Their Virgin Princess (Masters of Ménage #4)(38)

Then Alea suddenly seemed to realize she was this close to being happy. She'd excused herself, turned away, and fallen asleep.

"I wanted to talk to you guys about the investigators' report." Dane had a familiar folder in his hand. "I set up a conference call with the guys at Anthony Anders for the day after tomorrow. I refuse to be out of the loop just because we're on a different continent. And we need to discuss her security protocols."

"She should never, ever be left alone," Landon said, frowning.

Coop didn't even want to think about it, but he had to. "If her abduction wasn't a random act and this is someone who knows Alea, then the question becomes who and why would anyone want to do this to her?"

This. God, he couldn't verbalize the idea of someone torturing Alea or selling her into sexual slavery, sending her into a hell most people couldn't imagine. It made him somewhere between panicked and violent.

But she hadn't actually been raped, not in the most technical sense of the word. She'd been horrifically abused, and he didn't know the full extent of what she'd been forced to witness or endure. It made no sense that her virginity had been left intact. That had been a deliberate choice on someone's part. But why?

"I can't imagine forcing this on anyone," Lan said, looking through the file. "Much less someone like Alea. She was just going to school."

"And she was working with a charity organization that helped battered women," Dane murmured. "Why didn't I know that?"

Cooper wasn't sure either. From the beginning of the investigation, she'd very likely kept lots of information to herself. "She sure hadn't let her cousins in on it."

"Why would she keep something as kind as charity work a secret?" Lan asked.

"If I hadn't, my cousins would have come in and made a big production of it," Alea said, startling them all. "I just wanted to do something good. I had some free time, and I like charity work. I've done it all my life. If word had reached the palace that I was working at a women's shelter, someone would have decided to use it as good press." She was still sitting in her chair, but she'd turned it. She clutched the blanket he'd settled over her close. "I want to talk to you guys about whatever danger is still lurking out there. Don't leave me out of the conversation when it's my life. I get that you thought you were protecting me, but I have to know."

Dane nodded slowly. "All right. From now on, I'll include you. We have a conference call in a few days, baby. I'll try to be better."

"Good. Will you stop calling me baby?" she asked hopefully.

"Not on your life, baby," Dane shot back without a hint of guilt. "Now according to the Anders brothers, you started working at the shelter the same week you moved to Manhattan. Why did you pick a shelter in the Bronx?"

Alea huffed a little. "Because that's where the most help was needed. My roommate's mom was a social worker there. I got very close to her."

"To your roommate?" Dane asked.

Alea laughed, a bitter little sound. "No. Heather was a righteous bitch. She couldn't be bothered to help anyone. She was far too busy trying to set herself up as the queen of NYU. She was furious when I wouldn't put on a tiara and go to parties with her. So self-centered …  But her mother was quite lovely. She invited me to come down and visit the shelter when she found out I was interested in social work. I met some of the women, heard their stories. My heart broke for them. I knew I had to go back."



       
         
       
        

That was his Alea. She couldn't turn away a person in need. Now she could completely reject her own needs, but when she was faced with someone else's, her natural compassion shined through.

"Did you have any run-ins with anyone there?" Dane asked.

"We helped women and their children escape abusive partners, so there were always threats. They kept their address a secret, but even so, the determined jerks found the place and showed up to rant. But no single incident stands out."

They should have included her in on the case sooner. Cooper saw that now. Some information only Alea could give.

Dane stared down at the folder. "You called the police on the fifteenth of October about a man who threatened to shoot you."

Cooper felt his blood start to boil. "Shoot you?"

Alea shrugged, an animated grin crossing her face. "It's the Bronx. I could have gotten shot just walking down the street. I disarmed him and called the police. He was crying and telling me his tale of woe by the time they got there. I don't think he had me kidnapped. He had no idea who I was or that I was a student at NYU, much less a princess from Bezakistan. How would he have had access to stationary from the embassy? To him, I was a random 'bitch' keeping him from his punching bag."