If I get knocked over again, I’m definitely gonna cut myself, but at this point I have little choice.
Clarissa slams the door and throws her new car keys next to the lamp. She grabs a plastic packet from a box, and peels the flaps open, revealing long cable ties sticking up inside.
Just great.
She comes over. “Hands,” she demands. I don’t want her grabbing my sleeves, so I offer my wrists and she zip-ties them together. Next she does my ankles, leaving me trussed like a roast chicken. She hisses as she discovers my purse and snatches it away.
“Such wonderful hospitality,” I drawl, determined to keep her distracted.
Clarissa shoots me a glare and sets the purse on the bench, checking inside. She pulls out my wallet and grabs the bank cards. She smiles bitterly as she finds the purple and silver card linked to Callisto’s bank account.
“You’ve got Callisto Wren under your thumb as well?” she crows. “Aren’t you a pretty little gold digger?”
“Says the woman trying to blackmail her son,” I say with an eye roll.
She ignores me as she pockets the card and turns away to pull a laptop out of her box of stuff. She connects it to a heavy charging brick and flips the top open, illuminating her face like a campfire horror story. Not far off, to be honest.
“So, what are you going to do with the money?” I ask.
“What?” she snaps, jerking upright.
“The money. You said you’re ransoming me, right? You must have some grand plan to spend millions of dollars. Although, you really should’ve waited a few weeks until I got paid for my acting role. I hope you weren’t counting on that being in my account?”
Come to think of it, how much am I worth? I have an apartment in my name, but it’s probably Callisto’s wealth she’s chasing. “How much did you ask for in the ransom?”
“One hundred million,” she says.
I choke. “Have you fucking lost your mind? Who’s gonna pay that much money?”
She smiles tightly and spins the laptop around, hitting a play button on a news clip. A reporter in a floral blouse stares at the screen as she announces her story.
“In breaking news, the Omega Crimes Bureau just announced a recent raid on a Laversham garage uncoveredan illegal haze distribution operation. Agents on site seized unregistered haze estimated to be worth half a billion dollars.”
My mouth falls open. One, that’s a lot of money, but two, why does she think I have access to any of that? “What’s that got to do with me?” I ask tightly.
“It’s all yours, right? The haze.” Her deceptively sweet smile chills me to the bone. “I’ve been following all the court cases and your cute little media articles, and I put two and two together.”
I grit my teeth. “Even if that haze came from me, the OCB has it now.”
Clarissa nods. “True, but I don’t even care about that haze.” Her eyes narrow as her gaze falls down my body. “The more I read, the more I wondered how much the stuff still inside you might be worth.”
I freeze. Is she fucking serious right now?
“I’d be a fool to settle for a hundred mil when your haze is worth five times that.” She grins. “Well, that’s the offer one of your old friends made me.”
I sit frozen as she dials someone on her laptop. This isn’t happening. Rejection poisons my blood, steals my breath and blanks my mind.
“It’s me,” Clarissa says. “I have the omega.”
“Good. Transport’s on the way.” The familiar female voice rears out of the abyss of my past, full of nightmares and death. One of the two bitches who dragged me into that hellhole nest time and time again and handled the needles.
My throat clamps, and tears blur my eyes. I knew some of the staff got away, and the OCB was hunting them down. Not everyone was at the hub during the raid. But to come full circle like this? That’s unthinkable.
The mountain I’ve been climbing crumbles under my feet. Ray’s all but dead, but his operation’s growing back like mold. And they think they can drag me back into their pit? Like hell.
I lean over as vomit pushes through my throat, everything within me panicking.
I won’t go back. No matter what, I won’t. Even if I die here. My alphas will understand, and they’ll take care of each other. My body squeezes so violently I’m not sure I’ll ever draw breath again.
