Auctioned Mates Revenge
Chapter 36

Owen's voice was calm, but I knew better. I imagined a pretty, six-year-old boy with Owen's eyes and shuddered in disgust. Grime was the only way to describe the sick bastards who were responsible for all of this.

"You have my word, Owen," Matt said, evenly though he still looked a little queasy. "Mordecai is on the list."

Owen nodded and stood, "If you'll excuse me, I'd... like to smoke in peace."

Matt nodded, "Eat something as well."

Owen chuckled, "I promise to eat three squares, alpha."

Matt's eyes widened as Owen sauntered towards me. He flashed me a grin.

"Lucky Cherry," he said and left the room.

I didn't know how to take that, but I felt a bit embarrassed. Matt sat forward, covering his mouth and looking down at his notes. He sat back with a deep breath and looked at Grace and me.

"Sit down, ladies," he said. "We... have a lot to discuss."

I sat, curious about his tone Grace sat beside me.

"What did you replace out?" Matt asked.

Grace explained a general overview of what we'd been told. Some of the women were from packs Matt seemed to recognize, but others weren't. It was hard for me to picture how widespread these packs were because I didn't recognize most of them, but for the few, I did recognize, I was concerned.

Gulf Waves had been a town that did metalwork and produced oil near where Fireash was now. I remember that we used to export a lot of textiles there.

"I think taking down Midnight would help get a sense of how big all of this is," I said as Glenda finished.

She winced and Matt sat back, looking pensive. I felt wary about his expression and what he would say. There was no way that he wouldn't agree that Midnight was the best place to start given his foothold in the economy. After the show he'd made of himself at the party, it would be a waste of the evening to not do it.

If he refused, it could only mean he wasn't planning to honor his words or there was a whole lot of things he wasn't saying.

Alyssa sighed, You could be wrong. He could just think it's dangerous.

He's hiding something.

"I agree," Matt said after a moment.

Grace flinched, "You want to go after Mordecai?"

I looked at her.

"You're scared."

Grace crossed her arms, "He has a reputation, and after what Owen said... I can believe it."

She shuddered. There was something in her tone that made me think she knew something she wasn't saying either.

"Mordecai is an old friend of Ben's," Matt said lightly, "He used to come over for dinner when I was a kid. I know what sort of reputation he has."

I wanted to yell that I was right about Matt's involvement. He knew a lot about what happened in Warhammer, more than he let on, but Alyssa scoffed.

Listen to what he's saying, not what you want to hear. Jay came over all the time and you didn't know he would betray us all.

I flinched at the reprimand and couldn't replace anything to say.

Still, if Mordecai was as good of a friend as Matt said, then he had likely been involved with the fall of Fluorite in some way. Given all the shady business being done in Midnight, it seemed like he was involved with a lot of the underground. Maybe he knew how I'd gotten from Fluorite to Midnight.

"Mordecai isn't a lackey of Ben, but they don't trust each other completely either," Matt mused. "We'll need to keep Mordecai from reaching out to Ben so Warhammer won't get involved. I can do that, but I need more information about the connections Midnight might have with these other packs."

He looked at me, "I'm sending you back to Warhammer."

I frowned, "What?"

"Mordecai is a ruthless son of a bitch. I can't-"

"I'm not going anywhere," I growled at him.

Matt's eyes narrowed, "Grace, could you leave us for a moment?"

Grace looked between us before getting up and slipping out of the room, closing the door behind her with a soft click.

"Given half a chance, Mordecai would have you kidnapped," Matt said. "To be sold off somewhere and added to his pool of victims, or worse."

I swallowed. A tremor of fear went through me. I didn't want to end up in another dungeon at the mercy of some maniac with a grudge against Matt, but going back to Warhammer wasn't an option.

"So, you want me to run?"

"I want you safe," he said, meeting my gaze.

I set my jaw, "I'm not leaving."

"Give me a good reason," Matt said, sounding oddly reasonable though his eyes said he wasn't going to listen to me.

Honestly, it would be easy enough for him to overpower me and ship me off back to Warhammer to wait for him to carry out whatever his plan is or get killed trying.

My blood turned cold at the thought of his death. He may have given me an identity and money, but what good would that do me in the long run? It was like we were on the mountain again and I was waiting for him to come back, knowing that my survival rested on his shoulders.

My revenge hinged on his connections, his money, and my ability to use them to my advantage.

Matt may be saying he wanted to get me my revenge, but he wasn't acting as though he needed me to do it.

How long would it take for him to figure out that I came from Fluorite? When he did replace out, what would he do? Even if he didn't figure out that I was Fluorite, simply tracking the traffickers back to the source who sold me to Midnight and making them pay in blood would be a form of revenge, but he would never know about Angelia.

I had to be here at every step in case I got lucky and all of this led me to Angelia.

But how could I make him think he needed me here? I could solve puzzles, but what else could I offer. I wasn't tech-savvy, but I could learn. I didn't have any money? He'd already said he wouldn't be sleeping with me. What could I offer him?

I swallowed, Alyssa, what do I do?

Tell him the truth.

Other than that!

She sighed, long and put upon, Tell him he needs someone with a strong stomach.

I thought back to Owen's words and smirked sitting back and crossing my legs. His eyes narrowed and I felt the same persona I took on when I was on stage come over me. It felt like slipping into an old, familiar dress. Alyssa was right.

I had three years in the underground and Matt was just barely starting to get his feet wet. I knew the secret ways of the wealthy and depraved. I could speak to prostitutes and get them to give me information. I wasn't as good as Grace, but Grace would speak to me more honestly than she would to Matt.

Owen seemed happy to speak to him and tell him whatever he wanted to know, but Owen wasn't the usual type of prostitute. Most were guarded and nervous.

"You... have a weak stomach. I don't."

He frowned, "I can get a stronger stomach."

"Do you know why reckless eyeballing is a near-death sentence on a track?"

He frowned. His eyes were filled with confusion. Reckless eyeballing was when a prostitute didn't keep her eyes on the ground while walking around either on her assigned street, her track or around other pimps.

Some pimps took eye contact to mean a change of ownership and it could get a prostitute in trouble with her new pimp and her old one.

"Do you know what it means to be an out-of-pocket renegade and why it's so dangerous?"

"You're just making up terms."

"Am I? Look at our notes."

Matt narrowed his eyes at me and looked down at the pages. I waited.

"... what is a lot lizard?"

I smirked and lifted a shoulder, "Well, you don't want me here, right? So, why should I tell you?"

He scoffed, "I could ask Grace."

"You could, but what about when Grace leaves?" I asked as my heart started to race. "I'm the only one linked to you. You bought Club Heaven, not Grace or any of the others."

Matt sat back, glowering at me, but I saw him scrambling to replace something else to say and a way around my words, but there wasn't one.

Matt huffed and rubbed his head, "Fine, Renda."

I grinned at him.

"But I'm a quick learner, Renda," Matt said, "The code of the underworld can't be that hard to learn."

I grinned, "I thought you said you were terrible at puzzles."

His eyes widened and he chuckled and sat back. For now, he wouldn't think about sending me back.

With any luck, I'd convince him that I was much more useful at his side during all of this than away.