Page 78 of Hunted Innocence
Two men are seated, with four naked women. One of the men bends slightly and snorts a line of coke. The other man palms a woman’s bare breast before he does the same, bending slightly to do a line. The men lean backward, their smiles clear even from a distance.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I reach down, glancing at the screen. It’s a message from Boden. I can’t believe he’s gotten back to me so quickly. Usually, the facial recognition program can take hours to find a hit.
BODEN: Girls were easy to place. Popped up almost instantly. Missing teens.
The only girls I’ve sent images of are the four naked ones sitting at the table with the guys doing coke. The girl on herknees for the target is one I haven’t had a clear shot of, along with some of the others.
How old are they? How long missing?
This is somedéjà vushit that makes my entire body feel sick. Downright fucking sick. Because I was those girls, and I know that whatever the hell is going on here, it’s not good. Then I think about Nadine and all the shit she went through.
I will never understand why men do this to people, to children. Especially when there are plenty of people in the world who enjoy a million different kinds of kinks and would be more than happy to do whatever these men want.
And it isn’t just about control. A copious number of men and women are more than happy to be controlled in any way these fucks desire. So they’re just fucking sick perverts. That’s the only explanation, and in that case, they all need to fuckin die.
I wish I could do something to get all of them eradicated from earth. Every single man or woman who hurts a child deserves a fate worse than death.
Boden is typing something, but I have to shove my phone in my pocket and shift my body out of view as the yacht shifts and begins to move in a different direction, and the move seems hurried. As hurried as an almost thirty-foot yacht can move.
Something is up.
Chapter Thirty-Four
NADINE
Sucking in a breath,I stare at my packed bag on the bed. This is insane. Truly. I should not be doing this. But as I tug the bag from the bed, then reach for the smaller one that contains my toiletries, I know I am doing this.
If I want Grayson back, I don’t have a choice. I am going to have to be a bit crazy. He has it in his head that he is a certain way, that he can only be one type of man, but he is so much more. He doesn’t realize his potential, thinking he’s too fucked up to love. But he’s not. Nobody is, and I’m going to prove it to him.
“Are you ready?” Lucille asks from behind me.
Turning my head, I look over my shoulder, seeing her standing just in the doorway to my bedroom. Her gaze searches mine, her eyes a bit wild. Actually, they sparkle with excitement.
Only Lucille would be excited over an unhinged plan.
“Theron told me that this guy is really scary, like cartel scary,” I whisper.
She hums but doesn’t speak. Instead, she takes a step toward me, then another, and stops before she reaches out and takes my hands with hers.
“Nobody would think less of you if you wanted to stay. We can come up with a planB. It doesn’t have to be this.”
The exciting sparkle in her eye has dimmed slightly. She’s saying the words, but Lucille is a girl of action, and she wants me to go and seize the day, but at the same time, she also knows how timid I can be. A scaredy-cat, a wallflower, whatever you want to use to describe it, that’s what I am.
“I don’t want to wait any longer.”
She sinks her teeth into the corner of her bottom lip and worries the flesh for a moment. She doesn’t say anything, her attention fixed on my face, but otherwise, she watches me in silence.
Releasing her lip, she opens her mouth, then closes it before her brows snap together. I can tell she wants to ask me why I don’t want to wait, but she also doesn’t want to pry, which is hilarious in and of itself because she usually has no problem meddling.
“Is there a reason you don’t want to wait?” she finally asks, her gaze flicking to my stomach and then shifting back up to meet mine.
“Are you asking me if I’m pregnant?”
Her eyes widen. “Are you?” she hisses.
I almost laugh but decide against it. Maybe she just wants all three of us to have babies back-to-back. I’m not sure, but I’m not pregnant. Shaking my head, I clear my throat before I answer.
“I’m not pregnant,” I state.
