Page 193 of Between Passion and Revenge: Part Two
“Okay, can you fuckin’ focus now?” I grind out, and he stands, sighing.
“I’m irritated,” he mutters. “We’re back at square one, but now we’ve shaken up the hornet’s nest.”
Axel and Riale share a look.
“Listen, don’t start that bullshit again,” I say, knowing what they’re thinking. “If you had it your way, we’d be waiting until the next millennium to make a move.”
“Let’s not play the ‘what if’ game,” Riale says. “Let’s just make a plan. Axel, do you haveanyleads on where he could be?”
Axel shakes his head.
“No, he’s a ghost right now. But he’ll slip up eventually,” he says, dropping into his computer chair and attacking his keyboard. “They always do.”
I pinch the skin between the bridge of my nose.
“There’s something else,” Axel says.
“Oh, goodie. I need more, of course,” I grumble, then with a sigh, I look up at Axel.
“Well, I solved a mystery. Turns out Zane wasn’t just a threat—he was legacy—Lakeland’s protégé.”
My eyebrows come together.
“How’d that happen?” I ask, blood starting to pound at my temples.
Axel shrugs. “Gibson took a liking to Isla Cara years ago as a teenager. Apparently, going to the island was a family tradition—father-son bonding time or some shit.”
“You mean grooming?” This comes from Riale.
Axel nods once, grim. “Yeah. That’s one word for it.”
I screw up my face, thinking of the type of person who’d take a kid to a place like Isla Cara for fun. Clearly, a monster set on creating other monsters.
“Lakeland took a liking to Zane. Helped him with his schooling, made connections for him, the whole deal,” Axel adds.
I hum.
“I see. So when Shae came into the picture, Lakeland probably thought it was fate. And when Zane saw her, he probably thought she belonged to him. A gift from Lakeland. A reward,” I say, my voice flat.
My jaw aches from how hard I grind my teeth. Rage sits just beneath my skin, making me want to kill him all over again.
“Probably more like his property. You know how Lakeland thinks. I doubt Zane would see women any differently from his mentor,” Axel murmurs.
All three of us fall silent, and the horrors, the what-ifs, threaten to make me sick.
“All right,” Riale says, straightening. “I guess that’s that. Can we put this topic to bed now, Storm?”
I don’t appreciate his attitude, but I set it aside because there’s more important shit to deal with.
“What’s the next step?” I ask Riale, and his face changes with relief before settling into his standard RBF.
“We lock everything down,” he says. “You, Shae, and the kids should disappear. Somewhere off-grid. Extra security, burner phones, the whole thing.”
I nod once. I hate running. But I hate losing more.
Shae hasn’t shared more than a few words with me over the past few weeks. Why would she go with me across the world? She’s ready to go back to her life, not start a new one with me.
“I’ll sort it out. In the meantime, triple the security. Axel, get the Russian to send over more of his people. Since this is his fuck-up,” I say.
