Lina's POV
He pulled out a cutting board and selected an apple from the fruit bowl, his knife work precise as he sliced it into neat pieces. "I found her in Burndale. At an underground gambling den."
"A gambling den?" I accepted the piece of apple he offered, speared on a fork. "She must have been so young."
"Thirteen." The single word was heavy with implications.
My chewing slowed as I processed that. "What was a thirteen-year-old doing in a place like that?"
Adrian's gray eyes met mine, something dark swimming in their depths. "Selling herself to the highest bidder. Not for s*x," he added quickly, reading my horrified expression. "For protection. She had something valuable that powerful people wanted, and she knew the gambling den was where those people gathered."
"Wh
