He was relieved to see she wasn’t in any sort of trouble, and hoped she’d been able to discover something about Angela’s whereabouts. Tucking away his cell phone, he found Nicole and dragged her out to the dance floor, where they could be close and talk without being overheard.
Keeping plenty of distance between them and the other couples, he slid his arm around Nicole’s waist and brought her body flush to his, from chest to thighs. To anyone watching, it was an intimate, sexual position, but Nathan’s only concern was keeping their conversation private.
He took one look at her face, saw that she was shaken about something, and wondered what had happened to upset her so badly.
Caressing a possessive hand down her back, he brought his lips near her ear. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” she whispered back, and slid her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck, keeping her cheek close to his. “She’s not here.”
Disappointment coursed through him. “Damn.”
“She’s at his estate in Summerlin. The girls call it The Sanctuary.”
Definitely a good-news, bad-news scenario. Good news because they’d nailed down her location. Bad news because now they had to find a way into Sloane’s estate to get Angela out. After what Sloane had just proposed, Nathan loathed the idea of letting Nicole anywhere near the other man again, but she was ultimately the key to getting them both one step closer to Angela. Now he just had to devise a strategy to infiltrate Sloane’s house in Summerlin, but without endangering Nicole in any way.
Over Nicole’s shoulder, Nathan caught sight of Sloane heading toward another man who looked vaguely familiar. It took Nathan a moment to fully recognize the older gentleman as a superior court judge. A very powerful man to have on your side, especially when you dabbled in the kind of immoral misdeeds that Sloane did.
The two men talked for a few minutes, then exited the nightclub together. Nathan had hoped that he and Sloane would be able to talk again, but after casually asking around, he discovered that Sloane had left for the evening and wouldn’t be back.
Which left him and Nicole back at square one.
Chapter Eleven
The first thing Nicole did when they arrived back at Nathan’s apartment was head into her bathroom and take a long, hot shower. She washed her hair and scrubbed her skin with body wash, as if by doing so she could cleanse herself of all the perversion she’d witnessed at Sloane’s private nightclub.
When the water turned cool, she got out and dressed in a pair of soft, loose sweatpants and a T-shirt, then ran a comb through her hair to let it air-dry. Still feeling restless, she headed into the living room. Across the way, she noticed that Nathan had left his bedroom door open in a silent invitation, but after everything she’d endured tonight she needed time alone to unwind and sort out her thoughts.
Preferring the cloak of darkness, she switched off the table lamps and sat down on the floor behind one of the couches in the living room facing the windows overlooking the Las Vegas Strip. In every direction, bright neon lit up the city like a never-ending light parade, and while she was normally awed by the amazing sight, tonight she found it difficult to enjoy the spectacular view.
She felt raw inside, and she couldn’t get Holly out of her head. The despondent look in her eyes and how she was assuaging her inner pain and feelings with drugs and alcohol and barely functioning on her own. Then there was Holly’s adoration and devotion to a man who had no qualms about using her-emotionally and physically.
It was such a horrible, grievous situation, and Nicole couldn’t begin to imagine what had happened in Holly’s life to make the young girl travel down this particular path-one that would undoubtedly end in heartbreak. Sloane had already stolen her youth and destroyed her innocence, and by the time he was done with Holly there was little doubt in Nicole’s mind that there would be nothing left to salvage of the guileless girl she’d once been.
A mixture of anger and sorrow tightened her chest. But as upset as Holly’s situation made Nicole, she understood all too well how easy it was to be swayed by a charismatic smile, to fall for a man who knew exactly the right words to make a girl believe she was the center of his universe.
Nicole, too, had been lured in by pretty lies and compliments that had gone straight to her head and made her think she was in love, to the point that she’d compromised her principles to keep her man happy.
The situation with Holly was worse than Nicole had endured. Nicole had been young and naive, definitely, but she’d been an adult at eighteen, not an innocent girl who had no one to turn to, and nowhere to go.
But it was the other similarities that ate at Nicole. The need to please a man so overwhelming that she’d succumbed to his perverse desires. The increasing dependence on some kind of relaxant to do the demoralizing, humiliating things Mark had asked of her. And how he’d shredded a little piece of her soul every time she’d allowed him to use her for his own twisted pleasures.
Mark had taken a once-outgoing, confident girl and destroyed her self-esteem. With his practiced manipulation, he’d made Nicole weak and insecure. He’d taken advantage of her vulnerability and emotions, until he’d grown tired of her and moved on to another young protegee, leaving her devastated and unable to focus on her college classes, exams, and the grades she needed.
It had been a dark time for her, a cruel life lesson that could have sent her spiraling down a much different path, and nearly had. Only with the help of a counselor had she managed to get her head back on straight and finish college with her degree in journalism, along with the drive to succeed.
But the whole sordid experience had left her determined to never allow a man that kind of control over her again. And to never let a man come before anything else in her life that mattered.
So far, so good.
Unfortunately, once Sloane was done with Holly she’d just remain broken, unless someone stepped in to save her. Even then, Nicole was certain a part of the girl would never be the same.
“Hey, what are you doing sitting out here in the dark all by yourself?” Nathan asked, startling her out of her deep reflection on the evening’s events, and her own past. “Are you okay?”
She’d been so wrapped up in her thoughts she hadn’t even heard him approach. He stood next to where she was sitting on the floor, his feet bare, and she just didn’t have the energy to glance all the way up to his face. “I can’t stop thinking about Holly.” She’d told him about the girl on the drive home, and he’d been sympathetic and understanding.
“I know,” he said softly, and sat down beside her. “It’s not easy to witness what we did tonight and walk away unaffected. That’s a large part of the reason why I quit the force. It’s even more difficult to watch those girls sell their souls to the devil himself.”
“And for what?” Nicole met his gaze in the shadowed darkness, feeling tortured from the inside out. “Jewelry? Crumbs of affection? A pretty room that Holly doesn’t have to share with anyone else?” She shook her head in disgust, wishing she could make sense of it all. “What makes those girls living with Sloane believe that trading sex for expensive material things is a great life?”
Leaning against the back of the couch behind them, Nathan stretched his legs out and splayed his hands on his thighs, settling in to talk to her. “In my experience, I learned a lot of the girls are runaways. Either they come from a bad home to begin with, or they believe there’s something better waiting for them outside their parents’ rules.”
“And sleazy guys like Sloane offer them just enough privileges and extravagant gifts to hook them in,” she said, unable to keep the bitterness from her voice.
“Exactly.” Nathan sighed, as if he, too, despised everything that Preston Sloane stood for. “They’re young and impressionable, and they get caught up in the promises, the draw of what they perceive to be a glamorous life. It’s unlike anything they’ve ever experienced, and he makes it exciting and irresistible to them.”
Her lips pursed in anger. “Then comes the alcohol and the drugs, and then they’re addicted to more than just Sloane.”
“Unfortunately, that’s the way men like Sloane operate.” His tone was far more reasonable than hers, and she chalked it up to the fact that he was much more seasoned in dealing with the harsh realities of predatory men who took advantage of underage girls.
“You know, tonight I met Holly, who was so willing to do whatever it took to please Sloane. It’s just a matter of
