Page 48 of Healing Conviction
Gail huffed a laugh before she realized he was serious. Her head shook in disbelief. “You… you really thought we were untouchable, didn’t you?”
“Maybe notuntouchable,” Stefan sputtered. “But they couldn’t transport those women all over the world without our containers. They’re air-conditioned, and padded for soundproofing—”
“They’rejust metal coffins, Stefan! You should know that by all the graves surrounding us! Do you really think they give a shit whether the women are transportedcomfortably? The only criteria for those women is that they are alive and fuckable. And sometimes these psychopaths don’t seem to even care aboutthat!”
Her harsh words hurt to say aloud, but Stefan was too naive for her to use pretty metaphors or flowery language to circumvent the women’s tortured lives. When Stefan didn’t answer, his face red with emotion, she continued.
“I think the more important questionIhave from that phone call was, what happened to this being the last delivery? Who cares what they do with us if we’re not working for them anymore? What are they doing threatening us if we’re supposed to be free and clear after this weekend?”
His gaze shot to hers. “Oh, w-we’ll make sure it happens, Gail. I promise. Th-they told us that. We need this one to go off without a hitch, and then we can revisit our deal.”
Her lips pressed together so tightly they began to hurt from the pressure. She returned her attention to her laptop and typed, not really seeing the screen through her red haze of anger.
“Fuck, I don’t know what to do, Gail.”
Stefan rocked and doubled over in his chair before clasping his hands over the back of his head as if he was bracing for impact. She’d always wondered why airplane safety videos instructed the stance. With the spine and neck exposed, it seemed that the position made the person more vulnerable to break where they were weakest.
“Gail, please. What do we do? What if the deliverydoesn’tpan out? We can’t have another fuckup on our hands.”
He was right, they couldn’t. It’d be over for one, or both of them, if another deal went south on their watch.
Her eyes drifted to the frame that held all the love she had in this world. Perhaps if she were no longer in the picture, others might be left in peace.
She closed her laptop, deciding to call it a day and go back home. “You’ve done enough, Stefan. I’ll take care of everything.”
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
It took way too long for Shanna to open her eyes.
Devil had warned Draco that—depending on what was already in her system—it could take a couple of hours for her to wake up from the experimental drug Nora had injected her with. But even armed with that reassurance, Draco still sweated every minute she remained unconscious.
Nora had thankfully napped during that time, and he’d enjoyed listening to her quiet, sleeping breaths behind him. But when Shanna woke up screaming, jackknifing up like someone escaping a nightmare, she’d startled Nora awake too and he’d nearly knocked the woman out himself to shut her up again so his little pixie could get some rest.
He’d had to pull over again on an empty country road so he could wrangle Shanna. He had to hand it to the woman, she was a fighter. By the end of it, frustration and exertion had tried his patience.
Against Nora’s objections, he’d strapped Shanna into the back seat using his paracord key chain to tie her in a handcuff knot. The crazed woman had rightfully lost her shit then, but it was a good thing for all of them that Nora had more empathy than he did. It was only after she’d gotten Shanna to finally calm down that Nora’s no-nonsense kicked in and got down to business.
“Alright, girl. Now’s your time to shine. We made a deal. You tell us what you know, we drop you off on our way to our destination.”
Shanna sighed and took another sip of water from the bottle Nora had fitted in her cuffed hands. “So… what do y’all wanna know?”
“Love the question, girl.” Now in the passenger seat, Nora swiveled around to face Shanna and sat cross-legged with her seat belt against her back. “Alright, let me go ahead and tell you whoweare. My associate and I work for a group who is trying to take down awful men like the ones who hurt you—”
An ugly snort erupted from Shanna. “That’s alongfuckin’ list, and it ain’t just men. But good on you for tryin’ I guess.”
At Shanna’s admission, Draco could see the nearly nonexistent tells of Nora’s bottled outrage. Once again, he witnessed how exceptionally good his pixie was at shoving her emotions down for the sake of someone else as she continued the conversation.
“I’m sorry, Shanna. But I promise you, we’re trying to take down a whole slew of big baddies. This guy here was actually on the team that rescued you when you were a kid.”
“The fuck?” Shanna gawked at him in his rearview mirror.“Are you for real? I was shot up with drugs, but doyouremember me?”
Draco shook his head. “I don’t. It’s what we did. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people we had to save over the years.”
Shanna didn’t reply, but the tension in the truck eased significantly.
“The more you can share, the better prepared his team and I will be to help others who’ve suffered like you. First things first, we know that after you were rescued, you actually did okay for yourself. An all A student before you went to that party in Ashland two years ago, right? You wanna fill in the blanks?”
“It ain’t no Disney fairy tale, just warnin’ you.”