Chapter 54
“What the fuck do you mean you know them?” Jax asked, staring at me intensely.
I shook as I tried to find solid ground. Jax sat me back down as I struggled to find balance.
“Birdie’s father, his family… They are like family to him.
They do business together. Oh my gods,” I pleaded, as everything started piecing together like a Rubik’s cube.
The black suit and tie parties, the lavish lifestyle, the vacations, the money— blood money.
It was all so clear now. I felt sick to my stomach, the bile wanting to rise with every realization.
This whole time, it was right under my nose.
While I sat in those mansions and drove those foreign cars.
The instant disgust I felt with not only myself, but the betrayal of reality that I felt, was making a mockery of me.
“You’re telling me your ex-husband has a hand in this cult? What did you say his last name was again?” he asked.
“Petrov,” I replied, numb in my tears. This whole time while I was surviving Vadon, others were as well.
I was so caught up in the lifestyle and battling the abuse, I couldn’t see what was right before my eyes.
All the late nights, the sketchy phone calls, the long business travels.
The Petrov’s owned several cash businesses; laundry mats, car washes.
They did plenty of business with the Adrik family.
“Your ex-husband is a Petrov?” Jax began laughing cynically. “This is too damn fucking good. I knew the motherfucker smelled like a cultist bitch from a mile away. They all have the same fucking black tie suits, with their smug faces.” He rolled his fingers through his coarse beard.
I was still shaking and crying in the corner, shocked. Yet somehow all this made sense, like a linked chain. It was all connected, including me.
“Faye, don’t even go there. No! This is not your fault, you didn’t know. Don’t you dare take on the sins of this motherfucker,” Jax said, grabbing me and holding me tight to his chest, while I crumbled in shame for being so incredibly naive, privileged, and stupid.
The disgust was too much. I needed to go to Birdie now.
I knew she was safe and sound with Ma but something in my gut taunted me.
I just knew something wasn’t right about any of this.
Vadon had gone eerily quiet since Thanksgiving, and I knew him better than that.
He was an angry, bitter soul who was cooking something up.
A man like Vadon didn’t do well with a bruised ego.
He held a grudge like you wouldn’t believe.
“We’ve been looking into the Petrov’s for years.
The Adrik’s are the top dogs. The Petrov’s are their bitches, doing whatever it is they ask of them, to help cover their tracks and clean their dirty money.
” All of it was making more and more sense.
“In return, they get wealthy from their services and their sacrificial lambs. All for their wicked god whom they bend their weak knees for,” he said with disgust.
“You said women. They are taking women?” I gasped. The trepidation building inside me was overwhelming. “I can’t have Birdie around this. They’ll never believe me, Jax. Not with all his connections,” I cried out, chewing nervously on my fingertips.
“Faye, listen, we need to be smart about this. This cult, Followers Of The Shedim, are very calculated and manipulative. We need to move just as smart. If we’re going to expose these motherfuckers we need to move silently and diligently.” I put my clothes back on as quickly as possible.
“I’m sorry, Jax, but I need to be with Birdie right now,” I replied. Nothing else mattered right now but getting to her.
“Don’t be sorry, baby,” Jax replied, holding me close and kissing my forehead. “I’ll take you to your temporary home,” he said with a sparkle in his eye.
“What the hell does that mean, Jax?” I asked, already annoyed with the tone of his voice.
“It means that after all the information I just learned, you and the little one will now be living in the east quarters of the farm, where I know you will be protected,” Jax retorted, grabbing his coat.
“I can’t just move Birdie and I into the Grimwood quarters.” He better be fucking joking.
“Faye, this is not up for discussion. I’m taking you to your mom’s, and tomorrow evening you two will be moved in,” he said, not taking no for an answer.
I hopped into the truck and attempted to object again, but before I could get a word out—
“That’s final. Not another word about it,” he said, shutting the truck door. I wanted to slap him for talking to me like that, but the slut in me couldn’t mistake the wetness pooling between my legs either.
“What about my mother? I can’t just leave her!” I whined in his passenger seat like a damn child.
“Fuck it, Ma can come too, now be quiet, Robles, and buckle up.”
Jax’s truck rumbled to life beneath me.
“Good luck, that woman is not to be trifled with,” I said, amused at his confidence. “Not even by Death,” I said, mocking him.