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Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Twilight. I can tell this is going to get really annoying having to write this every chapter. If I owned Twilight, do you think I'd be on here?
EPOV
"My name is Edward Cullen." I replied to the oily Portuguese man on the stage.
I didn't know why the hell I was doing this. It was like I was speaking on autopilot. Now, don't get me wrong, money wasn't an issue here, $500,000 was like pocket change to me. The thing was that I didn't fully get was why I felt the urge to spend it on buying this girl.
The girl, I thought.
First, I come in here looking for that scumbag James, who was trying to pinch money from my company so I could give him a piece of my fucking mind… or my fist. Then I look up to the stage and I see a sight that nearly breaks my heart in half for some reason. This beautiful girl; no this angel, being dragged onstage in her underwear.
She was a tiny thing that looked to be about 5'4" and around 110 to 115lbs, her skin was as white as porcelain and contrasted beautifully with her chocolate brown hair that cascaded in curls down to her waist. I slowly walked a little closer to get a better look at her face, and what I saw didn't disappoint.
Her lovely face was heart shaped with lips that were pink and full. With a nose that was perfectly straight with a slight up-turn at the end giving her what I had heard people refer to as a button nose, but I had never truly understood what they meant until now. I continued my exploration on the rest of her face. Her cheeks were flushed a beautiful pink and her eyebrows were slightly arched.
The next thing I noticed was her eyes. They were large and doe like and they were a chocolaty brown color that matched her hair, but the look in them was devastating. This angel looked broken. The look she held in her chocolate eyes was heartbreaking.
I was then aware of all the disgusting, old men in the room calling out prices to buy her.
Buy my angel.
The thought was repulsive; like she was a toy or a possession. I guess to a lot of the bastards in this room that was exactly what she was; something to own.
I suppose it was then that I made the unconscious decision to save her.
So here I was now, standing in front of this bastard that was selling her off, saying I would pay $500,000 for her. And then he has the balls to tell me, Edward Cullen, if I could afford it.
Ha.
When I told the sleazy man on stage my name, I thought he was about to have a stroke right where he stood.
"E-Edward Cullen?" He stuttered out.
"Yes, my name is Edward Cullen, and I am willing to give you $500,000 for this girl." I replied. There was something about this girl that called to me, and if I needed to pay
$500,000 or a million dollars, it didn't matter.
He looked me over once again then slowly turned back to the crowd.
"We have $500,000. Are there anymore bids?" He asked the horde of people. There were plenty of mumblings but no one said anything else.
"Okay then, sold to Mr. Cullen!" He exclaimed. He nodded to the men holding up the girl and they dragged her off the side of the stage behind a curtain.
"You can go back to collect your merchandise." He told me.
I nodded at him, hating how he referred to her, and started to walk towards the backroom. I needed to keep myself under control here or they might not give her to me if they believed I was here to help her.
I opened the door and walked in to see that the girl was curled up in a ball on a couch and one of the men that had been on stage with her was kneeling in front of her saying something so low that I couldn't make it out, but I didn't need to hear to get what he was saying. Between the dazed yet somewhat fearful look on her face and the smug sneer the man was wearing on his, I could tell I wouldn't like it.
"Hey! Get the hell away from her!" I ordered in a stern and hopefully somewhat intimidating voice.
The man snapped his head up to me. He realized who I was and backed away quickly. I was glaring at him as I walked over to the girl.
I kneeled down in front of her and took a closer look at her. I could tell that they had drugged her. Bastards.Her eyes were distant and glazed over; she looked like her mind was somewhere else while her body remained here. It was scary.
I would worry about how to help her come off the drugs later; right now I needed to find a way to get $500,000 here in twenty minutes without having to leave. I refused to leave her here alone.
I thought for a few seconds when it popped into my head. I dug into my pocket and pulled out my phone and dialed a number I knew well.
I need Emmett's help.
Emmett was my older brother by two years. He's also the CEO with me at Cullen Corporation; a pharmaceutical company that our father and uncle had built up here in Brazil. Carlisle and Uncle Aro had passed it down to us two years ago, when I was only twenty-one and Emmett was twenty-three, so he could retire with our mother on the large island they owned off the coast of Brazil; Isle Esme - named after my mother. We all lived on the island, just different parts of it. Uncle Aro let it all go simply because he was tired of all the stress that came with the job and he wanted more time to spend with his wife.
