He shrugged, flicking the cigarette away.“I’m curious. He’s never had a weakness until now.”
My hand dropped to my stomach.
“What exactly are you planning to do to me?”
“If Mr Prothero doesn’t back away from my client,” he said calmly, turning for the door,“you’ll be shipped overseas. You and your child will be sold—continuously.”
The door closed behind him.
Bouda would never allow that—but the fact that this was happening in England made my chest tighten in a way I hadn’t expected. After the lockdowns, there had been whispers and warnings shared across social media, parents posting in panic and trying to keep one another informed.
My neighbours had told my grandmother that the school had issued multiple stranger-danger notices, the kind delivered quietly and without explanation, as though acknowledging the threat too loudly might invite it closer.
Lockdown had meant restricted movement, shortages, and desperation, and the sudden surge of activity afterward felt less like recovery and more like industries scrambling to reclaim what they’d lost. There were no official reports, no investigations that made the news, only a sense that certain things were being deliberately ignored.
Human trafficking wasn’t some distant horror or foreign problem—it was alive and functioning here, operating beneath the surface where polite society refused to look. I’d only suspected before… but this was proof.
I stared at the door and understood, with a clarity that unsettled me.
There were far greater monsters in the world than Blaidd Prothero.
Chapter 49
Blaidd
My assistant confirmed the reservation for the restaurant. This should have pleased me, but my stomach churned. I stood up and exhaled a long breath, rubbing my belly. I rotated my head to ease the tension in my neck and shoulder muscles.
You’re nervous, Fenrir said.
I ignored him. I’d never been nervous in my life.
The ring. Do you think she will like it?he piped up again.
She’s five months pregnant. She’ll have no choice but to like it.
So why are you nervous? Why make it harder for yourself by asking her?
He knew why. And fuck him, because I wouldn’t admit it.
I’m not nervous. I’m excited because it’s Friday.
The sex was amazing any day of the week, but Friday nights made me feral. I couldn’t blame Lielit for this one.
I returned to my desk and opened the drawer, reaching for the painkillers. The sudden, dull throb in my head needed to vanish.
It’s called a tension headache, Fenrir purred.
I cracked open a bottle of water when my phone lit up.
Anji.
She’d never call me, unless—
I grabbed the phone.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” I snapped.
“Lielit went to the plant and she didn’t come back,” she blurted out.“So I called the plant manager, and he found the guard unconscious in the car park. The driver and Lielit are gone. The car is still at the plant.”
