Page 63 of Their Domme

Nic lifted her chin in challenge, but I swore I saw something close to relief in her eyes and her posture softened after they had a stare-off. She melted just enough that she leaned against Sacha’s leg, letting him support her just a little, and without looking, I knew my friend had a small smile on his face.

“What happened when you went to talk to Roderick?” Vas asked from the other side of the room.

“Maeve is dead,” Nicholette announced, and everyone in the room stilled. I didn’t think one person was breathing. Nic’s eyes filled with tears, the cracks in her defenses shining through before she squeezed them shut. “I’m sure it’s on the news by now. But she found out information about my parents and left it for me…”

“What did she find?” Sacha asked her gently, reaching out to wipe away the escaped tears that were slipping down her cheeks.

She opened her eyes slowly, turning as much as she could to stare at me, which wasn’t a shock. I had reacted the worst when she revealed her parents were two of the leaders for the trafficking ring that had made my life a living hell.

“Joe and Miranda Graves adopted me after years of failed attempts to get pregnant.” Her voice was husky, strained, and she continued to ignore everyone else in favor of looking at me. “She was digging into the agency, and when she died, she was still looking for the end of the trail of associated shell companies and LLCs.”

“What does that mean, exactly? I can tell you’re hinting at something, love. Say it.”

“The agency is a front for the trafficking ring. It’s how they move the kids. Maeve was able to find that out for sure, but she was still digging for names.” I could hear my heartbeat ringing in my ears as I just looked at her, my mind unwilling to put everything together. Almost like she knew that, she pushed through the rest of her explanation. “This means I was also trafficked, and there was no trace of me before the Graves adopted me.”

My mind was racing, clinging to consciousness even though I was lightheaded. I couldn’t move. My heart was breaking, pain and rage taking the place of everything else. There were just too many questions. What had happened to Nic that she hadn’t mentioned to us? Did she even remember that deep into her past? My stomach rolled, and the press of Bodhi’s slender hand on my arm made me jump.

“You were—” I started, but I had to cut myself off.

She nodded, her expression serious as she watched me. “From what I remember, things were fine for a while. Until they got pregnant with Thomas, their miracle baby. Guess they didn’t need to play pretend with me anymore. There were things before that that weren’t all bright and sunny, but it’s all fuzzy. I just know it got worse after Thomas was born.”

“I see why you destroyed her headstone then,” Bodhi stated softly, but an underlying cruelty curled along the words, and Nic flicked her attention to him. A hint of smile tugged at her face, and Sacha loosened the hold he had in her hair. He began petting her, and Nicholette fully leaned into him, accepting the comfort that he was offering.

“If Maeve is dead, that complicates things,” Vas rumbled. “She might have been a bitch, but she had a lot of connections.”

“Wonder who’s taking over?”

Nic opened her mouth to respond right as her phone started to ring. She shifted and got it out before she wrapped an arm around one of Sacha’s legs and answered the call on speakerphone.

“Hey, Em.”

“Don’t ‘hey, Em’ me, Nicholette,” Emmerich bitched, and his accent only became thicker once he started to curse at someone in the background. “Where the hell is everyone? I get back from the airport, and everyone is MIA, my men are tearing apart buildings, neither Blake or Ansel are answering their phones, and the MC compound is crawling with more police… What did you do?”

“I’ve done a lot of things, Em.” Nic sounded amused.

“I’m not in the mood for word games, Nicholette. These aremypeople—”

“They are,” Nicholette interrupted. “We needed to go for a little road trip. As for the police, there was a present left in the building for us. Another body made up to look like me.”

“Yeah, that’s not the only body to show up today,” Emmerich said grimly. “Maeve Cabbot’s body has been found, and the same thing was done to her.”

Nicholette’s eyes narrowed, and she clicked her tongue. Surprise made me still. Maeve being dead was one thing. Having her body show up looking like her ex-lover was a whole other level of creepy.Did the stalker get ahold of her too?“Is that so?”

“The wicked witch is dead. Who’s taking her place? That’s the question. With all of this turnover and the Lords’ place burning down, we will have people coming here thinking they can dispute our hold.”

“That won’t be a problem.” Nicholette chuckled. “You’re talking to the new Madame, Emmerich, so play nice.”

“You?!” Emmerich choked, and Rhodes did the same thing across the room.

“Me,” Nicholette purred. “But don’t worry, this job is personal still, though don’t expect every interaction after this to stay that way. Gotta be professional and all of that. Cosimo is with you?”

Silence. “No. He got tied up with some Family bullshit, so his trip here is delayed.”

“Good, no distractions then. I’m going to text you a few things I need you to look into before we get back to Ashview. We might have to come back here later, but for now there are some other answers we need first.”

“Back to Ansel’s place?” Emmerich asked.

“Of course. See you there.”

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