Chase

I drive as fast as I can, trying not to break any traffic laws. I don’t want to break my own moral code, but fucking hell … is it hard.

After discovering that birthmark, I immediately got up from the couch and grabbed my stuff. I left her at home under the shower and told her I needed to run an errand. I know she doesn’t believe me, but right now, none of that matters. I’ll explain it later … if there’s anything to explain.

I have to know for certain first.

What if it’s true?

I shake my head. It can’t be. It can’t fucking be true.

Still, I have to know for sure, a hundred percent.

Which is why I won’t stop driving until I reach my destination. Graham’s compound, where he does all his dirty business and keeps all the boys and girls locked up tight, doing fuck knows what.

Fuck!

I slam the wheel so hard I almost lose control and crash, but I manage to regain my temper and position on the road before I cause an accident.

Nothing I do can take away this rage.

I should’ve known something was going on. She was perfect, too perfect … and now I know why. No wonder my heart is so consumed with her. This has to be it.

Fuck, it’s going to be one hell of a long ride all the way down there. But I don’t give a damn how long it takes me. Hours. Days. I’ll get there. One way or another, he’s going to tell me the truth.

If I have to kick the door until I have broken bones just to bust it down, I’ll fucking do it. I don’t care.

The only thing I brought was a bat and my mask. I didn’t have the time or the patience to pack anything else, but it’ll do. In and out quickly—as long as I get my answers, I’m good.

Suddenly, my phone buzzes, and I’m growling out loud while I pick it up.

“What?”

“Where are you?” Brandon shouts.

“Why?”

“I rang your doorbell, but no one answered. Did you leave your girl alone in there?”

“She’ll manage,” I reply. “I left her some food, and she knows how to behave.” I clear my throat. “Did you take care of the boy?”

“Yeah, I took him to the cops. Anonymous. No trail. He hasn’t seen my face, don’t worry.”

“I’m not. I trust you.”

“Right. But where the hell are you even off to?” he asks.

I sigh. “Graham.”

“What? Why now?” he shouts. “That wasn’t the plan, Chase.”

“I know!” I shout back. “But I need answers. Now.”

“Answers to what? Dude, what aren’t you telling me? Did she tell you something?”

I hang up the phone before he can ask more. I’ll apologize later.

I can’t answer his questions because I don’t know if my hunch is true yet. If it is, I’ll tell him, but if it isn’t, I’m not interested in him shouting at my face that I ruined our only chance to get Graham.

I need to know this, and I know Brandon would never let me go if he knew the real reason. That’s just how he is. He wants to protect me, but I don’t need protection. I can handle myself. Always have.

I only stopped on the way for a quick drink, a snack, and to fill my gas tank, so after driving for a few hours, I’m finally there. I immediately jump out of my car and grasp the bag lying on the back seat, putting on my mask as I walk. I ram open the compound doors using a metal bat, pulling off the chains with sheer force.

As the doors pour open, I scream, “Graham!”

When I don’t hear anything, I step inside and gaze around carefully, making sure to check the hallways. I may be pissed, but I won’t let him catch me by surprise. Holding my bat tight, I push open the doors, but no one’s here. It looks deserted. Has it always been like this?

I admit, I barely know anything about this guy. Only that he’s a bastard, using and selling people as he pleases, all for the money. As clients, we didn’t get to see the regular entrance or the insides of his compound. We were limited to two rooms, and that’s it.

But I expected him to have hordes of helpers, men who also benefitted from his scheme. Except no one’s here. Did he scale down or stop entirely? Or was it all just a ruse and did he make me believe there was more behind this whole operation than his crooked soul?

“Graham?” I shout out again, hearing my own voice echoing off the walls.

Water drips from the pipes, but I don’t let it distract me.

That’s when I notice the man stepping out from a room ahead. He’s cleaning his hands with a towel, throwing it into the room and closing the door behind him.

It’s him.

* * *

“How did you get in here?” he asks.

I snort. “That’s the first thing you ask?”

