Soul Enslaved (Sons of Wrath Book 3) (57 page)

“No, I don’t.”

“And here I thought you were a straight razor.” The pimp’s jaw shifted. “Think I like you better now than a minute ago.”

“I happen to know Jeven has been stealing behind your back.”

Cash’s eye twitched as if he’s suspected as much. Large cities were sectioned off into small districts, each with a head pimp who carried much more power and clout. Jeven happened to fall under Cash’s domain, which meant he served up souls that Jeven’s succubi were required to collect. “How?”

“He’s recruiting his own unclaimed female succubi. Selling them to the lycans.”

Cash’s nostrils flared. “Where are they?”

“I don’t know. But Denya is missing, as well.”

A flicker of rage burned in Cash’s eyes, and Gavin’s suspicions suddenly didn’t seem so farfetched. The male did have a thing for her, just as Jeven had confessed back at the crack house. “Interesting. Perhaps it’s time I downsized.”

“The lycans are looking to expand their numbers. Your females play a role in that.” Gavin tossed Cash the chip. “You’re not to harm or seek out a single female on that list. They no longer belong to you.”

The pimp’s lip curled. “How do you figure?”

Gavin held up the contract Cash had signed a moment ago. “In the fine print, brother. Always read the paperwork before you sign it.” He folded then tucked the documents into his coat pocket. “In essence, they belong to me now. That chip is completely useless. I’ve made a copy, and if any female on the list goes missing … I’m coming straight for you.”

“You’re a conniving fuck.”

“I am. But I can also be an ally.” Elbows resting on the desktop, Gavin leaned forward. “You’re going to be strung up soon, should the lycans decide to retaliate for the murder of their alpha. I can offer protection, if you’re willing to remain loyal.”

“I ain’t signing any more of your shady contracts.”

Gavin stood from his chair, and the door flew open to Red and Mack, ready to escort the pimp out. “Suit yourself. War is coming, though. Decide which side you’re on.”

As Cash rose and slipped between the security guards, Gavin’s phone rang. Slumping back into the chair, he glanced at the number before answering. “Nola. What’s going on?”

“Aeguza called me. Orcosian guards are on their way to your office. With Sabelle. I’ll take the children there so they can see their momma. I don’t know what kind of magic you pulled, Gavin, but you’re a goddamn saint.”

Aeguza worked fast—probably had to, or risk the court giving him some backlash. Had been a good idea, having the Scribe there, though. Not much to dispute when every detail of the transaction would end up in the Cartazmus. “It wasn’t magic. It was sheer selfishness and a knack for manipulation.”

***

Every muscle in Gavin’s body burned while he waited in his office for the guards to arrive. He rubbed his knuckles, had already rubbed them raw in the minutes since Nola’s phone call.

The doorknob clicked, before the guards pushed their way in, and Gavin’s heart stopped.

Sabelle hung by her arms between two Enforcers, her feet dragging on the floor. Her red locks clung, plastered in blood, to her face, and further drops of crimson had spattered all over her white gown. Bruises marred her shins, the bright reds and purples of her wounds telling Gavin she’d been beaten recently.

Muscles sizzling with rage, Gavin lurched toward them just as Sabelle was thrown to the center of the room, where she fell into a slump.

Ferocity blazed through his veins. “Motherfuckers!” Had he not been more concerned about his woman, he’d have emptied his lead into the bastards. Instead, he fell to her side and laid her out onto her back. Hands trembling with rage, Gavin carefully pushed the hair out of her face. “Sabelle,” he whispered in her ear. “What did they do to you?”

Her eyes rolled back into her head, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. Black circles lined the bottom of her eyes, and below those, a plum colored bruise plumped her cheek.

Her body shivered in his arms, and he pulled her into his arms, holding her like a child. “Fuck, baby, what did they do?” The sight of her left him yearning to punch something, to feel it crush within his palm and crumble into a million pieces, but he had to get her cleaned up. Nola would arrive any minute with the children.

Clambering to his feet, he carried her to the couch and spread her out. In the adjacent bathroom, Gavin warmed a wash cloth before returning to her side and placed the heat to her cheek.

She flinched, and eyes opening wide, she thrust up onto her elbows and screamed.

Worried he’d startled her, Gavin jumped back.

“No! Don’t touch me!” She cowered, and it pained his heart to see her shrink so.

Sabelle was strong. Powerful. She didn’t cower. Not for anyone, but especially not for him.

