Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“I-I-I did no such thing!”
“Then, sit the fuck down. The next word out of someone’s mouth I’ll take as a confession. So whoever speaks better be the rat, and you better do it by the time I count to ten. Because if I have to find you,” she gritted, “I swear on the gangsters who came before me, your death will be excruciating.”
Sobs broke the silence, but no one moved. No one spoke.
“One.
“Two.
“Three.”
My head swung back and forth. Come on. We know you’re in this room. Stand up, you coward.
“Four.
“Five.
“Six.”
“I don’t want to die,” Zoe cried. “Where’s the fire department? Where’s the police?”
“You’re not going to die,” I whispered. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
Stand up!
“Eight.
“Nine.”
I landed on him just as he turned his head toward the back hallway. I knew what he was going to do before he did.
“Ten.”
Jace bolted—shoving aside and leaping over people, tearing for the busted emergency exit.
“Hey! Stop!”
Genny ran and so did Zoe. The weepy, clingy woman tackled Genny, roaring like a jungle animal. The two went down hard, and then everyone was on top of Genevieve. Attacking, jumping, and trampling her to get out the door.
“Go!” I heard clear over the noise.
Genny wanted me to run after Jace. Stop the bastard before we lost another Brotherhood thug for good.
I turned my back and rushed the pile on Genny. We could still catch up to Jace and stop him, but not if one of us was killed by an angry mob.
“Stop!” I screamed. “She’s not a threat anymore! Calm down! You’ll kill—”
An elbow came flying at my face. Pain ricocheted in my skull and I fell, sinking into darkness.
SIENNA
“No. No!” Angelina Forbis shot off the armchair. She spun toward the front door like she wanted to shove us out of it and pretend none of this happened. “What you’re saying isn’t true. Nathan is our son.”
“His name is Jake,” Marie cried. “He’s my son. My baby!”
I silently took her hand, sending waves of comfort into her. Marie’s stress was valid and understandable, but I’ve seen her future. Jake and Marie would be reunited. There’s no other way I’d let this end.
“You can’t just come in here and make these wild claims,” shouted Maurice Forbis. “We adopted him through an agency. We did everything right. We’re not kidnappers!”
“We’re not saying you are,” River said. “You heard Marie’s story. It’s the same as dozens of women who came to our shelter after the monsters holding them captive fled and left them to die to escape the cops.”
That was the version we agreed on. We could hardly tell the couple that Marie was captured after River and members of the Merchant gang busted in and slaughtered those sex-trafficking rapists. It would also explain why the Forbises couldn’t look any of this up on the news.
“She was tricked and imprisoned by the lowest form of human cockroach that scuttles on this earth,” River gritted. “Her son was given away to put more money in the pockets of that man. Jake wasn’t the first kid. He was one of twenty-three.”
Swaying, Angelina sat down hard. Her husband rushed to her side, resting her head on his lap. They were both so pale they could blend into their white carpet and disappear.
We sat in the living room of a lovely Leighbridge townhouse. They had a massive television, fancy game systems, expensive toys all over the carpet, and framed photos on the wall of the Forbises, Jake, and a young girl who doesn’t appear older than ten in any of the pictures.
By being in their house and shaking their hands, a vision of their tragedy gripped me. Their daughter died young, and now they would lose the little boy they loved.
Hatred was an emotion I wanted nothing to do with. It clouded my energy and affected my gift. How could I be clear enough to see someone else’s issues if I was drowning in a red mist of my own?
No, I did not let myself give into hate... except when I thought the name Luca Cunt-Sucking Adams.
Marie and the Forbises both lost so much. The pain they were going through right now was all because of him and his psychopathic greed.
“Twenty-three children?” Maurice rasped. “How is that possible? How are twenty-three children kidnapped and given away without anyone knowing?”
“Easily,” Marie said, “when their mothers are chained to a wall.”
Angelina flinched. “Please, stop. I can’t— This isn’t happening. Maybe children were taken from their mothers, but Nathan wasn’t one of them. We went through a legitimate adoption agency. They were recommended to us,” she cried. “We went through all the proper channels. Got all the right documentation. We didn’t just pick him up from some warehouse on the wharf! He’s our son!”
“I have proof too,” Marie cried. She thrust out her arm, ripping up her sleeve. “The blood in my veins. He is Jake Willard and I will take as many DNA tests as you ask. They will all say the same thing.”