Page 13 of Trapped Truth

“Thanks.” he shoots her a wink.

“Can you go check on Hayden? His nap time is almost over.”

“Sure. This is above our pay grade anyway. We’ll be upstairs.”

Scooping up his twin brother, Zach steers him from the room to attend to their son, leaving Killian at Willow’s side. He’s retained his stony silence throughout our story, though he looks displeased.

“I heard you took down Gael.” Willow studies our girl intently. “Is that true?”

“Yes,” Ember replies without emotion.

“How?”

“I killed him.”

After a beat of silent surprise, Willow’s lips spread wide. “Good. That man was a monster. The world’s a better place without him in it.”

“How did you meet him?” I interject.

Taking a sip of coffee, Willow crosses one leg over the other to get more comfortable. Sometimes, it still strikes me how different she is from the timid, traumatised woman I first met all those years ago.

“We visited the Gael mansion on a few occasions for business dinners. I crossed paths with Ember a couple of times before I fled Mexico. I tried to get to one of her fights, but I was never allowed to attend.”

“What are the odds?” Warner shakes his head.

In the corner, Blaine curses. “Better than you’d think.”

“How so?” Willow stares at him.

“We’ve established that my father serviced overseas traffickers through an intricate honeypot scheme, supplying the demand for new victims. It was inevitable that his customers—like Gael and Sanchez—would be in league with each other.”

The thought turns my stomach. Who knows how many other victims are out there, caught up in this impenetrable machine of trafficking, destined to remain invisible and forgotten. That could’ve easily been Ember or Willow. They got lucky.

“Now all of Gael’s infrastructure is up for grabs.” I speak slowly, full of dread.

“And Nolan Madden is the new head of the snake.” Ember meets Blaine’s dull stare. “Until he’s been removed, none of us are safe. We declared war on his operation in Estonia.”

“And he will respond soon enough,” Blaine adds solemnly.

As much as I hate it, I can’t help but agree with them. Nolan Madden fled the scene of the crime. If he has the means and connections to vanish through our fingertips, he certainly has the firepower to strike back at us.

“That’s it.” Killian straightens from his perch against the cabinets. “You all need to leave.”

Honestly, part of me wondered if this would happen, so I can’t say I’m surprised.

“Kill,” Willow hushes him. “You can’t just turf them out.”

“They’re bringing danger to our door. I won’t have our family compromised again. I’m sorry, but you need to find somewhere else to lie low.”

“No one knows they’re here.” Ethan sets down his mug. “Their presence poses no threat to Briar Valley.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Killian scoffs.

“We agreed to help them.”

“You agreed! I did no such thing, and I won’t have Arianna or my son put in harm’s way. Not again.”

Her chair scraping back abruptly, Willow shoots to her feet. “Upstairs. We can discuss this in private with the others.”