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“I know you think you have some loyalty to Orson,” Elijah started slowly.
“I don’tthinkI do. I do.” I corrected him. “Why don’t you sit down with him and talk things out? You were close once.”
Ash scoffed loudly, and I shot him a covert but scathing look. He was irritating me, but he was still Ash Corpus. I didn’t need to antagonize him.
“Do you know all about Orson’s business?” Elijah asked delicately, crouching in front of me.
I stared at him. “The drugs, you mean? The same drugs you brought into Pario City when you ran this place?”
He shook his head. “I’m not talking about the drugs, Princess. There are other aspects.” He studied my face intently, waiting for me to acknowledge it, but I had no idea what he was talking about.
“That’s all there is,” I replied, again glancing at Ash, worry shivering through me. “If this is some kind of turf war, Ash—”
“It’s not,” the demon interjected. “The Verity Gang is running girls. Trafficking is not my game.”
At first, the words didn’t register, and I simply stared at him. But as they sunk in, I could only laugh. Pushing Elijah’s hands off my knees, I jumped up to cross my arms over my chest defiantly.
“Are you serious right now?” I snapped at my mate. “Trafficking? Orson?”
“He usually sticks to humans, but he’s not beyond taking and selling shifters if opportunity strikes.”
I recoiled, physically appalled by the suggestion. “You’re wrong!”
Elijah also rose. “I’m afraid it’s true, Abby.”
I laughed again, but this one was much more forced. Huffing, I glowered at him.
“How can you say something like that, Elijah?” I barked. “Are you really looking for any excuse to ruin a good guy? I get that you want your world back, but like this?”
I was disgusted, appalled, and heartbroken—again.
Elijah started to shake his head, but Ash interjected.
“He’s not lying to you, Abigail. The Verity Gang is not what Elijah made it all those years ago. It’s branched out in a rather seedy direction.”
I didn’t want to hear it, my body shaking with betrayal. I’d been wrong all along. Elijah had come here all along to reclaim his power and used me to do it. Now he was feeding me lies to turn me against my friends. No, I couldn’t trust what Ash had to say. Like Elijah, he had vanished, disappeared for two centuries without a word, while Orson had stayed and given me a life. Maybe it was easy for Elijah to accept the demon’s words at face value, but I wouldn’t, couldn’t.
Once again, Elijah was putting me in an impossible situation, but he didn’t seem to notice—or was it that he didn’t care? Ash was not a man to contradict, but he was speaking out against the one person who had kept me safe over all these years.
“You’re wrong,” I tried to object, but Ash wouldn’t hear me.
“I’m not wrong,” he insisted. “I’ve been knee-deep in his shit for years. The man is a menace.”
Dubiously, I looked at Elijah, who appeared to be drinking in everything Ash was saying without weighing the possibility that Ash was mistaken. There would be no getting through to him, not when he was under Ash’s spell.
Fine. I was finished burning the candle at both ends, trying to make things run smoothly for everyone. Now Ash was throwing a wrench into an already precarious situation. I just couldn’t deal with it.
And I wouldn’t.
“I’m done,” I snarled, extending my finger toward the door. “I want you both out of my house.”
Elijah gawked at me. “Abby, no one’s lying to you—”
“You really are the same power-hungry jerk you’ve always been,” I moaned. “You only care about yourself!”
Confusion overcame his face. “Don’t you care that he’s trafficking women?” Elijah demanded.
“He’s not! He’s not! I would know if something like that was going on in Pario City!”
