AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Turn that shit off,” I bark at Debbie, my legs jumpy as I stand and fling the headphones at the monitor. “What the fuck did you just make me watch?”
“A branding ceremony.”
“No shit, Debbie. They’re branding the girls? I thought they were supposed to be pristine. Untouched. Pure. If they brand the skin, doesn’t that ruin them for the skin graft harvesting?”
“Exactly. That’s how we know this is an old video. The first two victims had the brand on them, and we couldn’t figure it out.”
“You think that young woman in the video is Helga, Judit, or Marisol?”
“Blonde hair. And Judit didn’t have a brand. Maybe it’s Helga?”
“Why brand them? Is it the same brand we found before? The one that said DL?”
“Yes. Dominic Luisi. Sick bastard, branding them with his initials.”
“Looks like a fancy old ancient rune. Turns out it’s just some guy who gets his balls tickled by scarring women with a hot iron.”
“They do that willingly! They think they’re helping mankind,” I groan, flashing back to my sister and her hunger.
“They’re helping men like Luisi jerk off nice and big,” she says flatly, turning her screen off. Debbie leans against the desk and says, “I know how much this project means to you. The mess with your family.”
“Right.” My heart’s about to bleed through my skin.
“Rooney’s a major part of this. Brings the families in through the megachurch. Uses ancestry to convince them to buy the AlleleYou commercial DNA tests to see how close they are to Christ.”
“Such a scammer.”
“He’s ten percent owner in AlleleYou. Made a deal with the company.”
“It’s the perfect scam. Use the pulpit to bring in fresh meat. Convince parents to be closer to Jesus with a single tube of saliva. Then when their daughter is the ‘chosen’ one, they’re already half in the cult anyhow. Easy jump to going all in. They really have a well-oiled machine.”
“So do we,” Debbie says softly.
“FUCK!” Newman screams from the other room. “WHO SHOOK MY CREAM SODA? IT’S ON MY MOTHERBOARD!”
“Sure. Well-oiled. Smooth as can be,” I mutter.
“Bringing you on board was the right thing to do. But I have to ask – all that cash? The car accident?”
For a second, I have no idea what she’s talking about. The last hour of my life feels like a year.
And then:
“Oh, right! The fender bender. Might have been diplomatic? Not sure. They bumped me, offered all the money, and told me to keep my mouth shut.”
“Weird.”
“No shit.”
The way Debbie stares at me tells me so much. First, they know nothing about my conversation with Paigelynn.
Second, the car they provided for me is absolutely tapped.
“Dash cam caught the incident, but not audio,” she says, instantly casual. “Ran the plates. Registered to some place called Synergy900 Holdings. Newman said you ran plates the other day and they came up for the same company?”
I let out a low whistle. “Shit. You think they’re onto me?”
She blinks rapidly. “I don’t know.”
