Chapter 18 "Ava Tantor was in foster care with Cadence," Trent repeats. My free hand clenches into a fist, the potential betrayal of these words slicing at my stomach. There is no way that Ava is here by coincidence. Which means, she's come under false pretenses. This is the woman I've fallen in love with. The one I want to be the mother of my child. The one I've treated with nothing but respect and kindness. And she is connected to the last female player of The Hunt. "She is the person who has been calling Cadence over and over." "No." "Yes," Trent answers with a rumble. "Thanks to Jake Kincaid, who has apparently installed cameras across from your house, we have actual video footage of her searching your office while you were taking Anna to the pediatrician." "He told you this?" "Emailed you, actually." I close my eyes. Trent checks my email daily to clear any emails I don't need to take time answering, so it makes sense he'd see the email first. "I've deleted the email, so you don't need to see it. But I pulled records from Cadence's phone, then traced Ava to the temp agency, and finally to your house." I stare down at the phone, trying to understand. The woman I've been holding in my arms is the one who has been trying to track Cadence? I start playing back several things Ava has told me. Foster care. A friend she's worried about. A snarl rips from my lips. She's been lying to me. Ava sits up, clutching the covers to her chest, gripping them tightly in her hands. Her eyes are wide and her face has gone deathly pale. My cum is leaking out of her right now. My hand balls into a fist at my side and I see her wince, curling into herself. Even now, I force myself to relax. I would never hurt her. "I was going to tell you," she whispers. But I ignore her, and answer Trent instead. "Anything else?" "Yeah," he lets out a long breath. "A woman has come forward who wants to participate in The Hunt. We've set it up for tomorrow night." "That fast?" Normally, I carefully vet every detail of The Hunt. When done right, it's an art and a complete rewiring for the women who join. Synapsis pathways form, once done, the brain uses them over and over. But fear, it can reshape these pathways like no other emotion. The Hunt is an opportunity for them to meaningfully change destructive patterns of behavior. But there is too much that can go wrong, which is why I handle it myself. In this moment, I don't give a shit. Not one. "We have several contestants who've yet to win, and are eager for another chance, which made the vetting very quick. They've all wired funds already." My jaw clenches. The Hunt brings in a sizable profit, but it isn't about the money. It's also very illegal, which is why we keep it quiet. And right now, it's a distraction I don't need. Between Ava, my father, and the selling of the casinos, I'm a little busy. "We'll discuss it tomorrow," I grit out and then hang up the phone. Ava is looking up at me with large, frightened eyes and it's almost enough that I want to excuse what's she's done. Almost. My father has no love. He is a snake who would bite anything and anyone to get what he wants. To be with a woman who would betray me...stay in my home under false pretenses... My shoulders stiffen as I glare down at her. "I have a new nickname for you, Ava. Judas." She shakes her head wildly, her blonde hair, swinging over her back. "No. Dimitri, please." Her voice sounds so broken, it eats at me. From the first moment I saw her, something inside me understood she was mine. That piece of me rebels now. It wants to protect. I push it back down. "I let you into my home, to care for my daughter, and the entire time you were here, you've been deceiving me." "I didn't know you," she cries. "All I knew was that the only family I have ever had was missing and that I would do anything to get her back." Those words hit me. Is that not what I've been doing for my sisters? Which is why Ava makes sense. It was her love and her loyalty that drove her. But also... "You were here to betray me, use me, and I left you with the most precious person to me in the world. My daughter." "I wasn't here to betray you," she cries, guilt all over her face. "I just wanted to know what happened to Cadence. Find her. She's the closest thing to a sister I have." A sob breaks from her mouth as she pulls her knees up, wrapping her arms around them and curling into a small ball. But I pick up her clothes, tossing them on the bed next to her. "I think it's best that you sleep in your room." "Dimitri," she says as a tear rolls down her cheek. "I was going to tell you." "That, I find hard to believe." She's had several chances. This is the woman I picked up off the floor this morning as she completely panicked. I've given her nothing but the best of me. Fuck. I gave her my heart. "I know you're a person I can trust. I figured that out since coming here, even with all my issues. But before I knew you, I was just trying to do anything in my power to protect Cadence." "She doesn't need your protection," I bite back, grabbing my own underwear off the floor and