"I mean, why steal art?" We'd been trading orgasms and sighs every waking hour, and some incredible twilight hours in the moments before wakefulness and sleep, but our conversations had ended completely. I knew that when I told him I wasn't ready for school or work yet, that I'd disappointed him. I wasn't embracing the life he was trying to give me, but it was a countercurrent to how I was trying to save myself, and I just wasn't ready. I went shopping with Tatiana, went to the gym and trained in self-defense. I fucked Jacob when he wasn't gone on business. I was his kept little woman, yet something about it wasn't right for him. I couldn't pull myself out of the cycle my brain was in to start up a fake life on his dime. This was all I could manage. And I wasn't sure why. I did want those things. Despite what scared me and made me want to hold back, I was still desperate to know more about Renaud. His touch only served to make me more interested. Somewhere between trying to resist him and trying to figure him out, he'd become the only thing I thought about.

The irony. He'd swore to me that I wasn't trading one cage for another, yet I was bound to my curiosity and confined to thoughts primarily of him. "J-Jacob?" I wondered if he heard me, and I stumbled because I'd almost called him Renaud aloud instead of Jacob as he preferred. It was odd. That's not how I thought of him, but I wasn't in any position to decide. He owned me...

"I heard you, baby girl, I just didn't know how to answer that," Renaud said with a laugh. "I mean, I know what a shrink would say. I know what my pat answer could be. But the truth? I like to own beautiful things...and I find money is frequently the most beautiful thing. I steal canvasses from some of the most powerful people in the world, and I'm walking in so many worlds. There's nothing in this world I can't have." I regard how he is answering so plainly, yet the power in his voice seems to fill the room. The strength he has, coming from every inch of him. It is part of what makes him dangerous. I'm certain that Renaud has never feared anything. Has never taken no for an answer. I shiver. I remember what he asked me. Could I have said no?

I don't want to think about it.

Just like I don't want to think about what I'm doing today. I might be digging my own grave. Jacob Renaud, who bought me, insists that I'm not in a cage. But I'm the last person in the world without a phone. I'm never truly alone. If he isn't there, one of his men is nearby. So it makes the fact that I'm trying to contact Interpol that much harder. I could contact the police here in the US, but I think that with everything that I know Mr. Renaud is up to, I have a much better chance at aiming higher. I'm not a thing to be owned. Fucking him is wrong. I enjoy it, but I hate myself for it. I didn't know any better, I tell myself. It feels good, but that's just my body. The man bought me.

My father sold me.

I just have to get away from all of this. I'll put him away, and he'll never do this again.

No one will own me and hide me away from the world ever again.

Today, I'm going to find a way to make a phone call. I figure I may be the only person in my life without a phone. That means if I am around anyone else, then I can use their phone. I just need to do it where Jacob's people won't follow me. One girl in the bathroom is sure to let me use her phone. I can just say that my phone died. Seems plausible. Reasonable.

"I want to go shopping today," I announce. Is my voice shaky and nervous? It probably is. It feels like it is. I need to work up the nerve and figure out how I'm going to contact Interpol and tell them who I am and what I need to do.

What was I going to say? It overwhelmed me completely even thinking about it.

"Sure, baby girl, what for?" Jacob asks.

I jump about a mile in the air. At least, that's what it feels like.

"Umm, I want to get a journal. Maybe a novel. I think I'd like to go a bookstore." Fuck, I sound insane. It was the first thing that came to mind. Jacob does something on his phone and then looks up at me. “Davidson will drive you, no problem." Jacob reaches into his wallet and pulls out something that knocks the wind out of me.

He pulls out a black credit card with my name on it.

When did he even do this?

Why would he give me money? Access to his money, or something of my own? I'm shocked. But he's told me this whole time I wasn't his prisoner. I swallow and take the card nervously, my hand shaking as my fingers close over it. I look into his eyes, trying to read what he makes of my reaction. Should I say thanks? I guess I should, but my stomach turns. This whole surreal situation makes my head hurt, and I don't know what to do. Am I supposed to fake thinking this is all normal? Be gracious? Be a greedy bitch happy to have a billionaire's funds at my disposal? I thought fucking him every day was confusing.

"You buy whatever you want. I'm going to be home late tonight, so take yourself somewhere nice for dinner. Davidson will take you anywhere you like." Jacob says this, his eyes back on his phone.

"Should I have dinner with Davidson?" I know it is a dumb question, but it falls out of my mouth before I think about it.

"Well, he can eat at his own table if you prefer to be alone, but the man does eat," Jacob laughs and looks up at me.

"Oh," I say, my face heating. I feel bad about my question now like I was making Davidson sound like the problem. Jacob Renaud is the damn problem. "No, of course, I'll eat dinner with him." The stupid explanation that I have eaten dinner with Jacob almost every night since he bought me, almost comes out, but I hold back my words this time.

"Well, I'm not thrilled to give you up to Davidson for the day, but it is just as well that you wanted to go out because I have some things to attend to tonight. We'll have a nightcap if you're still awake when I make it back home." Jacob kisses me on the forehead, his lips lingering on my skin and his fingers entwined in my hair for a moment longer than expected. Like we are a normal couple or something. I shiver in reaction, and I'm not sure how he'll read it. My attraction to him is undeniable at this point, and maybe he'll take that shiver as just that. I don't know. Right now I want to pull my knees to my chest and think about how my life can't revolve around the man who bought me.