Page 36 of Sadistic Retribution (Rise of Phoenyxx #2)

Phoenyxx

I'm coming out of the bathroom, stuck in my thoughts. I jump like an idiot when Valley walks up, hugging me. “Nyx? Can we hang out for a while? I just...”

“Of course, babes. You don’t even have to ask, let alone explain. Let's go to Hunter’s room, so we can have some privacy.”

We head that way, and I make a pit stop, poking my head around to the living room. “Everyone, stay out of Hunter’s room! Me and Valley are going to catch up.”

A grumble of sure and ok satisfies me that the message got through. We get into the room and I throw the lock, just to be safe. We sink down onto the bed, and the minute my ass is seated, she bursts into tears.

“Oh, honey!”

“I’ve been so scared,” Valley cries. “I mean, the guys made sure I was safe and stuff, but I was totally alone. All I could think about was you and Bryan. My heart literally died when you both broke in front of me. I was stuck in my brain, Nyx—I heard every word!”

She sobs, her shoulders heaving. God, how did I not even consider what she must have been going through?

Wait, I wonder if...? I decide to ask. Wincing, I ask Valley, “Were you also aware of what Ghost did with his... um...” I stutter out, unable to finish the sentence.

She gives me a tiny smile. “Yeah, but I'm not upset anymore, not like I was.”

“Val... I don’t have words. My heart breaks for you. You went through hell.” She gives me a watery smile. I stare at her pretty face in wonder, how she is always radiating love and positivity. She is truly one-of-a-kind.

“I will promise you this,” I say. “We will get Bryan out of there. We won’t leave this place without him.”

“Do you know anything about him at all?” She chews the inside of her cheek, fingers fiddling together.

I heave a heavy sigh. “The last time I saw him was in the ring. He was... not responsive. They dumped him in with the fucking cannibal. But, he didn’t get beaten. The cannibal has morals, or something.”

“Oh! My God! My poor baby! Him thinking I was gone really affected him that badly?”

“Sweetheart, he is so in love with you. You are his everything. Never doubt that.”

She nods frantically. “Will you tell me about the others you want to save?”

“Fuck,” I breathe out. “Okay. 6 is a younger girl, really pretty, but she is totally crazy. She has lucid moments, but mostly she’s in outer space. Still, she’s impossible to dislike. She took a liking to me. Even sang songs about marrying me.”

“Really?” Valley squeals. “She sounds kinda awesome!”

I grin. “3 is hard to explain. No one even knew he was there. His cell was in a dark corner at the end of the hall. He hid under his bed. He was fucking naked. No pillow, no blanket. When I discovered him, something had me trying to communicate with him. The poor guy is mute. He doesn’t speak.

But, in a really short period of time, he started responding to me.

He even hugged me and kissed me on the lips.

He was a mess, Val. Crying and shaking, especially when I left. I have to get him out.”

“Oh man... What the fuck? What assholes put him in there? Yes—we will save him too.”

This girl. She is everything good in the world.

“The best thing we can do now is get proof of all the fuckery,” I say, with conviction. “Then, we get the fuck out of here. Together!”

She throws her arms around me. I hug her back just as hard and kiss the top of her head. “I love you, Val. So much.”

“Love you back, Nyx!”

I'm more determined than before to see this through. There's no other alternative. Although I still have so much anger towards the guys, I don’t want them hurt—or worse. But forgiveness? Not even on the radar right now.

Purge

I'm deep in the bowels of Augustine’s files from the computer we stole from his office. Harris has a chair pulled up next to me at his kitchen table. He's good for helping. I didn’t know he had any hacking experience, but he seems to know some basic skills.

“So, these numbers in the files. I think I’ve got it figured out.

The top numbers are dates. The numbers after are the patient numbers.

The large numbers are monetary amounts. And lastly, the last numbers are dates of sales.

” I’ve picked this apart ad nauseum, and the pattern finally became obvious.

“Those must be patients that they sold to trafficking. Which means… our fucking fathers must be involved.”