Regardless of our ages, Carlisle believed in our capability to run the company together. Two years later we had nearly doubled its profits and it had become one of the biggest and well-known companies in South America. We were thinking of building a sister company in Europe.
It took Em a moment to answer the phone, knowing him he had probably been sleeping.
"What's up Eddie?" I hated when he called me that but I would let it pass for now. There are more important things to take care of.
"Listen Em, I need you to do something really important for me."
"Anything, what do you need bro?" He replied eagerly. I wondered if he'd say the same thing in a minute.
"I need you to pull $500,000 out of the safe at the office and bring it to me at the Mirante do Vale building within twenty minutes." I explained.
"$500,000? Edward, are you in some kind of trouble?" He asked. I rolled my eyes.
"No Emmett, I'm not in trouble, just please do what I asked. I need the money soon and I
promise to explain when we're done here." I reasoned with him. I knew he wouldn't let this go without an explanation.
"Okay man, I'll be there as fast as I can." I could hear him scrambling around, probably getting dressed.
"Thank you Em." I breathed out in relief. I was just glad that we had been staying at a nearby hotel for an early business meeting tomorrow morning instead of being on the island, or it would take him at least two hours to get here.
I turned my attention back to the angel beside me. She was still under the effects of those damn drugs. Then I noticed another thing, she was still laying here in her underwear.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. She was probably freezing and she needed to be covered up, I thought. I unbuttoned my shirt and laid it across her small, curled up form. Thankful for my white undershirt I had on.
A woman with a mane of bright red hair strutted through the door and came over to me. I moved slightly in front of the girl so I was between her and the red head. She probably was just here to get the money from me.
"Mr. Cullen, my name is Victoria and I'm here to collect your payment. Are you paying in cash?" She purred to me, trying to sound seductive.
God, I must be psychic; no wait, wrong family member, I thought sarcastically.
"I'll be paying with cash. My business partner is on his way here with the money." I informed her.
Right on cue, Emmett called.
"Hey man, I'm outside the building, what floor are you on?"
"I'm on the fortieth floor." I told him.
"Are you sure you're not in any kind of trouble? You need to tell me now if I should be prepared to kick somebody's ass." He was in overprotective big brother mode, but it was unnecessary.
"Em, I'm positive, just bring up the money" I stressed.
"Ok, I'll be up in a minute." And with that he hung up.
"My partner is on his way up now." I said to the woman. She nodded her head and walked off to the other side of the room. I was amazed and disgusted that she could act like what they did here was nothing out of the ordinary. Almost like selling people as sex slaves on the black market was the most normal thing in the world.
Emmett walked in a few moments later being escorted but a guard.
"I thought you said you weren't in any trouble." He said as he looked the guard up and down.
"I'm not Em, do you have the money?" I held out my hand toward him. He walked over to me with a briefcase and handed it to me. I put it down on the table and opened it, inside was a large amount of bills. I called Victoria over so she could count it out herself.
"….$420,000.…$450,000.…$480,000.…$500,000." She counted out carefully. She nodded to herself and closed the briefcase.
"You may now leave with your purchase Mr. Cullen." She told me. I wished she would stop saying things like that. This girl was a person, not a piece of furniture.
I walked back over to the couch and picked up the poor girl in my arms. She let out a little whimper as I did and I leaned down slowly toward her and whispered in her ear.
"I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. We'll be out of this place soon." I couldn't tell if my words helped much. She was so limp and lifeless in my arms, I was worried about exactly what kind of drugs they put in her and how much.
Emmett was looking between me and the girl strangely, but thankfully he had enough sense to not say anything in here.
We took the elevator down to the parking garage and I saw that Emmett had driven his Jeep here. Good, I had plenty of space to lay her out in the back seat.
Em opened the back door for me and I laid her down, then climbed in the back with her, placing her head on my lap. Emmett climbed in the drivers seat and sat there in silence for a minute, not moving to start the car.
