Especially the girls’.
As Nathan led Nicole away from the bar, he glanced at her in concern. “Are you okay?”
She managed a nod and blinked back tears. “This drink started a fire in my belly,” she said beneath her breath. “I’ll just pretend to sip it until I can discreetly get rid of it somewhere.”
“Good idea,” he agreed. “By the way, Gwen is in the room, so try to keep your contact with her to a minimum.”
Crap. She hadn’t expected Gwen to be there.
After their encounter at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Nicole couldn’t risk Sloane’s assistant recognizing her, even if Nicole did look completely different from her reporter persona. So, while the other woman made sure everything was running smoothly and the girls kept the male guests happy, Nicole kept her distance and her gaze averted.
Fifteen minutes later, Sloane entered the room, fashionably late, with Holly trailing by his side like an obedient puppy following its master. She was wearing a black halter-style dress that was cut much too low in the front, her expression teeming with desperate adoration as she looked up at Sloane, who appeared completely indifferent to her painfully obvious infatuation.
Sloane greeted a few of the other men nearby, then took Holly by the hand and pulled her forward-not to establish her as his girlfriend, but to introduce her to one of the gentlemen in the group who was staring at her with lust in his eyes. Holly tried to take a reluctant step back, but Sloane’s grip on her arm didn’t waver.
He bent and said something in her ear that instantly turned her submissive. With one last look of longing at Sloane, Holly allowed the other gentleman to tuck her arm in his and followed him to a couch in a secluded corner of the room so the two of them could be alone.
Without thinking and acting purely on instinct, Nicole started after Holly, and it was Nathan who brought her to an abrupt halt.
“Let it go,” he murmured, his tone low but firm. “I know it’s difficult to watch, but that’s not what we’re here for and you don’t want to draw Gwen’s attention.”
Oh, God, she knew he was right and was grateful that he’d snapped some sense back into her. She understood that she couldn’t save every girl in this house, but there was something about Holly that made her feel like a protective older sister. It was difficult to watch her self-destruct while Sloane couldn’t care less and had no qualms about passing her off to another man.
“Come on, let’s mingle,” Nathan said, and led her in the opposite direction of where Holly had gone.
They spent the next half hour getting acquainted with the depraved men who’d been invited to Sloane’s weekend soiree. From a distance, between playing the part of Nathan’s young girlfriend, Nicole continued to watch Holly as she consumed a few martinis, popped some pills, and half smiled at the man who’d pulled her onto his lap and was slipping his hand beneath the short hem of her dress. Holly appeared too wasted to care that she was about to be sexually assaulted.
Unable to stomach the disturbing sight, she turned away and set her still-full drink on a passing tray holding dozens of other glasses just as dinner was announced. Everyone headed into the dining room and chose their meal from an elaborate buffet spread that Nicole normally would have enjoyed. Tonight, she had no appetite, but forced herself to take some of the fruit and chicken to keep up her energy.
She and Nathan sat down at the far end of the long table, and before the chairs around them could fill up, Sloane came up to them with a petite blonde on his arm. With her hair falling halfway down her back in soft spiral curls, and wearing a pink baby-doll dress, she looked very sweet and much too naive. Her brown eyes were glassy, her body language lethargic, indicating she was either drugged or inebriated, or both.
“Nathan, this is Lisa,” Sloane said as he pulled out the vacant chair next to Nathan for the girl to take a seat. “She saw you in the other room and is quite taken with you. I thought the two of you might like to get to know each other better.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lisa,” Nathan said, and did as Sloane expected and turned his gaze to the young girl.
Clearly, Sloane was anxious to find a girl to Nathan’s liking in exchange for Nicole.
Sloane slid into the chair next to Nicole; one of the hired staff set a plate of food in front of him, and delivered one for Lisa, too. He instructed the waiter to pour them each a glass of wine, then he picked his up by the crystal stem and tilted it toward Nicole in a toast. She touched her glass to his and forced a smile.
