Page 107 of Perfect Sin
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but can we circle back to seeing Holbrook with Damien?” Lucien asks. The teasing lilt has disappeared from his tone, and all that remains is the cold-blooded soldier he was trained to be.
“You’re all in over your heads. I want to help.”
Lucien, Raven, and I exchange a look. Lucien nods. “Tell him.”
I share all the details about the party, about using the girls as bait, and the plan to use Jesse to lure out Jones.
Arthur blinks several times when I finish telling him. “You’ve teamed up with the most notorious human trafficker known to authorities to stop a mid-level criminal?”
“When you put it that way it does sound stupid, but I believe him,” Lucien insists.
“It doesn’t matter, because he’s gone,” I sigh.
“You left out the most important detail,” Raven prods. “He’s our stepfather. I think he is, at least. He’s with our real mother.”
“I think I need the whole story,” Arthur insists.
“Angela Blackthorne isn’t our real mother. I found my birth certificate with the name Natalie listed under ‘Mother’ instead of Angela. When we met with Gerrick the last time, he brought her. There’s no mistake. She’s definitely our mother. At least Raven’s. They look exactly alike.”
“Who is this woman? Where has she been your entire life?” he demands.
“She was kidnapped as a teenager and forced to be his mistress. We were both taken from her. Me when I was a toddler, because she feared what his interest in me might be when I grew up she managed to convince him to send me away with nannies,” Raven explains.
Arthur swallows hard. “You mean, he—”
“Damien is a pedophile. He’s obsessed with Natalie, but she’s not a teenager anymore, and Raven—” I can’t say it.
“Raven looks exactly like Natalie when he took her,” Lucien finishes for me.
He covers his mouth for a moment. “I think I might be sick now.”
“Imagine how I felt,” Raven says. “Finding out I was sent away with nannies and to all girls boarding schools because my own father was afraid he’d be sexually attracted to me wasn’t exactly the highlight of my life. Ranks up there with finding out he’s promised almost every sex trafficker in the business they could spend time with me to further his business interests.”
Arthur stands suddenly. “What!” He paces the room. “I won’t let him do this. He must be stopped. There has to be a court that he can’t buy.”
Raven dips her head, and Lucien looks away. Arthur narrows his eyes. “For Blackthornes you’re shockingly bad at hiding things. What do you have planned?”
I look him dead in the eye. “I’m going to kill him.”
“Jackson, no. You can’t do that. It’s not right,” he insists.
“He sells children to pedophiles, women to men who get off on inflicting pain. He’d sell his own daughter to those men and tried to marry her off to one before Lucien and I took her. He’ll continue to kidnap young girls to use as his personal sex slaves. You said it yourself, he’ll buy his way out of it if we go that route. You’ve got to cut the head off the snake or it’ll just coil up and bite you on the ass.”
“I don’t think that’s how the saying goes,” Lucien points out.
“Whatever. It still fits for Damien.”
“I’m not cutting his head off. I draw the line at dismemberment.”
“Good to know you have a line,” Arthur murmurs.
“Aw, he made a joke,” Lucien says.
“Give me a chance to bring him down legally. If it can’t be done, then we’ll figure out a way to take him out without bringing any of you along with him.”
“We can do that,” I agree.
“Before they left Gerrick told me he left a key for a safe deposit box in the safe at his club. In the bank is all the evidence Natalie has collected during the years she was held captive,” Lucien adds.