Page 51 of Corrupt Desires

“You mean to tell me you were their prisoner for how many weeks and never knew Lorenzo was on their side,” Kayden seethes, turning fully to face Matteo.

“No, I swear, I had no idea. I never saw him, not once. I assumed he died in the blast.”

“Why would they wait this long to reveal Lorenzo is working with them?” asks Franklin, looking back over his shoulder to direct his question at Kayden.

Before Kayden can answer, however, I say, “Because they want to crush her spirit—break her. Lorenzo was like an uncle to her growing up, she wholeheartedly believed everyone in her family was loyal—it will devastate her.”

Franklin waves to get our attention. “Hey, guys, you might want to take a look at this.”

Both Kayden and I swing our gaze back to the screens in front of us as Franklin points to the screen on the right. This one is a live feed of the hallway facing the wing of the house Emilia is in, and the word “live” flashes in the corner signaling this is real-time footage.

By the time I take in these details, Lorenzo and another man are carrying Emilia out of the room. Lorenzo is supporting the upper half of her body while the other man is carrying her by her ankles.

“What. The. Fuck?” A deadly calm washes over my body, rippling down my back and ending with my clenched fists. Not only is Emilia passed out and naked, but there appears to be a large cut to her upper chest and dried blood running down both of her legs.

“I’m going to kill every last one of them that lays hands on her. Mark my fucking words, Kayden. Whatever we plan on doing, plan on giving me enough time with both of those cunts at the least.”

Kayden’s gaze sweeps over my face, probably trying to gauge if I’m on the brink of another panic attack. I’m not though. I haven’t felt this centered in a long time. Maybe it’s because I know Emilia’s life is at stake, but whatever the case, my mind has a deathly calm to it for once.

“We’ll make it happen, Brother,” he responds, cracking his knuckles as he redirects his attention to the cameras.

As they carry Emilia throughout the house, we’re able to follow them through the various cameras in every hallway. They go to the second floor and drop Emilia off into one of the many bedrooms that occupy that wing of the house.

“Well, at least they put her with a like-minded woman,” Kayden says, not an ounce of amusement in his tone.

“What do you mean?” Thus far I haven’t been able to stomach watching the feeds very often, but Kayden forces himself to, so I have no idea who is in that room.

“The woman in that room is the woman that has been giving all the men hell since she arrived. She’s a spitfire, that’s for certain.”

I nod in understanding as my eyes never leave the screen, assessing how long the men stay in the room for. My fists clench as I feel powerless to do anything… tostopanything that might be happening in that room right now. My stomach rolls as I fight off images of Emilia being abused.

“How soon can we execute our plans?” I ask to no one in particular.

“I know you’re just as eager to go in there as I am, James, but we need to make sure we don’t make any mistakes. I know they have a pretty set schedule and routines, however, them having Emilia is probably going to throw off those routines. We need to reassess after a few hours before we go in guns blazing,” pleads Kayden at his position near the head of the table. I might be the big brother, but he’s got the men and the experience. I can’tnotlisten to his words of reason, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.

I slam my fist down on the table. “What if she doesn’t have hours, Kayden?”

“I highly doubt they are going to kill her after just getting her. It would defeat the entire purpose.”

“So it’s OK that she is used and abused in there?! That’s OK?”

Kayden’s face flushes in anger. “You know that’s not what I meant. It’s a shitty situation, James, but we are no good to her if we go in there and get ourselves killed. We need to think this through. We need to get outallthe women.”

“FUCK!” I exclaim, my frustration getting the better of me. I run a hand through my hair, my stress levels reaching a whole new level, which is a feat in itself.

“Guys, I have activity,” yells Franklin, waving us both over to his laptop.

From the camera near the back door of the house, a man is escorted into the house and led into the living room. It’s hard to tell on the grainy video feed, but the man appears to be a doctor of some sort. He’s tall, lanky, wearing glasses, and carrying a black bag with a medical symbol on the side. Since we started keeping tabs on the house via camera feeds, we have never seen a doctor get brought in, no matter how bad off the women get to be.

“He has to be there for Emilia. Franklin, can you pull up any info on this guy,” Kayden asks, leaning over his shoulder to get a better view of the video.

Franklin smirks. “Let me see what magic I can work.”

As Franklin pulls up some sort of software window, I start pacing behind his chair, watching the screen as I get more and more frustrated.

Franklin’s software is some sort of facial recognition program, and just as I think it isn’t going to pull up anything, Franklin shouts, “Got him!”

“Dr. Michael Crawford, retired physician from the eastern portion of California. Father of two five-year-old daughters, and a wife that he has been married to for thirty years. Looks like the twins were adopted three years ago at the age of two. Dr. Crawford retired about five years ago, has won numerous prestigious awards for his research and contributions to the medical field, and judging by his and his wife’s accounts, his family is set for a few generations at the very least.”

---