Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Isolde
“Idon’t mean to be insensitive,” I say carefully, “but are you sure you want to do this? Adira, you’re so close to your due date. I’m also not known for being the most sane while I’m killing someone.”
“I’ve heard the stories,” Adira says. “It just means you’re good at your job.”
My lips twitch at the job performance nod for being unhinged while murdering people. That’s unexpected.
“I don’t think pregnancy has slowed Adira down very much,” Morris chuckles. “She’s at every mafia meeting, swollen ankles and all. I think the girls are concerned that they don’t deserve a place at her execution.”
“This isn’t an execution,” I snort. “I plan to pull the information of every possible bolt hole her daughter may have, while making it about any properties she owns not in her name. Then I’m going to make her scream until her lungs give out, refusing to give her mercy until I carve her heart from her chest. You’re welcome to rough her up for me if you’d like. ”
“Wow,” Quinn says mildly. “If I didn’t have a pack and swung that way, I’d make a pass at you.”
Christian bursts out laughing, attempting to stifle it.
“Tesoro, I love you so much,” he says, his olive skin flushing as he gasps in a breath. “Leave it to you to find a kindred spirit in one of the scariest omegas I’ve ever met. Which is saying something in this city. Isolde, I mean that with all the respect in the world.”
I incline my head, wondering what kind of omegas this city has that would encourage those words.
Duncan and Callum roll their eyes, while Linus just looks amused.
“Thank you?” I squeak out, unsure what to say outside of that. “Was there anything else?”
“Ophelia’s reign of terror has been really long,” Adira sighs.
“She’s been running auctions since we were kids,” Jed says.
“My dad used to talk about how he found her when she was down on her luck at a strip club. Ophelia is scrappy, and she flirted with him. He was drunk after having beaten the shit out of me one night. I doubt he even remembered having told me all of that. I must have been about fifteen at the time, and Draco scraped me off the ground at four in the morning to dump me just inside my bedroom.”
Damon looks pained as he closes his eyes, and I wonder if this was a continued form of abuse for Rock. I’m not surprised he was a piece of shit even to his kids.
“I was picked up off the street by some of the hunters that look for omegas walking alone,” I explain.
“I think she hated me on sight and decided not to sell me. I pretty much begged for her to let me go. I’m not proud of that, I just had to get out.
She let me rot until the end of the auctions, knowing that the only alphas who would be left are those who are looking for a bargain. ”
“The ones who like to kill their omegas during sex,” Kane growls. “Fucking disgusting.”
“That’s why she chose to run a snuff show yesterday,” I say. “Ophelia said that I owed her a redo. She tried everything possible to force my heat, but nothing worked.”
“Ophelia’s drugs are legendary,” Adira grumbles. “You have no idea who you are, or what’s happening as your body betrays you in every way possible.”
“I lived that way for almost three years,” I confess. “If you’ve experienced her concoctions, then you know why I was desperate to get out.”
“I destroyed all of that when I was in her lab,” Lucas says quickly. “The scope of what she created was impressive, if for no other reason than she was funding her new life this way. Between the money that she received from yesterday and the drugs, she definitely was planning her escape.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Oliver gasps, standing. “The money. I need to find that money. If the accounts were drained, it wasn’t by Ophelia.”
“I’ll go look,” Alesso says quickly. “There was too much happening yesterday to think about it. Excuse me.”
Oliver follows Alesso as he tears at his hair, and I sigh.
“Well, that’s a sure fire way to know if Avery is alive,” I decide.
“Always a silver lining,” Quinn says, finally leaning into Duncan. “I’m not diminishing anyone else’s experiences with Ophelia, but Wren was taken to the auctions by her handler due to being too old for him.”
Shuddering, I focus on Leila’s body as her chest rises and falls. “Too old” has many meanings, and none of them says consent. Usually the pedophiles will tap out at sixteen or seventeen.
“Do you think she’d be up for a feminine rage ‘let’s be friends’ date?” I ask, glancing up at Quinn.
The smiles that explode across Adira and Quinn’s faces make it worth having to people.
I guess killing Ophelia is about to become a bonding activity.
The holding cell is in a warehouse in Minneapolis, where Cian and Corbin are waiting for us later that morning. I swear I’ve ingested more coffee than I should, so I’m worse than a hyped up toddler on candy.
My toes wiggle in my boots as I struggle to keep myself contained. I have a reputation to keep, after all. These men are used to the cool, no fucks given, professional Isolde.
