Page 29 of Hateful Union

Raylee

Icalled Gabby to come get me from Malcolm's home. I couldn’t go home yet. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be ready for that, but I know that at some point, I’ll have to. But as soon as Gabby saw my face, she lost her damn mind. She demanded to know what happened and when I told her that I was shot at, she cried. She’s scared that she’s going to lose me too.

When we arrived at her apartment, I finally got a look at myself. God, my face looks like someone took a cheese grater to it, Malcom pushed me to the ground which saved me from a bullet but not from the concrete. I no longer look like a bloody corpse thanks to the shower I took and the clean clothes that Gabby loaned me.

After the shower, Gabby and I ended up talking. I needed to let everything out. To cry, rant, scream, and try to focus my life. I’m at a loss of what to do from now. Where do I go? Everything is clouded, muddled, and I can’t seem to get a single thought straight.

Malcolm. God, that man. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. I hate him so much for what he did to Mayer. That night is something that I feel deep in my soul and hurts me to the bone. I can’t forgive the actions, I don’t think I ever will. Yet, underneath all the pain, hurt, and anger I know his actions are the only reason I’m still breathing. I’m falling for him and I hate that. I despise that I care about this arsehole. How has he gotten under my skin?

Gabby was sympathetic, once she understood where I was coming from, she hates him for what happened to Mayer. That man was something special to the both of us. Without him, it's hard. I keep thinking I'll see him again, that he'll call my phone or be around the next corner. But I know it's not going to happen.

Last night. I needed to feel something. Wanted something to distract me from the pain. Going to Malcolm, I never expected it to end up me in his bed. I only wanted to know what he meant by my father selling me.

What I found out was more than I could bear. What I found out rocked me to the core.

My father allegedly traffics women, prostitutes them out, and rapes them. Knowing he could do all of that, how am I supposed to act as though he's still the same man to me? How am I supposed to love him still when he can do such horrid things to others? I can't. It's one of the reasons I haven't returned home. How do I act as though everything's normal?

Gabby and I came up with a plan. She called her dad today. She asked him for all the information he could find out about the Silver family. Her father already had the information, he had checked into them when he discovered how close she and I were and that she’d be around me most of the time. He wasn’t pleased to discover that we had uncovered what my father does. But he also realises that we're old enough to know the truth.

So he told us how my father has taken women from all over Spain, how he has kidnapped them, taking them as payment from his clients for not paying their debts, or tricking them into becoming prostitutes. If that wasn’t bad enough, I also found out that he drugs them into doing things that they wouldn't normally do. Having sex for money. Although, the women do not receive the money, Dad does. He forces them to sleep with men in the brothels that he has scattered around Spain.

He sells the women who do not comply with what he wants. He slaughters the families that come for him, for blaming him for taking the women, taking away their young daughters. He doesn't care.

It hurts so much to know that my father is such an evil man. I can't allow this to happen anymore. If I had known sooner, I would have done something sooner. I would have stopped it. Now? Well now I’m going to make sure that my father can’t hurt anyone else again.

“Your phone’s been blowing up all day,” Gabby tells me, as she glances at the screen. “Bentley’s persistent. Why are you ignoring him?”

I sigh, “I don’t know how I’d deal if he and the others are also involved in this whole trafficking, prostitution ring. The thought makes me want to throw up.”

She nods, “I know, it’s going to be hard to sit down next to your father without stabbing him with a knife.”

Yeah, that’s what I’m feeling. “Ugh,” I moan, not even remotely looking forward to the conversations that I’m going to have with my family. “I guess I should go home.”

She gives me a sad smile, “If we want this plan to work, then yes. It’s going to be hard, Ray, but eventually, it’ll all be worth it.”

She’s right. If I want to bring them down, I have to do this the right way.

I rise to my feet and give her a nod. “Okay, then let’s do this.”

She clasps my hand, giving it a squeeze in support. “It’s going to be okay,” she promises me.

I just wish that I could believe her. I’m not sure anything is ever going to be okay again.

“Where the hell have you been?”Dad roars as soon as I step foot into the house.

“Out,” I reply, a little snarkier than I had planned.

Bentley rushes forwards and pulls me into his arms, the embrace tight and painful, but I return it. “Ray, where have you been? I’ve been out of my mind with worry.”

“I’m okay,” I promise him. “I just needed some space to be alone and gather my thoughts.” It’s not exactly a lie, but also not the full truth.

He pulls back and glances over me, his eyes narrowing in on my face and then particularly close as he reaches my neck. Fuck. The hickey. I warned that bastard not to leave one on me.

“Alone, huh?”

“Shut up,” I fire back, but my blood runs cold when I see the anger in all of my brothers’ faces. “What’s happened?”

Their stony expressions just add to my anxiousness. “Tell me,” I urge them.

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