He’d been her hero that day.

More than that, he’d kept her brother from mocking her anytime Darling was around. Darling had a problem with anyone picking on or belittling another. It was something that had gone against his grain as a child…

And as an adult. Kere had zero tolerance for cruelty of any kind. Physical or verbal.

On another visit, when she’d been seven and he was eleven… just months before his father had died, she’d wanted to play ball with them, but Geritt had adamantly refused to have her join them. So she’d followed behind them in what she thought was stealth mode. Geritt had caught her and shoved her away, telling her that girls had no business playing boy games.

Darling had stepped between her and her older brother. “She’s your sister, Geritt. You’re supposed to protect her, not hurt her.” He’d picked her up from the ground, then taken her back to the house. Instead of playing ball with her brother, he’d spent the entire afternoon drinking imaginary tea with her and her dolls.

How could she have let her blind hatred for his uncle rob her of those wonderful memories of his kindness when they’d been kids?

Darling had never been anything but gentle with her. And the worst part of it all was the knowledge that he, being older, would have remembered those childhood visits even better than she did.

Yet he’d never once mentioned them.

Her door slid up.

She froze, wanting it to be Darling there so that she could finally apologize and beg him to forgive her.

It wasn’t. Rather a very tall, athletic woman and a short, round man. The woman stayed in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest while the man came forward to examine Zarya.

“Open your mouth.”

She arched a brow at his sharp order. “Excuse me?”

He grabbed her jaw and forced her to obey.

Zarya tried to fight him, but he appeared to be used to that. It was like trying to swat away a combat fighter with a shoe.

“So what do you think?” the woman asked as he stepped back.

Grimacing at Zarya, he shrugged. “She’s not the most beautiful, but she’s not hideous. Teeth are good. She’s mid-twenties, which isn’t quite too old yet, though she’s getting there. You said she’s not a virgin, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“Too bad… Unused women always go for more. Still, we might get a decent profit on her, if I hold her back and put her with slim pickings. But it won’t make us rich.”

Were they discussing what she thought they were?

Surely not.

“What’s going on?” she asked them.

The woman looked at her coldly. “Darling wants nothing to do with you. Said he never wants to lay eyes on you again. Since he doesn’t care what we do with you, I decided to sell you off to a concubine dealer. After all, it’s what a whore like you deserves.”

Horrified, Zarya started to speak, but before she could, the man clapped a choker around her neck.