Page 95 of Their Domme

The man across from me who could be my brother…

What the fuck has my life turned into?!

Nicholette had been part of the same trafficking ring I had been in as a child. Thank god she’d only been bought once. And wasn’t it sad that that was my measuring stick? Flashes of my past kept hitting me as I dug into the LLCs that were hidden behind the Sacred Heart Adoption Agency.

Being naked and chained up in a dark room. Bright spotlights showing me off, making it impossible to see anyone else. The vulnerability, fear, and humiliation as I heard numbers being called. That was the first time. After that, I was simply traded, sold through private deals in someone’s home, given away to pay off a debt, or as a result of someone being bored. There was also the lovely explanation that I’d aged out of my owner’s preferences.

Sick fucking bastards.

I had been called so many names that after I’d managed to get away from the last person, I picked a new one. I chose a name I’d never been called before, something that just felt right… Who knew if it was the one I’d been born with or not.Why the hell am I thinking about all of this right now?!

But I knew why. The answer was sitting across from me.

Atlas.

No last name or anything, just Atlas. Curly blond hair curtained his face as his serious blue eyes studied the screen. He was silently mouthing whatever he was reading, and I looked away before he noticed I was staring. I couldn’t deny we looked similar, but that was it. The memory of my brother was fuzzy, barely more than a feeling by now. I couldn’t recall a face or a single feature of the boy.

But Blake’s words spun around in my head, and the envelope kept popping back to the front of my mind. How did they even get my DNA? At least Atlas had looked just as shocked by that as I did. Or maybe it was the idea that we could be related?

I had more questions than answers, and it was pissing me the fuck off. Part of me wished I had opened the envelope so I could confirm the answer was no and keep going forward with my life. Before we left, I had warned him not to bring up the brother thing, but here I was… thinking about it non-fucking-stop.

“You find anything?” Atlas’ question made me jump and curse. A deep chuckle was his answer, then came the scraping of his chair along the wood floor. “Let me make another pot of coffee. I’m struggling too.”

“They’re good,” I complained, rubbing my face as I leaned away from the computer screen. My eyes were dry, and exhaustion pulled at me, a reminder that I hadn’t slept in almost twenty-four hours. “I can’t go back without something. I need a location at least.”

“A few of the shell companies have been in the same place, so I’m keeping track of everything that overlaps,” Atlas replied as he dumped more coffee in the machine. “But they definitely created a huge web of shit for us to sort through.”

“I wonder what the others are up to,” I muttered, wishing like hell I had Bodhi with me. Fuck, just recalling how he had sucked my dick the last time I was sitting at a desk was enough to make me horny as hell.

“I don’t know Nic well enough to guess,” Atlas replied with dry amusement. “But if they’re anything like Blake, I’m betting it’s bloody.”

“How did you meet Nic?” I asked, both my curiosity and my need for a break getting the best of me.

The other man turned to face me, leaning back against the counter beside the coffee maker. His expression was careful and contemplative before he switched to looking at his bare feet.

“I met her through Blake. Nic needed some documents, and I set them up for her. I learned my skills as a forger before I figured out hacking.”

“That’s it?” I asked, unable to help myself.

“Meaning did I sleep with her?” Atlas asked with a hint of laughter in his voice. His blue eyes were practically twinkling. “No. My shit… it’s complicated with stuff like that. Blake and Emmerich slept with her, not me or anyone else in our group in case you were curious.”

“Not that it matters.” I shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. I didn’t care that she slept with other people, so why did the idea that he might have irritated me? I guess there was something different about her sleeping with strangers rather than her sleeping with my possible brother.

Now that Blake had put the question in my head, I wanted answers, but I hated that I wanted them.

“I can’t stop thinking about it either,” Atlas said into the silence. “The envelope Blake offered. The DNA test. I… I lost my brother a long time ago.”

“What happened?” I asked quietly, not looking up at him.

He didn’t say anything for a minute, then I heard the soft tread of feet and the slide of a zipper. Looking up, I caught him digging through his backpack before he turned to face me. My vision tunneled on the sight of the crinkled white envelope in his hands. It was still sealed, but it was here with us.

“I didn’t open it. After you walked out of the office all kinds of pissed, I grabbed it from Blake and stuffed it in my pocket before following after you.” Atlas took a deep breath. “I wondered for a really long time about my brother and what had happened to him, but this isn’t just about me. It’s about you possibly having answers too, so… I grabbed it and figured if you brought it up, we could decide whether to open it or destroy it together.”

“Sometimes answers are more painful than wondering.”

“But the pain will heal. The what ifs never go away,” Atlas replied before walking over and placing the envelope on the table beside me. Distantly, I registered the beeping sound that meant the fresh coffee was ready but I couldn’t look away from the envelope and the man in front of me.

“Why would they even test our DNA?Howdid they test it?!” I asked, trying to make light of this clusterfuck situation.

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