A Beast's Tale

Chapter 18

My anger surged back to the surface as soon as I heard the door to my office latch closed behind me. "What was he doing here?" I hissed at Leon, keeping my voice quiet so Ivetta wouldn't hear me. "He should have been in the dungeons."

"I only just got back with him," Leon replied quietly. "If I'd known she was here-"

"Five years. He's been harassing her for five years. He's been operating under your nose for five years. Longer. He was after her mother when she was just a child."

Leon's eyes flashed. "You don't have to rub it in. I'm mad enough at myself for both of us."

I doubted that. But he was right. There was no point in trying to make him feel worse. I needed to focus.

"Are you done with him?"

"Not yet. But I will be by the time she leaves." He paused. "One of the girls in the brothel couldn't have been older than thirteen," he growled.

Exploiting women was bad enough, but children? And somehow, Ivetta had avoided that fate, but just barely.

"Do whatever you want to him, just so long as you leave him alive. I'm killing him."

Leon gave me a wry smile. "I'll give you that, but he's gonna be pretty beat up by the time you get to him."

"Good. He deserves to suffer."

"His name is Jack, if you want to know."

"His name doesn't matter," I said coolly.

"I don't see how she got away from him," Leon said, shaking his head. "He's easily twice her size."

"She was scared to death and fighting for her life. You saw her in there. I could barely hold her."

Leon let out a long breath. "She trusts you, Chevalier," he said wonderingly.

The thought still baffled me, too. Me. The Brutal Beast. Earning the trust of a woman who trusted nobody.

"You got her calmed down?"

I nodded.

"Can I see her?"

My automatic response was an emphatic no, but maybe, now that she wasn't so frightened, seeing Leon would help her feel a little better. I opened the door and let him in. She was still sitting in the chair, her hands trembling as they rested on the book in her lap, although the trembling was significantly reduced from before. Leon approached her quietly, going down on one knee so he could meet her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Ivetta," he said, taking her hand. His amber eyes softened as he looked at her. "I brought him up for questioning. I never would have done that if I'd known you were here. He's back in the dungeons now."

"It's alright, Prince Leon. I'm fine now," she said softly.

He smiled encouragingly. "Of course you are. You're a lot tougher than you look. I wouldn't have thought a little thing like you could take a big jerk like that, and then you almost took me and Chevalier, too."

That got a small smile out of her. The sight flooded me with relief. "Thanks, Prince Leon."

"No problem. I know this wasn't easy for you, but you helped a lot of girls, and not just the ones he'd already recruited. I'm sure there are others like you who were too afraid to speak up."

Her green eyes immediately filled with concern, her own pain forgotten as she met Leon's eyes. "What's going to happen to them?" she asked quietly.

She just couldn't help herself from caring about others, could she? How could she be so sweet, so innocent, when she'd been battling such severe pressures her whole life?