Page 20 of Hidden

And this time, I’d failed.

There was plenty of evidence of my failure, stacked in neat piles on my desk. I glared at the folders that were filled with painful words I had spent the night pouring over. On the other side of my desk were two small digital drives—interviews I’d yet to watch.

After I escaped Damen, I hadn’t been certain where to go. But my rage required an outlet.

What Iwantedwas to take her away from everything. I could have made it work. It was possible to disappear, to make it so even the council would never have been able to find us.

We’d been reborn countless times, and into countless cultures throughout the world. As such, I’d been able to prepare little by little, with each life. There were no limits to my safe homes and allies.

I always prepared for the worst-case scenario. Warfare had grown deadlier with every generation, and the dark side of human nature was more evident in the battlefield than anywhere else. I’d worked in law enforcement, and on the other side. Both were equally corrupt.

The others weren’t completely naive about the cruelty of the world. But they hadn’t been witnesses to mass bloodshed year after year.

Nor had they ever seen crimes like human trafficking up close…

They knew what itmeant. And I was sure they could imagine the horrors that Bianca must have suffered. But they’d never seen it.

I had.

My company subcontracted out to law enforcement agencies. I also owned satellite companies, straddling the gray areas of the law. Shifters were generally stronger, healed faster, and had senses the normal population didn’t. In many cases, it was our shifter abilities that stood between taking down a criminal or letting them go free.

So, yes, I’d witnessed the aftermath of many raids. Usually, victims were caught in the crossfire. And I’d seen too many mangled bodies in filthy rooms. The sight haunted my nights.

Humanity never seemed to outgrow their cruel nature. Despite knowing this, such depravity always managed to surprise me.

And now, every time I closed my eyes, I imagined Bianca as one of those children.

When I left the others, I returned home.

I returned because there wasn’t a second longer to waste. Hanah said her tormentor had vanished, and that was unacceptable. It meant the likelihood was high he roamed free to this day. It was a rare and difficult thing to bring down a trafficking network.

Until I learned otherwise, I would assume he was still out there.

I couldn’t talk to Bianca about this, not yet. But I would need to soon.

She was vindictive, and brave—even if she was damaged. I could see it in her eyes. When we first met, she had been scared. But she still struck out against me. And she instinctively fought for Damen.

She believed she was weak, but she was far stronger than she knew.

It was too soon to force her to confront this now. That didn’t mean that I couldn’t prepare in the meantime.

I only hoped I could handle it.

The door clicked open, and Damen entered my office. His presence dragged my attention from the small pile of recordings on my desk.

“You found a video interview?” he asked, noting where my attention had been. He loosened his tie, slumping into the chair across my desk. It looked like he hadn’t slept last night either. “Have you watched yet?”

“Maria brought them a little while ago.” I glanced back at my desk, thankful for my cousin.

Sometime between my rampage and returning to my office, she had been told. The instant I arrived, touching down on the roof, she was there for me. There had been no pity in her gaze. She didn’t question my actions. She only asked what my next steps were.

I needed information on Abigail Grier’s investigations.

Shortly thereafter, the others arrived. Supposedly, it was shocking that I was ‘functioning.’ Which was absurd. Who did they think dealt with the most amount of pressure? Did they not understand how wars were won?

Even so, once I explained my research, Damen remained with me, demanding to help. I was certain he thought he was helping me control the dragon, although it was unnecessary. But it didn’t matter, I’d rather have him where I could see him anyway.

Miles was in and out of my office. He’d started looking for ways to extricate Bianca from the current situation. She was over eighteen, but had been declared medically incompetent. We had the option to fight that, but it would result in a messy legal battle.