Page 48 of Regressive

“Then I guess she also hasn’t told you about the dirt we dug up on her mother?” he asks.

I blink, again, trying to catch up. “That was the errand? You took her to find information about her mother?”

“Yes, asshole.” His grim expression is back. “What the fuck areyouthinking?”

“I’m thinking that woman may be the key to everything.” I lean against the wall. “What did you find out?”

“She’s hard to find, unless you dig deep enough, but the main takeaway is that Camille Sanders is very involved in an anti-cult group. One specifically focused on Serendee and your father.”

Anti-cult.

The word rings in my ears. Cult. My father is many things, but a cult leader? Bullshit. That’s just a word to discredit him and everyone in the community.

“There’s more,” he says. “And she doesn’t know about it. I read all of the websites. Her mother has spent the last few years trying to get Imogene out of Serendee but has been unsuccessful.”

“Trying how?”

Elon just shakes his head. “I don’t know.”

Possessiveness grips me. Get her out? As in remove her? Away from me? Fuck no. But I realize something else. I’m not the only one that won’t let this girl get away from me. Neither would my father and the lengths he would go to in order to keep her here would far exceed my own.

“Thank you for coming to me, brother,” I say, pressing my fingers into the wooden panel and open the door.

“What are you going to do?” Elon asks. He came to me for a reason, so that I could take care of this.

“I’m going to find out exactly what my father is up to.”

I walkpast the guard and open the door leading to my father’s rooms. My rank keeps anyone from stopping me or questioning my movements. There are no rooms, no sections of this community that are off limits to me.

I step inside the outer room of my father’s luxurious suite and find the room empty. I make my way across the room, stopping at the bar to pour myself a drink. I need one after everything Elon told me. A loud bang from an adjacent room draws my attention, or rather a series of them, the thudding falling into a distinct rhythm, the unmistakable sound of fucking on the other side.

Guess I’ll wait then.

I swallow the drink whole and am halfway through another when my father emerges from the bedroom, casually tying his linen robe. “Ah, son,” he says, leaving the door ajar. I see three women in the bed, naked and looking well-fucked. Two I recognize from recruiting into Serendee myself. If my memory serves, she gives amazing head. “Sorry to keep you waiting, but my mates were in need of Enlightenment, and it’s my duty to show them The Way.”

I wonder if they truly are here on their own volition. The tactics I use during recruitment are heavy handed and determined. I don’t take ‘no’ easily, and I’m as skilled at the art of persistence as Silas is with eating pussy. These thoughts piss me off, and I finish off my liquor.

“We’re both here now,” I say, lowering into one of the white chairs. “What did you call me up here for?”

He sits across from me and picks up a pipe on the coffee table. Carefully he packs the bowl, filling it with the strong-smelling herb piled in a ceramic pot. “Just catching up. We haven’t spoken since the ceremony.” He presses his thumb to the center of the bowl. “How is your mate?”

“She’s fine,” I say, leaning back, pretending I don’t care that he’s mentioning her. “Although a little rattled after the ambush she and Elon got into yesterday.”

He hesitates,slightly, before resuming his task. “I don’t know what you’re referring to. Ambush?”

He probably doesn’t, but I don’t trust this man or his motives.

“One of our buyers was under the impression that we don’t just deal weed, but that we also trade in flesh.” I watch him closely. “And they tried to purchase Imogene.”

Anex scratches a match across the side of a box and lights the pipe, taking a few short puffs before a long drag. He holds his breath, eyes watering, and then holds it out to me. I wave it off, controlling the urge of stabbing his eyes out with the mouthpiece.

“Did you hear me?” I ask.

“Yes, I heard you, and this sounds more like a matter of why Elon was parading your young, beautiful mate in front of non-community members. If you don’t want people coveting your property, son, don’t let it out of the gates.”

“No,” I say, shifting to lean closer, “that is not what happened. What happened is you’re expanding our trade to people we don’t know and cannot trust.Andthey are under the idea we sell women.” Anex takes another long drag. “And I suspect there’s truth to that, isn’t there?”

He rests the pipe on the tray. “What are you implying?”

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