Page 27 of Soldier, Tailor, Spy

Liam faced Duncan, getting into his face. “What—”

Duncan pressed the barrel of his gun against Liam’s forehead. “Even if I cause a mess, it’ll be worth it in the long run. Our father doesn’t deserve to have you following his wants or needs. He’s brainwashed you. Fed you so many lies, you can’t even distinguish what the truth is anymore. I bet your mother won’t even talk to you, either.”

Liam jerked.Bull's eye.“Don’t ever speak about my mother.”

“At least our da didn’t kill her. You should be grateful,” Duncan murmured. “Be happy you still have a parent.” He shoved his brother toward the door. “Don’t show your face around here again, Liam, or else I’ll kill you. Blood or no blood, I’ll never forgive you for threatening my family.”

Liam smiled, then laughed as he lifted his hands. “Easy there, boyo, no need to get hostile. I only wanted to talk. Catch up with my sibling.” The crooked smile on his face became more menacing by the second. “I’ll see you around, Duncan. I’ll tell the guys you said hi.”

Duncan closed the door and exhaled a shaky breath. He watched from the front window as his brother drove off, allowing him a second to breathe and come down from the rush of adrenaline. Once he gathered himself, he called out to Enzo and Bella. “Pack your bags. It looks like we’re going back to Virginia Beach.”

Murray’s home three years after rescuing Hannah...

“Lunch should be ready in a bit,” Jaqueline said from the kitchen. “I made your favorite.”

“Oh, I think Christian is excited.” Hannah laughed as she signed for Christian. His bright grin stunned her most of the time because his reasons to smile were few lately.

Christian sat on the floor with Hugo, Hannah’s son, playing with the new Lego set she’d bought them. Both boys were deep into their concentration while a cartoon played in the background for them. Ever since that day, over three years ago, when Murray and Santiago saved her life, she’d tried to move on. Unfortunately, the nightmares invading her dreams made it difficult until she found out she was pregnant.

At first, when Raul’s men took her, she thought it was a joke. A prank played on her by some of her friends from high school because she’d been holed up in the hospital for so long during her recovery. Her friends had come by often enough to see her, but being there instead of school had been a real bummer. However, when she felt the sting of a needle at her neck, then the burn of being injected by some drug, she knew it was not her friends after all.

Arriving in Mexico, awakened by someone power washing her, sobered her in an instant. Raul introduced himself to her as she lay huddled on the floor, trying to cover her naked body. He had a club that catered to people who had a particular type of fetish. In the beginning, she didn’t understand. The bright sunlight as she’d been transported to a clinic threw her for a loop because she’d thought he said club, but she could have been mistaken. Sometimes he memories were still jumbled.

No, that wasn’t it at all. In fact, she’d ended up in a clinic, where the doctor explained everything. The Emporium of Monsters was created for those who enjoyed torturing and raping people who were disabled or had some kind of physical or mental abnormality.

For her, it’d been the fact she had AMF—Acute Flaccid Myelitis, a sickness that affected her ability to stand and walk. Others, like Jaqueline’s brother, Christian, had autism. Scotty, when she met him, was deaf. Raul also tortured all the people he’d kidnapped before allowing them to be sold or used in his club. After the initial introduction to the man who made her skin crawl, she had her tubes tied, insuring there were no unwanted pregnancies. Other women who had more severe forms of disabilities were given a full hysterectomy. The guys, on the other hand, she wasn’t sure what Raul did to them, nor did she want to find out.

What she’d gone through made no sense what so ever. She’d been eighteen at the time and a virgin. Her cycles were out of whack because of her having AMF. Sterilizing her had been the icing on the shitty cupcake she called life. That all changed, though, the minute Santiago helped Murray save her, and she found out she was pregnant.

Even after explaining what happened to her while being held captive, her OBGYN couldn’t figure out how she got pregnant, except for the obvious, either her tubes grew back together, or surgery had never been performed. The other more serious issue was making sure Hannah could carry the baby to term because of her AMF.

For months, she hid the truth from everyone. She went to physical therapy to continue regaining her strength to walk and occasionally, when she had a bad day, she blamed it on something she might have eaten that caused her to be sick. Hannah wore baggie clothes to cover up her growing belly, scared of what might happen if she told anyone she was pregnant. Then there was Santiago. Since she’d been rescued, he hadn’t contacted her. Their time together had been brief. There were some days she regretted having sex with him. Other days, she was happy she had a part of him with her always.

Hugo was born six weeks early. Her doctor was convinced it had something to do with her sickness. If she had any other children, it might harm her and the baby. So, with Hugo, she cherished every minute with him. Now, her three-year-old son played with Christian. They were inseparable. Two peas in a pod. Christian had become very protective of Hugo from the minute he came home and honestly, Hannah was grateful.

Christian wasn’t like anyone else at the Emporium. He was bulky, built like an MMA fighter. From the outside, if someone met him on the street, they’d never guess he was disabled. Even though he was non-verbal, there was also an air of defiance to him. That spark in his dark brown eyes she’d seen on more than one occasion after he’d been to training showed how deadly he could be. Like deep down, he was waiting to attack when the moment was right. The only time she’d ever seen him explode was during the ensuing fight, when they were saved.

“I love seeing him smile,” Jaqueline said, joining her. “Can I tell you something?”

“Sure,” Hannah answered, turning her attention to her sister-in-law while the boys played.

“I worried over the last three years, a child would show up at our door and it would be Christian’s.” Jaqueline frowned. “It’s stupid, right? I know what was done to everyone in that hellhole, but after finding out you were pregnant, I got scared.”

She had every right to be. Hannah had worried about the same with Christian. The women who came to the club used him like a stallion would be used to breed mares. Some days, it was one woman after another. Just the thought made her sick to her stomach. “Don’t think I haven’t thought the same. Those... Fetishes...” She shivered at the thought. “What if? What if there are several children born to these people who use them as sex toys? If my tubal failed, there could be others.”

Jaqueline shook her head. “Even if there were, I can’t think about it. The fury I feel—” She sighed. “None of you deserved that.”

“I’m so glad to be home. It feels like I got a second and third chance to be happy, even though I miss Santiago.” She glanced down as Christian handed Hugo one of the treats they’d been snacking on, and laughed.

“You’re going to spoil him, Christian,” Jaqueline said, signing to her brother.

Hannah laughed. “They act like siblings, more than anything.”

“They do, don’t they?” She laughed. “So, are you excited about starting your new job?”

In the three years since Hannah had been rescued, she’d gone back to school and got her degree in early education so she could become a teacher. “I am. It should be fun.”

Jaqueline grunted. “Well, you never know. I’ve heard some kids can be a pain in the ass.”

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