Page 72 of Wrath

I’d had my fill of his smart fucking mouth, so I reared back my fist and slammed it right in his jaw, driving his head back with a forceful jerk. It took him a moment to recover, and then he said, “She found Antonio’s pictures of the women. We all know sex sells, and for the Demarcos, business is good.Real fucking good. And they just got the biggest take yet.”

“Take? You mean women?” I growled. “These are real people you are talking about. Mothers. Daughters. Children. Lives that you are ripping away.”

“It’s a flourishing business. And you best get prepared because the girl from the office is about to be put on their roster. Bet she’ll bring a high dollar, too. Hmmm, I’d like to get a piece of that action. Yeah, I’d fuck her real good.”

The mere thought of someone trying to harm Mia filled me with an overwhelming sense of rage and a hunger for vengeance. It was that hunger that had me reaching for my blade. He’d finally done it. He’d pushed me too far. I whipped it open, then raked the sharp edge along the man’s throat.

I could hear him gasping and gagging as I stormed out of the room.

I needed to get with Cotton and let him know about the exchange I’d had with our guest, but first, I had to see Mia. I needed to see for myself that she was okay, so I got cleaned up and went straight to her room. She was still pretty shaken up. And rightly so. She’d been through a hell of an ordeal.

I wanted to stay there with her and assure her that everything was going to be okay, but unfortunately, I didn’t have that luxury. I had to get back to the brothers and sort out a plan to deal with the Demarco brothers once and for all. I gave her one last kiss, then told her. “I gotta go.”

“What? Why?”

“I’ve gotta get back and help the guys sort through some things.”

I could tell that she didn’t like it, but she didn’t argue. She simply nodded her head and muttered, “Okay.”

“You gotta know I’d stay if I could.”

“I know, but you gotta do what you gotta do.” She raked her teeth across her bottom lip before saying, “You’re the new enforcer, after all.”

“Oh, you heard about that, huh?”

“Wyatt told me this morning.” Her eyes narrowed. “I’m still trying to figure out why you weren’t the one who told me.”

“I figured it would be better if you heard it from your father.”

“I would’ve rather heard it from you, but it doesn’t matter now. You have a job to do.” She inched up on her tiptoes, kissing me briefly on the lips. “Now, go and do it.”

“You gonna be okay?”

“As long as you promise to come back.”

“Nothing could keep me away.” I gave her arm a gentle squeeze, then ordered, “Now get some rest. I’ll be back to check in on you in the morning.”

I kissed her on the forehead, then walked out of the room.

From there, I went to track down Cotton. I’d almost made it to his office when I heard Rooster shout, “If you’re looking for Prez, I’m pretty sure he’s down in the workroom with Bones and Big.”

“Thanks.” As I turned around and started in the opposite direction, I told him, “You might wanna come with. I have some information you’re gonna wanna hear.”

“Sure thing.”

He followed suit, and when we walked into the workroom, we found Cotton and Stitch standing behind Bones and Big, watching as Bones worked diligently on the boss’s computer. “I hate to interrupt, but I thought you’d like to know that Mia’s boss is An...”

“Antonio Demarco.” Bones interrupted with a grumble. “Yeah, we know. I’ve been going through his files, and there’s some pretty crazy stuff on here. Looks like he’s planning to build a website on the dark web.”

“For trafficking?”

“Yeah, and God knows what else.” Bones looked over to me as he said, “I can’t believe that Mia was able to get her hands on this stuff.”

“He must’ve left it behind by accident.”

“Or he wanted her to find it, and it’s some kind of trap. He’s gotta know she’s got ties to us,” Stitch suggested.

“Yeah, but I doubt he’d want to put his business at risk like that.”

---