“Fuck,” Harris says, eyes bugging out. “I think you’re right. But see here? These look like dates too, but no monetary amount. Maybe dates they were sent elsewhere?”

“Hmmm... that’s possible, yeah. But sent out where? There's no way they just were sent home. Maybe forced to work for this place in some way?”

“Motherfucker! Purge, I think we have it. Let’s make a list of this shit and show the others.”

This excites me, I finally think I may find every damn secret and crack them wide open.

I jot down a list hurriedly.

01/18/1973

Patient 1

$100,000

03/15/1974

11/03/1977

Patient 2

$150,000

02/02/1979

10/23/1981

Patient 4

01/02/1982

05/18/1995

Patient 5

$250,000

04/19/1997

06/01/2010

Patient 7

05/13/2011

07/06/2019

Patient 8

09/20/2020

“There are pretty big gaps in those dates. And from 1973 forward? They've been at this a long fucking time,” I say to Harris.

“I noticed that, too. This place is nothing but a disguise for sick assholes to torture and sell people.”

“The main question is, who owns this place? It's got to be in here somewhere.”

“I have a sick feeling your families are involved.” Hunter frowns, rubbing his jaw.

“We need proof. Let's keep digging, hopefully the others get good information from those files.” Gritting my teeth, I keep working.

I will not stop until this all falls into place.

Ghost

For the first time since everything went to shit, I have some hope. I think Malishka will forgive us with time. Meanwhile, I’m determined to uncover info we need to get out of here.

I've got a stack of files in front of me. The ones on our families. I'm no hacker, but I do know how to recognize patterns and shit in code.

I'm frowning down at Purge’s file. Something isn’t right here.

The family info is all correct, except a large part about his father is missing.

The page has been erased at that part. It stops at role, which is weird.

Obviously, he’s the head of their part of the Bratva.

Why would anything more be written down, and why was it removed?

A light bulb in my brain goes off. I take the file closer to the light.

I hold up the missing page and I can see a faint shadow of what was written there.

I grab a pencil, lightly shading over the erased words.

Holding it to the light again, I can make out the indents in the paper enough to read it.

I rush back to my workspace, writing down each letter once I can make out what it is.

HEAD OF THE RETREAT

OWNER SINCE 1999, TAKEN OVER AFTER—

No. There's no fucking way. I had to have made a mistake.

There's no name at the end, so who founded the place?

My hands shake as I start to panic. I need another set of eyes to read this before I take it to Purge.

I rush to where Frost is working. I hope like fuck I’m wrong.

Synn

Wow. Fuck me. Razor and I are in shock at how easy it was to find this shit hidden in the file for our girl, my Pazessca.

First of all, we were right about the location of The Morgue.

It's in that storage shed by the electric fence in the woods that we discovered. And... the seventh family is actually real. We couldn’t find a name, but it does mention the family in a couple of pages.

What does it have to do with Pazessca, though?

“Holy fuck!” Razor yells, grabbing my attention. “Our six families? They fucking broke off from the main Mafia unit in the world—The Syndicate! They're some kind of secret group.”

Why the fuck is this shit hidden in Augustine’s file? “Brother, this is huge. More nails for those fuckers’ coffins!” My heart is about to beat out of my chest.

“Man, think about this for a second. If our families did that, there could be huge targets on all our backs. We need to show this to Harris and Purge,” Razor says, worry etching his face.

“Yeah, but on the bright side, the Syndicate will take them all out.”

“I want first dibs,” Razor growls.

I couldn’t agree more.

Trikk

I've got the Solomons file in front of me, pouring over every word. It says they have no children. We all know Bambi isn’t related to them, so I need real info.

I keep reading, quirking a brow at their medical files.

Matthew's is pretty normal, common illnesses, and what-not. Betty's though… It lists the number of pregnancies as one. Did she miscarry or abort it? Weird it doesn’t say. I suppose it’s a normal enough thing to happen to a woman.

I'll take note of it and show it to Purge.

Frost

I’m getting emotional looking through Killer’s file.

So many pictures of her as a child. She was beautiful even then.

