AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not me yet,” she whispered. “But if I go back there, I’ll disappear just like the rest of them. As for Abby…”
She pressed her lips as if containing a secret, but the look in my eyes appeared to set Lora’s words flowing again. “I think Orson has a soft spot for her. Although he wasn’t too pleased with her today.”
“Why? What happened?” Alarm spiked through me. “Is she hurt?”
I balked and moved toward the door before Lora could respond. I should have never let her go, despite her insistence. I should have known that Orson would punish her to get back at me.
“No, she’s fine. She pled her allegiance to him.”
The words stopped me in my tracks. Slowly, I turned back to look at her, the guards tense as they tried to anticipate my next move.
“She didwhat?”
Lora sighed. “I don’t know if she meant it, but Abby has always been savvier than most of us. She’s been around the longest out of any female. Well, except for Etta, of course.”
My head started to buzz. It made sense that Abby might tell Orson whatever he wanted to hear in order to stay safe, but where was she if he had let her go?
Did she really choose him over me?
I didn’t let myself fall into that and fixated on Lora instead.
“You want a job?” I asked her, retreating to my chair. I plunked down and stared at her. “Tell me what you know about the Verity Gang. I want numbers, positions, territories—everything.”
Lora nodded, twisting her hands together nervously. “I don’t really know specifics, but Orson has claimed all of Pario City, Palay, and Sirrio. He wants to corner the market in Caramine and other things. He works with some of the fairies for that.”
“What other things has he branched into?” I pressed, sensing that she knew more than just about the drugs.
Her lower lip drooped. “I don’t know for sure, but with all the missing women, there have been rumors that he sells women, too.”
My brain began to run with this.
“Numbers?” I asked, realizing that was where my biggest issue was going to lie. “How large is the crew now?”
Lora raised her palms outwardly. “I honestly don’t know. In the thousands, maybe? I couldn’t guess…” She hesitated and glanced at Silver, Jake, and Draven. “But it’s more than you have.”
“Don’t worry about what I have,” I told her sharply. “I have quite a few more advantages than your boss, one of which is that I taught him everything he knows.”
I stood again and nodded at Silver. “Make sure she gets home safely.”
Lora blinked, crossing her hands over her arms. She shivered violently.
“You’re sending me home?” she breathed. “He’ll come looking for me.”
“Then I suggest you start recruiting some others to our cause,” I told her flatly. “I don’t have the numbers to babysit you on top of everything else.”
She gave me a baleful look and headed toward the door. But before they could leave, I sent Silver a text.
Don’t let her out of your sight. Kill anyone that gives her trouble.
Silver nodded once to show he had received my message, but there was no need to let Lora know I was watching out for her.
In the interim, she had given me a new battle strategy.
I was losing on the numbers’ end. Despite my immortality, I didn’t want or need to put Ash’s people at risk unnecessarily. The other way to win this turf war was through public opinion.
The drugs were Pario City’s foundation, but the trafficking of the town’s mothers, aunts, and sisters could not sit well with the locals. If I could turn enough locals against Orson, his crew would undoubtedly fall out of his favor, too.
I’d been looking at this all wrong. The way to win this war was not violently, but politically.
