Page 72 of The Freedom in Captivity

“My father never shared the details of your past, but all I know is you’re from there. B.C. I doubt you’re one of the Seven or else they would have found you by now, but you were supposed to be in that life, one way or the other. Your father fled with you here and struck a deal with mine. That’s how he ended up working for,” I roll my head until my gaze is on Lorenzo again, and finish by speaking directly to him, “you. My father helped Lawrence Haynes get new identities for him and his daughter, provided he manage to get inducted here.”

Silence. Complete and utter silence as everyone comprehends what I’ve told them. Nico looks seconds away from snapping; his need for control growing by the second. And his parents don’t even seem like they’re present.

Must suck to learn so much is a lie. They believed Dad’s animosity was simply from a broken engagement, but it was more than that. It was lost progress. Then finding out one of their own men was an insider, assisting my father. Let alone the fact there’s an organization larger than them.

“What was the point in sending me in?” Della asks. “If he already had someone on the inside.”

Something else I originally asked too. “My dad was determined to do right by the Seven. Guarantees and insurance. He was setting up layers. Besides, Haynes was able to report back on the little details. You were able to get moreintimatewith the Corsettis. You think it was random the attacks on your clubs? Nothing’s random in this world. You should know that.”

“Anything else?” Nico snaps.

I shake my head, the chain rattling with my movements. “Only that I hope to see you keep your promise, Corsetti.” I’ll lose the only thing I have left if Yasmine is harmed during this.

I’ll find you, Yasmine, and we’ll get the hell away from this chaotic life.

Nico doesn’t comment, simply shifts his attention toward Flynn, to whom he flicks his fingers at. “Get her out of here. Put her where we’ve discussed.”

Is that not the basement? Am I finally free?

Flynn turns for the door and the chain around my neck pulls, his leash commanding me to follow. After a quick sweep of all the pain in the room—all the pain my father’s caused—I take the lead that Flynn gestures for me to.

But then I stop, and shockingly, Flynn doesn’t react. Maybe he senses I’m about to say more. Maybe he can somehow read my expression, even when I don’t fully understand what’s in my head.

“When escaping the city, my father went back to B.C. He was driving there to get backup because he knows he’s in over his head. If I said anything earlier, you’d go to him. Attack on the Seven’s territory, and you’d all die. If he brings them here, and you fight on your territory, you’ll have a better chance. That’s why I waited. I want him gone as much as you all do, and I needed to ensure your plan works. So I made my own.”

Dadwilldie after this. He will get what’s coming to him, for all the pain he’s caused. All the distaste he’s brought to my life. He’s done.

“Why would you want your father dead?” Della’s voice spikes, not only with confusion but panic too.

My gaze lowers, the strength no longer there to look at any of them when I answer.

Because he deserves it.

Because you were used as an assassin, but I was used as a punching bag.

Because I watched him love Mom, while questioning if he comprehended the meaning behind the emotion.

Because he loves the Seven more than his family.

So many answers.

But I go with: “Because.”

Then I turn and follow Flynn to the door.

Flynn

If someone told me the girl I found sulking on a bench, the one who became my sun on life’s gloomy days, was a woman who was related to some elaborate secret society across the country, I would have believed they were high.

Rozelyn may have given the Corsettis their answers, but there’s still a few I want. A few Ineed. But before I manage to get her out of Nico’s office and into private so I can ask those very things, we’re interrupted by Maurice’s daughter, who lunges to our side, stopping with short pants.

Large dark eyes that somehow grow rounder with emotion focus on the blonde woman at my side. “Your father had mine killed, didn’t he?”

For the first time since entering Nico’s office, Rozelyn looks almost regretful. Her mouth curves into a frown. “I think so.”

“But why?”

Rozelyn shrugs. “Insurance, if I had to guess. When he needed to escape and his plans didn’t pan out how he wanted them to, you and your father were loose ends. Someone who’d been working beneath the Corsetti influence for decades and who knew everything. Your father left B.C. for a reason, and whatever it was, scared mine enough that he took him out.”

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