He looked into her eyes, and she nearly jumped out of her skin when he splayed a hand on her thigh beneath the table and gave it a squeeze. “To an unforgettable weekend.”
Her belly lurched at the insinuation in his tone, and unable to find anything witty to say in response, she gave him a nod and sipped her wine. She also very subtly shifted closer to Nathan, and Sloane took the hint and removed his hand from her leg. For now. Unfortunately, her show of modesty seemed to fascinate him, and she had a feeling the man liked a challenge when it came to seducing a girl.
“So, are you having a nice evening so far?” Sloane asked as he cut into his prime rib.
“Yes, I am.” With Lisa doing her best to flirt with Nathan and keep his attention on her, Nicole had no choice but to converse with Sloane. She and Nathan had yet to see anyone who resembled Angela, and until they learned where she was, they had no choice but to play Sloane’s game his way.
“Good. It’s important to me that all my guests are happy, so if there’s anything at all you want or need, you only have to ask,” he said, his gaze warm and indulgent. “Also, I don’t believe I told you and Nathan, but tomorrow night is a masquerade theme, which makes the parties more interesting and fun. I’ll have outfits and masks delivered to your room tomorrow afternoon.”
She infused a believable amount of excitement into her expression. “I’ve never been to a real masquerade party before. Will it be like that Mardi Gras parade they have at the Rio?” she said, referring to the Vegas hotel that was well known for its carnival production.
He chuckled at her guileless enthusiasm. “Yes, it’s just like that, but so much better here at my place since all of us are a part of the Mardi Gras experience.” He winked at her.
Dinner couldn’t end quickly enough for Nicole, and as soon as everyone finished eating, Sloane announced that the entertainment would commence in the playroom downstairs. The guests filtered out of the dining room, and Nicole trailed behind with Nathan, not in any big hurry to be in the midst of such vile debauchery.
They were among the last to arrive, and already guests were pairing up with one or two of the girls and heading off to private rooms, the grotto, or hanging out in the main bar area. Out of the corner of her eye, Nicole saw Holly disappear by herself into the restroom she’d seen during the tour Sloane had given them earlier. Since this was most likely her only chance to talk to Holly privately, she decided to take advantage of the opportunity.
“I need to use the restroom,” Nicole told Nathan, and deliberately left out the part about her plan to have a little one-on-one time with Holly. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
She headed across the room and slipped into the women’s lounge, where a few of the young girls were fussing with their hair and makeup. Because she was a new face in the crowd, they eyed her curiously, but didn’t say anything as she walked over to the closed door marked WOMEN and knocked.
There was no answer, but Nicole knew the girl was inside. “Holly?” she said through the door as she knocked again, more insistently this time. “It’s Nikki.”
“Go away,” Holly said, and sniffled.
Nicole closed her eyes for a moment. The despondent note to the young girl’s voice nearly broke her heart. The need to talk to her, to make sure she was okay, made her more persistent. “Let me in, Holly. Please?”
“No.”
Nicole sighed but refused to give up. “I’m not going away until you do. If I have to, I’ll wait right here until you open the door to leave.” The girl had to come out sometime.
Much to Nicole’s relief, less than a minute later the locked unlatched and the door opened a few inches. Nicole took it as an invitation to enter and quickly stepped inside, then rebolted the lock behind her so they weren’t interrupted.
Her first thought was that Holly looked a wreck, physically and emotionally. Her puffy, red eyes revealed she’d been crying, and her makeup was smudged from wiping away her tears. Her eyes were filled with such hopelessness that Nicole had to resist the urge to reach out and take the young girl into her arms for a comforting hug.
Holly’s chin lifted in a show of belligerence. The small, diamond heart pendant glittered from the hollow of her throat, a stark reminder of who she belonged to. “What do you want?”
“Are you okay?” Nicole asked, and leaned back against the closed door.
The other girl crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her gaze. “Why do you care how I am?”
