to make it better.”

Matthias’s tone was harsh but his words were… weresweet.

Gingerly, I reached my hand out and put it on the kneeling man’s head, letting the always-mussed strands of his hair run through my fingers.

He was here. He didn’t leave.

“You already made it better,” I shared shyly.

He looked up at me as if I hung the moon and stars in the sky. And he pushed into my hand, encouraging me to pet him.

“You are getting me today cuz Tristan decided we needed a ‘subtler approach’ in the talks and Theo is better at that,” Matthias huffed disapprovingly. “Can you believe they told me not to punch Carl in the face when I see him? Hypocrites. Theo can dislocate his shoulder but I can’t punch him even a little bit? Unfair.”

“He has such a punchable face, doesn’t he?” I laughed. “I would love to sack him one day. But if I can’t have that I will settle for not having to see his ugly mug.”

As I found out later, Matthias took my words to heart.

While I was in the middle of doing the laundry which I tried to avoid the day before, Matthias’ hands covered my eyes.

“What are you doing?” I asked, my whole body tense.

“Don’t look. You said you didn’t want to see Carl’s ugly mug so I’m only helping you,” he explained. I could hear the mean grin he had to be sporting.

“Ugly?!” Carl sputtered. “How dare you, you little—”