Page 47 of Hemmed

“Victoria, honey, not too much,” said Nine. “I know you’re angry with her, but don’t kill her. Not yet. Is this why you didn’t want to leave the property? Because of them?”

“Yes. I always worried that she would come back for me. It terrified me.” Tailor could tell that Yulia wanted to say something, but he growled at the woman, warning her not to say a word.

“How could you keep her from me?” asked Krauss. “I would have taken her. I would have raised her and given her a normal life.”

“Normal?” scoffed Victoria. “You’re a crime boss. A violent, horrible man who abuses and uses others, killing them at whim. That’s not normal!”

Krauss had no rebuttal for his daughter.

“Tell them what you did,” she said, staring at the screen. Krauss just looked at his lost child, wondering what she was saying. “She knows what she did. Tell them!”

“What the fuck did you do?” asked Ghost.

“She sterilized the children,” said Trak, coming in the backdoor with the others. Nine had seen his friend angry before. In fact, he’d seen him looking deadlier than anyone he’d ever seen in his life. But this look was something new. Something more dangerous because it came with support.

Rory, Miller, and Zulu stared at the woman. Rory’s body was flexing, cracking with every move he made he was so tense.

“The guards were more than happy to spill the beans on everything just for a little mercy,” said Miller. “They got none. They’re all dead. She kept a doctor on staff for it. As the kids were brought in, boys and girls, they were all sterilized. You crazy fucking bitch.”

“They don’t bring as much money if they can bear children,” she said quietly. “I get more for them when I sterilize them.”

That was all that Tailor could take. He gripped the woman’s neck like the handle of a broom and snapped it in half. The sickening sound made even the strongest men wince. Victoria just stared at the screen, not saying a word.

“I didn’t know,” said Krauss.

“You didn’t know about that. But you knew she was crazy; you knew she was selling kids. You were helping her to do that,” said Ghost.

“No. I was handling the websites.”

“Sites. That’s plural,” said Gaspar. “You said you were handling the websites. Where are the others?”

“You don’t understand what will happen. They’ll come for you. All of them will come for you.”

“They’ve come for us before,” said Nine. “We’re still standing. Not them. Who the fuck are they, and what are the sites?”

“They look innocent enough.”

“Who?” growled Ian.

“Mothers.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

“Mothers?” repeated Rory.

“PTA, Mother’s Day Out, tennis club, pickleball, book club, wine club. Mothers. Moms who can’t afford the luxury bag or shoes they want. They want the latest luxury SUV with the television screens in the back and the extra cargo space. They want the nine-hundred-dollar pair of sneakers, the four-hundred-dollar pair of sweats.

“When they show up at book club, they want the other women to see their new Rolex or diamond tennis bracelet. Asked how they could afford it, they simply reply, ‘I have a side hustle.’ They have access to children and parents who trust them with their children. They can watch them from school grounds, they can see them at kids’ birthday parties, and practically hand them over with a bow on their heads.

“These aren’t stupid women. They’re college-educated, motivated, and organized. They have a network of women that work with them, and they split the profits, all while turning in their neighbors’ children without blinking an eye.”

“He’s telling the truth,” said Victoria. She stared at the man who was her biological father, then felt the warm hands of Ashley and Bree at her back. “I’m going to hang up now. You’ll do the right thing, won’t you, Mr. Trak? Mr. Gaspar? All of you?”

“We’ll do the right thing, little one,” said Trak. The screen went black, and the men all looked at Krauss.

“Where is the head of this mom’s mafia?” asked Ghost.

“I don’t know her name. The name of the company is Gaia, like the Greek goddess of earth and mother of life. They’ve got some shit on their website about it. They use their platform to offer help and advice to overwhelmed mothers. If a mother is overwhelmed, she’s probably not watching her kids like she should. She naps, she reads a book in the park when she has her three minutes to herself. And in that time…”

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