Chapter 32 #2
“What? That I knew the four of you were leaving? That I approved that so-called escape, funded it, then monitored it for months? That’s the truth you’re refusing to accept. You were a job to them, Olive. A job, a payday, a way to pad their bank accounts, setting them up for life, and nothing more.”
A tear slips down my cheek as I keep shaking my head.
I don’t believe it. I can’t believe it. If I accept what he’s saying as truth, if I buy into what has to be bullshit, it means my entire life has been nothing but pain and lies, and the memories I’ve been clinging to, the moments I’ve always considered the light shining through the darkness, were all bullshit.
They were empty dreams manufactured in order to keep me happy.
But that doesn’t really make sense.
“If… If it wasn’t real, if they didn’t love me, why did you let them go?”
Hayk lifts a hand to his beard, mindlessly smoothing it out as he says, “For Jay. My son was weak, he was easy to manipulate, and he started to have genuine feelings for you. He came to me and asked if he could buy your freedom. He said he wanted to take you away and start a real life with you.”
I frown as the tears stream steadily down my face. “And you were okay with that?”
“No,” Hayk snorts and shakes his head. “I told him I’d kill you before I let you leave. So, my son and I made a deal.”
My heart is slamming into my chest, hammering away behind my ribs so hard it feels like I might crack a bone.
This man is heartless. He’s evil and malicious. There’s no way he would do something like that, not even for his son, if it meant losing money.
Which is exactly why I ask, “What was in it for you?”
The sadistic grin is back, one more terrifying than I’ve seen before. “Your babies.”
“What?” A sob breaks free on its own, pushing out of my body as I start to openly cry. “What do you mean, our babies?”
“Exactly that. They could take you away, start a life with you out there somewhere, but if they wanted to keep you, if my son wanted to keep you, they had to promise to give me any and all children the four of you had together to make up for the money I’d be losing.”
I lurch forward as I vomit again, my head spinning, my heart breaking completely as he confirms that I was living a lie for almost half my life.
“Why?” I choke out, coughing up bile and spit. “How would they—”
“I’ve branched out in your absence, Olive jan. There’s a demand for younger products, and I decided to expand my business in order to meet it.”
This bastard was going to take our babies, my babies, and turn them into the same fucking thing he made me? For what? Money, and cornering the market on the next disgusting, fucked up service he could provide?
And if Jay really did have feelings for me, if any of them ever truly loved me, why would they agree to something so goddamn vile?
Then something else runs through my mind.
Hayk had them killed.
He contacted Boris to have the four of us murdered.
If he wanted us to pop out new slaves, why would he—
“Jay had second thoughts,” Hayk says, answering my question before I can ask.
“He wasn’t sure about the kids. Said it felt wrong.
I told him it was either that, or I take you back and make an example out of you.
I let him choose, he chose you. But I knew it was a matter of time before it came up again and since I was not only losing hundreds of thousands without the four of you in rotation, but by losing your children as well, I cut my losses. ”
My eyes widen and my jaw goes slack. “You cut your losses? That’s how you look at your own son? How you view the babies who would have been your grandchildren?”
He nods. “Assets, Olive, and when they no longer increase in value, it’s time to sell. It was supposed to be a clean break, an easy way to put an end to things, but you had to fucking survive.”
“How did you know?” It’s not like anyone showed up at our house right after the hit to make sure we were all dead and by the time they might have, the boys were buried and I was gone. There wasn’t anyone for miles. How would he have known I didn’t die with them once the house burned down?
Of fucking course.
Third party proof.
But still, it had to be a few days before they went searching, and finding nothing doesn’t necessarily mean anyone survived.
“The graves,” he says as he gets to his feet.
“Who else gave enough of a shit to bury the three of them? It had to be you, which meant your hit was botched. Boris was pissed about that, I was fucking livid, but we managed to work things out.” Hayk grabs the back of his chair and drags it back into the shadows, the metal scraping against the concrete floor with an ear piercing screech. “Then the hunt was on.”
