Page 29 of Unleash Hades
“You’re making that up.” I coolly sipped the whiskey.
There was no way a story that outlandish could be true. It was too much detail.
“Sure, sounds like it, doesn’t it?” Bellamy chuckled.
“And what? She’s the Legionnaire’s girlfriend?”
Please don’t be Hugo’s girlfriend.
“No, she’s married to one of the Irish cousins - the Greens - who works for Caledonia Security.” Bellamy’s smarmy smirk was all over his tone, like honey. “I’m sure you’ve heard of them, yes? They rescued your dear sister.”
Pinpricks traveled up my spine as I remembered the sheer helplessness of seeing my sister kidnapped. They had demanded a ransom and plastered her beaten face all over the news. And I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t rescue her. I did the next best thing. I called Caledonia Security, and offered them everything… I would have let them harvest my organs if that’s what it took as long as they kept her off of Richard’s radar and brought her home safe.
But Callum MacLachlan, Baron of Strathlachlan, was a fair man. He didn’t ask for my kidneys.
He only asked for me to fund the operation and pay the salary.
I would have paid much more for my little sister.
“Wait, she’s a bratva daughter, and married to the Irish? And he’s in a security company?” The questions all crept into my mind. One right after the other.
I kept tabs on that company because I knew that one of my sister’s boarding school friends began it. What started as innocent snooping – a need to know about a sister I publicly disavowed, turned into genuine interest when I watched the company take off… then they hired Hugo. He became a partner, and part owner, and now he was here…
Our lives intertwined so intricately… It felt like fate.
Or maybe something more sinister was at work here.
“She's the reason for the Mafia truce. Didn’t you know?” Bellamy taunted. “The Legionnaire works for Caledonia Security, as I amsureyou know,” the last phrase was filled with so much innuendo that if I hadn’t been sureI had kept my secret, I would suspect that he knew something. “She’s his coach, obviously.”
I let out a breath of relief.
She was a coach. Not a girlfriend. She was married.
I swallowed, trying to keep the creep of a blush from moving up my neck and into my cheeks.
“How is that obvious?” I asked, wanting confirmation that he wasn’t with her.
“Other than the fact they walked out together?” Bellamy said, lifting a brow. I looked away from him again, to watch Hugo in the ring. But Bellamy continued to speak, “Because she’s shouting at him, of course. She’s giving him orders from the sidelines.”
She was certainly yelling something. Her face was red with her frustration as her fingers curled tighter on the chain-link. And what she commanded, he obeyed.
“You truly know nothing of this sport, do you?” Bellamy said, taking a sip of his drink, the ice and glass tinkling along with his high-pitched laugh.
“He doesn’t mind taking commands from a woman,” I smiled.
Why did that give me a sense of pride?
Oh, because you are married to a closet misogynist.
“I wouldn't mind taking commands from her when it comes to fighting. She is a champion after all,” Bellamy said. “And it’s more than what the She-Bear has.”
I looked to the other side of the ring. The girl in khaki and the four men were looking at the fight, their mouths shut, theirhands clasped in front of them. They were more statues than people.
“They’re not helping her,” Bellamy said, and I thought I saw anger cross his features, before disappearing. “Which is why I don’t think they’re there for support. I don’t think the She-Bear is here voluntarily.”
“You suspect she’s being trafficked?”
“I suspect that the girl is,” he said as he took a long sip of his whiskey. “And the She-Bear is the only protection she has.”
