Page 13 of Vengeful Lies

Following the men out of the room, they locked the door behind them and led her into a larger room where the rest were waiting for them, plus a sixth who hadn't been in the car the day before. There were piles of food strewn about, not anything she’d usually make for breakfast, but there was some fruit, and a couple of loaves of bread, enough for her to feed her little charge.

“Bet the kid is hungry,” one said, shooting her a smarmy smile.

“What are you willing to do to feed her?” another asked, grabbing his crotch and squeezing.

Gabriella gulped, and her voice shook when she answered. “Anything.”

“Down on your knees,” the man who had sat before her in the vehicles yesterday said as he stalked toward her.

Her entire body shook and she wanted to scream at these disgusting men that she wasn't going to do what they wanted. But she couldn’t. Because the little girl she loved was sitting in a room waiting for her to bring back food for her. It had been almost twenty-four hours since they’d last eaten, and her stomach was cramping badly, she knew Essie’s would be the same.

There was no other choice.

No way out.

Fighting back a sob she dropped down to her knees. Chuckles and hollers sounded around her, but she couldn’t look at the men or she’d lose her nerve. Instead, she stared at the floor.

Watched as a pair of boots appeared before her.

The sound of a zipper opening had her lifting her head to find a penis right in front of her.

Try as she might, she couldn’t make her lips part to take it inside.

When she didn't move, rough hands tangled in her long red hair, and gripped her face hard enough to squeeze her cheeks and her mouth popped open.

As he stuffed his length inside it, making her gag, tears trickled down her cheeks. Gabriella felt like she was selling her soul to the devil but so long as what she was buying was food and protection for Essie, she would pay whatever price was asked.

Chapter

Four

September 2nd

11:12 A.M.

“How is that possible?” Cade roared into the phone.

Only one thing had kept him going the last twenty-six hours, and that was that he believed in Prey. Believed in their skills and resources, believed in the men and women who worked for the world-renowned company, believed they were the best of the best, and believed that if anyone could locate his daughter and bring her home, it was them.

Now those beliefs were being smashed to smithereens.

“I’m sorry, Cade,” Olivia Oswald said on the other end of the line.

“I don’t want you to be sorry,” he snapped at Olivia, the wife of Prey’s founder and CEO, legendary former SEAL, Eagle.

Part of his brain registered that he was being harsh with the wrong people, that Olivia and the rest of the team working for Prey’s cyber division were doing their best. If he got Olivia offside then he got Eagle offside, since the man adored his wife. Getting on the wrong side of Eagle Oswald was like gettingon the wrong side of the President. The man had connections everywhere and had billions of dollars at his disposal, money he wasn't afraid to use to get what he wanted.

It wasn't keeping his job Cade was worried about. He would gladly give up anything in the world if he had to. It was fear that if he alienated Olivia and thus Eagle, he was cutting off what he still thought was his best chance at getting Essie back.

“I want you to find where my daughter is,” he said into the phone, a thread of desperation in his tone. Not that there was any point in hiding it. Olivia was a mother. She and Eagle had a four-year-old daughter, Luna, and a one-year-old son, Apollo. If anyone could empathize with his feelings right now, he knew it was her.

“I'm doing everything I can, I promise you I am. I can't imagine how hard this is for you, Cade, if I'm being perfectly honest, I don’t even want to. Essie is the same age as Luna, and if someone took my daughter from me, I don’t think I'd be able to breathe.” Olivia paused and he could hear her dragging in a ragged breath. “I'm sorry. I know I let you down, but I can't find them.”

Not what he wanted to hear.

If Olivia and Raven Oswald and the rest of their team couldn’t find his daughter, who could?

The answer to that question hung heavily over him, slowly smothering him to death in the worst possible way.

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