“What are you going to do with Ava?” the man finally shows a sliver of concern for his daughter.
I ignore his question. “I want my money in full by the end of the day, and shut that operation down.”
Sinclair is silent a long moment before he finally answers. “That’s impossible.”
“You know what happens to men who don’t play by my rules, Sinclair,” I state matter-of-factly. Yes, I know what I’m asking is impossible. He knows why I made it so too. He knows I’m coming for him no matter what.
“Ava,” Sinclair finally offers in a panic. “Keep Ava. She can cover the debt, and I’ll work on shutting everything down.”
I glance over at the topic of our conversation. She’s still sitting as far away from me on the bed as she can manage with the covers pulled tight up under her chin, staring at me with wide eyes.
The pained look on her face lets me know that she heard what her father offered over the phone.
I hate Sinclair with every fiber of my being in this moment. That he would barter with his precious daughter like this, give her over to who he presumes is a monster, a man who for all he knows will do terrible things to her. He’s willing to trade her life for his own. The fucking slime ball.
I’m outraged on her behalf. If the man were sitting here in front of me, I’d break his jaw.
Still, that doesn’t stop me from taking the only thing I’ve ever really wanted.
“Done,” I tell him.
* * *
Ava
My father doesn’t make any requests for Gage to be gentle with me. He doesn’t even ask anything about what Gage plans to do with me after he signs my life away to him.
He just gives me away. Just like that.
The final nail in my coffin. The last vestige of the illusion of the father I never really had gone.
Had he ever truly given a shit about me? Or, was it all just him playing the part of the doting father because it made him look good to the senators and other business associates he had over to the house?
Gage never takes his eyes off me as he hangs up the phone. He’s looking at me with that same look of pity he wore when he first told me the truth about my father, and I can’t take it.
I. Can. Not. Take. It.
“Ava,” he begins, but I can’t.
I can't sit here and listen to a word he has to say.
Clutching the covers around me, I jump up from the bed and make a mad dash for the door. I don't know where I think I'm going. I'm just acting on instinct. And my instincts are telling me to get as far away from this man as I can before I break down and start sobbing in his arms again.
He's on me in less than three seconds, hauling me back against his hard chest. I thrash and kick in his hold, all while still managing to keep my grip on the cover to keep from exposing my naked breasts to him. “Let me go!" I scream.
“No,” he answers calmly. “You’re mine, now.”
"I will never be yours," I hiss at him vehemently.
He doesn't argue as he pins my arms to my sides with one strong arm around my chest. He holds me like that for several moments until my heart rate calms down and I expend my energy, my muscles easing as my senses come back to me, the realization that fighting this man is fruitless. I will never beat him in a physical contest. He will overpower and dominate me every time.
When I finally stop fighting him, he turns me in his arms to face him, still holding me tight against him with an arm around the small of my back, pressing my hips into him.
He forces me to look up at him with a finger to my chin. "I'm sorry," he says, looking down at me tenderly. "I don't understand what kind of father would trade his daughter to settle his debt.”
I stare up at him incredulously before saying, “The same kind of man who would accept said daughter for payment of a debt.”
His brows instantly furrow. “Your father and I are not the same. I’ll take care of you, Ava,” he adds earnestly. “I’d never give you away.”