CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
ANTHONY
“I’m sorry you both came all the way here just to leave so soon.”
With a protective arm wrapped around Claire, Holland inclined his head. His lips were a tight line, anger still a vibration over his shoulders. “It’s not your fault, Anthony. You weren’t the one playing games.”
Understanding his frustration, only because I had the same frustration with Aiden, I lowered my voice to ensure I wouldn’t be overheard.
“Go back to wherever you can hide. His games weren’t just for his amusement, they were a warning.”
Holland barked out a humorless laugh. “His message was clear. I won’t do anything to land myself in the ground beneath that tree.”
Claire’s eyes were stained red when I turned in her direction. “Thank you for attempting to help with Sera.”
She shook her head, her gaze locked on the car that idled in front of the portico. “Don’t let him hurt her any more than he already has.”
There was nothing I could say to appease her. Instead, I nodded and moved away from the front door.
They left the house quietly, climbed in the car. I watched until it had pulled so far down the drive that I could no longer see the tail lights.
Closing the door, I took a steadying breath and made my way to Aiden’s office. My thoughts drifted back to the events beneath the willow tree.
Listening to Sera detail the abuse her previous owners had committed against her was an exercise in patience. Listening to the details of their vile acts, imagining the torment Sera endured – it made me want to find them as soon as we left the tree to return to the mansion, made me want to slaughter them with my own bare hands.
I refrained, of course, due to the constraints of the Society’s rules.
"What have you discovered about Sera's previous captors?"
Leaning my shoulder against the doorframe of Aiden's office, I watched him walk from the window to his desk.
Idly, he pushed a few papers over the expanse of the dark wood surface. "They're two younger members that feed off the scraps the other owners toss aside. Apparently, their philosophy is that pussy is pussy as my sources have so colorfully told me, and they appreciate being able to purchase women considered used up for quite cheap. They live about twenty miles outside of the city."
"It'll be easy to pay them a visit," I suggested.
"How fortunate for me," Aiden droned.
I walked deeper into the office to take a seat on the black leather couch facing Aiden's desk. In unison, Aiden seated himself in his executive chair. "It'll take a few weeks for me to gather information on all the courtesans sold to them. I need names and dates - the specifics - for the Society to give me permission to remove them as a potential problem."
"How many women have they had?" I wasn't prepared to hear the answer, as if one could actually prepare themselves to bare the blunt truth of the number of lives lost to pure evil. From what Sera had admitted under the willow tree, she'd counted ten bodies in that pit, but she'd only been held by the owners she escaped for a few months, possibly a year, as much as she was aware. She couldn't be blamed for the lack of specifics. Being trapped in a dark hole with the bodies of the dead would be enough to skew any person's sense of time.
Aiden's investigation would provide us with more accurate details, of that I was sure. And when we had them, when their crimes were revealed and their punishment was decided, nothing would stop me from accompanying Aiden to carry it out.
"From the men I spoke with today, there were twenty-four women sold into their care within a eleven month period of time. But there are several other owners from whom they could have purchased more."
Groaning, I scrubbed my hand over my face, as if that would dispel the disgust that clung to my skin. "Courtesans were never intended to be slaughtered. That is not how the Society works."
Aiden nodded. "Yes, well, it seems there are certain members who feel they have the authority to change the rules."
"How do they afford the women? Especially, that high of a number?"
Rolling a pen between his fingers, Aiden answered, "At this point, I don't know. But I'm determined to find out." He grew quiet while eyeing the pen he played between his fingers, finally lifting his green eyes to me in a moment of obvious scrutiny. "Why are you here, Anthony? Beyond what's occurred with Sera in the past few days, you haven't involved yourself in the dealings of the Society for years."
Clearing my throat, I straightened the cuff of my left sleeve, and then my right, before returning his stare. "The game we’re playing is over, Aiden. I appreciate the part you've had in it, but I believe Sera is in a position now for me to take her to the island. She's begging at this point, and I'm ready to return home."
Aiden grinned as he settled back in his seat. Having dropped the pen on the surface of his desk, he steepled his fingers at his chin.
"Do you believe it was really so easy? That now that she looks to you as the savior removing her from my care, she'll comply with the demands you make of her?"
The skin wrinkled between my eyes, a shot of outrage rippling through me that he dared question my assessment of Sera.
Aiden and I were both Masters, despite our differences in approach, but I had an additional ten years of experience in the practice - ten years that taught me to temper the cruelty my hand could deliver.
