Page 101 of Titan

He nodded slowly before his eyes turned confused. He rubbed his temple as if he was having trouble wrapping his head around what I’d just told him.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“What? No, of course not. I was not expecting you to… it doesn’t matter. Theia is a nice girl, and I’m very happy for you.”

Zayn wouldn’t judge me for dating a sex worker. Our father would have. He would have never allowed it, but I didn’t care about what he thought any longer. He was dead. I was glad of it even if I shouldn’t be.

“Are you sure about that?”

He met my eyes again.

“Yes. It’s just…” He sighed. “Trust me, Gil, I have no issues with the two of you being together. Theia deserves to be happy, as do you. However, I have a lot to explain, and you’re not going to like it.” He waved at the letters. “Not to mention we need to look into who gave these to her and how they got into the building. I think you should sit down for this, though.”

His words were slightly ominous. I did as he asked, taking a seat in front of his desk. Zayn let out a sigh and began to talk. The more he told me about what he knew, the more agitated I got about the whole situation. The things he knew were not what I expected at all, but what I didn’t do was wonder why he hadn’t done more. Why he hadn’t done something about the person in charge of the sex trafficking organisation known as the Raven. It was the worst part… knowing it was the best-kept secret for a reason.

They were family. The Raven was fucking family. And they’d been doing this under all of our noses for years. Fucking years.

“I want to dismantle the organisation, but it’s not that simple, and now you understand why. I’m doing what I can, rescuing the victims like Theia when possible and giving them a new chance at life. They deserve that much after everything they’ve been subjected to.”

I had no words. It was all too fucking surreal. Like I was in a different reality.

“She doesn’t know you did that for her.”

“No. None of them do. I have to keep my identity and those who help me a secret.”

It made sense. He didn’t want the organisation to find out he was the one disrupting things. It would make his work more difficult.

“And it pains me to say this, Gil, but you can’t touch them either. You can’t go after her.”

When he informed me the Raven was none other than Pippa, I’d known I couldn’t do a single thing about it. Not when relations between me and my cousins were already at an all-time low. And not when I was investigating their missing shipments, and dead bodies had turned up on my doorstep. It was a fucking miracle we hadn’t had another one. Three was enough.

I’d tasked Salvatore with finding more information about their families and what possible reason anyone could have had to kill them. I couldn’t ask Nino as he didn’t know we had the bodies. Sal hadn’t discovered anything so far, leading me to believe they’d been scapegoats, tortured and murdered to paint me in a bad light. Perhaps the reason there hadn’t been any more bodies was because I’d kept it all under wraps. They probably realised that approach wasn’t going to work.

“I know. We can’t do anything if you don’t have evidence. Dino would bring down hell on us, and we don’t need that. I have enough trouble with him already.”

Zayn cocked his head to the side.

“He’s still not accepting you as leader?”

“It’s worse than that, but I’m dealing with it, so you don’t need to worry about it.” I leaned forward. “We might not be able to go after Pippa, but are you going to let this shit stand?” I waved at the letters. “I don’t want Theia to be in danger, and someone is helping them. Someone who has access to your buildings.”

He folded up the letters and placed them back in their envelopes before dragging his laptop closer and fiddling with it.

“Give me the date and time they arrived at her flat, and do you know the exact dates these letters turned up? I’ll need those too.”

Theia had told me. I gave them to Zayn, who wrote them down before I rose from my seat and came around to stand behind him. He was logging into a site to access the security footage from the building where the club staff were housed. The first thing he looked for was when the man Theia informed me was called H turned up. We found an angle showing the front door and him arriving. We watched him reach the intercom with the buzzers, and when he pressed down on one of them. He spoke to the person for a minute before he was allowed access through the front door.

“That can’t have been Theia. She wouldn’t have allowed him up,” I said, pointing at the screen. “Do you have cameras on the front doors of the flats and the hallways?”

“Hold on.”

Zayn fiddled with the program, going through the flat numbers until he reached Theia’s. There was footage of me leaving, making Zayn frown, but he didn’t comment. Minutes after I left by the stairwell, the guy turned up on her doorstep. We watched as Theia opened the door, then slammed it shut in his face. It was followed by him banging on it and making threats to her. It was followed up by me arriving, scaring him off and going back into Theia’s flat.

“I took her back to mine that night. Well, after I took care of some business. She’s been with me ever since. There’s been no more notes that we know of, but she hasn’t been back to the flat yet. I’m supposed to go later to get her some more clothes.”

Zayn sat back and stared at the screen.

“Wouldn’t you usually get Arlo to do this for you?” I asked when he didn’t speak.

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