Sicko

“You knew about your mom being alive?” I say, teeth clenched. “Trying not to be pissed at you right now, baby, but you’re making it real fucking hard.”

“Sorry,” she whispers, looking at me over her shoulder. “I get that you all have a score to settle with Kyle.” She turns to face us all. “Wicked, what he did to you and me, and to Poppy.” She moves to Olivia. “My mom, who received the worst of it and then had to further fake her own death while allowing her daughter to bring down the most dangerous man in history. I understand why she didn’t tell me Lion was my father. It would have distracted me.” Jade folds her arms in front of herself, and I watch as her lip trembles. “I understand the pain he has caused. You all want revenge. But the women who stand behind me, and the many more that there are, are only the tip of this iceberg. We can take the dealer off the streets, but that doesn’t remove the drugs.” She walks closer to me, and I snarl at her. I already know what she’s going to ask of me.

“Royce.” Her voice alone has a direct line to every fucking emotion that resides inside of me. “We let them take him. Isaac needs him to bring down the buyers. There were a lot, Roy. Kyle has connections to the biggest trafficking rings not just in America, but the entire world. We owe it to those who have had their innocence stolen from them to do better than just murder.”

I shake my head. “Can’t, baby. Can’t let him leave here unless it’s by his skin on my back.”

Her hand comes to my cheek before her fingers flex toward the back of my neck, pulling me down to her.

“You can,” she whispers. “I’m just asking for not yet. Let them get what they need. I promise you, promise you, Isaac will get you in. Just—” she sighs, and tears roll down her cheeks. “Let this be about more than revenge. Let this be about change.” All of her pain spills out from her and washes over me.

I soak it up, wanting to take it away from her, knowing damn well that I’m going to give this girl whatever the fuck she wants.

“One month.”

“Six,” she replies simply, her lips over mine.

“Four,” I snap, biting her bottom lip.

She kisses me. “Nine.”

“Fine.” That was the fucking kiss of death. “They got nine months, then he’s mine.”

“Okay.”

Just as the words leave her mouth, Isaac and the feds storm through the submarine. Jade is tucked under my arm as Olivia falls into step beside Lion, rigid and nervous. In a matter of hours, Lion’s world has flip-flopped back and forward. All of us have somehow lost our grip on reality.

Jade climbs into the back of the SUV with Poppy and Wicked, as I shut them inside and make my way to Isaac, who’s watching me near his squad car.

I nudge my head. “How long you been under?”

Isaac shakes his head. “Since she first came in.”

I turn over my shoulder. I can’t see Jade through the tinted glass, but know she’s watching us closely. “Seven months, Isaac. I told her nine, but you got seven months.”

When I turn to face him, his eyes are weak. “I have enough information on most of his clients already, so I’ll only need seven.”

“This underground trafficking issue. She’s fucking passionate about it.”

Isaac shoves his hands into his pocket. “That girl, Royce, that girl has had the worst of the worst happen to her. I wouldn’t worry about her mentally. She’s strong. Somehow built a wall to block out the life she had with Kyle, and her young life of being in high school. But tread carefully with her. There were a handful of times when I almost threw the towel in to save her from Kyle, but I didn’t. I couldn’t.”

The thought of Jade being in any kind of trouble is enough to have me seething.

“She said that some of them were kids.”

Isaac leans back on his squad car, crossing his legs at the ankles. “Not often. The ones that were passed through were up from their parents for debt, money. The children that she mentioned, they weren’t trafficked for sex or slavery. That was for the adoption trade. A lot of rich folks out there who can’t have kids and have too much money to wait in line.” His hand is on my shoulder, squeezing. “Seven months, you’ll receive a text from me. Follow the instructions and you’ll get your wish. In the meantime.” His eyes went to the van and I followed, that same guilt eating up my stomach. “Be there for your girl, and your mom, man. They’re going to need it.” He turns to leave and just as I make my way back to the van, I pause in my steps.