Page 22 of Taken By the Dark Billionaires

“I’m sorry. It was a mistake.”

“A mistake?” Maxim asked, his silky-thick eyebrows arched to make him look like the sexiest villain alive. “Do you want to tell us how you came to be in our dungeon, strapped to a St. Andrews Cross, offering us your virginity?”

“I… Like I said, it was a mistake,” she said again. She took a deep breath and decided to come clean from the start.

“I work as a temp for you ... for Basilisk Industries. My friend Tammy—Tamara Woodsmith—works as your PA’s junior assistant. She wasn’t feeling very well, and I offered to do some of her tasks for her. One of them was delivering the orange package to someone on 5th, but there was an accident, and I was late. Tammy was certain she was going to be fired, and I wanted to make it right, so I brought cupcakes, and I came to your house to beg you not to fire Tammy because it was my fault, and then—” Saying it out loud sounded even more pitiable than she had thought.

“Cupcakes?” Jensen asked, interrupting her.

“Yes. I baked them.” Just because her nieces and nephews loved her cupcakes didn’t mean she had to go around making them for billionaires. Why had she been so damn stupid? Why did she even mention such a trivial detail?

“Carry on,” Ezra ordered her.

“I tried to tell them—”

“Who?

“Two women dressed in robes and a man, a big man in a black suit. But they wouldn’t listen to me. And I thought I would be able to explain myself once I saw you because no one else would listen to me… but then I couldn’t. I was gagged…”

“Who did that to your face?” Ezra asked. He didn’t buy her walking into a door story.

“Umm… the big man in the suit. With the butt of his gun.”

She was so emotionally wrought that she couldn’t be sure what had made them clench their jaws so hard. It was her, obviously. They were still trying to figure out her motives.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know what was going on. And I won’t tell anyone. Please just let me go. I have to take care of my family. I’m all they have. Please. If there’s anything I can do to… to reverse it—”

“You’re wearing our brand. We took your virginity. You bled for us. You fed us ambrosia from your sweet little nipples. You’re ours now, Sutton Baxter. You’re the property of the Basilisk Emperors. That’s us. You will always remain our property,” Maxim said.

“What? I don’t understand,” she said. Maxim’s words draped over her like a blanket of fire. They had done all those things to her. And she had come for them because she couldn’t control her own body against them. But it was a mistake.

“We belong to an ancient people, Little Flower,” Jensen began, his tone mesmerizing, and Sutton found herself hanging onto his words. “Every one hundred and fifty years, a virgin is sacrificed to the heads of the Basilisk Empire. She’s been chosen because of her beauty, her heritage, and her blood, which will complement ours. Once her virginity is given to the Masters, her body will be bred by them. And the son born from her belly will be our heir. He will take his place as one of the Masters of the empire. The woman who becomes the mother of our son will want for nothing for the rest of her existence.”

“But I’m none of those things. I’m a nobody.” The only thing they would find in her DNA was bad blood from a history of bad people.

“You’re our little flower now, Sutton. You have our brand.”

“But I could have it removed, and I won’t tell anyone, I promise. I won’t tell a soul. I haven’t told anyone what happened. You can trust me.”

“There’s no going back. It can’t be reversed or erased. You’re ours now.”

“But what about the person who was supposed to show up instead of me? What about her? She was the one who should be in this position, not me. What will happen to her?”

“Nothing.” Ezra’s succinct reply told her the topic of the other girl was no longer up for discussion.

“As is the case with our chosen one, your family will be compensated as well. Your sister, Laura, and her six children, Mandy, Penny, Olly, Teddy, and the twins Oscar and Arlo. They will be given a sum of one million dollars every year for as long as they live.” Jensen continued.

It startled her that they seemed to know everything about her already, but what did she expect? But that was the least of her problems.

She was sure she had misheard Jensen. A million dollars every year for as long as they lived? She couldn’t wrap her head around that kind of money. But her mind was flooded with visions of their futures. They could move comfortably to another country away from Carl and away from his gang, who were patiently waiting for him to be released from prison, so he could exact his revenge on Laura because he thinks she ratted him out. She didn’t.

Her nieces and nephews could get the best education money could buy. They would never know a day of suffering. They would live the lives she had always wanted to give them but knew she would forever fall short.

“We’re not giving you an option to decide. You belong to us. You don’t have a choice as long as you’re wearing the brand of the Basilisk Empire,” Ezra said, forcing her attention onto him. The finality of his words cut deep into her.

She had made a mistake arriving at their house when they were in the middle of some old-world ritual, and now she would be paying for that mistake forever.

But the money... Her nieces and nephews deserved it. They were innocent. Brought into a world, they didn’t ask to be brought into, only to know what it felt like to be poor and scared.

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