Beard Up(40)

She tilted her head to the side.

"I kicked Josh out of his house," I admitted. "Showed my hand and fucked myself in the process."

"Why?"

I sighed.

"I didn't like the way he was acting around you, nor the way having him around made Sienna cry," I admitted. "I forced him to move out."

Her mouth stretched into a small smile.

"What I didn't know at the time was that Josh was already working with my parents," I began. "He was present the day I arrived in my parents' clutches, and he was the man that watched over me, though since I'd been in a fog of pain at the time, I hadn't remembered," I growled in frustration. "When I kicked him out because he was bothering y'all, he got suspicious. He moved, and then spent the next few weeks doing his research."

"He figured out who you were," she guessed.

"Got it in one," I nodded. "Threatened to tell my parents that I wasn't as dead as I'd made myself appear to be."

She groaned.

"He was so freakin' innocent," she moaned into her hands. "I thought he was sad, like me. I should've never fallen for that act."

"You likely couldn't help it," I said, prying her hands away from her face. "He's gotten four women before you. Trust me, he's well versed in the act of conning women."

She lifted her gaze to mine.

"What are we going to do now?" she asked. "He's going to tell your parents that you're alive. Then they're going to start searching for you."

I grinned.

"That's where good computer wizards come into the picture," I said. "The same couple that I told you about who deleted all of those photos off of the computers?" I asked. She nodded her head, indicating that she understood, and I continued. "They help women escape abusive situations," I murmured. "They erased you and any signs of you. As long as you don't register Sienna for school just yet, using her birth certificate, then there should be no threads that tie you here."

"But what about the hospital?" she asked. "I filled out employment paperwork." 

"Tommy Tom took care of that," I answered. "You're now under my alias name as Mina Lane. Sienna is now Sienna Lane. For the unforeseeable future, until we can nail my parents to the wall."

She looked at me skeptically.

"It's been six years, Tunnel," she stated. "What's going to change?"

I didn't disagree. She was right, of course. I'd been at this for six years now, and now I was no closer to nailing than when I had first started.

"I'm going to fucking kill them if I have to," I said. "I was trying to shut down the entire operation. If I don't completely eliminate them and just cut them out of the picture, there's going to be just that many more taking their place. But, at least, they won't be after you or Sienna anymore."

She ground her teeth.

"Why haven't you already done that?"

She sounded so freakin' brokenhearted about it that I wanted to do absolutely anything to take that pain away.

But I knew she needed to hear the truth. She needed to know exactly why I did this.

I pulled out my phone and pulled up an app. It was one that only law enforcement was allowed to have.

"This shows the number of kids that are missing in The United States right now," I rumbled, pulling up the list of missing children. "I know for a fact that at least fifteen of these children have gone through my parents' operation over the last six months."

Her eyes widened, and a tear spilled over her cheek, and trailed all the way down to her chin where it fell down onto her pants.

"Shit."

"How could I do this, bring myself back in your lives by taking my parents out, only to have this continue?" I asked, not expecting an answer.

"You couldn't," she whispered.

No, that was what I'd thought, too.

It wasn't my baby that was being hurt, but it was somebody's baby. Somebody's Sienna.

And I wouldn't sit here and allow that to continue.

"We've foiled almost all of their shipments," I said. "They're being very, very careful. Each time it happens, they wise up just a little bit more." I trailed my finger down her face. "But Josh fucked up."

Her eyes widened.

"He gave me an in and he doesn't even realize it."

She watched me avidly. "This blackmailing thing … it works both ways."

Then I grinned manically.

"I think I missed that smile, that mischievous smile, the most."





Chapter 18


Bless your stupid heart.

-Coffee Cup

Mina

My husband was alive.

Those words kept repeating in my head, dropping like a bomb each and every time I thought them.

I should be furious.