The Highest Bidder

❊ Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ Tʜɪʀᴛʏ﹣Nɪɴᴇ ❊

• Eᥒzo's POV •

I stared at the screen long after the video ended. I stared at the screen even when Sophia started to play it again. I watched Maverick make Eva bleed again. Then I watched him rape her again. Somewhere along the lines, she stopped moving. She stopped making retorts and stopped fighting back.

When the video stopped, I barely heard Sophia's screams. I barely heard the sound of Thomas pulling her out of the room. Even the sound of Ron's question was just a mumble in my ears.

Maverick had asked her to do what he wanted. She did. So why did he rape her? Was it supposed to be some sort of sick reward for agreeing to do what he wanted her to do?

I shut my eyes and blew out a long, unsteady breath. "What did you ask?"

The red-headed man waited until I was looking at him to continue. It was a wonder how he, out of everyone else, would have been the one to want to help me the most. He had been the one who had been openly obvious about his attraction towards Eva. But he wasn't looking at her with lust in his eyes now. I doubted he could look at all.

"Rania just sent me a message saying there's a call for you." He nodded towards the phone sitting on my desk. "She says it seemed important. I asked if you wanted me to answer it for you."

Nothing's important anymore.

I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Don't hang up quite yet, Enzo. I need to tell you a few things."

My eyes narrowed. "Vince. I have absolutely nothing to say to you."

"I will help Eva if you help me," he spoke calmly, unlike me. "I'm currently the one at the desk watching over the camera. She's awake but she isn't looking too good. So, listen and I will help her."

Ron was trying to trace the call and he kept motioning for me to keep him on the line. But from what I saw, the tracker couldn't pick up a signal.

When I didn't speak, Vince spoke up again. "I'm sure you have records of Eva's past, assuming you did a background check on her after your...purchase. I need you to find something out for me."

I already knew what he wanted before he could even say it. I had the information pulled up on my computer within a matter of seconds, scanning the documents. So when he asked me if the baby was truly his, I had his answer.

It made me cold. I hated the fact that Eva was with a man like Vince. All I wanted to do was keep her with me and protect her. But when she came back to me, she wouldn't be the same. Maybe she'd be afraid to be touched, thinking that every touch was only the beginning of pain for her.

"It was yours," I stated numbly. "The DNA matches up. I don't know what chart the doctor had in his possession when he told you that the baby wasn't yours, but I have the records here."

Vince was quiet for a long time. "Can you email them to me?"

I agreed and sent him the email. I glanced at the clock on the bottom right of my computer screen. Five minutes passed. Then ten. I didn't pull the phone away to look if the call had been disconnected. I could tell it wasn't because Ron was still attempting to get a trace on Vince's phone.

"I can't tell you exactly where she is yet," he finally said. "But she's at a large estate. There's a cellar entrance only on the inside of the house. I know you won't like this, but you need to wait a couple more days before you come and get her. I'll call you when it's okay to come. Maverick is attending a party and I'm the only one going to be on watch including a couple of guards."

How many times would Eva be hurt again before I had the chance to save her? If she had even a little of her sanity left, wouldn't it be gone in the days to come? I couldn't sit back and watch two more videos of her being abused and raped. I couldn't allow her to face that kind of torment anymore. I didn't want it to happen to begin with, but I couldn't try and stop it without risking her death.

I wondered sometimes if it would have been better to try to get her, and risk her life, rather than let her waste away in some dank cellar without anything but a couple of meals a week and a bucket of water. I knew at that moment she had to still be hurting. And that in itself hurt me.

If I had to wait a couple more days to get her back, so be it. But I doubted the Eva that I knew would be there when I saw her again. She'd have to go through immense amounts of therapy and probably a few weeks of rehabilitation to try and get her body used to solid food again. I had the personnel to help her with both and I would use them no matter what the cost.

If she blamed me in the end, I would understand. I didn't move to stop Maverick. I didn't have a gun on me, and Thomas had left his behind. And by the time I grabbed my gun and got outside, she was gone.

It was my fault. All of it. I could make excuses for myself, but the fact of the matter was...I stood back and watched her be taken away by the one man I knew she truly feared. I could see it in her eyes as she promised that she would be back.

In the end, I agreed to wait for his call. We had been on the phone long enough that, if it were possible, Ron would have picked up a signal.

"What are you going to do," Ron asked, glancing up as Thomas made his way back in.

I looked back down to the paused video, feeling my jaw clench at the sight of Eva on the ground. "Figure out how exactly I'm going to torture and kill Maverick."

"Are you doing this on your own?" Thomas sat down in Eva's seat. "Or are you going to go through the government for the good-to-go?"

I had to tell my job what I was doing and what I was using my employees for. They had no idea that the auction existed, and figuring out that I knew about it for so long would possibly cost me my job. But Maverick needed to pay, as well as his own employees. The auction needed to be stopped and Eva needed to be brought to justice. So I would tell them. Everything.

I picked up my cell phone and dialed.