yanking them up my thighs. "Do you know where she is?" Ava tosses back the covers, moving toward me completely naked. Her body is so beautiful bathed in moonlight that I stop, the elastic of my briefs snapping against my waist. "Is she all right?" her voice breaks as she covers her mouth with her hand, her eyes wide and pleading. "She's fine. Better than fine. She's..." I can't tell Ava the details and I search for the words. "But the man who answered the phone⁠-" I let out a string of curses. Zane shouldn't have done that. Ava cringes away from my anger and it takes everything in me not to reach out and comfort her. Even now, I can't stand watching her hurt. "Tomorrow, I will find a replacement for you." I see her wince, her shoulders falling, as more tears streak down her cheeks. She wraps her arms around herself, looking away. "You don't need to do that. I'll have a replacement here by tomorrow night. I can leave now, or I can stay and help you until the replacement arrives." There is the Ava that I fell in love with. Competent. Helpful. Vulnerable. It makes my chest ache, and it's likely why I nod instead of tossing her out of my house right now, like I should. But I can't do it to her. She's been broken and she's trying so hard to repair herself. I know she doesn't actually know how to love. Nor did she have a reason to trust me. But the fact that she included Anna in all of this...used my daughter to get to me. I can't abide it. It makes me scrub my hands down my face, my feelings at war. "I wanted you to be mine." "You don't anymore?" she whispers raw and jagged. "No." the words sit bitter on my tongue. "Can I at least speak to Cadence?" "No," I shake my head. "She agreed that she'd spend three weeks with Zane and without the patterns of her old life. You'll see her in a week if she wants to return to you. If she doesn't..." "How can I trust that?" My jaw locks. "If you don't trust my word on this, if you think I've hurt your friend, then you don't know me at all." And that hurts because I've done nothing but try to help and heal her. I see her cringe. "I know who you are, Dimitri. You are a man who loves his women with tenderness and compassion. But don't you also own the brothels in Las Vegas? Don't you sell women?" My head whips back. Where did she hear that? "I give women a safe place to sell themselves. My father stuck me with that business back in Russia as a sick joke to torment me for my soft-heartedness and my desire to pursue academics rather than crime. But I've turned it around on him, using his punishment to make this world a little better. Ladies without other options flock to be under my care." Her eyes go wide. I likely probably shouldn't have told her any of it. This woman has been spying on me, betrayed my trust, and I'm telling her my secrets. How could she think I'd hurt her friend? "Cadence chose to enter The Hunt and⁠-" "The Hunt?" Damn. I'm frayed and I'm talking too much. She's still naked and it takes everything in me not to pull her close, run my hands over her body. I still ache with my need for her. Instead, I reach for her tunic tank top and pull it over her head. She automatically puts her arms through the holes, obeying my silent command. But I've struggled my entire life to heal what's been broken inside me and I can't give my affection to a woman I know doesn't have my best interests at heart. Still, as she looks up at me, pleading, I feel myself giving in the smallest bit. Softening. She hurts and she's worried about Cadence. "I can't tell you more than that." "Why not?" "Because..." I sigh out. "We all sign very strict contracts for everyone's protection. But where Cadence went, she chose to go, she's safe, and she's cared for, and like you, she's trying to overcome her past." Ava sits on the end of my bed, pulling on her leggings, her head hung low. "You don't believe me." "I want to," she answers. "But ever since Cadence and I have been teens, I've been bailing her out of one scrape or another. And there have been times when she's really needed me to fight for her, and this time..." She stands, pulling the pants the rest of the way up. "I know you have sisters. What would you give up if you thought they were in danger?" "Everything," I answer, and I know the truth. Ava is able to love with her whole heart. I'm just one of the many things she'd sacrifice to do it. But my heart, deep down, still wants her. She shakes her head and walks to the door, leaving my room without another word softly closing it behind her, the soft click sounding final. I punch a fist into my open palm. Now that she's gone, and I' m staring at emptiness, I think I might have done that all wrong. Her underwear is on the floor and I pick them up, balling them in my fist. They smell like her arousal and my body betrays me as it responds. Swearing under my breath I climb into my bed. I can't have a woman who'd lie to me. Use my daughter to get to me. I can't. I've had too much betrayal in my life to trust a woman who would lie and deceive me like that. But as I go to bed, her underwear is still in my hand.