Page 62 of Dagger

Atlas smirked. “I’ll send a couple’a men over to check out the ports. You never know, they could find out where they ship the girls from.”

“I should go,” Kit declared. “You need manpower here. I can go solo and turn into a shadow. They’ll never know I’m there. I’ll find out what we need to know quicker and get my ass straight back here. If we can tip off the Feds and they raid the shippin’ container, we won't need to go to war, the FBI will lock every fuckin’ Sinner up, and we’ll only have to clean up the dregs.”

I sat back in my chair, eyes glued to my youngest.

Kit was a soldier through and through. He’d gotten more info in the last week than the rest of us had gotten in the last year. For years, I assumed he was a fuck-up, but since Kit had gotten treatment for his PTSD and become a family man, he’d come on leaps and bounds.

My club was way better and safer for him being in it.

“You did good, Son,” I muttered. “Should’ve sent you in there weeks ago.”

Murmurs of agreement filled the air.

Breaker dropped the envelope on the table, unaffected by my words. “I looked around the place and even got into Elise’s room. It was an eye-opener. She’d made it into a mini apartment. TV, a little refrigerator, a book corner. I reckon the only time she left that room was to leave the house.”

I tamped down my irritation. Elise had already told me that he initially didn’t give her any choice. Later, it probably became her sanctuary.

“In the early days, he kept her imprisoned there,” I grated out. “He probably moved the refrigerator in there to avoid her fuckin’ starving to death.”

Mutters and curses filled the room.

Kit slid the envelope toward me with his index finger. “Also, I found this in her drawer.”

Reaching out, I picked it up and stared at it.

“It was hidden at the back of her nightstand,” Kit explained flatly. “I took a quick look—not to be nosy—it just felt important somehow.”

Unease washed through my gut as I studied the envelope.

The fact Kit brought it back with him proved that whatever was inside, he thought it important. Curiosity suddenly got the better of me. Without a thought, I carefully opened the paper flap and pulled out the contents.

I stilled when I saw the collection of photographs. Peering closer, my throat heated when I saw they were of a little girl with long dark hair and golden eyes.

Something punched inside my chest, and I pressed my hand to it, trying to ease the pain radiating from my heart.

At that moment, looking at those images, my lungs felt like they’d implode because it hit me how much I’d missed of my daughter’s life.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her. She was pretty, a little doll, and she reminded me so much of my mom that I could’ve sat there and grieved all over again for Connie Stone’s loss. As I studied the images, I noticed they were in order, starting with Sophie as a baby, sleeping soundly and looking so much like Belle; it was uncanny.

I flicked over to the next one, another baby picture, but of Sophie sitting up on a white blanket, a smattering of dark hair across her perfectly shaped head, holding a rattle and laughing. I flicked to the next, then the next, each one in chronological order, representing Sophie’s childhood. Playing on a swing at the park, ballet, birthday parties, and family outings.

My stare fell on the final image. Sophie must’ve been about eight or nine years old. She was in the desert, standing in front of a large cactus, cuddling into a brunette woman who looked to be in her early forties. They were both beaming at the camera.

“Is this her mom?” I demanded, holding the picture up in front of Atlas’s face.

“Yeah,” Atlas replied. “Soph’s got that photograph framed. In fact,” he leaned across the table, picked up a couple more pictures, and scrutinized them, “she’s got most of these ones, too.”

“Fuck!” I dropped the photographs onto the table, lifting my hand to rub at the ache in my chest. “I sound like a dick, but a part of me’s grateful I never knew about her. If I got these the same way Elise did and knew she was out there somewhere, I’d either be doin’ a life stretch, or I would’ve ended up in a straitjacket. It’s no wonder it broke Elise’s heart. I couldn't imagine having these but not being able to have her in my life for all those years.”

“Henderson’s gonna pay,” Abe vowed.

Murmurs of agreement filled the room.

Breaker’s stare slid to mine. “Check the envelope. There’s somethin’ else in there. Dunno what it represents, Pop, but it might mean somethin’ to Elise.”

Heart hammering, I picked up the envelope and gently shook the contents out onto the table.

A softchinksounded, and my stare fell on a small silver ring.

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