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.