Page 24 of Cruel Dominion

Bile rose in my throat looking at the pixelated image of the man with his arm around Anna’s waist. The glazed over, too drunk look in his eyes. The way her hand on his almost seemed to be trying to peel it away from her skin.

Was there some strain in her eyes? Some fear?

I pressed my palms flat to the table and breathed deep through my nose. When I opened my eyes, Paulson looked nervous.

“There’s one more thing,” he said. “It’s big. Just don’t shoot the messenger.”

I turned the page quickly, and immediately recognized a notice from a dark web bulletin. An advertisement featuring a picture of Anna, offering a quarter of a million dollars to anyone who could deliver her alive.

What the fuck was this?

My mind raced and my blood went cold and the dead thing in my chest came alive with a deep, painful beating that made my skin prickle and a thudding start in my ears.

What. The. Fuck.

I rushed to make sense of it, connecting the dots, putting things in order in my head to find where and how I could fix it.

This was her last boyfriend and she obviously left him. Whether or not these injuries were his doing, I had no doubt he hurt her before, and he obviously intended to hurt her again. Who else would’ve put out this bulletin?

Those photos were taken at this club for the wealthy and powerful. He’d have the money for this ransom. The connections to make it happen.

If he wanted her alive, he probably wanted to keep her as his goddamn sex slave, or worse.

I covered a shuddering breath as it pushed from my mouth like steam from a boiling pit of hell.

That wasn’t fucking happening.

Did she know?

Did she know he was looking for her? That he plastered her face—my Anna’s face—all over the dark web for every sick, depraved criminal to…

Josh had no idea what devil he invoked. Because I would move heaven and earth to keep Anna Vaughn safe, and then I’d serve her Josh’s head roasted on a fucking pike.

“Take it down,” I hissed. “Destroy the ad.”

“Already done,” Paulson assured me. “And I’m watching for any new posts, but I can’t guarantee that nobody else has seen it.”

That meant Anna was in danger from every bounty hunter on the west coast. She had her father’s security around her, but I didn’t trust them to be enough. What if they didn’t know?

“At least they don’t have her name. Looks like she went by Annie Taylor. But I did a reverse image search on Google and it isn’t good. Anyone with a half a brain cell and an internet connection can probably find out who she really is.”

My hands shook and I turned and swept the file and every other piece of useless paper and junk off my desk, hearing metal and glass knock and shatter into the hardwood.

“Keep looking,” I growled. “I want everything you can find on her. Her friends’ names. Her boss’ name. Phone numbers. Any other aliases she might’ve used. Where she lived. All of it.”

I bent and snatched the photo of Josh from the floor, tearing it in two to separate him from Anna. I thrust the half that depicted Josh at Paulson. “And I want everything on this fucker. Family, education, work. His address. Phone number. Socials. Last known location. Fuck, I want the last place he took a shit.”

“You got it.” Paulson gulped.

“I want my people watching Anna at all times. Talk to my head of security. He knows who to call. I want the best of the best on this. No compromises. I’ll handpick the men, you coordinate with them. If anything happens to her, it’s on your head, Paulson.”

Paulson nodded and left, leaving the copy of the file with me.

I closed, trying to ground myself—shoving every disturbing possibility out of my mind.

What if there were men already on their way to find her? To capture her?

My head spun and I sat down hard on my chair, the caster protesting my weight as I bent forward and pressed my palms into my eye sockets.

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