Page 113 of Tormented in Silence: The Completed Duet

Vance turns to face us when we reach the end of the driveway. “We’ll come with you.”

Rage nods but says, “We run this one.” They stare each other down for a minute before Vance nods.

We make the five-minute drive from Ben’s parents’ house to Presley’s. This time we just pull into the driveway and some of Vance’s men, including Blade and Stone, take off around the back just in case Ben might be here.

Rage rings the doorbell a few times before a half-awake man with the same eyes as my angel opens the door. He groggily bites out, “What do you want? How did you even get in the gate this late?”

Since we left the club, my fingers have been twitching, and I am getting so sick and tired of things taking so long, especially when it seems that Ben has gone off the rails and now has hurt his own fucking parents. I step past Rage and shove the man back into the house, not giving a shit about being proper or nice anymore. My angel needs her demons gone, and I will help her destroy them.

I snap, “You know Benjamin Wyatts. Where is he?”

His eyes go comically wide, and he stutters before saying, “We don’t speak to him anymore. Wh—why are you looking for him?”

“Ben has some sins to pay for. So anything you know about him, you tell us right now. That includes why you cut your daughter out of your life after they got married.”

A gasp sounds from the far side of the room, and I whip my head in that direction to see a woman who is an older version of my Presley standing at the bottom of the grand staircase in a robe. “Presley?” she asks, slowly stepping closer. “Who are you? How do you know my baby girl?” Her hair is straight and black but with patches of gray throughout. Her eyes, that remind me so much of Pres’s, are sunken in, and she looks exhausted. Worn down.

A humorless laugh works its way out of me as I stare at the pathetic people in front of me. “Yourbaby girl? If she was your baby girl, you wouldn’t have disappeared from her life.”

Her mother’s face turns red, and she sputters, “You don’t understand, I—”

I move quickly, standing right in front of her, towering over her tiny frame. “Don’t understand what? How you fucking abandoned your daughter? Left her to—”

A hand shoves my shoulder back. “Don’t. Shut up,” Rage growls. He turns back towards Presley’s mother. “If you know anything about where Ben is, you need to tell us right now,” he demands.

Her father steps forward, expression steely. “We don’t. We haven’t spoken to him in years.”

Before I can say shit, Rage is asking what I want to know. “Why? Why haven’t you talked to either of them? Presley or Ben?”

We all watch as his eyes slide to Vance, who has been standing stock still by the door, looking like a fucking statue. Before they slide back to Rage. Vance sees it and steps forward. Raising an eyebrow, he says, “Go on. Explain.”

“You have to promise to keep Presley out of it. We might not have spoken to her in years, but I know without a doubt she doesn’t know anything he is doing,” her father pleads.

I scoff. “Fucking spit it out! Now!”

They both jump slightly, but he tells us, “Ben is working with local cops. Has been for a while now. We know about the deal with Vance. That once Ben’s father was retiring, he handed the reins over to Ben. So when I found out about Ben working with the cops and exchanging information to them to get away with selling drugs—” he hesitates for a second, his lips pulling up in disgust before he takes a breath and continues. “And I don’t know this for sure but I think he was involved in some selling of girls, with the help of some law enforcement I confronted him. He didn’t take it well. I kept my mouth shut after that, but I kept looking into it more and was compiling evidence. I always liked Ben, but I did notice how power-hungry he was. I was ready to take everything I had on him to you, Vance, but then Ben found out what I was doing and threatened Presley. He kept her from us. We only saw her every other weekend or so by then, so it was easy for him to cut us out completely. We haven’t known what to do since then.”

“You could have fucking gone to Vance!” I yell, clenching my fists at my sides, itching to punch him in the face.

He shakes his head. “No, I couldn’t! What if Ben had found out and hurt Presley? What if Vance thought she was involved and killed her? There was no way. I needed to make sure she was safe first.”

“You were going to go to Vance before Ben threatened you, so that makes no sense,” Rage comments.

“We were going to ask Vance to spare her in exchange for information.”

Vance speaks up then. “It isn’t an unknown fact that I don’t hurt women or children. In fact, it is very easy to find that information out.” He narrows his eyes at them.

Presley’s father blanches. “We didn’t know if that was actually true or not. We just have never known what to do and didn’t want to risk Presley being hurt.”

“Too fucking late for that,” I growl.

“What?” her mother cries, her eyes misting over with tears. “Is she—is she dead?”

“No. She isn’t. But she has been hurt and thrown into shit she didn’t deserve to be in.”

“Where is she? I want to see her,” she pleads, staggering into her husband. He holds her close, comforting her.

Before I can say fuck no, Rage speaks, “We’ll see. She is safe. But it will be up to her if she decides to see you or not. Are you sure you have no idea where Ben is?”

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