There's an obvious change in her appearance from before she went to the Solomons. I don’t completely get the word “update” on the back of all the ones from her time with those old assholes.

Although I can guess, which is making my stomach sick.

Why would they be sending update photos to Augustine?

I start reading over the actual documents.

The file is thick. It appears to be in reverse order.

Present time first, then goes back from there.

I go past her admission date since we already know that.

The reason though has my brow lifting. “Aggressive and violent”.

She was most certainly not like that—not before we made her that way.

I keep reading. I flip through several pages before something jumps out at me. There’s a list of dates.

2007-2013: H

2013-2015: F

2015-2025: S

The ‘S’ has to mean the Solomons. But what is ‘H’ and ‘F’?

I flip to the last page. It says, Under no circumstances should she be allowed to leave. She must remain in the present location.

Why the hell would they force her to stay here? What am I missing?

I hear loud footsteps, and look up to see Ghost barging in. “You okay?”

“I found something huge. I need to run it by you before taking it to Purge.” He pulls out a sheet of paper, and a paper from the file he was working on. He thrusts them both out to me. “Look at this! I was going through Purge’s family file.”

My eyes bounce between papers. What the fuck am I looking at? There is no way...

My face pale and voice shaking, I look up at Ghost. “Oh my God. I never even suspected this. We have to take this to him now. Good job, Brother.”

Purge

Making my way through the last few pages in the computer files, I freeze at seeing the final folder.

It’s photographs of pages from a journal or something.

I scan the words, not getting what it means yet.

I continue on, my breath halting in my lungs as I read the very last line—J.F.

The only thing that makes sense is for those to be the initials of Joseph Franco—Synn's father.

I look up when the sound of stampeding elephants rushes towards me and Harris. The guys run in, all looking extremely pale.

“Did you guys find something?” I ask.

They all start talking at once. Harris holds his hand up. “One a time, guys.”

Trikk, Synn, Razor, and Frost fill us in on everything they just found. I’m in fucking shock. But my blood truly stops moving through my veins when Ghost steps up, visibly shaking.

“Brace yourself, man,” he explains, before handing me his papers.

I read them both. Then again. And again.

“What is this?” I demand. “How? This isn’t possible!”

Harris snatches the papers. “Oh my fucking God. You never suspected?”

“Of course not! Fuck!”

“Now it all makes sense,” Frost says. “Getting put in here, and how we’re so untouchable.”

I swallow hard. “They are all incredibly fucked. We just won the power, boys.”

“Let me see those files.” I ask them. I want to get another look at them after this huge revelation. What if? God... nothing would surprise me at this point. My mind whirls, putting all this information together.

Before I get into it, I show them what Harris and I found out. Curses echo in the kitchen. “Keep it down, I don’t want Iskra coming in just yet.” I turn back to read the journal entry, motioning for Synn to read it with me.

She was stolen from us like a thief in the night. When our backs were turned, no less. When we were reveling in the lust and the glory, someone with a hood on took her away. She's gone. We'll likely never see her again. My Bella.

Synn turns ghostly white, backing up from the table. “No, no, no. It can’t be. I thought I was saving...” he starts to cry, startling us all. I get up, slowly walking towards him, touching his shoulder for comfort.

“You can tell us anything, Brother.”

“You don’t understand—I never told any of you what I did.

” He sobs once, then forces himself to continue.

“When I was sixteen, I caught a glimpse of a tiny child being tortured and raped by my father. I tried to keep an eye on her. When I realized she was likely going to end up being killed, I decided to save her. I waited until it was a moonless night, and sat in the shadows until a perfect moment presented itself. Purge… I asked your father for a favor. To help me get the girl to safety.”

“What?”

“Let me finish, please. I waited until all the adults present were... celebrating, then I got her down off the wall she was shackled to. I wore a hoodie. I took her to a waiting car. There was an old man inside, so I figured she would be safe. I... I... was wrong. Oh God! My Pazessca!”

Synn’s knees give out, and he catches himself on the table. We've all heard parts of Iskra’s past. It's obvious that child was... her.