Page 24 of Passion & Betrayal

“A woman’s body was just dumped outside of our gate. She has blood all over her.”

“Is she dead?” Sypher asked.

The girl shook her head. “No. But she was badly beaten. If there’s nothing else, I need to get downstairs.”

Sypher led her out and then locked the door. He pointed to the tray. “Eat.”

“You have to eat, too.”

“I will. I just want to look around from the window. It makes me uncomfortable not knowing what’s going on.”

“You could always go down…”

Sypher interrupted me. “Not going to happen. Cian will tell us when he gets here.”

I nod and start eating some of the fruit on the tray.

My eyes widened when there was a knock at the door. I watched my mate pull his gun again and answer it. I relaxed when I saw that it was Cian. A shiver ran down my spine when I caught the expression on his face.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“There was a person dumped in front of our gate,” Cian said.

“Yeah, the woman that brought the food told us,” Sypher said.

“It’s the girl from the store.”

It took me a moment to understand. I hear Sypher cursing, but I can’t get a word out.

“How bad?” Sypher asked.

Cian ran a hand down his face. “She’ll survive, and she has no broken bones…”

Sypher made a frustrated sound. “But?”

“She’s been raped and beaten badly.”

I feel vomit start up my throat and race to the bathroom. I got there just in time. I had one guy wiping my face off with a cool rag and another flushing the toilet.

I already know the answer, but I have to hear the words from Cian. “Who did it?”

“The fucker, my father.”

I angrily wipe the tears from my face. “I want him found and tortured before you let him die. He’s ruined so many lives, and he’ll keep going until someone stops him.”

****

Doom

My heart breaks for my mate as she sits beside her friend’s bedside. Kristy has woken up after the beating she took at the hands of my father, and it has been three days.

The guilt is eating Isabel alive, fully believing that if she hadn’t hidden in Kristy’s store, none of this would have happened. It doesn’t matter what Sypher or I say. She is blaming all of this on herself.

I need to find my father so I can take care of the threat and deliver justice in the name of my mate and an innocent woman caught in the middle of all this bullshit.

Leaving the room and the woman behind, I seek out the only people I know I can trust right now—my siblings and their significant others—and even though I never thought it possible, Sypher. I find all the men assembled in my office over a spread-out map of the city.

“What are you all doing in here?” I question, confusion coating my words.

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