Chapter 47
CHAPTER
FORTY-SEVEN
EASTON
“Aster, who are you?” I ask, giving her my best psycho smile as I hold my heavy mallet against my chest. It’s clean for now, but if things don’t go my way, I’ll be ruining this suit.
“I’m just a woman with a little sister who needs her,” she says, her eyes wide with tears. The problem is, we haven’t really touched her and the liquid shit in her eyes doesn’t feel real.
Her sister.
“How old is your sister?” I ask.
“Six.”
My eyes narrow as I snort, shaking my head, “And her name is?”
“Christina.”
Yeah, ain’t no goddamn way. She doesn’t know our connections to Hollis, but she will soon.
Dropping my arm by my side, I move toward where she’s tied to a chair and begin breaking bones. I don’t have any sympathy for her. Is she a smaller woman? Yes. Do I know women can be some of the most evil people in the world?
Also yes. Your internal organs do not immediately make you a good person.
Leaving her to wallow in her pain, I step back.
“Is someone threatening your sister?” I ask. It’s more difficult to keep track of your lies when you're in pain.
“What?” Aster gasps. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because you touched me,” Alisa says behind me. “Where were you going to take me?”
“To the person threatening my sister.”
“What’s her name?” Alisa asks.
Huh. Well, Aster is responding to my girl, so I’ll let her take over.
“Avery. She’s keeping my sister from me,” Aster wails.
Bingo.
“Family meeting,” I muse, slamming my mallet down on Aster’s foot just to hear her scream.
I’m in a bad fucking mood as I walk out into the main area of the warehouse. I want Aster to sit with her shitty decisions while I figure out our next move.
“This is an awkward time, but I’ll bite,” Lyle smirks, following me. Niall and some of his guys are in the warehouse with Abbott, waiting to see how they can help. “Maybe we should loop everyone else in.”
As we’re surrounded, I shrug as Silas shuts the door to the room Aster’s in.
“Her sister’s name is Christina. Honestly, I highly doubt she’s six.
If Avery is involved, then this is way bigger than we think it is, and I think Aster is in a fuck ton of trouble.
We should text Tina with a photo of Aster and an address to get her out here. I’m sick and tired of their bullshit.”
Her card information is burning a hole in my contact list and I want to draw her out as quickly as possible.
“We need to relocate then,” Abbott says immediately. “You can’t blow the location of your warehouse without repercussions, Easton.”
“We have a property without any identifying information,” Niall murmurs. “It looks abandoned from the outside but the farmhouse is set up for torture, murder, and long term imprisonment.”
“You’re my favorite guard,” Alisa says easily.
Niall snorts as he raises his brow. “Did you ever get that snack, Alisa?”
“Fuck, I thought I heard her stomach rumble,” Silas groans. “I need to see what I have in the car for her. Is it far?”
“Ten miles west,” Niall replies. “You never know when you’ll need a murder house.”
You really don’t.
“I’m going to set the trap,” I say, walking toward the door. I swing it open suddenly, revealing Aster trying to get free. There’s zero tears, not until she sees me and begins to wail. “Thanks, doll. Really sell it for me.”
I fucking hate liars. Lifting my phone, I take a variety of photos of Aster’s performance.
“What are you going to do with those?” she screams.
“I’m texting Tina Anguish, of course,” I drawl, my fingers moving as I message from a dummy phone number. “I seem to have a need for a personal assistant. I wonder if I can lure her away from her current employer. What do you think?”
“I don’t know who that is,” Aster sniffles. “You shouldn’t hurt innocent people.”
“Tina raped my pack member and is trafficking omegas. I would hardly say she’s innocent. Since I have her dear, sweet sister here, I’m going to use that to my advantage.”
“I told you I don’t know her!”
Niall and one of his employees at his security firm move around me to transport her to the new location, and I grin as Niall gags her. I’m tired of her fucking mouth and tears. I finish my text with a flourish and ignore the call I get in response.
“I think I got her attention, guys,” I chuckle. I’ll send her the address once we get there. “Let’s get moving. We’ll call Hollis back once we’re situated. Little Fighter, you may need to make do with a protein bar.”
“As long as I get to kill someone, that’ll be fine,” she says.
I fucking love her so much.
“Aster, I have a friend who wants to say hello.”
Alisa squats next to Aster’s body and lifts her phone to show Hollis’ face. The woman’s eyes get wide and the tears she’s been steadily crying magically disappear.
She’s still gagged and begins to shake her head in denial. I hope she shits herself in fear. My patience for her disappeared when she tried to take Alisa from us.
