Page 87 of Ruthless God

“What do you know about trafficking?”

I scoff. “That it’s wrong!”

“Clearly. What else?”

I shake my head, unsure of what answer he’s fishing for.

His voice lowers. “Innocent women are ripped from their homes. From their lives.”

Each word feels like a dagger to the gut.

“They are often tortured and worse before being sent to an auction.”

My hands curl into fists. I don’t want to hear this. But I need to.

“If they’re lucky, they are bought by someone who plans to kill them quickly. That doesn’t happen often.” He steps closer. “Most are sold to monsters who only want to hurt them in every way imaginable.”

His gaze pins me in place.

“And then they die.”

Bile burns the back of my throat. My breath is shaky when I speak.

“You’re not making a very sound case for yourself.”

A small, humorless smile tugs at his lips. “Give me a moment.”

He tilts his head slightly, as if considering me.

“My brother got into the game because he loved holding power over women.”

The air around us thickens. I can feel the next words coming. And I already hate them.

“More than that, he enjoyed hurting them.”

My chest tightens. No. No, no, no?—

“He’d hunt them and then kill them with a butcher’s knife.”

A rush of cold terror washes over me. The woods. The chase. The thrill in Gabriel’s eyes. It wasn’t a game. It was never a game.

I force my voice to work. “Was it common knowledge that he liked to do that?”

His answer is instant. “No. I was the only person who knew.”

I moisten my lips. Swallow the nausea. If Gabriel’s body is really in that grave… then someone else knows. Someone who is still out there.

He keeps talking. And I keep listening.

“That’s what our fight was about the night he died. I told him he had to stop buying and killing innocent women, and he told me the only way he’d stop was if I killed him.”

My breath catches. But he’s not done.

“Agnes arrived the next day.”

A single thought shatters through me. She was one of Gabriel’s last victims.

“She was one of his last purchases,” Claudius confirms, as if reading my mind. “When I saw the condition she was in, I knew I had to make a dent in the people who attended trafficking auctions.”

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