Page 75 of A Twist of Poison

We all tensed.Fucking hell.

Thomas looked to my dad and Dorian. They nodded, and a paused video filled the screen.

I stilled, recognising that room. No…

“I’ve blurred what I could for the sake of the victim. This was labelled asnumber oneand there’s more from there,” Thomas said, his voice tight.

He had to deal with seeing a lot of this being our front-line hacker. Often he told us he refused to delve into some parts of the dark web because of the sick shit that was plastered all over there by anonymous sources, but sometimes he had no choice but to. I didn’t envy him; I wouldn’t be able to do it, I knew that much.

Then before my eyes, I witnessed one of my so-called friends, someone I called loyal and a brother who I’d known since I was a baby, defile…Oh shit.

The fucker had even given in-depth details alongside his videos, it left nothing to guess work. She was fourteen.Fucking fourteen. Just a child! Adam fucking West, the deceiver who fiddled with young kids.

There was more… Thomas did a quick sweep through videos. Different rooms but one person was consistent throughout, recognisable by his face or the sound of his voice.No, fuck no. In the earlier videos when it started, you’d see her fight, see her cry and scream at being subjected to his forceful behaviour. Then as time went on, you could tell she’d grown up. Her eyes… it was in those eyes I saw an abyss of nothingness. Her body was there, but her mind was in a place far away.

Milla…

“They’ve been baiting us.” I looked at my dad. “Itwasan owl mask.”

My dad coughed awkwardly. “I’ve confirmed that’s Milla Rossi. Daughter of Dean Rossi, the current legacy holder, you’re all aware of him or know him personally.” I could see the rage in his eyes. This was a step forward but also a crippling blow to us, no doubt intended.

“You were sent it directly?” Miles questioned Thomas, referring to the son of a bitch I was gonna dismantle piece by piece.That disgusting evil fucker. My muscles bunched painfully.

“He, Adam, signed his name off as he allowed me full access to take these files.” He paused for a moment in thought. “He wanted me, and I’m guessing all of us, especially Preston, Hollis, and Texas to know. Why?”

“Nothing left to lose,” Drew stated. “The games have upped and something else is going to happen—” His words cut off. Thomas’ laptop pinged loudly, he jolted. His hands typed crazily fast over the keyboard.

“What?” Dorian asked, looking over Thomas’ shoulder.

“Wait! I’ve got something. Fuck, they’re watching!”

We were all on our feet by now, only my dad and Dorian looking at what he was doing. None of us crowded him when he did this thing, he hated that. We waited, impatiently.

My head spun painfully with this new knowledge. I didn’t look at Preston and Hollis; I couldfeeltheir undiluted fury.

“No… him or whoever this is, is tapped into our systems. They’re watching our live video feed!” Thomas yelled.

We all exchanged looks, within a split second one of the guys slammed the emergency lockdown button as shutters slammed down over every single window. We were bathed in darkness as the room slowly lit up in a light-yellow glow with emergency lighting. The entire building would now be covered in bullet and bomb proof shutters that protected all entrances and exits. No one was getting in or out. One of our safety procedures.

“Flush the system! Turn off any live feeds and hold off the reboot,” dad ordered. The elders left to go and wipe all our systems clear.

We’d had a few incidents like this before where we’d had to lockdown the building, sometimes for a few days. Wasted time, but it was there for a reason and some asshole had hacked into our system bypassing Thomas’ out of this world skills. Whoever this other person was, to rival him they must have been genius level good.

A few tense minutes later, Thomas leaned back, looking like he’d done time in the gym. “We’re clear. They’re kicked off. No idea how they bypassed any of my security. I’ll need to look into it further.”

I swear I heard a sigh of relief from every person in the room. The elders returned, confirming live feeds were switched off, so nothing could be transmitted.

“Chris, Dorian,” Thomas ventured, “This is bizarre, but I’ve just been granted access via the backdoor where these files originate from. Whoever just bypassed all my security basically smashed down the cyber door to allow me in. Like they’re trying to help us…” I sat back down as did the others. Hell, this was weird.

We could only wait while Thomas frantically typed, his hands nearly flying off the keyboard. Around thirty silent men were in the room awaiting more information and orders, still reeling from what we’d just seen. It was a strained atmosphere.

I didn’t know how much later it was, but my ass felt numb from sitting in the same position.My mind felt numb too.

“We’ve got it!” dad shouted, breaking the eerie silence.

The screen once again lit up, and we waded through every single piece of information handed to us. Files, videos, locations, names… it was a little black book of their entire business laid bare to us.

And the head of their depraved operation? Mayor Adrian West. The one we’d suspected but had no leads on, until now.

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