"Edward, are you going to tell me what the hell is going on here?" He asked me after a minute.
I sighed and ran my hand through my hair, staring down at the girl that seemed to have either gone to sleep or just passed out.
"Ok, I'll start at the beginning. I caught word that that money stealing bastard James was staying in that building, so I came over here to see if I could catch him-"
"You went to find him without me? I would have loved to grind his face into the pavement. Man, you always try and take away all my fun!" He whined and pouted.
"Are you done whining so I can finish?" I knew he was older, but most of the time he really didn't act like it, but that was part of the reason why I loved Emmett so much.
"Oh, sorry, you can continue." He mumbled.
"I followed him up to the floor we just came from, but the place was packed and I lost track of him. I was looking around the room for him when I saw this girl up on the stage." I motioned down to her. "I don't know what it was Em, but I looked at her and I realized that they were going to sell her, sell her, man. One of those gross old guys was going to buy her and make her do god only knows what. I couldn't let that happen. The next thing I knew, my mouth opened up and I said I'd pay $500,000 for her. And here we are now." I finished.
"So… basically, you came here to rearrange James's face, and you come out with an unconscious girl that was being sold on the black market? Well, you can never say you've had a boring life." He was trying to lighten the situation because he could tell I needed it and that's what he did best.
"I think I should take her to the island. Everyone's there and Carlisle can examine her." Em nodded his head in agreement and started driving. Carlisle had been a doctor before he started Cullen Corp with our Uncle Aro. And even then he would take trips for a few months at a time to Africa when us kids had summer vacation and take the entire family so he could participate in Doctors Without Borders.
He always wanted his family close, but that was just how Carlisle was, family was very important to him.
I started to hum, hoping that it would calm the girl if she could hear me at all. Emmett drove for about an hour before we reached the harbor that housed the medium sized speed boat we used to get back and forth from the island to the mainland. I carefully carried the girl to it and sat down, cradling her in my lap as Emmett made sure the boat was ready.
Em started up the boat and we began the twenty minute ride to the island.
When we got there, I realized that we were closer to my house than Carlisle and Esme's house. So I had Em just call them to come over here than have to carry her all the way over there. I carried her into my bedroom and laid her down on the bed just before Emmett came in.
"Well, dad is on his way over and he wasn't too happy to be woken up." He grinned.
"You didn't tell him why he was coming over here at three o'clock in the morning?" I asked him. It would be just like Emmett to do something like that.
"I thought it would be more fun to see the look on his face when you told him" He laughed. I just rolled my eyes and turned back to the girl.
I really had to find out her name, I didn't really like just calling her the girl. I pulled a blanket over her as I waited for dad to arrive.
It was about ten minutes later when my dad walked through the door carrying his medical bag.
"Boys, this had better be good. I was having a very nice dream abou-" He stopped short when he saw what or who I had in my bed.
"Dad, can you please examine her? She's been drugged and who knows what else." I pleaded desperately.
"Of course I will but you have to tell me everything as I do it" He reasoned. I nodded my head and he set to work looking her over.
I explained to him about James, how I saw her and that I felt this urge to save her, that I bought her and had Emmett bring me the money and about the trip here and everything else in-between. By the time I had finished so had he.
"Well I think you did a good thing saving her, son." He patted me on the shoulder.
"What's wrong with her?" I asked nervously. Should I have taken her to an actual hospital when we were still in the city?
"Well, you were right about the drugs, they're very strong but not harmful to her. They should wear off with time and sleep. There's some bruising around the tops of her arms and her wrists and she doesn't seem to have a fever; nothing that can't heal quickly." He went down the list.
I breathed a sigh of relief. I had been worried that they did something much more harmful to her.
"Thanks dad." I muttered.
He smiled at me. "It's no problem Edward. She should be fine through the night, just let her sleep the drugs off. I'd have some Tylenol waiting in the morning though." He said as he was packing his things back up. I nodded and said goodnight to him and Emmett, and they both left to go get some more sleep.
I made sure that the girl was comfortable and grabbed a blanket and a pillow for myself and walked over to the black leather couch I had inside my bedroom and laid down to go to sleep.
Hopefully, I would get to learn more about this mystery girl that has captured my heart.