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“It’s okay, Liam,” Brighton spoke from beside me. I hadn’t even noticed he followed me into the room. “This is Ariel. She’s my new sister, and she’s here to help us. She killed Adrian.”

I wasn’t his sister yet, but when I got married, I would be, and then I’d be his aunt too, but I didn’t mention that. This was why you didn’t sleep with members from the same family. Shit got weird and too complicated.

I smiled my fake smile I’d long since perfected and hoped he thought it looked friendly and not fake. His eyes swung around the room wildly like he was looking for a threat to pop out and attack us. At least he stopped crying.

“She can’t be down here. Do you know what they do to the girls?”

Jesus.

Just what the hell did they do to the boys?

“Liam, where are your clothes? I’m going to need you to find them and put them on. Can you do that for me?”

I really needed him to put his clothes on. I wasn’t embarrassed by nudity, but his bruises and the simple fact that he was naked in the first place and the possible reasons as to why were really starting to get under my skin.

Liam shook his head frantically, his eyes never staying in one place for very long as they continued to dart around the room.

“He doesn’t have any clothes,” Brighton told me. “They were taken away from him as a punishment.”

And just like that, I did not feel bad about what I’d done to Adrian. I’d been trying really hard not to let my mind wander back and think about it. Now I just didn’t care because the fucker had deserved it.

I stripped out of my robe and held it out to the frightened little boy. “Here, Liam. Take this and put it on. You’ll catch your death. It’s too cold down here.”

The boy grabbed a hold of the robe and tore it out of my hands. I knew he could cry, but at this point, I wasn’t so sure he could actually talk to me. Maybe he had too much damage and could only speak to boys.

He stood up with his back to me and put on my robe. The blood on the backs of his thighs mixed with crusted semen was a shock to see, even though I’d sort of been expecting him to have been raped.

“How old is he?” I asked Brighton, my voice sounding strangled and not right.

“He’s thirteen. He’s only been here a couple of weeks, so he’s still learning about what gets him in trouble.”

Had they raped Brighton too? Was that what he meant when he said they did things to him?

There was a ball of rage and hatred starting to take form inside of my chest. It grew larger by the second, and I needed to get it under control before it exploded out of me and I accidentally burned us all alive in this shit hole.

My robe dwarfed Liam. Either he was small for his age or there was something wrong with him, because Brighton was both taller and bigger than him. He seemed so fragile and in need of protection.

“Take him upstairs, Bright, to the front of the motel. I don’t think he should be left alone in his state, and I’ll need you to explain the situation to my boys. I’ll keep sending them up to you as I find them.”

He looked like he wanted to argue with me again but wisely kept his mouth shut. The boy could learn, I had to give him that.

I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders the moment they walked out of the room and out of my eyesight. I knew I should have worried about them running into trouble, but I couldn’t be around them and their obvious damage anymore without losing my mind.

I knew my boys would take better care of them than I could in this moment, and that was the only thing helping me keep my cool.

The next room I walked into had two teenage boys, and I was relieved to see that they had clothes on. It might have been closer to rags, but I’d take that over nothing.

Their eyes widened in surprise when I walked into the room and immediately dropped down to my chest.

I had a feeling my hard nipples were showing through the thin, wet, clinging fabric of my tank top. Jesus effing Christ. If I wasn’t on the verge of freezing to death, my cheeks would probably be blazing as bright as a tomato.

Fucking teenage boys and their extreme hormones. I knew they couldn’t help but look, but did they have to continue to stare at my tits like that?

I had a feeling neither Quinton nor Rain were going to like these two. I couldn’t blame them. I didn’t think I was going to enjoy them much either if they kept this nonsense up.

“Eyes up here, boys.” I pointed at my face.

Unfortunately, this brought their attention to the scar on my cheek. Oh, they better not ask about how it got there, because I wasn’t in the mood for it. I was really ready to go home, take a bath, and maybe sleep for the next six months, and then maybe when I got back up, I could come back here for the last time ever so I could burn this place to the ground.