Page 33 of Ghost Among Lies

Bear tossed Toby at Anita's feet. In exchange, she handed over the biker she had by the throat. "We appreciate your cooperation."

Beckett and Nyx forcibly moved Toby away, and when he tried to fight, Nyx kicked him in the back of his knee. Bringing him down with a howl.

"We don't need the kind of heat that shit brings to our door."

We spun around to leave, but Viper had one parting word for us. "Next time, knock on the door. No need for the show of force."

Anita glanced over her shoulder and gave him a chin lift. Apparently, that was the only acknowledgement she was willing to give after what we did.

Toby bitched the entire way to the vehicle. He cursed me and every other person under the sun for the treatment he was receiving.

I didn't say a word as they gagged and bound him. I would reserve my argument for when Toby proved his innocence.

And he had to. Because there was no way I could handle any other outcome.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

SLOANE

Dread coated my stomach and itched to crawl up my throat. It had been one thing to storm the clubhouse and drag an uncooperative Toby back to the compound. It was another to face him head-on without adrenaline pumping through my veins, knowing what he’d done to me.

I was thankful my team had my back, and they would step in if things got to be too much for me.

"You're going to regret this." Toby's cocky voice did the job and put me in the right frame of mind to deal with him. My fear receded to the back of my mind, and anger took hold.

"Really?" I asked calmly. Almost conversationally. "Because from where I stand, the little club you belonged to wants nothing to do with you now that they know what a sick fuck you are."

Crimes against children was where most criminals drew the line. There was a reason child molesters were put into protective custody in prisons. They were at the bottom of the food chain

Toby might not've raped a young child, but he butchered them all in the name of earning a living.

He didn't even bother to lie. He was too busy gloating when he spoke, "Those kids were nothing more than a burden on society. I did them a favor by ending their miserable lives before they could comprehend how worthless they really were." Toby laughed like a hyena. "Unwanted. But, hey, in the end they were good for something. People paid a pretty penny for their organs."

The word “unwanted” was a kick to the sternum. There would come a day when a certain someone from my past would think that was exactly what they meant to me.

I shook the feeling away and focused back on the task. "How did The Givers know which children to target?"

Organ trafficking wasn't a random crime. You couldn't pick just any person off the street and hope they would be a match. Not to mention they needed to be healthy. Many factors went into finding a donor match.

"Ah, so you do know about my friends." I wanted to punch the smug smirk off his face. "Then you know just how screwed you are."

Nyx chuckled from her spot against her table of weapons. She was just waiting for her opportunity to get started. "Good to know you're as dumb as you look."

"Fuck you, bitch."

"No, thank you," Nyx singsonged. "I have standards and you, sir, don't meet them."

The vein in Toby's temple throbbed. Hopefully, the situation he found himself in was starting to register. The Givers would never help a weasel like him, and he already showed his true colors back with his confession, so even Hayes would turn his back on Toby.

"You won't be saying that when I shove my cock down your throat and make you choke on it," Toby lashed out at Nyx.

I saw red. There was no other explanation for the slip of my control. That one sentence was all it took, and everything I pushed down over the last ten years came flooding back.

Toby managed to cackle for all of three seconds before I roundhouse-kicked him in the throat and sent him crashing backward into the wall. I was raining Hail Mary's down on him until someone had the nerve to pull me off. I fought to get back to him, but the arm locked around my chest held firm.

"Fucking whore!" Toby spat. "Jealous, huh? Don't want to share me with your friends." He baited me. And like an idiot I let him.

"Sloane."