The Auction (16 page)

“Dare.”

His friend turned to see what he wanted.

“Thank you.”

“Anytime. Foster, I know I have a reputation for being an asshole and I may not express my feelings well, but you’re the closest thing I have to a brother. And if someone fucks with you, they’re fucking with me. If you ever need anything just don’t wait so long to come to me for help. Now go showe
r. You fucking stink
.”

Once Dare was gone. Foster hopped out of his seat. His conversation with Dare had given him the spark that he needed to get his shit together. He’d been on the defensive for far too long.

It was time to launch an offensive. This was war.

Chapter Seventeen

“You haven’t touched your food
and you
didn’t eat anything for lunch either. You’re worrying me.” Aya looked at her with concern.

Tori picked up her fork and stuffed her mouth with mixed vegetables. She was sure it was delicious but right now it could have been dirt for all that she could tell. She had no appetite but she didn’t want to upset Aya, who had been nothing but kind to her in their forced confinement. But she couldn’t help but think she’d traded one prison for another. Shortly after that incident in Foster’s library, Mrs. Gordon had come to her room to help her pack.
Her initial thought was that it was happening all over again. Foster was kicking her out after using her.
Tori thought Foster would let her go home but that wasn’t the case. She had been informed that she was being
moved to another house, and
transportation would be around to collect her.

Tori had found it strange that she was carted off in the dead of night with three burly bodyguards surrou
nding her. When she’d arrived here it
had surprised her to see Dare and Aya in residence. They informed her that this was one of Dare’s vacation hom
es and she would be staying
with Aya until further notice. That had been two nights ago.

This house wasn’t as large as Foster’s mansion but it was just as beautiful and expensively decorated. It was outside of town right on the beach, which gave the air a crisp, slightly salty scent. The view was beautiful and the sunset was awe-inspiring, but she couldn’t feel any joy in seeing it. In most circumstances she would have fallen in love with a place like this, but all she felt was numb.

Aya tried to keep her amused but Tori just couldn’t bring herself out of the deep depression that had taken hold of her.
Nor could she
stop thinking about her last encounter with Foster.
The
way he had so callously taken her witho
ut any regard to her feelings or
well-being should have been another reason for her to hate him, but
Tori
couldn’t bring herself to do it. If anything it had confused her even more about how she felt toward him. He had seemed to be in so much pain but there was no way of reaching him.

Who was the real Foster, she asked herself for the
hundredth
time.
Was he the charming loving man who’d made her body and heart explode into flames?
Or was he
th
e
cold, calculating beast who took pleasure in hurting her?
But there was another side he’d revealed:
a man who was in so much pain that the only way he could express h
imself was hurting other people.
He’d
told her that he wasn’t the man she believed him to be. Maybe she should have listened.

Tori inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to catch her breath from the exertion of Foster’s forceful lovemaking. She didn’t know when it had happened but she’d become addicted to the way he moved in and out of her, the way his hands grazed her skin, the way his tongue made her forget her own name. He collapsed next to
Tori
and pulled her into his arms.

She rested her head against his
chest, reveling in the way she
felt so protected and safe. Foster had turned out to be full of surprises. When he’d tagged her on The Run, she wasn’t sure what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t this.

He casually drew circles o
n her arm with the pad of his thumb. Tori let out a soft sigh of pure content.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Foster said suddenly, breaking the quiet of the moment.

Tori hesitated at first. She was still guarded with him, not sure whether he would use her words against her. “Nothing really. I guess I never imagined this.”

“Imagined what?”

“Us like this.
At The Run, you came on pretty strong.”

“That was kind of the point.”

“Why me? There were other
women there way prettier than I am
. You could have had any of them.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Victoria. Big beautiful hazel eyes, gorgeous skin, great body, why would
n’t I
pick you?”

“Do you have thing for exotics like me?”
She asked, using the word she hated so much in a sarcastic tone.

“I’m not a fan of that term. It makes you sound more like an animal than an actual woman. And no, I don’t have a preference. A beautiful woman is a beautiful woman. I saw you and I wanted you.” There was a way he
spoke
that made Tori thi
nk there was something more to his statement
but he didn’t seem willing to expound on it.

“But for how long?”

“Let’s not worry about time and enjoy the now, Victoria.”

Tori wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Already she was beginning to develop feelings for him. It had started that day in his library. And then there were the moments he’d make her laugh, just by telling her a joke out the blue. He’d take her places, showing her a side of life that she never thought would be available to her. But her favorite moments were the times when they would talk for hours about everything and nothing at all. She forced down the pang of disappointment she felt at his nonchalant response.

It wasn’t like she wanted to be here with him forever. She had a family to worry about. If anything
,
she should count herself fortunate that she didn’t suffer the fate of some of the other women she’d encountered. There had been me
n at the game who had given off
really bad vibes, making her think that some of those women would be severely abused. The only hand Foster had ever raised to her was to give her a spanking in the midst of their steamy sexual encounters.

She shivered at the thought of his skilled lovemaking. It excited and confused her that she could want someone so badly who basically she was
indentured
to.

“Cold?” he asked
while
rubbing her arm vigorously.

“No. I was just thinking about my family.”

“Oh? What about them?”