All I have right now is the sleep deprived version that’s been kept awake for too many days.
Adira and Quinn stand next to me along with our packs, which means there are a lot of fucking people here. I never thought about the entourage an omega travels with once she finds her mates. It’s almost funny in a manic, ‘I’ve had too much sugar, so everything is hysterical’ kind of way.
Cian looks over my face, frowning as he gazes at the black eye I’m now sporting. It took its sweet time developing from a blow I took to the face, but it’s an ugly shade of black now.
“I’m not going to ask you if you’re okay,” he says gruffly. “I have a feeling it wouldn’t go over well, and you wouldn’t tell me either way. All I can say is thank you for helping us get Ophelia shut down. She’s been a goddamned menace for too long.”
I glance at Jed who shakes his head slightly. I suppose Ophelia’s spawn from Satan is going to stay under wraps for now.
“She’s hurt a lot of people, from what I understand,” I say instead.
I’m dressed for death with a pair of leather pants that had Lucas frowning as I pulled them on, and a black long sleeved shirt. I have a bag of my favorite items to interrogate with that I asked Kane to help me put together, and my hair is in a long braid down my back.
Kane has access to the best toys, even the ones that aren’t mainstream. As long as I don’t blow up the building, it should be fine.
“She has,” Corbin grunts. “We haven’t been able to pull her out of her hole. We’re very grateful to you all for getting rid of such a large trafficking problem.”
“Someone new always pops up, thinking it’s easy money,” I sigh.
The door opens behind us, and I turn to watch as a girl with long brown hair enters surrounded by Shaw and their pack. Her hazel eyes are wide and worried as she walks, and I frown as a memory tugs at my subconscious.
The girl refuses to look at anyone as they join us, and I wait to be introduced.
“Hey, everyone. I’m sorry we’re running a little late. I didn’t know if we’d make it. Ophelia is part of a very dark part of Wren’s past,” Shaw explains, his hand on her back as he watches her worriedly.
“You don’t have to be here if it’s going to pull up bad memories,” I say gently.
I’m not really sure what to do with someone who looks so fragile. The only person I have the ability to be soft with is Leila. Linus and Christian are hanging out with her today, even though Christian appeared mildly terrified with the idea of being alone with her.
Linus told me it would be good practice for him, and Grant said there’s nothing like a baby having a blow out to make you more comfortable being a dad. I don’t think that helped the situation, but it was pretty funny.
Wren glances up and flinches as she gazes at me.
“Do I know you?” she asks, confused.
I stare back, remembering the girl that Ophelia dragged out of the office the day I was finally sold.
“You were at the auction house,” I murmur. “I saw you there, right?”
“You looked like you couldn’t give a flying fuck what happened, and I wished I could have some of your attitude,” Wren says ruefully.
“My attitude gets me into trouble a lot,” I say, swallowing hard. “I’ve thought about you occasionally over the years. Are you happy?”
“It started out rocky,” she admits, leaning into Shaw’s side with a private smile.
“You’re going to get me stabbed, sweetness,” he mutters.
“Oh!” she says, eyes wide. “We’re much better now.”
“Sometimes, men need some time to work their shit out,” I grumble. Not mine, I just needed some space to believe they were for real. “Are you sure you want to go into the room with us?”
“Sometimes it helps quiet the nightmares when you know someone can’t come back for you,” Quinn says, making a face. “The what ifs of the boogeymen can be just as bad as reality.”
“Ophelia is one of the reasons I don’t leave my home very often,” Wren admits.
“I’ve experienced the worst that the world has to offer, I’d rather work from home when possible.
If I go anywhere, I take one or several of my alphas.
Our other omega, Flynn…he won’t leave at all. The world is too scary.”
“My job is to kill scary people,” I shrug. “That’s what people employ me to do. When I was sold, I killed the alphas who bought me, and got the fuck out of town. Knowing that I get to have control of the world in this way is my therapy.”
“Does this mean that you’re not quitting on us?” Corbin asks tentatively.
“Because being a mom and having a pack means I’m suddenly soft?” I snort.
My alphas smirk as they watch me hand Corbin his ass.
“That’s kind of sexist, Corbin,” I say.
“Fuck, I didn’t mean it like that,” he groans. “Pack Mohan doesn’t travel anymore when there are big issues. That’s why I hired you. I didn’t want to pull them away from their omegas.”