Holly was back to being the hostile girl Nicole had initially met back at the nightclub. Remembering how she’d been able to reach past those defensive barriers, she attempted to do so again now. “Because I think you could use a friend.”
She scoffed at that. “And you think you can be that friend? You’re the one that Preston wants,” she added bitterly. “If anything, you’re the enemy!”
“I swear I’m not,” Nicole said, trying to convince her, and at the same time striving to establish some kind of trust between them. “I don’t want Preston.”
“Whatever Preston wants, he gets.” Holly turned back to the vanity mirror and tried to repair her smeared makeup with her compact.
Not this time, Nicole wanted to say, but couldn’t.
Holly dropped the compact back into her purse and met Nicole’s gaze in the reflection. “Sloane told me I’m his favorite, and that’s why he likes to share me,” she said, her unsteady voice not holding as much conviction as it should have, as if Holly had her own doubts but was too terrified to speak them out loud.
God, how Nicole understood how the other girl felt. Hadn’t Mark used the same tactics on her to persuade Nicole to engage in a threesome with a virtual stranger? The similarities made her feel nauseous.
“Right now, I’m entertaining one of his friends, and when Preston sees how good I’m being, he’ll take me back and not want to share me anymore.”
Nicole had to forcibly swallow back her anger at the situation. “Are you sure about that, Holly?”
The young girl’s eyes flashed with irritation before she looked away and began digging through her purse. “I know he will. I just need a few of my pills to get me through the rest of the night.”
Nicole’s stomach roiled as she watched Holly shake two white tablets from a small container. “Getting wasted isn’t the answer,” she said, speaking from her own experience.
Holly clutched the pills in her fist. “I need them.”
“What are you taking?” Nicole was not only curious, but concerned about what the girl was ingesting.
“I don’t know and I don’t care.” Despair etched Holly’s features, and her bottom lip quivered. “Gwen gave them to me to take and they make me feel relaxed and calm. Taking the pills is the only way I can bring myself to let anyone other than Sloane touch me. They make me forget things I don’t want to remember.”
“It’s only a temporary fix, Holly.” Nicole took a small step toward the girl, then another. “In the morning, nothing will have changed.”
“You don’t understand!” Her voice rose in anger, and she popped the pills before Nicole could stop her, then scooped up water with her hands from the sink faucet to wash them down.
Nicole felt so damn helpless, and hated the fact that she couldn’t get through to Holly. She watched as the girl closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to recompose herself.
When Holly looked at her again, it was with reluctant determination. “I need to be good,” she said, calmer now. “I need to make Preston’s friend happy. If I do whatever Preston asks me to do, then he’ll know how much I love him.”
The anguish Nicole witnessed in Holly’s gaze twisted her insides into knots, and she gently touched the girl’s arm. “Honey, you’re not old enough to know what real love with a man is.”
Holly jerked away from her, a renewed fire igniting in her eyes. “So what if I’m only fifteen? I’ve had more experience than most girls my age.”
Nicole didn’t hesitate to call Holly on her slip. “Fifteen?”
Panic chased across Holly’s face as she realized her mistake, though she did nothing to correct it. Instead, she grabbed her purse and started past Nicole. “I need to get back to Richard before Gwen comes looking for me.”
Nicole stepped in front of the girl and blocked her path to the door. “You don’t have to do this, Holly. Let me help you. Let me get you out of this place.”
“I don’t want to leave,” Holly said, her voice choked with emotion. “I just want Preston .”
“What happens when he no longer wants you?” Nicole asked softly, but her words were direct and painfully honest.
Holly shook her head, as if she wouldn’t even consider that as an option. “I have to go .”
Knowing there was nothing else she could do right now, Nicole stepped aside and watched as Holly walked out. Tonight, she didn’t have any choice but to let the young girl entertain one of Sloane’s guests, but somewhere along the way Holly had become Nicole’s personal mission.
She wasn’t sure how Nathan was going to react to her decision, but Nicole wasn’t leaving this hellhole without Holly.