“I’m just
wondering how they’re holding up
. I don’t know if it was a good idea sending those credits to my father. There’s no guarantee that he won’t blow it all on alcohol and other unnecessary stuff. If I could have, I would have sent the money to my younger sister. But maybe she can get him to do the right thing. She seems to be the only one my father has a soft spot for out of all of us.”

“Do you resent that?”

“No. Not at all. My sister is actually quite lovable. She’s the kind of person to see the good in everyone, even my father who is selfish and lazy. She makes excuses for him and he takes advant
age of her good nature. Around
her
,
he sort of pretends he’s something better but he never really follows through. My sister is the one who still h
as hope when the rest of us
lost it a long time ago.”

“She sounds like an amazing person.”

“She is. So kind and fragile. She wasn’t made for our world.”

“Too naïve?
”

“Yes and no. She’s wise about what’s going on around her but she would prefer to look on the bright side of things.”

“Is that really a bad thing?”

“I guess not. I just fear that she’s in for a huge letdown. Enough about me. Tell me something about you that you haven’t told me already.”

Tori was very curious about him. She realized that he knew a lot about her background but she still had a lot to lear
n about his
. Foster didn’t answer at first and she didn’t think he would. She raised her head took to look at him and he seemed to be in deep thought. “Foster?”

“It’s just so hard to pretend sometimes.”

His cryptic message confused her. She furrowed her brow. “I don’t know what you mean. Why do you have to pretend?”

“Because if people saw me, they wouldn’t look at me the same.”

She lay her head on his chest. “Foster, I don’t know the man you think you are but I do know the one I’ve seen and I like him. A lot.”

“Perhaps I’m just showing you who I want you to see and not who I really am. I’m not a good man, Victoria.”

“I don’t believe that.” She
lifted
her head
again
to look him in the eyes. “Foster, when you brought me here, you could have done anything you wanted to me. I’ve heard horror stories about women never being seen again after The Run and some who come back who are so badly beaten and bruised that they’re unrecognizable. I can’t imagine you ever hurting me.”

His lips curved. “I like that you have so much faith in me, Victoria. I hope I never let you down.”

Tori wasn’t sure why that conversation played over and over in her mind. He’d warned her that he wasn’t a good person but she didn’t believe him. But then she remembered the pain behind those words; it was the same hurt she’d seen when he’d had his breakdown in the library.
Why
couldn’t she simply close her heart to him?

“Tori, sweetie, what’s the matter?” Aya’s voice
broke into her
thoughts.

“Nothing,” Tori denied and attempted to put more food in her mouth, but her throat wouldn’t cooperate. She grabbed a napkin and spit it out. “Sorry, guess I don’t have much of an appetite.

“You’re crying.”

Tori hadn’t realized that tears flowed unheeded down her cheeks. “Sorry.”

Aya got out of her seat and walked over to Tori. She placed her arms around her and gave her a hug. “It’s okay. Let it out.”

Tori rarely allowed herself the luxury of tears but they came tumbling out with forceful sobs as Aya rocked her back and forth.

“It’s okay,” Aya whispered.

It took several moments before Tori was able to compose her words. “I don’t know what came over me. I’m not usually a crier.”

“We all cry sometimes. Do you feel better?”

“A little. So much has happened in these past couple years and I guess it all came crashing in on me.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I’ve already told you a little bit about my time with Foster. I fell in love with him and right before I was about to tell him, he told me he didn’t want me anymore. And not in a way where he tried to let me down gently, but in the most humiliating way possible. He made me feel like a fool for believing in something that wasn’t real. My trust isn’t easily placed and I had intended to entrust him with my hear
t. After he kicked me out, I fel
l into a deep state of depression. I couldn’t eat or sleep and when I wasn’t sitting somewhere in the corner staring off into space, I was crying. I was home with my family where I thought I wanted to be, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Foster.”

“It’s understandable
. Y
ou loved him,” Aya reasoned.

“But I had never experienced anything like that before. I couldn’t seem to get out of the emotional hole I’d fallen into. And what was worse, I started neglecting my family. Instead of looking for work and way
s
to
earn
money to help put food on the table, I just sat around the house. I was just as bad as my father. Then my little brother got sick. It was a bad viral infection that required a special medication that we couldn’t afford. We’d already gone through the money I’d earned from The Run, so my only option was to volunteer for the game again. Macy tried to talk me out of it but I needed to do it as a way to atone for neglec
ting my responsibilities
.
”

“
I felt guilty that while I was living a life of luxury
with Foster
, they were suffering. So I
thought returning to The Run
was how I could make it up to them. The guy who tagged me the second time
,
very abusive and demanded complete
obedience
. He would beat and starve me, and make me suffer if I stepped a little bit out of line. And even through all the abuse I felt this was no better than what I deserved for neglecting my family and falling for a man who only wanted to use me.”

“It sounds like you’re still blaming yourself for something you couldn’t help.”

“But I could have helped it. I shouldn’t have given into Foster so easily. I should
have known that someone like him
could never be serious about someone like me. He even told me he wasn’t a good guy and I refused to believe him.”

“Tori,
it’s not your fault
. Whatever Foster did to you was not on you, it was on him. But even still
,
maybe he had a reason. I can’t imagine someone who didn’t care would put us up in a safe house for our protection.”

The rational part of Tori’s
brain
could see the sense in Aya’s
logic
but the other half was controlled by a hurt that tore at her soul. “Or maybe he’s keeping me safe because he thinks I can give him some useful information about the auction.”