Reign (The Sainthood - Boys of Lowell High #3)(114)

Saint roars at his father, and I stop fighting, focusing on my husband, comforting him with my eyes, pleading with him to keep it together. I stare at Saint, letting myself drown in his blue eyes, using his face to ground me, helping me to blot everything else out, to distract me from his father’s disgusting assault.

When I’m satisfied Saint is more in control, I switch my attention to the game, deciding to play along, because keeping Sinner talking is essential to getting out of this nightmare. “What gave me away?”

“Do you know how long I’ve been looking for those files?” Sinner asks, sliding his fingers in and out of me.

Bile churns in my gut, but I hold myself still, not letting myself react in any way. I run with the opportunity presented to me. “I don’t have the Daphne Leydon files. If the FBI has them, they didn’t get them from me.”

“I’m not talking about that.”

“You’re not?” I feign confusion, ignoring his fingers inside me. “I thought you wanted to find out who’d stolen the evidence from you. Or are you no longer worried about being caught for Daphne’s murder now the commissioner is dead?”

“I’m talking about the Homeland Security files,” he snaps, withdrawing his fingers and evading my question. My body wants to slump in relief, but I freeze my muscles in place. “Do you know how long I’ve been trying to find those fucking files?” Shoving his fingers into his mouth, Sinner moans while licking them clean. “Salty as fuck.”

I want to sucker punch that disgusting grin right off his hideous face.

“Why am I not surprised.” He casts a glance at my husbands over his shoulder. “Think I might have pussy for dessert tonight.”

“Why do the Homeland files matter to you?” I ask before my guys lose it. “What do they have on you?”

The doors to the ballroom ease open, and Sinner’s irritating grin expands. “Always so eager for answers.” He yanks me from Baldy, but there’s no relief in being traded from one perverted psycho to another. “And I’ll give them to you, but first we have a little surprise. A couple of additional guests.” Keeping his gun at the back of my head, and his arm tight around my waist, he walks me back to his table in time to see his “guests” being hauled into the room.

“Mom!” I scream, bucking in Sinner’s arms as my mother is led into the room by two of Sinner’s men.

Oh my God.

How the fuck did this happen? Diesel said she was in Europe, secure in one of his safe houses, so how the hell did Sinner find her?

An unsettling thought lodges in my brain.

Did he do this? Has Diesel been working for Sinner this entire time?





CHAPTER 45


PAIN STABS ME through the heart and my lungs, working its way through every vital organ until I can barely breathe. If Diesel has betrayed us, then that means there is no rescue in sight.

No!

I don’t believe it.

Diesel hates Sinner, and he’s proven his loyalty to me time and time again. He last checked in with Mom a couple of days ago, and she was fine.

Someone must have betrayed him.

That’s the only explanation that makes sense.

My heart rate steadies, and my panic dials down, because I know, deep down inside, that Diesel hasn’t lied. That he’s on our side.

A strangled sob rips through the air, pulling me out of my head. Tears pour down Mom’s face as she’s flung into a chair, sobbing.

Dressed in a low-cut red and black ballgown that trails the ground with her hair and makeup professionally done, she looks beautiful on the surface—until you see the anguish in her eyes, the tears coating her face, and the fresh bruises mushrooming under the skin of her arms and around her neck.

One of Sinner’s goons secures her to the chair, and we stare at one another, silently conveying so much.

“Get your hands off me.” My head whips up in time to see Alisha slap one of the men manhandling her into the room. Unlike Mom, she’s not party ready. They have stripped her to her underwear, and her small boobs and skeletal frame are on display, making her seem even more vulnerable. Matted hair frames her makeup-free face, but there’s no disguising her sunken cheekbones and gaunt eyes. My gaze darts to Galen’s, and my heart breaks at the devastated look on his face.

Sinner sits down beside Mom, hauling me onto his lap. Lifting her head, Mom pierces me with a look loaded with regret and guilt.

“Shut your face, whore.” The man holding Alisha’s skinny frame grabs her by the hair, pushing her toward the table. She screams, arms and legs flailing as the man throws her forward, slamming her head down on the table with force.

Galen shouts and curses, screaming at the asshole to leave his mom alone. His body contorts when he tries to move his chair, pain spreading across his face. One of Sinner’s men punches him in the face, and it’s killing me to stand idly by while this happens. Rage flows through my veins, and I’m seconds away from saying fuck the mission.

Alisha is dumped unceremoniously in the chair on the other side of Sinner, and she’s not looking so hot. Her eyes are rolling back in her head as she curls into a ball, bending her knees against her chest. Blood trickles from her nostrils, dripping down over her chin, and a nasty lump is already swelling on her forehead.

I purposely ignore looking at the guys, focusing on doing what needs to be done.