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“Why would they come for you?”

“You don’t know who these men are, Isa. What they’ll do to remain anonymous. To protect their identity. What they do. And they know everything about me. And Jackie.” Face screwed up in panic, she clutches her stomach and leans forward as if she might throw up. “Oh, God, what if they go after my daughter?”

Go after her daughter? “Lucian is part of this group, as well?”

“Yes. But it’s different with Lucian. He doesn’t entirely share their philosophies.”

“On what?”

Releasing a sharp exhale, she looks up at me. “They pay money to torture others.”

Tendrils of ice crawl up my spine. “What do you mean? Like … hurt people?” All this time, I was under the impression they were some high-rolling escort service.

“People come to them with problems. Say me, for example. I needed a way out. So some, they physically hurt for money. Others might be used in other ways.” She casts her gaze from mine, as if she can’t look at me. “For money. The common thread is pain. These men get off on doling it out and watching it.”

What she’s saying makes no sense. A group that pays to torture people? It’s the kind of thing that only happens in the dark recesses of the internet. Not here. Not in a small fishing community like Tempest Cove.

“People come to them to be hurt? You went to them for this? And worse yet, you suggested I go to them for this?”

“Remember how desperate you were? Imagine thousands of dollars paid to you. Money you don’t have to pay back. All your debts and problems? Gone.”

“Desperate, or not, I was trying to avoid being tortured and killed.”

“Because you didn’t know the terms, or the limits.” She turns toward me, her eyes imploring. “But imagine if that drug dealer had outlined exactly what he would do to you, and afterward, your debts were clear. You never had to see him again.”

Maybe. Maybe I was desperate in the moment. Who knows? I was certainly willing, at the time, to proposition the Devil of Bonesalt.

“Lucian does this? He pays to hurt people?”

“I don’t think he participates. I think he’s just one who provides the funding.”

“Why? What could he possibly get in return for that?”

“I don’t know, okay? I shouldn’t even be telling you.”

“How did you even learn about this group?”

“I heard through someone else about them. On the streets, they’re like … gods.” There’s a sparkle in her eyes when she says it, as if she believes it herself. “To be chosen is a lifesaver, for some.”

“They tortured you?”

“My circumstances were such that … they weren’t interested. I was a single mother with a child. For what I was willing to do, they weren’t willing to take both of us in. I’ll admit, it was stupid. But we were starving, and you don’t realize the depths you’ll sink to when you have a hungry child. Had Rand not approached me, I’d be walking the streets of Boston looking for Johns. I’m not proud of that, but I’ll do anything for my little girl. Anything.”

“So you made a deal with Lucian …” I was aware from the start that he was fucking her, but to hear the reasons behind it somehow doesn’t sit well with me.

“Yes. But that was before you came along. He hasn’t touched me since.”

“And has he ever physically hurt you?”

“Never.” The unyielding tone of her voice dissolves when she adds, “He has asked me for things, though.”

“What kinds of things?”

“To cut him.”

“Cut him? As in, he’s the one who bleeds?”

“Yes. I hated it. Every minute. It’s sick and disgusting. But I did it, whatever he asked of me. For Jackie.”