“It’s okay baby. It’s me.”

Through panting breaths, she seemed to control the bouncing of her eyes and focus on him. “Gavin?”

“Yeah, Sabelle. It’s me.”

She trembled, still clinging to the back of the couch. “W… where am I?”

“My office.” He reached to tuck a stiff bloodied hair from her eyes, but she flinched. “Thomas and Janie will be here. Nola’s bringing them.” Though, in all honesty, Gavin was beginning to question if that was a good idea. He had to get her calm before then.

Her eyes saddened. “My babies are dead.” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I saw their bodies.” Her lip gnarled. “You. You killed them.”

What the fuck?
He shook his head against the claim. “Sabelle, Nola will be here any minute. They’re alive. And they’ll be so happy to see you.”

“Lies! You’re trying to trick me!” The frantic shaking of her head reminded him of the prisoners of Obsidius who’d begun to lose their mind with the tortures. “But I won’t let you. I won’t let you trick me.” She closed her eyes and stuffed her fingers into her ears.

Gavin grabbed her arms. “Hey, listen to me.”

Screaming, she kicked and punched. “Let go of me!”

“Sabelle!”

“Momma?” Thomas’ voice carried over their shouts.

Both Gavin and Sabelle stopped grappling and turned toward where Janie and Thomas stood in front of Nola.

Sabelle’s eyes widened and she scrambled backwards, knocking her head on the bookcase behind her. “Ghosts! Fucking ghosts! You killed them!”

Gavin shot a glance to Nola, who covered the children’s ears and shuffled them out of the room.

“Sabelle!” Kneeling down, he inched slowly toward her, as if approaching a wild animal. “Listen to me! Your children are here! Calm down!” He bulleted toward her, gripping her arms before she could escape.

Her wild eyes bounced around. Saliva strung from her teeth, as she cried out, her face had turning red with the struggle.

He tugged her into him and held her against the punching and clawing at his neck. “I’m not going to hurt you. I love you.”

She beat her fists against his chest. “You killed them! You tried to kill me! Go fuck yourself!”

“I didn’t kill them.” He spoke calmly. “They’re not ghosts. Thomas and Janie are waiting outside the door for you, right now.”

She continued to writhe against his chest, pushing, scratching, muscles stiff, like he’d captured a rabid stray.

“I love you. I’m not going to hurt you. I love you. You’re safe now.”

“They … they told me … you cut them up. I saw …” Her voice broke into a sob. “Their bloody little bodies lying side by side.”

Gods, the thought of her suffering through those visuals, believing he could be capable of such sickening violence, told Gavin her abuses were far worse than he’d imagined. She’d somehow been brainwashed on top of it all. That she’d managed to survive through believing her children were dead nearly broke him. “I don’t know what they gave you, Sabelle. But it was all an illusion. Not real. If you remain calm, I’ll show you. I’ll bring them to you.”

For what seemed like minutes, the only sound was her deep, shuddering breaths. Her hands fidgeted against him, lip quivering, while her eyes darted back and forth as though she contemplated the bargain, until at last, she nodded. “Okay.”

“Let me clean the blood off you. So you don’t frighten them.”

Tears spilled onto her bruised cheeks. “Do I … do I look like a monster?” Her small, frail voice tore a hole through his heart. She’d sounded nothing like the Sabelle he knew—the feisty, headstrong woman from before.

“No. You look like you’ve been to hell and back, but not a monster.” He stroked a finger down her temple. “Never a monster.” He placed the washcloth to her cheek and wiped the blood.

“I frightened them.” Her eyes seemed to shift behind the glisten of tears.

“They’ll be all right. Nola’s with them now. Just take it slow, okay?”

She nodded, and Gavin pushed to his feet. He opened the office door, behind which Thomas and Janie stood with their faces buried in Nola’s skirt.

Gavin knelt in front of them and tugged their shirts. “Hey. Mommy’s just having a hard time. She really wants to see you, though.” He tipped his head to get their attention, see their faces. “Do you want to see her?”

Both kids shook their heads without peeling their faces away from Nola.

Gavin glanced up to the woman. The exhaustion on her face mirrored what his own must’ve shown. He swallowed a gulp and tried tugging the kids’ shirts again. “Thomas, Janie. Hey, uh …”
Damn
. He knew exactly how they felt. The excitement of seeing her, destroyed by the atrocity she’d suffered. He cleared his throat to choke back his own tears. “Your mommy really needs you right now. She missed you so much. She didn’t mean to scare you. I startled her. She screamed because I surprised her.” He sniffed. “Please, will you try? For Mommy?”

