He heard himself say, “No.”
Clearly, he was not as smart as he usually was where this girl was concerned, and the realization made the prince’s lips compress in mute self-disgust. Even so, he found himself turning the frameless monitor on his desk to face her. Perching himself on the edge of his desk, he typed the necessary commands, and soon the monitor started playing back the sequences he selected.
“This is the girl when she was about to enter the compound, and the pill she’s taking is a chemically-produced aphrodisiac.”
She blinked. “Like Viagra?”
He nodded. “Not at all illegal or with any known side effects. It’s the only kind of pill I allow to be…shared in my parties. All other drugs are prohibited, and my guests know this. It’s one way to prevent police from ever interfering or raiding my property.”
“But she was being attacked—-”
He summoned another sequence for playback on the monitor. “The effects of the drug do wear off, and as you can see…”
Fawn did see. It was Noah helping the girl to her feet while his guards took care of the girl’s attackers. And that was putting it very lightly, Fawn thought with a wince. In the screen, Noah’s men, all ex-army, were thorough and methodical as they beat the girl’s attackers before sending them away.
“Where’s the cab taking them?” she asked faintly, thinking that everything about this night made her feel like she had fallen into some kind of depraved rabbit hole.
“To the hospital for treatment,” he answered dispassionately. “A lawyer will meet with them next day, and if the girl agrees, they’ll soon find themselves facing the wrong end of a lawsuit.”
The prince ran another command, and another sequence showed on the monitor, this time of Noah speaking to the girl in a room she had never seen before. It almost looked like some kind of cell in a dungeon.
“Where is that?”
Instead of answering, the prince relayed, “Noah’s giving this girl the sermon of her life.” Of course, that was putting it lightly. The truth was, Noah was playing the role of pissed-off drug dealer who happened to be in a good mood and which was why Henny would be allowed to “escape.”
Closing the monitor, the prince told her with a shrug, “Hopefully, by the end of it, she won’t be as naïve or desperate.”
The girl’s screams still echoing inside of her head, she said queasily, “I still think it’s too much.”
He said levelly, “Every day, there’s a party where girls like this one are taken in by men like her attackers.” The way the prince glanced at her told Fawn that he also believed she was included in the category. “If something like this happened in those parties, they do end up raped. Sometimes, they could also end up killed.”
The prince came to his feet and as he turned the monitor away from her, he continued in a bland voice, “That’s why we’re doing this. We deliberately fan interest in these initiations and make up all sorts of hype so that everyone who’s anyone would want to attend.”
Shrugging, he finished, “It’s not ideal, but at least we get to stay in control and ensure no one gets hurt. My men do regular rounds during these parties, and we make sure that no girls are placed under real threat.”
“But she was screaming and crying,” Fawn pointed out shakily. Her whole life, she didn’t think she would ever forget how that girl had cried. “They would have raped her—-”
“It was part of the lesson.”
She half-shrieked, “How can you say almost getting raped is a lesson?”
“Because it is,” he snapped back. “Trust me, that girl would have come back here if she hadn’t tasted real fear. You may not want to believe me, but most people have to learn things the hard way.”
Fawn was torn. On one hand, it did make sense, however heartless, but on the other hand, it didn’t feel humane at all. “But what if she’s scarred for life? Didn’t you consider that?”
“Scars heal, and I don’t owe it to them to play nice and treat them like some fragile piece of fine china.”
“I know, but—-”
His eyes flashed, and Fawn flinched.
“You must remember,” the prince said in an icily soft tone, “that no one came here against their will. It was their stupidity that brought them here, and that’s out of my control. If they want their first time with a stranger or a jerk, that’s their choice. If they want to be popular so much they’re willing to whore themselves for it – that’s on them. Frankly, I don’t have enough time or interest to give a shit about any of those. But I do what I can, and what I can do is give them a chance to learn from their own mistakes without getting raped or killed.”