Page 33 of Taken By the Dark Billionaires

After returning home from the horror at the farmhouse, they forced her to eat something and then ordered her to get some rest. All she wanted to do was shower the memories off of her. She was so numb she couldn’t fight them when they removed her clothes, bathed her, and put her to bed naked.

But she was also too restless, her mind whirring nonstop. She needed to be able to call her sister, but she couldn’t do it in front of them. She had to know that she and her kids were okay. She would die protecting Laura and her children.

Having no choice but to obey them, since they seemed to be watching her every breath as they sat around the enormous room, she laid her head on the pillow, feeling the heavy weight of their gazes on her without a reprieve.

They had made Carl’s death go away in the blink of an eye. They stopped her from being arrested for his murder. God, they even had the police working for them. Their power was never-ending.

But if she thought for a moment that they were protecting her because they liked her, she was entirely deluded. They were protecting her because she was meant to have their son, and the only reason she was meant to have their son was because she wore their brand. They didn’t have a choice otherwise.

If they ever found out it was Laura who had killed Carl, they would not extend their power to protect her. Why would they?

Oh god. Her head felt as if it were going to explode. Confessing Carl’s murder to the police was one thing, but lying to the billionaires was another.

If she let her guard down even for one second, they would know. She wasn’t going to let her guard down. Not if it meant protecting her family.

She started off by only pretending to fall asleep, waiting for the moment so she could call Laura when she was alone. But somehow, the stress of the situation and of her life seemed to catch up with her, and she slipped into nothingness.

She didn’t know how long she slept, but soon, she was startled awake by the reality of what had happened.

Laura.

Grateful that she was finally alone in the bedroom, she shoved the covers off and climbed out of bed. After putting on a robe, she immediately went in search of her phone. Shaking with terror, she video-called her sister—she needed to see for herself that Laura and the kids were okay.

“Laura?” Seeing her sister's face broke her completely.

“Sutton. They told me to wait for your call. You’re okay. Thank god.”

“They? Who, Laura? Who did you talk to?”

“They found us in the basement.”

“Laura, who?”

“Men dressed in black clothes. Not the police. They said they work for Basilisk, for the men you’re with right now, Sutton.”

Sutton sat down on the bed, her legs too shaky to keep her standing.

“And then I spoke to one of their bosses over the phone. Jensen Flynn. He was very nice. He said you were fine. Nothing was going to happen to you. And then we were brought here. They told us that this is our new home now, Sutton.” Laura swirled the camera around a fully furnished house that was richly decorated but also had a sense of warmth. “It’s huge and has a swimming pool. Everything works, and nothing is broken... the kids can’t believe it. They’re so happy, Sutton.”

“Laura, did you tell them anything? Anything at all when you spoke to Jensen?”

Sutton rose from the bed, the phone falling limply from her hand as she turned around. Ezra, Jensen, and Maxim strolled further into the room. How long were they standing there? How much did they hear?

“Tell your sister you’ll call her back later,” Maxim said.

They knew, and she didn’t understand the game they were playing with her.

Tears thickened in her eyes. She picked up her phone to the sound of Laura almost screaming her name.

“I’m okay. I’ll call you back later, okay? I love you, Pancake.”

Pancake was another code name they had invented while living with their parents. It meant that no matter what, the story stayed the same. Once, Sutton knocked over her father’s unopened bottle of cheap whiskey. If she admitted to it, her father would have sent her out into the shed, where she would have to sleep. She was only five years old at the time.

Laura said the cat dropped it, but her father wasn’t convinced. He had interrogated them separately, threatening to beat them both blue and black. Played one against the other. Sutton had been so young; she didn’t want her sister to suffer for something she had done, so she confessed. That hadn’t stopped Laura from being punished as well by sleeping in the shed in the middle of winter.

Pancake meant they stuck with what they said.

“Take your robe off, Sutton. And kneel on the floor,” Maxim ordered her.

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