Page 60 of Their Domme

“What?! How can an entire room be missing?”

“I have no idea, but Vas is going to break down the wall. I need to see if there’s a hammer or something.” I gestured to the garage where Dad had kept his tools.

“Nic…” Wrenn reached out, but she stopped just short of touching me. I turned to face her, and she swallowed hard but made herself meet my stare. “About earlier—”

“Nic! Come here,” Oli yelled out, and we both looked over toward the sound of his voice. “Now!”

“What’s going on?” I asked, starting down the stairs with Wrenn right behind me. I had never been so glad to be interrupted. I wasn’t sure what Wrenn was going to say, but I did know that I wasn’t ready to hear it. There was way too much on my plate right now, and revisiting old flames was not on my fucking list.

Ansel strode out from around the back of the garage, and the cold glint in his gaze made my heart race. He crooked a finger for me to come with him. Oli and Maksim had gone around the side with Ryan, so I went to Ansel, curious to see what he had found.

“Your parents were leaders of the ring, yes?” Ansel asked when I got close. I tilted my chin in quiet confirmation, and with a quick glance toward Wrenn, he grabbed my arm and pulled me along to the back. “I think your cop friend is going to realize this very soon or at least understand their general involvement.”

“Why do you say that? What the hell is in the garage?”

“Nic! Get over here, now,” Maks ordered. The steel in his voice made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, but not in fear.

“Guess I get to find out.”

“It’s not good,” Ansel warned. Something dangerous took over his expression before it smoothed out. “Let’s go.”

He grabbed my hand, guiding me around the garage to find the other men waiting by an open door. Wrenn followed behind us, though she stopped next to her brother who was glancing inside, his face pale. He looked like was going to be sick, and Oli didn’t look any better, even with Bodhi beside him. Maks lit a cigarette and trained his eyes on me as we came into view.

“What’s going on?” I asked, my stare bouncing between everyone until I chose to stop on Maks. He appeared the most put together, so I figured I might get an answer from him.

Instead of making things easy on me, Maksim answered my question with one of his own. “Where are the others?”

“Vas is about to tear down a wall,” I told him, ignoring how Ryan snapped to attention at that. “They boarded up my old bedroom.”

“What?!” Ryan asked, the pitch of his voice rising.

Maksim slowly exhaled a bunch of smoke, but he otherwise showed no reaction. Alexei walked out of the garage, a grimace twisting his lips, and came to stand next to Maks. They shared a long look before Alexei released a shaky breath. “This is where he kept the kids.”

“What?” I breathed, coldness filling me as shock hit. He’d kept kidshere? How did I never notice? My lips parted as I tried to comprehend what he was saying.

“Your dad.” Maks inclined his head toward the garage. “The stench is enough to say they were kept here for quite a while. And there are bodies in cages. Probably about a month old from the looks of things.”

Ansel shifted until he was standing behind me, his hands on my shoulders as clarity and numbness took over. I could work with this. I had a job to do. I felt myself hum in acknowledgment.

While I was processing, Oli backed away from the garage, though he didn’t run. I didn’t need to see the inside to know Alexei was speaking the truth. I could almost picture what had happened here from what Ryan had told me. Mom was shot in the chest trying to protect Thomas, but Dad… He had run, unless he was in league with my stalker.

After Thomas was gone, the odds were that he knew my stalker, so he knew what could happen once shit hit the fan. He would have come to the garage and killed his merchandise, the kids he’d kept and abused here, mere yards from the house.

“What the hell is going on here? You’re not reacting at all, Nicholette, and these guys know those kids have been dead for a month by justlookingat them? Who are all of you?” Ryan asked, panic making the pitch of his voice rise with every question.

“That’s not important right now—” I argued, trying to calm him down, but Ryan wasn’t having any of it.

“You all know things, too many things that you shouldn’t,” Ryan stubbornly refuted, trying to regain control of himself. “It’s obvious you’re involved in things that aren’t legal.”

“Are you trying to insinuate something?” Ansel drawled from behind me, and Ryan’s gaze flickered to him before fixing on me again.

“You can’t leave. I need to bring the others here and show him the new evidence.”

“That’s not going to happen,” I purred, reaching back for the gun I knew Ansel kept on a shoulder holster. Aiming and taking off the safety, I held it steady as every person around me froze.

Bodhi held Oli close, shifting their position so they were closer to the brothers and farther from where Ryan and Wrenn were standing. I arched an eyebrow at him as I stared down a man I had known for most of my life, knowing that if I had to pull the trigger to protect myself and my men, I would without hesitation.

“What are you doing, Nic? Pulling a gun on an officer—”

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