Page 74 of A Twist of Poison

None of the others moved. They were his workers, loyal to him and would be of no help to me. They allowed this to happen and agreed with it.

“Your timeline has moved forward, seeing as my son”—He shot Adam a look of contempt—“couldn’t separate business from pleasure well enough.”

My mouth hadn’t been bound, so I let the words run from them with no filter. A disgusted look plastered across my face. “You are a vile human being, and I cannot wait for the day when your crimes catch up to you. I’ll be standing there either digging a knife in your back or watching with a smile at the one who does it for me.”

I had no idea how I’d make it happen, but I vowed that I’d do everything in my power to make him pay for his part in this. He was the master of it after all, and I wanted to see him bleeding out in pain at my feet.

My head spun to the side as the Mayor backhanded me painfully, with such similarity to his son. I tightened my lips together, keeping in the wince that wanted out. I righted my head back to him standing before me and he smirked. I didn’t show any reaction. Nothing. A scuffle caught my attention, Adam was being restrained from coming to me.

“Your owner will enjoy dousing the remaining bit of fire left in you. He’s had his eyes on you for a long time. For your information, you sold for a high amount, you know, lined my pockets nicely. I believe you became aware recently that you were being trained for your lifelong position when you left us.”

I did. Disgusted beyond recognition when I realised how deep this went and what their business entailed. I was being trained for the needs of a buyer who’d laid interest in me. He’d expressed his warped desires for his future possession, and Adam had bent me to fit.

“Collection is at some point soon. In the meantime—” He clicked his fingers and two of his men materialised beside me. One undid the items holding me down while the other restrained me as I tried to kick and move my way from their hold. The Mayor laughed, and I wanted so badly to see the light die out from his eyes slowly, painfully. I was pulled up, and another man opened the heavy door. His words echoed as we left the room “—enjoy the last days of freedom, Miss Rossi. Your real servitude starts shortly.”

They dragged me along hallways, ones that I recognised. My hands were unlocked but held firmly by the men.

We reached a door, and they pushed me into a room. The lights automatically switched on and I turned. I pounded the door with my fists as it closed behind me, and heard bolts locking from the outside.

I was trapped.Breathe, Milla.

I gazed round in despair. Everything inside me iced over.

“No,” I mumbled disbelievingly. Panic rose.

This room wasn’t like all the others I’d peeked into before. It was an exact replica of the pool house, where the first two years of my abuse had taken place. The walls were scattered in pictures of me, and Adam, in a variety of sexual positions spanning the last five years… coupled with shots where I’d been littered in bruises, cowering in pain.

Oh God.

Chapter33

Texas

We were taking a day to relax at the house after Miles ran us all into the ground with his impromptu visit to the gym.Even my aches had aches. Hollis’ phone ringing pulled my attention.

“Hello?” he answered, a furrow in his brows in response to whatever was said before he claimed to be there soon.

“Who was that?” I asked, noticing the concern etched across his face. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Need to get us and the rest of the team to headquarters right now,” he told me, tapping his phone, more than likely ordering the rest of the team to get their asses moving to meet us there.

Looking up at me with a confused look he said, “Chris said it was businessandpersonal.”

“Huh,” I stated, standing up from the couch. I grabbed my essentials before joining Hollis and Preston standing by the front door ready to head out.

I parked and exited the car. We all scanned ourselves in before we made our way to the main meeting room where we assumed everyone would be. We were right.

I took a seat, as did the others, and the rest of our team filtered in with the elders and omega team. Must be a big deal if we were all called here. I cast a curious glance round the room seeing my dad and Dorian perched over Thomas where he was at the front, his laptop before him, tapping at high speed. Positive we wouldn’t have to wait long to see what he’d dug up, I exchanged a look with Hollis and Preston, who looked about as confused as I was, especially from what my dad told Hollis on the phone.Business and personal.

“Okay,” Dorian spoke up, looking around, and checking everybody was here. “We’ve had a major breakthrough with this trafficking case.”

I perked up.Finally. We’d been pulled round by our balls for too long, sent from one issue to another with no clear direction or answers to decipher.

“But—” my dad took over, seeming hesitant “—it’s a concern because of what Thomas has uncovered.” A strange shiver wracked down my spine.

The screen lit up, but nothing was displayed yet. Thomas spoke, “It’s fucked up. Basically, I know exactlywhosent me this and I’m guessing they did it to bait us all, some of us in particular.” He avoided any eye contact. “They have given me files, videos, you name it on a silver platter and therefore we can recognise the victim. It was one of my hits on the dark web that pinged back, I think they allowed me a certain amount of access so I’d find what I did. I also got a tiny window where backdoor access was opened to me so I gathered what further information I could before I was kicked out. It’s more than we’ve had before, though.”

“We’ve got identities of a number of men and women with their location, so we’ll be setting up to go retrieve them,” dad confirmed. “Some are clearly on the younger spectrum, so we’ve gotta be careful with that. I’ll be having those in the police team I trust, taking care of everyone we round up again.”

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