Free Savage Chains: Scarred (#2) by Caris Roane

her captor, very pale, too pale. Bruises covered most of her body, as well as partially healed cuts. Her eyes were dull as she stared at nothing in particular. The circles around her eyes were deep.
    And just like that, Reyes had had enough.
    He didn’t care who saw him. He swept Angelica up in his arms and shifted abruptly to altered flight. He took his time, not wanting her to be sick again, but he flew her the hell out of the cavern, rules or no rules.
    Angelica’s voice filled his mind as she clung to him.
She’s going to die soon.
    Yes.
    And there’s nothing we can do.
    Not a damn thing.
    When he arrived back in his sitting room he sat down in his chair, pulling Angelica into his arms. She’d started to weep, and he didn’t try to stop her. His own eyes filled with tears as well.
    Suddenly he was overcome. Tears tracked his cheeks for the young Russian woman, for all the slaves, for his father, who’d given his life trying to protest the growing industry, for himself and the century he’d spent locked up, used, and tortured, and finally for Angelica, that her innocence continued to take such a horrendous battering.
    After a time, she grew quiet and the tears on his cheeks dried. He ordered a meal, and though she’d lost her appetite, he made her eat what she could. He encouraged her to drink some water, then forced a few bites down his own throat.
    Sharing the blood-chains with Angelica had forced him to look at the horror of the situation with fresh eyes.
    After the meal he took her into the bathroom and ran her a bath, adding the bubbles she’d enjoyed once before. Maybe she could take some comfort in it now.
    He had his housekeeper bring Angelica a glass of red wine. Once she was settled in the bath she took the wine and began to sip. He could feel her starting to let go.
    With his laptop close at hand, he checked his e-mails. He wasn’t surprised to find that Scorpion wanted the private performance the next night, at midnight, at Engles’s home, the same place the after-auction party had been held.
    Reyes had intended to respond right away. Instead, his mind got caught in the earlier loop of remembering the destruction of his family and the terror of living with a sadist like Sweet Dove and of the impending death of the Russian slave.
    He needed to let all this go, but the muscles of his arms and back kept seizing. Maybe firing up his five showerheads would help. Because the tub was close enough to allow for their constant proximity issue, he headed into the walk-in enclosure.
    The chain at his neck had grown very quiet, another indication that Angelica was doing better.
    As he let the hot water beat down on his neck what ended up bothering him the most was that he’d been aching to make love to Angelica for months now, but it looked like the first time would have to be in front of an audience.

Chapter Four
    Angelica was grateful for the wine, the food, the warm bath, and even the separation as Reyes took his shower. All of it had soothed and eased her.
    But she was pretty sure that seeing the Russian in a completely emaciated, battered state would live with her the rest of her life.
    Now that Angelica had some distance from the entire earlier experience, her resolve returned more firmly than ever.
    The revisiting vision had explained why Reyes had a sense he’d been to Engles’s home before and had also drawn a tighter line between Sweet Dove and Engles. The two had been connected for a long time, and as Engles’s protégé Sweet Dove had learned her craft by enslaving and torturing Reyes.
    Hatred lived in Angelica’s heart now, aimed at both Engles and Sweet Dove for what they’d done to the man who had saved her from Engles’s brutality by buying her at auction.
    She needed to tell Reyes what she’d seen in this latest vision, but she wasn’t certain how. For the past several minutes the chain at her neck had been vibrating heavily and she could feel that Reyes was locked in a level of rage