Page 109 of Revenge (Corrupt Empire 3)

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with. Now write down where they are and don’t fucking bullshit me, Ed. I will find you and then you’re going down. I want you to ring whoever is in charge of this shit for you and tell them they’re not going to stop me taking them. Do you understand?”

“Yes, fuck, yes I do.”

“Good.”

I clutched Aiden tighter. I couldn’t deal with any of this shit. I wasn’t prepared to find out my cousin ran the girls. I wasn’t prepared to deal with the onslaught of emotions having a knife pressed to my throat brought on either. The images were still there. Haunting me. Tearing me to shreds.

“Princess, shh, shh, it’s okay,” Aiden murmured. “You’re okay. Nothing can hurt you. I’m right here. You’re not back there, okay? You’re not. I promise.”

“Aiden,” I sobbed. “I can’t stop.”

He stroked my hair, his touch soothing.

“Get on with it, Ed, then you can fucking well leave,” Aiden said over the top of my head.

“Okay, okay.”

I heard the shuffling of paper.

“Their schedule is on my phone, all right? I’ll send it to Avery’s email. Then you can see who they’re with.”

“Don’t forget to phone their fucking handlers.”

I heard Ed talking in low tones a few minutes later whilst Aiden continued to stroke my hair and my back. Having his solid form pressed against mine calmed me. He grounded me. My breathing slowed. My heart rate subsided to a normal rhythm and my tears dissipated.

“You remembered it, didn’t you?” Aiden whispered.

I nodded against his chest.

“He can’t hurt you anymore, okay?”

“I know,” I whispered.

I really did know that. Tristan and Frazier were dead. We knew where the girls were. We had everything we needed now. All of it. This could finally be over. The nightmare that had encompassed our lives for months. I couldn’t believe it. That it was almost done with.

I pulled away, staring up at Aiden. He gently brushed away my tears with his thumb.

“I’ve got this, okay?” he said.

“Yes,” I replied.

He let go of me and stepped towards Ed.

“You, sit and stay.”

“What? You said I could go.”

“I was lying.”

I turned to find Ed’s face growing white. He’d put the knife down on my desk. Aiden strode over to it and picked it up off there before Ed had a chance to go for it.

“Sit down,” he demanded.

Ed sat at my desk, placing his hands on top of it.

“What are you going to do?”

“End this bullshit once and for all. You and the rest of them are going down for this. So you’re going to stay there.”

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