Page 15 of Stolen Choices
“Maybe not then.” Weston shook his head, but Jackson still didn’t respond, he just motioned with a flick of his hand for the man to continue. “Fine. Anyway, Mrs. Morgan was offered to me first. A lovely woman, but she wouldn’t have been much of a prize to my clients. In the end, she would have been somewhat of a disappointment to whoever purchased her, I suspect. Not at all like her firecracker of a daughter, isn’t that right, Vihaan?”
Katia’s father struggled harder under Jackson’s foot and managed to unbalance him. Vihaan scrambled out from his imprisonment and shifted into a tiger. Jackson changed instantly and intercepted the snarling beast before he could lunge at him or Weston.
“Change back and sit quietly. I want to hear the entire story.” Jackson projected his voice into Vihaan’s head.
“Why so you can listen to his lies? I don’t like his women. They’re all diseased.”
“Somehow I think I know Weston better than you do, and that isn’t the case at all. Now I suggest you do as I tell you because we both know I’m a lot stronger than you in both animal and human form, and it could get very ugly, very quickly for you.”
Vihaan didn’t have a chance to answer, because Weston appeared beside him with an electric cattle prod and continuously shocked the tiger until he turned back into his human form and lay unconscious on the floor. Jackson shifted of his own accord.
“That wasn’t necessary.”
“In my world, it was. I don’t have the telepathy that you two do, so I’m afraid if I have a wild animal in front of me that I can’t control, then I’m going to make sure they’re unable to inflict any pain on me.”
“Try it with me, and I’ll rip your goddamn arm off.”
“Mr. Gates, I could see that happening. Hence the reason, I allowed you to transform back of your own accord.”
Since Vihaan was now unconscious and unable to launch an attack, Jackson dressed himself again and took a seat on a nearby chair.
“Continue your story, Weston, ” he ordered.
“I’m afraid I had to teach Vihaan a lesson when he offered me inferior goods to clear his debts instead of the real thing.”
“You killed Katia’s mother?” Jackson could tell by the look of pure evil on Weston’s face what had happened.
“It was purely business—I’m sure you understand. You’re a man who must have done bad things to get to where you are in the world.”
That was a truth Jackson couldn’t deny. He continued, needing to know one thing.
“Did you fuck her?”
Weston’s lip curled into a nefarious curve.
“Again, it was simply business. Katia was brought to me the next day and immediately started to clear her father’s debts. I had a perfect toy.”
“One you lured into a trap in the first place, having given those so called ‘buxom women’ to her father and then murdered her mother. I know you say it’s all business, but I’m afraid my business has more ethics. At least when I’m killing someone for Nuka. I know it’s for a good cause. A bid to destroy the humans once and for all. I suspect you do it purely for monetary purposes.”
“And my own kicks. Don’t forget that,” Weston interrupted.
Jackson pushed the anger he was feeling deep down inside his soul because if it exploded and he killed this man, he knew Nuka wouldn’t be happy. The inhabitants of the brothel would rejoice, but he owed his loyalty to his alpha and couldn’t risk angering him. Especially when they were so close to finalizing all the magical spells they needed to destroy the humans.
“You’re a sick man, Weston.”
“Thank you.” Weston smiled and casually strode over to where Vihaan was still laying prone and unmoving on the floor. “Which is why, I’m sorry, but you can’t have Katia back. This shifter is weak and feeble. I’ve no other way to make money from him except through his daughter.”
Jackson knew the man was a druid, though not as powerful as Ciaran, and when Weston swirled his hand and formed an energy ball, he jumped forward to try to stop him, but he was too late. Weston threw the ball directly at Vihaan’s naked chest. It burned a hole through the skin, leaving a massive gap where the man’s heart had been. Jackson wanted to lunge at Weston and rip the brothel owner’s heart out if he could find it, he wasn’t sure the man had one, but the pounding in his head started again.
“Katia Morgan is a commodity I will not lose, Mr. Gates. At any cost.”
Jackson had seen enough. He needed to get out. What was he even doing here in the first place? …he was doing the right thing for Katia Morgan. But if he freed her, she would go straight back to the Glacial Blood pack and try to stop him from destroying the humans. He was going insane. It was this damn headache. Why couldn’t he shake it? He started to call Ciaran but changed his mind and pushed his way past Weston and out of the room. He stumbled half blindly down the corridor, the artificial lights pushing into his vision and causing him to shut his eyes. Weston hadn’t followed him as far as he could tell. Thank god for that. He needed to be away from that man. When all this was over, he was coming back to kill him, slowly and painfully.
The noise of screams and sex sounded out as he desperately sought the entrance to the club. For fucks sake, he’d been here before with Nuka. Why couldn’t he find his way out of the place? He stumbled and almost tripped over a discarded bra on the floor. Eventually he reached a door and pushed it open.
It was the last thing he needed to see. Fate was kicking his ass today. Katia Morgan was on her knees on the floor, her tiny body naked and covered in bruises. Her head was bowed, and he saw a shiver run over her body as he walked into the room. She thought he was another paying client here to take her. He fell to the ground with the pain in his head, and Katia’s eyes went wide when she finally saw who it was.
Jackson was now covered in a fine sheen of sweat.