An overhead light turns on above me, illuminating the floor and surrounding area before a series of five more lights follow suit, and as soon as the space around me is lit up, I know exactly why this place feels familiar.
It’s the goddamn warehouse Rune saved us from, complete with scorch marks and blood stains on the floor.
“This was you?” I whisper as my eyes struggle to adjust to the much brighter lighting. “You sent them?”
Hayk nods. “I did. This group of fucking morons, and the other idiots at the strip club. All of them were my men, and they’re why I hired outside hitmen to go after the four of you. Clearly my specialists are too goddamn stupid for their own good.”
I still don’t understand.
How did he not only know for sure I was alive, but manage to track me down, twice, as well?
“Such a curious little thing, aren’t you?
” He tsks with a grin. “I didn’t know for sure, but there were signs.
The graves, the missing truck and lack of cash found.
Then I get wind that both of Boris’ sons are MIA?
The very same men who were sent to kill you suddenly go missing, the first almost immediately after the botched job, the second now but he turns up in Minnesota?
I don’t believe in coincidences, Olive.”
Still. “How did you find me, though? I haven’t been with them this entire time.” It’s close with Niko, but I don’t need to tell him that. “You had a pretty good idea I wasn’t dead, but how did you know where to look for me?”
Hayk pulls on a pair of heavy gloves, weighted ones with studs across the knuckles, and shrugs.
“I didn’t, not for sure, but I had somewhat competent men on every omega-based business and facility in the state.
That Omega’s Haven was great, by the way, easy pickings if we got them before they made it inside, so thanks for that, and when one of my dumbasses swore he saw you and the Kozlov boy leaving that shelter, I sent more.
Then when Boris put out the BOLO for his other son, I just started stringing the pieces together. ”
“Jesus. Is there some kind of fucking hotline for you sick, human trafficking bastards, or what?”
Hayk laughs as I hear what sounds like heavy metal wheels scraping along rusted tracks all around the warehouse. “Something like that. When you’ve been in the game as long as we have, you know whose number to save, and whose ass to keep tabs on.”
“Aw, so Boris is your bestie,” I deadpan, twisting my wrists behind my back in hopes of loosening the ropes. “Do you guys FaceTime when you’re at an auction? Maybe send a few texts back and forth before sampling your products?”
Hayk’s fist connects with my jaw so fast and hard that it dazes me and nearly sends my chair toppling backwards but he catches the arm before it does.
“So feisty now that you’ve had a taste of freedom.
Breathing that fresh air, getting a train ran on you by as many men as you choose, living the good life as a whore on the outside.
” He hits me again, the sharp little studs connecting with my temple and tearing my flesh wide open.
“I liked you better submissive and afraid.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” I say as I shake my head, trying to clear the fog from the edges of my vision.
“That’s the thing, Olive jan.” Hayk delivers an uppercut that almost sends my teeth through the roof of my mouth, my jaws clamping shut with a pop and crack.
“I’m not really disappointed, just pissed, and that means I’m not sure if I’m going to wait for your bonded pack to show up and kill you in front of them, or take you back to New York and put you to work for me again.
Either way I win, but I’m trying to decide if I want instant gratification or something more long term.
Then again, a bonded omega with the bites to prove it can be a hard sell back home.
” He punches me in the head again, spots exploding across my vision before it temporarily goes black.
“I do love a challenge, though. How about we let your mates decide.”
I fucking hope it doesn’t come to that.
If they figure out where I am, if they come for me and one of them ends up hurt, or worse, I won’t be able to live with myself.
They jumped in feet first, didn’t even hesitate to help me get my pound of flesh, and for what? A lie. A goddamn motherfucking lie, and I can’t let them be a part of this shit any longer. Not when I know for a fact they’d risk their lives to help me.
My vendetta was for nothing but bullshit, and my life isn’t worth dying for.
But hoping they don’t rush in and try to save it is all I’ve got right now.
I don’t deserve any of those men, and I never fucking will.