“I hear you and Hollis go way back, babe,” Alisa says sarcastically. “Cut the bullshit. You helped get one of my dearest friends almost beaten to death. There are no friends or soft hearts for you here.”
Aster looks like she’s going to hyperventilate as she gazes at Hollis on the screen, and I roll my eyes from my position near the stairs. This house reminds me of a horror movie. We haven’t been here for more than a few minutes, and I can almost feel the spirits of people who have been killed here.
I can’t pinpoint the reason why. There’s not any bloodstains or anything. However, the obscene amount of porcelain dolls on little shelves on the walls may have something to do with it. Even Lyle is struggling to control his face.
It’s creepy.
“Aster, darling,” Hollis croons. “Getting into trouble still? We’re going to have so much fun together. Now, I’m going to ask you some yes or no questions and you’re going to respond with head motions. Up and down for yes or back and forth for no.”
Hollis is being a bitch to her and I huff out a breath in amusement. If Aster has quietly been aiding and abetting Tina, then she deserves everything Hollis has to dish out and more.
“Were you perchance working with Emilia and not actually in trouble?”
Alisa pulls on Aster’s ear until she screams, only releasing her when she thinks her prisoner will answer. Aster nods as she sobs because she’s in pain and not due to guilt. Goddamnit.
“I never thought to run a background check on her,” Silas growls softly.
“Run it on everyone and you’ll never have to wonder,” Niall grunts.
Pessimistic but accurate. The thing is that I dug into Aster’s past while Lyle drove and found very little. She’s a recluse and really loves plants. There’s absolutely no mention of a sister anywhere that I look. For how fiercely she protects her, this is odd.
Her social media is filled with flowers but doesn’t show her location. Aster has been very careful to hide in plain sight. The types of plant life she posts changes with the region she’s in, but if you didn’t know that, you’d never know she’s been traveling.
Thank god Silas keeps us well versed on pretty shit.
“It’s as if trouble follows her,” Alisa sighs.
“Or she enjoys the money sex traffickers offer,” Hollis says. “Do the botanical gardens have any idea about your side hustle?”
It’s the only thing that makes sense to me, and a damn good question. Aster is quiet for too long and Alisa smacks Aster over the head in annoyance.
“Get rid of the gag,” I suggest. “It could need a more complex reply.”
Lyle pulls away the gag and Aster pants for a moment before responding. “The gardens are somewhere no one thinks to look when the ground changes.”
“You’re getting rid of bodies?” I ask.
“I just offer a place for them.”
“You’re still just as guilty,” Alisa mutters.
“How did you get involved with Emilia?” Hollis asks. I haven’t sent Tina the address yet and she can’t follow my trail from the fake number I’m texting her from. I want her to piss herself in fear to feel a bit of what we felt when we lost Troy.
He’s sitting in a chair as he watches Aster, his face contorted in a mask of fury while Doc stands beside him. It’s almost worse to realize you’re a piece of a much larger puzzle. Taking Troy was a bad choice. If they’d kidnapped anyone else, they may have gotten away with it.
“I…”
“Tick tock. Tina will be here soon,” Hollis croons. The lie falls flawlessly off her tongue, showing what a seasoned manipulator she is. I’m very glad she’s on our side in this.
“Please.”
“None of us respond to begging. The truth is all we seek,” Alisa says. Her cadence is as creepy as this house and Aster flinches as she sits under the full force of my omega’s glare.
“Christina has always been different,” Aster whimpers. “It’s not her fault.”
“Mmhmm,” Alisa says. “How so?”
“She’s really charming, and very good at getting people to do what she wants. I don’t have a choice in any of this.”
“Tina is abusive toward you?” Hollis asks.
“She really likes fire,” Aster whispers.
A fucking sociopath is helping Avery. That tracks very well.
Hollis pumps Aster for information, and finds that Aster helped Tina kill her parents when they were younger. They’re six years apart and Tina fucking hated how strict they were. There aren’t any reposts of murders that fit this, but it’s very possible Aster and Christina aren’t their real names.
I very much doubt Tina Anguish is anything other than a pseudonym. The fucked up childhood these two had also isn’t my concern, though it helps paint a better picture of how long these two have been hiding each others’ secrets.
“Why Emilia?” Hollis asks, circling back.
“She has money, power, and was very good to us,” Aster says. “We didn’t have much money when we came to Minnesota, and Christina listened to podcasts about how omegas should behave. She decided that Emilia had to be full of it and needed to understand her angle.”
“Propaganda tends to be done for a reason,” Hollis sighs. “You’re a psych case waiting to be studied. In a way, Emilia is your role model?”
“My sister’s, yes.”
I text Tina the address as I listen, waiting for her to respond.