“Think about it.”
I don’t have to think for long, and now I don’t know who I’m more furious with. “My new secretary. Son of a bitch, I should have known. You had her spying on me all this time.”
“Keeping watch over you on my behalf,” he corrects. “And can you blame me? Now we both see I had every reason to be concerned. Don’t take it personally. We all have our weaknesses, don’t we?”
“You need to watch what you say.”
“Who says?” he counters. If it wasn’t for the laughter in his voice, I’d think he was just as pissed as I am. “It was clear from the beginning you were too wrapped up in her. The fact that you were unwilling to take my advice. Remember that? Remember when I told you how this could be avoided?”
“I don’t have time for you to dog-walk me past every fucking mistake I’ve ever made, all right? Can we do that later? I need to find this girl.”
“Do you, though? Do you really?” There’s no more laughter. His voice is softer now, low, heavy. “Or should you let her go? That might be for the best, you know. There’s no reason for her to stay there now. She’s far away, Aspen is safe, and now things can fall into some semblance of a normal pattern.”
The thing is, I know he’s right. The best thing in the world would be to move past this. Acknowledge the fact that she got away and let it go. She’s been nothing but a curse since the moment I set eyes on her.
“She got away from me,” I mutter, speaking more to myself than my brother. “How am I supposed to let that go? How do I live with that?”
“Time heals all things.”
“We both know that’s a bunch of bullshit. Don’t pretend you haven’t let shit fester inside you for years and years.”
“And what good did it ever do me? Just like, what good would it do you? It’s time to start focusing on the things you have, all the good stuff you’ve got going for you. That’s what matters. Not some stupid kid who managed to jump from the frying pan into the fire.”
Something about his choice of words makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. “What are you telling me?”
“Fuck me and my big mouth,” he groans. “Are you sure you want to hear this?”
“Yes, for fuck’s sake!”
“Fine. Like I said, I’ve had eyes on her. As soon as she got off the plane, I had someone follow her cab. She got out at a building owned by the Brookshire family.”
“No big surprise there.”
“Lucas. It’s a brothel.”
My stomach drops. “It’s what?”
“Some of the girls working out of the house live there full time. Others are dropped there, waiting to be picked up by whoever’s taking them to their next destination. Sometimes they cross into Canada; other times, they move on to Russia. From there, who knows?”
I hear what he’s saying, but I can’t piece it together. “Why would she go there, though? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“If she knew about it, somebody must have given her the address. Maybe that’s where she was trying to end up when Quinton first found her on the street. Maybe she thought she’d be safe there.”
“But who’d give her that idea?”
“You would have to ask her yourself. But I’m guessing since it’s affiliated with the Brookshires, she got the address from Nash.”
Why would he send her there? That’s what I can’t wrap my head around. “There had to be plenty of places he could have told her to hide.”
“Exactly. But he chose that particular location.”
“He didn’t care what happened to her there,” I conclude. Why does the idea make me hurt for her? There she was, promised to this piece of shit. According to Aspen, she believes she loved him—and he loved her. She said as much in the cell before Aspen helped her escape.
All this time, she had no idea he tried to send her to a brothel where traffickers come and go all the time. For all I know, by now, one of them could have decided to take her along with them on the next leg of their journey.
Nash never gave a damn about her. Nobody ever has.
“You still with me?” Nic asks. “Listen, I was only trying to look out for my little brother. Don’t take it too hard, okay? You can hate me all you want. Just don’t do it forever.”