Page 21 of Ruthless Savior
"Property," I whisper. My voice cracks.
Ronan sighs. "That's how he sees you. How he sees all the women he trafficks. Property to be bought and sold and used up."
The rage that hits me is so sudden and fierce that it takes my breath away.Property.Like I'm a thing, a commodity, something to be traded based on my market value as determined by men who see my virginity as a price tag.
"If you'd left me there," I say, my voice trembling, "what would have happened to me?"
Ronan meets my eyes, and I see caution in them. A wariness that surprises me. "You don't want to know."
I clench my teeth. "Tell me."
"Leila—"
"Tell me."
He's quiet for a long moment, seeming to weigh his words. "Rocco has clients with specific tastes. Men who pay premium prices for women who are young, educated, and… inexperienced. They don't just want sex—they want to break something beautiful, to own it completely."
I feel sick, all of the delicious food threatening to come back up as my stomach churns. "And after? After they were done with me?"
"If you survived it? If you didn't fight too hard or cause too much trouble? You’d probably be sold to a brothel in whatever country you ended up in.” He looks tired as he says it. “If I hadn’t gotten you out of there, Leila, your life as you know it would have been over. And sooner or later, it would have just been… over.”
The words ring with a finality that makes me sink down in my seat. The situation I got myself in was so much worse than I realized, and I feel an undeserved flash of anger at Ronan for being the hero who got me out.
“So what do I owe you now?” I snap.
His expression doesn’t change. “Nothing, Leila. Except maybe to not make this all more difficult on yourself—or on me—than it needs to be. I got you out because I couldn’t leave you there, knowing what would happen to you. I brought you here because it was the safest place for you. Do you see why you can’t go home? Showing up at your mother's apartment would be signing both of your death warrants."
I know he's right. Intellectually, I understand that he saved my life, that going back would be suicide. But my heart doesn't care about logic. My heart only knows that my mother is scared and sick and alone, while I'm sitting in a mansion eating gourmet food and trying not to notice how attractive my captor is.
"I hate this," I say quietly.
"I know." There’s something that sounds like sympathy in his voice now, and I hate that I want to reach for it, to hold onto the scrap of comfort. "I hate that I need your help. I hate that I can't take care of my own mother. I hate that I was stupid enough to trust Neil in the first place."
Ronan runs a hand through his hair. "You weren't stupid. You were desperate. There's a difference."
"Is there?" I look at him, and for a moment, I forget to be afraid. "Because from where I'm sitting, they feel pretty much the same."
Something shifts in Ronan's expression, something almost gentle. "Desperation makes you take risks you wouldn't normally take. Stupidity is taking those risks without understanding the consequences. You knew borrowing from a loan shark was dangerous—you just didn't have any other choice."
“But I didn’t understand the consequences. Clearly. Not the real ones.” I look at him helplessly. "And now I've made everything worse. Mom's in danger because of me, I'm trapped here because of me. Rocco is still out there, and?—"
"Rocco is still out there because I haven't killed him yet." Ronan looks at me impassively. “That will change.”
The casual way he says it—like discussing the weather or what to have for dessert—sends a chill down my spine. This is what Ida meant when she talked about what Ronan is underneath everything else. He's not just wealthy and powerful;he's dangerous. The kind of man who solves problems with violence and doesn't lose sleep over it.
I let out a shaky breath. "You're planning to kill him?"
That muscle ticks in his jaw again. "Rocco De Luca is a dead man. He just doesn't know it yet."
There's something in his voice, something cold and final, that makes me believe him completely. Whatever Rocco did to end up in Ronan's crosshairs, it's clear that rescuing me was an unintended distraction. It makes me wonder why he did it. Was it really as altruistic as feeling as if he couldn’t leave me there?
I swallow hard. "What did he do to you?"
Ronan's expression closes off, becoming unreadable. "That's not your concern."
"If I'm stuck in the middle of your war with him, I think it is my concern." I glare at him. “What happened to me was apparently your concern.”
"You're not stuck in the middle of anything. You're under my protection until Rocco is no longer a threat."