"She's given you the names, which is all you wanted from her. She's also offered her complete submission to me, which was the point of the game we agreed to play against her. As such, it's time for me to take her where I can continue her rehabilitation."
Fingers still steepled, Aiden's face no longer hinted toward amusement, it had flattened into an emotionless mask, a man devoid of feelings. "The entire time I've known you, I respected you more than all the other members of the Society. And the reason for my respect was that, like me, you didn't fall for the games the members and other Masters sometimes like to play against each other. You've always been a discerning man."
"And your point in telling me this?"
"You've lost that discernment," he answered.
Anger flooded me, but I tamped it down, refused to display any symptom of it for Aiden's scrutiny. "I've lost nothing."
He smirked. "Tell yourself whatever you want, Anthony, but from where I'm sitting, it's clear that you have. And I cannot, in my duty as a Master within the Society, place a hostile courtesan in the hands of a Master who has gone soft."
"We made an arrangement," I reminded him. "I'm the one who plucked her from that cliff, and I'm the only one who should have any say in what happens to her from this point forward. It was your lack of judgment that placed her in the hands of men who abused her. If not for me, she'd be a body scattered over rocks-"
His smile widened. "Ah, but Finders Keepers does not apply to our group. You know that." Allowing his words to hang between us, his gaze flicked down to where my hands had fisted over my lap. "And I thank you for returning her to me, Anthony, but Sera will not be leaving my control until I decide she's adequately compliant."
If rage were a strong enough word to describe what I felt in that moment, I would use it, but somehow it seemed too timid, too mild, to describe the inferno of fury that exploded within me, each solitary spark igniting more anger and chaos within my skin.
Keeping my voice barely controlled, I spoke as if this were business alone, and not a conversation about a woman who'd wrapped her fingers around the thunder within my heart. "We had an arrangement, and we'd agreed to specific terms. Are you telling me now that you're not going to honor the deal we made regarding my courtesan?"
Staring at me, he shifted in his seat, not out of nervousness or discomfort, but as a display of authority. "I'm telling you that I do not believe you are in a healthy frame of mind in your position as Master within the Society. I'm telling you that I am taking into consideration what is best for Sera and for you. She's not the only person who is broken in this equation, and as your colleague - as your friend - I'm making a decision that I feel is proper for every person involved."
Eyes narrowed, I was unable to hide behind the blank mask each Master donned in their trade. I could feel my skin heat with simmering rage, could barely pull my fingers out from the fist they'd made of my hands. "How dare you believe you have the right to judge my state of mind? I am not some young woman for you to manipulate."
Genuine regret filtered through his expression. Keeping his voice calm, his tone soft, he admitted, "I'm sorry, Anthony. I truly am. But you've gone soft."
Soft. This arrogant bastard believed I'd gone soft? I wanted to go across the desk at him just to wipe that feigned look of regret from his face. But, within the Society, there were rules, and I was bound by those rules like every other member, whether Master or Owner.
"I'll purchase her from you," I offered, one last bid to force his hand to comply with the terms we'd agreed upon before playing the game against Sera. If there was anything Aiden cared about most, it was money.
His eyes widened, his mouth pulling into a thin line. "Just for the fact that you would purchase a woman, specifically this particular woman, simply to have her shows me that I'm correct in my assessment. You're not ready, Anthony, and I will not make the same mistake I made before when it comes to Sera's welfare as a courtesan."
My voice was deceptively soft. "Is that it then? You've made your decision?"
He nodded, not a hint of emotion in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Anthony, but I have. You are welcome to return to your island if you want, or you are welcome to stay here. I am still your friend, and perhaps one day you will understand, and even appreciate, the decision I've made."
Standing from my chair, I brushed the wrinkles from my slacks and moved slowly to pull at the wrist cuffs of my shirt before locking my gaze with Aiden's.
"Then you'll have to excuse me to make my own decisions, now that I see clearly how you intend to play your cards."
His lip twitched with satisfaction, but it was only a hint of emotion, there and then gone. "Please remember this is not an attack against you, Anthony. My level of respect for you has not, and will never, change.”
The corner of my lip kicked up into a smirk. I had a feeling he'd be taking back that last comment by the time I was done. Inclining my head, I turned and walked from his office, my steps like the pound of thunder beneath me as I made my way to Sera's dark room.
My anger was the force driving me to her door, and the violence unfurling inside me was the spark that ignited the dangerous inferno of my desire.