Chapter 540

Nathan

“I know you’ve been smuggling escorts out.”

Dan’s voice, like a hiss in my ear, left me reeling. How did he know? I had been taking the utmost care to ensure that everything was done undercover; I had used only unmarked vehicles, smuggled them out in the dead of night, even checked for cameras and wore the most nondescript clothes I could possibly find in order to hide my identity.

And yet, here was Dan, glaring at me with that knowing look in his eyes.

I knew I needed to act quickly, and think even more quickly than that. So, with a nonchalant quirk of my eyebrow, I shot him a curious look and took a sip of my whiskey.

“Sorry, what?” I asked, cocking my head to he side and feigning ignorance. “Is this some kind of joke?”

Dan just looked at me for a moment before he leaned back on his barstool, regarding me over his still-untouched glass of scotch. Then, with a nod of his head, he stood and gestured for me to follow. “Come. Let’s sit at a table.”

Even though I felt like my chest might explode with anxiety, I knew I couldn’t deny his request for fear of giving everything away—which was too much of a risk with our plan so close.

So, nodding, I stood and followed him.

We made our way over to a corner table, a red leather booth that curved around in a semicircle. We slid into the booth, and instantly, the leather felt deceivingly cold beneath me. Or maybe it was just my nerves getting the best of me, making my blood run cold.

“Are you alright, Nathan?” Dan asked as we settled in. “You look like you saw a ghost.”

I took another sip of my whiskey to steel my nerves and shook my head, even though I knew that Dan wasn’t buying a lick of it. “I’m fine,” I said, managing a slight laugh. “You just startled me, that’s all. About the escort thing.”

Dan raised an eyebrow at me. “So you’re saying that you’ve had no part of it?” he asked.

Maybe a little too quickly this time, I shook my head again. “Absolutely not. I’m not even sure what you’re referring to, if I’m being honest.”

“Come now, Nathan.” Dan slowly leaned forward, pressing his arms into the table. In that moment, maybe more than ever before, his hulking form seemed to dominate the very air around us as he loomed over me. “There’s no need to lie. I know you’ve done it.”

I didn’t answer, not that I could even if I had had something to say; I was frozen to my spot, utterly speechless and thinking only of potential escape routes if the need arose.

But Dan chuckled then and leaned back in his chair. “So it’s true,” he said. “I knew it was you when I saw the back of your head on the CCTV footage.”

My blood ran cold, my face turning ashen at his words. So he knew. He had seen it himself, and there was no backing out of this one.

But I didn’t know exactly how much he knew; maybe he didn’t know about our plans for tomorrow. And maybe that would be my saving grace.

Before I could open my mouth to speak, however, Dan cut me off. “Now, now, I think it’s best if you don’t say anything,” he said, holding up his hand to stop me as though he knew what I was about to say. “I don’t want you to incriminate yourself further.”

“Incriminate myself?” I asked, somewhat taken aback by the almost jovial tone that Dan had taken on.

He nodded and sighed, momentarily dropping his gaze to the table between us. For the first time, Dan was hard to read; normally, he was like an open book of pure malice and, frankly, stupidity, at least in my eyes.

But now, something had changed. I couldn’t quite figure out whether he was plotting my sabotage or whether he was… actually not as angry as I thought he would be upon discovering this information.

Finally, he lifted his gaze to meet mine. “Look, youngling,” he said, dropping his voice to barely more than a whisper. “I get it; you’re young, bright-eyed and full of ideas.” He paused, leveling me with a stern glare. “But sometimes, as an Alpha, you must turn a blind eye to… certain things.”

“A blind eye?” I blurted out, barely managing to suppress a scoff. “How could I possibly—”

Once again, Dan put out his hand in a placating gesture. “I admire your heart, boy, I truly do,” he interrupted. “But, Nathan, this kindhearted nature of yours will only cause more harm than good. These girls—these escorts—all came from horrible backgrounds. By joining our escort program, they’ve all been given better lives than they ever could have dreamed of.”

“Is that so?” I asked, momentarily losing all sense of decorum. “So being forced to sleep with strange men is supposed to be a ‘better life’ for them?”

Dan shook his head. “Nathan, I know how it sounds. But I can assure you that all of these girls willingly sought us out and signed off on the program. It’s perfectly legal.”

As he spoke, he reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He smoothed it down on the table, then slid it over to me.

“Mira’s contract,” he said, tapping the paper with his finger where Mira’s signature was written.

Swallowing, I took the contract and skimmed it over. I felt my heart sink; it was legal, at least on a surface level.

But Mira admitted to the abuse. She had shown me the bruises, told me her story, firsthand. There was no way that this was actually legal; for all I knew, this wasn’t even her signature.

“Fine,” I said, sliding the contract back to Dan. “What now, then? You don’t plan on hunting those girls down, do you?”

“Hunt them down?” Dan let out a raucous laugh that took me by surprise. “God, no, Nathan. If they wanted to leave, they should have contacted their advisors; but no one is going to ‘hunt them down’. They’re free to leave at any point.”

“But,” he continued, lowering his voice once more, “it was wrong of you to get involved in this, Nathan; especially behind my back. I won’t penalize you, but… I must admit, you have lost a modicum of my trust.”

All at once, I felt my world tilt beneath my feet and somehow lift me up at the same time. So Dan knew, but he didn’t know everything. He was in the dark, somewhat, at least for now.

And that was all that mattered, right?

Putting on a brave face, I nodded. “I understand, Dan. It’s just… I was under the impression that these women were in danger. I had to act. You know that.”

Dan nodded. “I won’t fault you for your bravery, youngling,” he said, raising his glass. “And I don’t blame you for pitying those who have misled you. But should you do something like this again…”

“It won’t happen again.”

…

My feet carried me back to my room so quickly that I barely felt them touch the carpeted floor, almost as though I was levitating. I had just left the bar after a drink and a conversation with Dan—a conversation which, following the escort incident, had returned to utterly normal topics.

Or at least, whatever ‘normal’ was anymore.

It wasn’t until I was finally back in my room with the deadbolt fully locked that I finally stopped to breathe. I leaned back against the door, inhaling deeply through my nose to steady myself.

Just one more day.

I just needed to keep Dan in the dark for one more day. And then this would all be over.