Page 25 of Maxim

Seeing the utter despair on her face was the confirmation I needed that those kids are what is important to her.

She doesn’t care about herself. That much was obvious in the way she offered herself up to me on a silver platter. She’s a virgin. At least her father said so. He’s a liar, but he wouldn’t be able to get away with lying about a woman being a virgin. Any other purchaser would have had her medically checked before they even left the facility.

So I believe she is a virgin. Just like I believe that he had planned to auction her off all along. I also think that he plans to sell his other daughter at some point. Olena should feel lucky he waited until she was eighteen. I know her father has no issues selling off children for profit. I’ve seen it with my own two eyes.

It does make me wonder why he waited so long with her. What benefits did she offer him until she was no longer useful?

“I’m not trying to hurt them. I want to help them. Who are they to you?” I ask.

She looks away from me. She doesn’t trust me. That’s good, but also not. I need her to trust me.

I guess I need to build that trust.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me. I know they are important to you, and they are to me too. If they are living with your father, they are in danger. I know that. I need to know one thing, though. Are you working with your father? Are you supposed to report back to him somehow?”

When she doesn’t look at me, I reach out and cup her cheek, pulling her face so I can look in her eyes.

What I see there breaks my heart. She’s afraid. If he has asked her to spy on whoever bought her, she doesn’t want to. I don’t know if I can trust her yet, but I will.

Together we will learn to trust one another. I bought her, which I hated to have to do, but in doing so, I decided that I would take care of her. She doesn’t realize it, but she earned herself a bodyguard for the rest of her life. Even after all of this isover, I will make sure to set her up so that she never has to want for anything ever again. She will be safe and protected.

I need to take down her father first, though.

“It will all be okay. I will make sure of it. Tell me you understand why you have to stay inside this house. I am likely being watched at all times. That means you are too. I might have gotten you out of his house, but we are both still under his thumb. Do you understand?”

She sucks in a breath, her eyes watering. Then she nods.

I brush my thumb under her eye to catch the tear that falls.

“I will protect you.” I sigh, pulling away from her. “It’s late. You need to get some sleep. I need to go back out for a bit. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

I stand, leaving her sitting on the couch. When I reach the door, I look back over at her.

“I will make sure you are okay.”

She doesn’t believe me. I can see it in the way she watches me, but she needs to hear it.

Typing in my security code, I disarm the system. When I step outside, I hear the beep saying it’s been reengaged. Then I head toward my car.

I don’t want to make the trip, but I have no choice. I need to let Nikolai know what has happened. He will have gotten a report from Alexei, but he needs to know why I did it.

The video game café is nearly full, but there’s always a machine open for me. Nikolai has made sure of it. Heading back to it, I settle in and start up the first-person shooter game. Then I put my headset on and start playing. As soon as I logged in, Alexei was notified.

I only need to wait for him to hack his way onto my team and secure us a line.

It takes three rounds.

“Nice moves there, To the Max.” Alexei’s voice comes over my line using my username.

“Not bad yourself, In the Dark,” I say back to him.

“Saw you got yourself one hell of a prize last night. Did you earn it?” he asks.

I get what he’s asking. Did I need to buy Olena?

“I did. It was a hell of a fight, but I came out victorious. The prize is sweet too. One to keep for a while.”

I can’t say what I want to say. She was in danger, and I needed to save her. He wouldn’t understand.