Page 13 of Craved By Gray

There’s an undeniable pull between us, a fire so strong it almost burns away all the nerves from earlier. When he fixes those eyes on me, I almost forget that he’s forbidden to me.Almost.

“Gray,” I whisper, unable to mask the longing in my voice before I shoot to my feet in panic. He’s here. In my father’s office. “Oh God, you need to go.”

“Scarlett—”

“No, you need to get the hell out before my father arrives and finds you in his office. He’ll kill you!” Gray shuts the door behind him and locks it. “W-what are you doing?”

“He’s not here,” the man says, walking deeper into the office. “Stone went out for a business meeting, and he’ll be gone a while.”

“W-what? How do you know that?” I ask, unable to keep the shakiness from my voice.

“I’ve made friends, princess.” I suck in a sharp breath when he walks toward me, and since I’m not fully convinced of my father’s absence, I back up a step. “Hey, trust me. He’s not here.”

“His men are,” I whisper. Several of them are downstairs, and although it’s unlikely any one of them would dare enter my father’s office in his absence, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.

Gray takes a step forward, and I take another back, gasping when my back connects with the desk. Gray doesn’t waste time caging me between him and the desk, his eyes flashing with a need I am sure is reflected in my own eyes.

“You’re trembling,” he whispers, lifting his hand to my jaw and gently caressing my skin before dipping his hand to my neck. “I want to touch you so badly. Scatter everything off this desk and make love to you until they hear you downstairs, but…” A shudder rolls down my spine when he trails his thumb over my lips, slipping his thumb between them when they part. He groans when my mouth closes around his digit, and I run my tongue over it. “Fuck,” he growls, pulling his hand away. “I’m this close to putting you on your knees and fucking that pretty mouth, but I am not that reckless.”

“Y-you should go,” I force out when in actuality, it’s the last thing I want to happen. “Please go. My father will kill you if he finds you in here.”

Gray studies me for a moment before pushing back. “I hate seeing you this scared,” he says, seeming surprised by his own words. “So I won’t stay long. You promised to help me bring your father down.”

Not in those exact words, but I do want to help him. “What do you need?”

“Evidence,” he says, slipping his hands into his pockets as he backs further away from me. “I need evidence that your father owns the Den.”

I blink at the man. “The Den? What is that?”

“I assumed you knew all the businesses the Vipers are affiliated with since he trusts you with the money and all.”

“I mean, yeah, but I don’t know anything about a place called the Den.”

“It’s a gentleman’s club.”

I shake my head. “The Vipers don’t own a gentleman’s club. My father has connections with a couple of nightclubs in the city that pay the Vipers for protection, but that’s about it.”

Gray watches me for a long time, and I read apprehension in his eyes. Does he think that I’m lying? “Your father bought you a luxury high-rise apartment,” he starts, and I see him weigh his words carefully. “Do you really believe the money comes from protecting businesses in the area?”

“No,” I answer truthfully. For a while, I suspected that my father was exploiting these businesses, considering the numbers he was pulling, but the desperate part of me that wanted to move out of his house and live on my own convinced me to accept the apartment as payment for a job well done. “I don’t know how he makes the money. My work is to balance his books and hide the money.”

“The Den is—was a gentleman’s club where trafficked girls were auctioned to rich men.” My heart nearly stops at his words, and I stand frozen on the floor, eyes wide with a mix of surprise and horror. “Saint and his VP, along with a bunch of others, rescued a girl and closed it down. We suspect that the Vipers ran the place, and now we need evidence to prove it.”

I struggle to find my tongue, my head a jumbled mess even as I try to piece together words to voice. “My father…” I croak, clearing my voice before attempting to speak again. “He would never do anything like that.” I pause when I realize I am defending a monster. “I know he is a bad man who does terrible things, but…human trafficking? You must be mistaken.”

“We’re not.”

I shake my head, unwilling to reconcile his words with what I know of my father. Sure, he’s threatened many times to sell me off to the highest bidder, but isn’t that what fathers like mine tell their daughters to keep them in line? He wouldn’t actually do it.

Right?

Christ, I don’t know anymore.

“Gray—”

“The records,” he says. “I need you to make a copy of the original records of his revenues. Before you tampered with them. I’ll follow the money, and we’ll see how he made it. I’ll also need a list of all his properties.”

His words give me pause. My father trusts me with his financial records because he believes I would never sell him out, not if I know what is good for me. By handing the records over to Gray, I would basically be signing his death warrant, and possibly my own.

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