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“As in, official? You could really use your GED to get into college?” Salvatore asked. When she nodded, his brow creased. “That seems very strange.”
“I know. But I think that’s how he manages so many victims. A lot of them don’t need new identities. They don’t need to disappear. They simply become something else with the conditioning. A lot of the young men and women I met thought the sun shined out of the Foreman’s ass,” she tacked on. “They weren’t interested in escaping. The Foreman provided well for them and ensured they received an education. It wasn’t adequate compensation for me.”
“But it was for some of them?” Abel wondered. “That’s fucked up.”
She shared a sad, knowing look with Luca. “It’s not fucked up,” she disputed. “He made himself their savior, their hero. He always gave us medical treatment. We were kept in peak physical condition. Product is worth more when it’s shiny,” she disclosed sardonically. “For a lot of victims, it was easier to give in. If you fought, the punishment was terrible. As bad as the elite clients were, none of us wanted to go to the slummy clients.”
“You were one of his ‘shiny’ products?” Salvatore asked quietly.
“I was,” Angela confirmed. “But it was a hard lesson to learn. I was so shocked and confused when I was first taken. Nothing in my world had prepared me for what was about to happen. I was a rich kid with rich parents. Or so I thought. I cried a lot. I screamed, I fought, I begged. And eventually... I broke. I gave in and gave up.”
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Claire said softly. Her face was filled with empathy. “It’s a way to survive.”
“And you didn’t give up. You watched, you listened, you waited. And most importantly, you survived,” Roman told her. “You survived so you could barbeque some of the fuckers. And you survived so you could make your way to me.”
Angela leaned into him, savoring the feel of his muscled arms wrapping around her. “Yes,” she agreed. “So I could make my way to you. Worth it,” she added.
Roman squeezed her tightly for a moment before pulling back to look at her. “I wouldn’t go that far. Nothing is worth what you went through. But now that you’re here, now that I’m yours, you’ll be able to get your revenge. I promise. I won’t stop until I find him.”
She nodded, bringing their faces closer so she could kiss him. She kept it brief and sweet, but made sure he knew just how much his words meant to her.
Abel raised his hand in the air. “Um, what exactly did Roman mean when he said barbeque?”
Taking a deep breath, Angela went on to explain about Abernathy. When Abel reached across the table and held out his fist for a fist-bump, her lips quirked. She was relieved he hadn’t reverted to ignoring her again.
“Right on,” Abel said, tapping his knuckles against her own. “Badass. Roman is right; there was nothing broken about you.”
“Anyway, my parents could very well have information about Godfrey.” She was trying hard not to think of the vile man as the Foreman. She felt like she was giving him too much power when she did. And she was done with that. “They met with him more than once. At first, I know it was desperation that led them to deal with him. It was to get out of debt. But when he went back to them a year later and spoke so highly of me and explained how popular I was, that’s when they saw a cash cow. They agreed to extend the contract. They have to know something.”
“Desperation?” Morrigan repeated, sounded disgusted. “There is no excuse for what they did. None.”
“I know. And I’m not trying to make them look better. They’re the bad guys,” Angela said.
“Bad guys that should be dead,” Morrigan pointed out. When Angela frowned at her, she continued, “What? They should be.” Then she glared at Roman accusingly. “Why the hell haven’t you dealt with them?”
When Roman went from attentive lover to pissed crime boss in one second flat, Angela flattened her palm on his chest to hold him back. “Because I asked him not to.”
“The fuck?” Morrigan demanded.
“My father has connections. He’s not just a rich asshole. Going after him could have serious repercussions,” Angela explained.
“So, they’ve just gotten away with it all these years?”
Angela really didn’t like Morrigan’s tone. She had to forcefully push back the voices in her head that said she hadn’t done enough to make them pay. That she hadn’t done enough to save the multitudes of other victims. “I don’t know if my father had cops in his own pockets or if they were in Godfrey’s, but at the time, going to the cops yielded nothing. I did try. I didn’t just let them get away with it. I was a traumatized teenager with nothing but a looming inheritance from a much-loved dead grandmother. And I had just committed a mass murder after being abused for years. I wanted to escape. From everything. So, I did. By putting myself through med school and becoming one of the best trauma surgeons in the country.”
Morrigan ducked her head in the face of the resounding silence in the room. “Sorry, Angel. I’m sorry,” she said when she finally looked back up. Her cheeks were pink. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”
Angela surprised herself by saying, “But I want to. I didn’t forgive them. And I certainly haven’t forgotten. How could I? I did everything right. I went to the police—multiple times. Nothing happened other than the threat of sending me to a mental institution for treatment. I’ve had enough ‘treatment’ to last a lifetime, so I dropped it. I went on with my life. And I never went back.”
“Smart girl,” Salvatore stated. He regarded her for a moment. “Do you think they know who Godfrey really is?”
“They could. It’s worth asking, right? It’s worth going there instead of going to New York.” She turned to Roman. “I don’t want to cause a war, Roman.”
“You’re worth a war, Angel,” Roman told her simply.
Damn, this man of mine... she thought, her pulse sounding loud in her ears.
“I recognize that look,” Sal said dryly. “And before you two start fornicating on the dining room table, are we in agreement? We question Angel’s parents?”
