Page 108 of Titan

Gil took my other hand, enclosing both of mine in his and holding me tighter.

“He knows a lot of things. It’s why he’s as powerful as he is. You could call him a collector of secrets, but that’s not really what’s at stake here. This isn’t going to be easy for you to hear, but he hasn’t been able to challenge the person in charge directly because they’re family.Sheis family. So instead, Zayn has been rescuing people from them for years. His people rescued you.”

The person in charge of the sex trafficking ring is family? What the actual fuck?

“She?”

Gil took a breath.

“You were right about the ravens you saw being important. That’s what the head of the organisation is known as. The Raven is Pippa, Theia. I want to take her down, I really do, but you understand I’m already in a precarious situation with my cousins, not to mention we don’t have any evidence. Zayn hasn’t been able to find proof, but he knows it’s her.”

It took a second for me to realise who Gil was talking about. The woman we’d met at the gala, the one hosting it, was the person who ran the ring. She’d given me a weird look when I met her. Did she know who I was? She must do.

Holy fuck.

I didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t like I expected this to be the thing Gil wanted to talk to me about. And I wasn’t angry at him over not being able to go after her. With all the shit he was dealing with, it made sense. He couldn’t rock the boat any further. I understood everything to do with his family had to be treated with delicacy. He couldn’t go in all guns blazing with no proof either. It was the same with his cousin’s missing shipments and the dead bodies. Gil needed to find out who was behind it first before he made his cousins aware he knew about it and was actively trying to deal with the situation for them.

“The woman at the gala. She’s… she’s in charge.”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

He let go of my hands to cup my face in both of his, making me meet his eyes. There was concern in them. Concern for me and my feelings about the whole situation.

“You understand why my hands are tied, right?”

“Of course, I do. She’s family, and you have enough going on already with them. This is just another complication, isn’t it?”

He had so much resting on his shoulders. I wasn’t going to add to it.

“It is.”

“Then I get it, Gil. I honestly do. I’m just processing. It’s kind of a lot to drop on me, you know. I never expected you to find out who is behind it so quickly. And it’s okay. I don’t need you to avenge me or anything. Not really. All I want is to be safe. I don’t want to go back. I can’t.”

“You’re never going back. I swear to you, I’ll never let that happen. I won’t let them take you.” He let out a sigh and kept his hands on my face. “But that’s not everything.”

I frowned.

“It’s not?”

“No. There’s something else. Something I’m having a hard time telling you because I know it’s going to hurt you a lot more than this has.”

What a way to sound even more ominous, Gil. Now I’m pretty fucking terrified about what you’re going to tell me.

I would be brave and listen even if it was hard to hear. It was clear to me now why he’d been acting strangely. He was preparing himself to tell me something bad. But honestly, what could be worse than his cousin by marriage being the one responsible for my kidnapping and subsequent abuse? Pippa might not have been the one dealing it out, but she ran the organisation. She was in charge. I wasn’t sure how someone could be okay with that. There were a lot of fucked up people in this world. Ones who didn’t care about human suffering. They saw people as a means to an end. She was clearly one of those if she ran a sex trafficking ring.

“Hold on, Gil, you said Zayn’s people rescued me?”

It just occurred to me what he’d said about his brother. It hadn’t registered before, my mind too busy focusing on Pippa being the Raven.

“Yes, and you can’t tell anyone he’s behind it or it would disrupt his work. No one can know he’s been helping set the people they take free.”

My heart fucking hurt with the knowledge. Zayn had rescued me. Well, his people had, but he was still the reason I’d got out. I didn’t know if I had the words to thank him for it. He had no idea how much I appreciated my freedom.

“Well, shit. I already thought what he does for people is pretty amazing, but now… I’m at a loss for words.”

Gil let go of my face and rubbed the back of his neck. He was beginning to look distinctly uncomfortable. I was pretty sure it had to do with the other thing he needed to tell me. I reached out and put my hand on his knee.

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