My vision swayed, my body hovering between numb and pleasure.
He gathered me into his arms. “It’s time, sweetheart. To finish what I started. We must get you pregnant.”
His words churned through my belly rolling uncomfortably and I wanted more than anything to escape this haze. But I couldn’t.
I was drugged.
An idiot who walked into a room with a king and gladly drank the poisoned water.
Chapter 25
A Bird Without Wings
Griffin
Over Five Years Ago – Violencia
“Scum!” The feet that kicked him relentlessly seemed to multiply. Two, four, ten, twenty. It was endless as he huddled in on himself. Ever since Oleks had been captured, everything had gone downhill quickly.
Too quickly.
The bomb at the Facility had been the catalyst, and less than a month later, his entire world crumbled around him.
“Get off of him.” The voice came from the back of the room he had just been thrown into. The one he wasn’t sure he would make it out of.
The feet paused, but then continued on until there was a loud bustling, the sound of a crunching nose breaking through it.
“How can you still side with him? He is the reason we are all locked up. He isone of them.” Dres’s voice broke through.
Griffin lifted his head as blood rushed through it now he was past the point of pain. Instead, it was a dull numb that wound across him as he watched the interaction play out.
Oleks stood, covered in rags against the back wall, three other members of the Griffin gang facing him, a fourth nursing a broken nose.
“And yet he is locked in here with the rest of us,” Oleks proclaimed, his attention finding Griffin’s.
There was anger, distrust in their depths. But there was also a deep unsettling respect that Griffin did not deserve.
“He is not the one who betrayed the Griffin gang. Who sold out its members.” Oleks stared down Dres. “From my understanding that was all of you.”
Dres snapped, rushing to Oleks and putting his elbow against the man’s neck. “They were hunting down our families! They wanted Griffin, so I gave him up. We were promised freedom.”
The door to their prison slammed open. “Break it up!” The guards filed in, toting guns and wearing helmets.
Dres released Oleks but didn’t dare move further back.
“We are here for Felix and Asher Spade,” One of the guards spoke loudly, his face whipping around the space.
Griffin watched in shock as the brothers appeared from the back of the cell. He wanted to catch their eyes but neither would look at him.
The guards filed forward, grabbing hold of the brothers. “You two are in luck. The Government believes you might just be able toredeemyourselves.” While his face was covered, Griffin recognized their voice.
Niko.
Why isn’t he taking me out of here? Has he turned on me too?
And then his words landed.
Redeem themselves?
