“Your dad was a piece of shit, right?”
I raise an eyebrow at Virus as I take the seat behind Hornet’s desk. Virus was absorbed into the MC after Lynch killed our dad, so he never had the displeasure to meet him.
“Probably the worst guy you could’ve ever met. Be glad you didn’t.”
“Was he sell his daughter to sex traffickers bad, though?”
“What?” I snap up from my relaxed position and glare at him.
“You told me you wanted more, that I needed to dig deeper. So I did.” He must register my anger because he licks his lips nervously like I’m going to kill the messenger, and I just might. “People do what they’ve always done. If something happens and they benefit from it, even if it had horrific outcomes, they tend to repeat things to try to replicate the results. Royce Stewart won his mayoral race after his three-year-old son choked on a toy. Seven years ago, he announced his intention to run for Congress but wasn’t met with much fanfare. He wasn’t very good at his job as mayor.”
“Can you get to the fucking point,” I snap.
“On a whim, I looked into his finances. Three weeks before your girl was abducted in Honduras, her father paid five grand to have her taken.”
My head snaps back. “Five fucking grand? That’s nothing.”
Virus shrugs. “They would’ve taken her for free. Mr. Stewart is a chump that got played if you ask me.”
He has the decency to look ashamed when I growl at him.
“Are you sure? What did the payment show up as? Steal a Girl Inc. or something?”
“No.” He points at his computer screen, but I hold my hand up to let him know I’m not interested in watching how he came to his conclusion. “I can go step by step, but the gist of it, after ten layers of bullshit, is that he paid someone that has ties to the guy they busted running the sex den in Venezuela.”
“All because he wanted to win a fucking political race?” I understand killing someone because they pissed you off. I have murdered people for looking at me wrong or stealing Ravens Ruin dope, but to win a race? It’s unfathomable to me, and I have loose morals.
“The fucked-up part is that he lost. His opponent ran on the premise that if Stewart couldn’t take care of his own damn family what business did he have taking care of a state.”
“She doesn’t know,” I mutter more to myself than to him.
She wouldn’t go to her parents’ house if she knew. I don’t know everything about her, but I do know that.
“You going to tell her?”
My knee bounces and sweat blooms on my forehead just thinking about relaying that news. “I should just fucking kill him.”
“It’s not your kill.”
I don’t realize Virus said it rather than it being in my own head until I look and see him watching me.
“It’s hers.”
“Jesus!” I hiss standing from the chair and running my hands over the top of my head. I pace the short length of the office in a bid to calm down, but it only seems to agitate me more. “What is it with everyone around this motherfucker having daddy issues?”
“It’s what makes us who we are,” Virus answers.
“Would you tell your girl?”
Why am I even asking him this shit?
I feel helpless. She’s already broken. This news may be what finally sends her over the edge.
“I don’t feel like there’s a one hundred percent right answer here, man.”
And that solves that. He doesn’t have a damn clue either.Chapter 29Kaci
My head jerks up, more from being startled awake than fear of the unknown. I shouldn’t trust TJ, but there’s just something about the light in his eyes that makes me believe he’ll never truly hurt me. He’s nothing like Deo and the men that hurt me before. Instinct tells me he’s different, even though just like before, I’ve been abducted and locked in a basement.
Slender legs are showcased at the top of the stairs. Most people would be relieved to know that even though it’s not TJ coming back, a woman is here. I personally know that women can be ten times worse than the men in situations like this.
The door doesn’t close behind her as she makes her way toward me, but I recognize her just from her stature.
“Xena?”
I shield my eyes as if it will help with the light haloing behind her.
“Just a minute doll.” The light clicks on, but she doesn’t give me but a brief glance before turning back to the stairs. She rushes up them, closes the door to the outside, and rushes back down. “You seem to have gotten yourself caught.”
Her bright blue eyes sparkle as she looks down at me and the predicament TJ has placed me in.
“Seems so.” She reaches for the lock on the front of the cage. “What are you doing?”