Page 39 of Seeds of Sorrow

“Hadina…” she choked out, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Why?”

Hadina reached out, swiping away some of the tears with her thumb. “Those girls are who we protect at Adis & Co. We hunt thebastardaswho terrorize the innocent and abuse those who can’t protect themselves.”

Peyton looked at her quizzically.

“My mom and dad started the company when they were younger after witnessing some things happen to young girls. It was so horrific that my sisters and I don’t even know the full story.”

“Then how…”

Hadina tucked a strand of hair behind Peyton’s ear. “They both created the company and used the actual business side as a front.Papiwas already a practicing lawyer, so it made sense.”

There was pride in Hadina’s voice as Peyton listened to her explain how she and Zellie were recruited by their father when they were eighteen. She hated the knowledge that Hadina had witnessed so much horror at such a young age. But then the image of finding Melina’s body in the bathtub, the water colored crimson, came to mind and Peyton realized that moment had changed her so completely. It made sense that Hadina would want to fight for those girls after she saw what would happen if she didn’t.

“Did you ever consider saying no? Surely there were other things you wanted to do with your life.”

Hadina’s lips curled into a sad smile. “You saw those photos. Could you imagine walking away, understanding you had the power to help?”

“No,” Peyton responded immediately, knowing there was no turning back now.

“Besides, I still had to train as a lawyer. It was always made clear to us that we could back out if we wanted.”

Rolling her chair forward, Peyton took Hadina’s hands in hers. There was a slight tremble and she wasn’t sure if it was her or Hadina who was shaking. As hard as it was for her to stomach all this information, Peyton knew that it wasn’t easy for Hadina to share. Letting someone in was something Hadina wasn’t used to, and Peyton just hoped that she didn’t get shut out again.

“So, who is hurting the girls?”

“Men with money and power,” Hadina answered, disgust written across her face. “They traffic them within their sick little sex rings. Abusing them, beating them, getting them hooked on every type of substance possible. And then they kill them when they’re done.”

Bile rose to the back of Peyton’s throat for a second time but she swallowed it down, refusing to show weakness any more than she already had. “And what do we do? How do we stop them?”

The corner of Hadina’s mouth twitched into a half smile. “I like the sound of that. Like we’re a team.”

Peyton squeezed Hadina’s hands. “Wearea team. We do this together now.”

Surprisingly, Hadina leaned forward and kissed Peyton—the gesture more soft than passionate. It was a temporary reprieve from the sadness of their conversation. “We hunt. So many of theseimbécilesare part of everything. We’re lucky because richputosalways need a lawyer at their back. We network and situate ourselves until we’re trusted.”

“And if that doesn’t work?” Peyton asked.

“That’s where our informants come in.” Hadina grinned. “We have a bunch of people in the streets, part of huge companies, in the police… Adis & Co. has a lot of reach.”

Nudging Peyton’s chair aside, Hadina turned round and logged into the desktop computer in front of her. Peyton watched Hadina tap away at the keyboard while opening up a bunch of tabs. Leaning forward, she gasped when she realized it was camera footage of places around town.

“Is that…?”

Hadina smiled. “Yup.” She clicked a few more times, bringing up different angles. “We have access to most cameras, and we can hack into the ones we don’t, which allows us to track our targets most of the time. The docks, downtown warehouses, and clubs are where most of the business deals go down, and abandoned buildings have started to get used, too.”

Peyton knew her mouth was gaping but she was in awe. It was slightly terrifying knowing that Hadina and her company had access to almost every camera, could follow her wherever she went, but it also gave her a slight thrill. She was sleeping with a woman who was power incarnate.

“Talk me through the process. What happens after you’ve identified a mark?”

Hadina clicked on a file, opening up a map covered with red Xs. She pointed to one that had a red circle around it. “See this? That’s the last place we intercepted a shipment. It was a container in the docks downtown, and when we opened it up, there were thirty underage girls huddled together.”

She reached for Peyton’s trembling hands, squeezing slightly. The Adis sister was lending her strength to Peyton, something the latter was extremely thankful to receive. While Peyton knew that the atrocities would become less shocking over time, she couldn’t shake the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach at that moment.

She nodded for Hadina to go on.

“We have a couple of different avenues we can take. One is to pretend to go into business with them and catch them in the act, letting the target set themselves up. Another is to rely on our intel from informants. Or we can simply follow them, hacking into their shit until we get the details we need to be certain.”

Peyton pushed off the desk, pacing around the room as she tried to wrap her head around the seemingly well-organized operation. Her life had been propelled into something completely new, dangerous, and overwhelming. There was no turning back—not that she wanted to—and all these revelations were giving her a headache.

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