Thomas heaved a breath and tore himself away from Nola. His splotchy little face revealed that he’d cried. He wiped his teary eyes and, keeping them cast downward, nodded.

Gavin took his hand, and he, in turn, slipped his small hand in Janie’s. His sister unburied her face, revealing the same evidence of crying.

Gavin led them back into the room, as Sabelle attempted to straighten herself on the couch. Her jaw hardened, and she reached out to the kids, tears betraying the fake smile painted on her face. “Hi, babies.” She sniffled. “Come here.”

The children tugged against Gavin. Resisting. Probably scared.

Sabelle didn’t look like Sabelle. Her eyes were bloodshot and dark, as if her very soul had been sucked right out of her body. Despite the smile, the pain buried deep within surfaced as a flicker of panic dancing across her face. Even Gavin approached cautiously, not knowing if she was on the verge of losing it.

Still, the two didn’t budge.

A gentle nudge from Nola sent Thomas two steps forward, and he scrambled to clutch Gavin’s leg.

There was no hiding it. Sabelle noticed, and her smile faded, the glisten in her eyes intensifying, and her hands fell to her sides. “You think … I’m a monster, don’t you?”

Nola stepped around Gavin and plopped into the seat beside Sabelle, wrapping her arms around her. Sabelle nuzzled her face against Nola’s fleshy neck, her body shaking with sobs, and Nola waved Thomas over.

The boy shook his head.

Gavin knelt between him and Janie. “Mommy could really use a hug right now.”

Thomas averted his eyes toward the floor, as if ashamed of himself, before he turned toward his mother and tiptoed to the edge of the couch.

Sabelle lifted her head, tears streaming down her cheek. She reached out and yanked Thomas into her own arms, sniveling against her son’s cheek. “Oh, God. You’re here. I’m really holding you.”

Nola waved Janie, but she shook her head, hand still clutching Gavin’s, so he led her to Sabelle and crouched beside the couch, nodding his head and offering a wink. Janie squeezed beside Thomas, and Sabelle’s arms engulfed them both.

“My babies. My sweet babies. I love you so much. Mommy missed you so much.”

Sabelle trembled as she clutched her kids, and damn if Gavin’s own eyes didn’t, once more, fill with tears.

CHAPTER 29

For the first time since Sabelle had arrived back at the mansion the night before, Gavin sat in his office. She’d finally fallen asleep long enough for him to slip away to make a very important business arrangement.

Maddox sat across from him, his fingers entwined against the desk.

“I have a job for you.” Gavin poured two glasses of Elysia and pushed one of them toward his brother. “I’m coming to you because I trust you with this. I’d do it myself, but I want to focus my attention on Sabelle until she’s stable. I don’t really know what she’s capable of at this point, and I don’t want to take a chance.”

“How can I help?”

Tipping back the glass sent the warm fluid to burn his throat, and Gavin’s jaw tightened as he poured another. “I need you to go undercover for me.”

“Undercover?” Maddox sat forward. “Ain’t that Xander’s specialty?”

“I’d trust Xander with my life.” Gavin swirled the fluid in the glass. “I don’t trust him around a virgin female succubus who might’ve just experienced renoshza for the first time.”

Maddox nodded. “Got it.”

The door flew open, and Zayne paused half in, half out of the hallway. Christ, he looked like shit, in tattered leathers, a soiled black T-shirt. Dark circles supported his eyes, which were rimmed red like he’d been high the whole time he’d been M.I.A.

He stumbled across the office, reached Gavin’s desk, and plopped into the chair, nearly buckling it under his massive body. “I want on this case.”

“No. You look like shit. This case is too important to me.”

The curling of his fingers around the arms of the chair didn’t escape Gavin’s attention. “I won’t fuck it up.”

“This isn’t some easy stake out, Zayne. It’s going into the bowels of the city. She was traded and trafficked. Drugs will be flowing like candy canes at Christmas. You’ve got a history. I’m not taking a chance. Forget it.”

“I saw shit, Gavin.” Zayne’s chest puffed with each short breath. “I think I might know where she was traded.”

“Where?”

“I’m taking this one.”

Gavin shook his head. “I have a female back at the mansion who has information. Her servosx—”