Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Mechanic drummed his fingers on the edge of the end table beside his chair. “He was under a tremendous amount of scrutiny once Uri, his son, became interested in politics. He wouldn’t have taken a chance of continuing to be the one running the ring, but there would be one. He would need someone in place who would be too afraid to betray him.”
Master’s voice was strained and hoarse as he chimed in. “The Russian might not have run the schools, but he’s a pedophile, and he runs the largest ring in the world.”
“I agree, Master,” Czar said. “He controls that industry—and it has become an industry, thanks to him. He also seems to have found a way to get the free independent assassins trained in various schools to work for him. I think it’s very probable this Helena never truly got out.”
“If that’s true . . .” Alena paced across the room, her hair fairly crackling with energy. She looked so alive, her skin and eyes bright and shining with vitality. “She had to have been one of the girls taken from the school by a patron. That’s the only way she could have survived without our knowledge. Some of the girls were sold to Sorbacov’s friends or given to them to pay off a debt of some kind.”
“Very few,” Lana added. “We can eliminate the ones that were sold to any of his friends who kept coming back for more. We knew those children, male or female, didn’t survive.”
Czar shook his head. “We can’t rule them out, Lana. That isn’t a certainty. We assumed that. We were children, and all around us, all the kids were dying. We figured if the bastards came back for another kid, it meant they’d killed the one they had. Now we know they also sell them when the child grows a little too old for their liking. We didn’t understand the rules of human trafficking back then. A child can grow up serving in that world all their life.”
“Damn it,” Alena exploded. “Just damn it. This is going to be impossible to figure out.”
Storm put his arm around her. He was much taller, the muscles in his arms and chest nearly overwhelming her, but his hair, platinum, gold and silver, along with his glacier-blue eyes, declared him without a doubt Alena’s birth sibling. It was easy to see he was being very gentle and comforting toward her.
“We’ll figure it out because we have to.” Czar stated it as fact, his voice as compelling as ever.
Ambrielle was fascinated by him. She didn’t have a doubt that they would figure out who the woman was. Czar gave them all that kind of confidence with his quiet manner and his sheer will. No doubt his personal strength of character was how he got them through their darkest times and why they all followed him. He would not be defeated, and if he ever was, he would go down fighting. He wasn’t a man to ever surrender.
“Reese, what else can you tell us about this woman? Anything at all you remember. You’ve given a good description of her. Dark hair and eyes. Tattoos.” Once more, Czar fixed his compelling gaze on the man.
“Thin. Model thin. Tall. She had no lines on her face at all, but her face was rigid, as if it didn’t really move when she smiled. She said and did all the right things, but it seemed more as if she was an actress playing a part. She always seemed sad to me. I also had the feeling she didn’t like men, which was strange because she came on to me. I mean, really came on to me.”
Reese looked at his wife and then away as if ashamed.
Tyra leaned into him. “It’s okay, Reese. We’ve gotten past all of this. Just tell them everything you can about her.”
Ambrielle admired Tyra. She was giving her man courage and support when he clearly was afraid he might lose her.
“She talked about her mentor sometimes. She said she didn’t have anyone else but her, and she taught her everything and was good to her most of the time as long as she cooperated.”
Ambrielle noted the difference in the room immediately. That meant something to Torpedo Ink. Whoever the mentor was, she wasn’t particularly a good person. She may have been good to Helena in a child’s eyes, but whatever she was forcing the child to do wasn’t a good thing.
“You’re certain Helena’s mentor was a woman?” Czar asked.
Reese nodded. “Absolutely certain.”
Ambrie closed her eyes and rested her head against Master’s side. The things these people had been through were horrific. Even now, she was barely able to assimilate the murder of her parents. Slowly, a little at a time, the reality would slip into her brain, and she would instantly reject it. She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for each of these men and women to have seen their parents murdered in front of them when they were children, some toddlers, and then taken to another place and used so cruelly for so many years. It made her sick to her stomach.