“I locked the doors tight,” he says, raising a brow.

I narrow my eyes. “Doesn’t matter.”

He bites the inside of his cheeks as he saunters closer. “No, you’re right. What does matter is … why are you here?”

“I’m one of your clients.”

“I know,” he muses, pointing at his face. “I can tell.”

The mask. He recognized it? His memory must be amazing then. Or maybe he taped us while we were there, which wouldn’t even surprise me. It’s a smart move. But wearing a mask was even smarter, in this case. Still is.

“Are you unhappy with your purchase?” he asks, approaching.

Even though I’m holding it beside my body, I still clutch the bat tighter. “She … has a birthmark.”

He stops in his tracks and licks his lips. “Hmm.”

I wonder what he’s thinking. If he finally understands what it means. If he’ll tell me the truth, or if he’ll lie.

“The exact same one,” I say.

A pause follows.

The air is thick with volatile electricity.

Slowly, he begins to nod.

The air is sucked out of my lungs.

“The other woman … was she her mother?”

The nodding doesn’t stop, and I’m left with no breath … and feeling like I have no pulse.

No spark left inside my body except rage.

“You could’ve just asked me,” he says, chuckling a bit.

My blood is boiling. “What did you intend to use her for?”

“Babies. Obviously. What else?” He shrugs as if it’s no big deal that he would make her have babies … and then sell them all. “But she was infertile, so I couldn’t use her at all. Shame because I had plenty of potential men in mind to inseminate her.”

In a fit, I grasp him by the collar. “Shut up!”

He holds up his hands. “Calm down.”

“No. Tell me about the other two you’re keeping in here. The others who were next to her in that cage. Are they still here?”

He jerks himself free from my grasp and adjusts his clothes as if I sullied them. But it’s not me who tainted him. He was already disgusting to begin with. “They’re still in there … safe and sound with me.” His nostrils flare. “But that’s none of your business. You’re not getting them. They’re not for sale.”

I clench my bat tighter, and in response, he pulls out a knife from his pocket. “Careful now …”

He cocks his head. “Don’t want to play this game with me?”

I spit on the floor. “You’re disgusting.”

He shakes his head. “So are you.” He chuckles again. “We’re two sides of the same coin, you and me.”

“I am nothing like you!” I scream. “Do you hear me? Nothing! I kill people like you.”

As I raise the bat, he swiftly swipes at me with the knife, barely scraping the skin around my ear. A small trickle of blood rolls down … along with the wire holding my mask together.

And it drops … to the floor.

Fuck.

I scramble to pick it up. Too late. A grimace and then a grin spread on his face like wildfire.

In a desperate attempt to hide, I push the mask to my face, holding it in place while I tread backward. He has cameras everywhere. If they even caught one glimpse of me, I’m done for.

Too late to think about it. Too late to do anything because he’s following my every footstep. And he’s replaced his knife with a gun he pulled from his pocket.

“Get out,” he hisses, stepping closer.

I march backward, clutching the bat closely to my body to protect myself. “I’ll destroy you,” I say.

He doesn’t say a word.

All he does is smile as he shoves me out and slams the doors shut, locking them from the inside with something metallic and large. Even though I try to force back inside, it’s no use. It’s completely jammed.

“Fuck!” I yell, kicking the door.

Blood still runs down my face as a sharp cut on my ear refuses to stop bleeding. So I quickly turn around and march back to my car. There’s no way I can bust back in now. He’s expecting me to, so it would probably take me ages to get in. I ruined it. Now I’ve got to live with the fact that this monster still lives. And that I was unable to kill him when I had the chance.

“Fuck!” I shout out into the wilderness, opening my car door and jumping inside.

I throw the bat and my mask in the back and quickly start the car. The engine roars as I make a U-turn and back away as fast as I can.

Fuck this place and the devil who lives here.

He’ll pay for what he’s done. That fucker doesn’t deserve to live.

One way or another, he’s going to die. Whether it’s by my hand or someone else’s.

But first … I’ll have to face Syrena.