Cursed Angels

by Edwards, Anna

  Hunter and I stare at each other. The room is silent. I can almost hear Mara preparing to enact her scheme of knocking sense into us. I reach my hand out to Hunter. He looks down at it and then takes it.

  “Truce. You’ve looked after Samara better than I ever could. I won’t hurt her again. I’ve apologized to her, but I need to do the same to you because you had to pick her up and rebuild her. I’m sorry.”

  He nods acceptance of my words.

  “We need to work together to bring down the people that did this to both of you. There are so many others out there who are suffering. It stops now.” He pulls his hand away and shoves it into his jeans pocket. “You have my word that I won’t touch Mara again while you two figure out what is going on between you. I’ll only complicate issues with my magical dick.” He laughs, and the tension that has surrounded the three of us for the last few days evaporates.

  “I think she’s discovered we both have dicks that can perform miracles.”

  “Oh, dear God,” Samara exclaims and rolls her eyes, “Now I know why some women choose vibrators over men. They can’t speak. It makes life easier.”

  “No vibrator can do what this can do.” Hunter grabs his crotch and jerks it.

  I shake my head.

  “Maybe we should remind her what we both can do again,” I add, and we all erupt into laughter.

  “Truce.” Hunter holds his hand out again.

  “Truce. Hunter, you have my word I won’t ever hurt her.”

  “I know, but if you do, I’ll feed that miracle dick of yours to you.”

  “Deal.”

  “Can we get on with bringing down an empire now?” Samara places her hands on her hips and glares at me.

  “Yes,” Hunter and I reply at the same time and take seats around the table.

  “I think your right about Rebekah.” Samara pulls a picture of the woman out and places it forefront on the table. “She’s becoming more and more of a recluse as the firm grows. People go to her now, not the other way around. They are vetted and trusted. She gets the doctors and her employees to do most of the dirty work. She just reaps the benefits. Archer, would you say that’s the case?”

  “Yes.” I look down at the woman who until recently I was sticking my dick into. I feel repulsed because she doesn’t compare to Mara. “The number of children they’ve taken is also larger than when we were young. She imports many from other orphanages around the country now. There are regular, monthly shipments just to maintain the supply for the increased demand. The regime is even stricter. A little while ago, two kids were caught having sex. There aren’t three strikes and you’re out anymore. I had to beat the boy to an inch of his life, and he was transferred straight into the training scheme after that. The girl — I doubt she’s still alive. If she is, I think she’ll wish she were dead because she was handed over to the soldiers.”

  Shaking my head, I sigh, running my fingers through my hair, still deciding if I should tell them this or not. But Mara has seen the ugliness of The Factory.

  “There’s a regular barracks with a few hundred men kept close to the orphanage at any time. I was the first to receive the chip, but it wouldn’t surprise me if most of them have it. The place is too organized, and time seemed jilted for most people. We remember going out in trucks for jobs, but none of us remember what we actually did.”

  Samara becomes paler and paler as I speak. Hunter angrier.

  “Anyone in that camp now are vessels for murder and rape. Man or woman, no discrimination is made. One dies, another replaces them. Demand is greater than supply. I’ve killed potential purchasers before because they wanted to haggle over the deal or demanded more. I’m head of security at the moment. That’s why I’m tasked with finding you both. You’ve caused a few problems, and until new doctors are in place, the supply is going to dry up even more. Rebekah is weakened but fighting back. It wouldn’t surprise me if she starts having people stolen off the streets to cater to her needs as a businesswoman.”

  “We need to shut this down before that starts. It’s bad enough she’s pushing children into this after they come of age, but if she’s going to go down that line of recruitment, then this gets worse.” Hunter shuffles through some papers and pulls out a photo of a man I’ve seen a few times around The Factory. I haven’t dealt with him though.

  “Who’s he?” I ask.

  “You don’t know him?” Hunter questions.

  “I’ve seen him but never been introduced. He keeps to himself.”

  “He fits in with your theory on increasing supply. His name is Cole Middleton, and he’s wanted by the US government for human trafficking. Again, he’s not bothered by who he steals — men, women, and children. He’s a nasty piece of work.” Hunter presses his finger into the picture. “If Rebekah’s getting him involved, she’s getting desperate.”

  “It’s why she’s so desperate to control me and keep me at her side.” I suck the air in through my teeth in thought. “With Samara being back on the scene, I was remembering things. I thought it was a dream, but they took me back into the lab and upped the power of the chip recently. If I prove the chip is worthless and can be overridden by a person’s feelings, then she’s in trouble. If she’s involved with this man to acquire more people and this chip is found inferior, he’s the type to put a bullet in her brain, I’m guessing.”

  Hunter nods. “Yeah, after he’s cut the rest of her body up and put it on display as an example of those that mess up with him.”

  “Then we go to him and show him how she’s messed up,” Samara interrupts.

  “No,” Hunter and I both answer at the same time.

  “He’ll take over, and we’ll be back at square one with trying to bring down this organization. We have to take them both down at once,” Hunter snaps.

  “I have to go back in.” I breath out and shut my eyes. It’s the last thing I want to do, but the only way we can take them down and rescue all the innocents is to do it from the inside.

  “No.” Samara folds her arms across her chest. “Not happening. I’m not allowing you to go back in there.”

  “You know it’s the only thing we can do to stop this,” I tell her. Hunter nods.

  “There’ll be another way. Hunter and I have been doing well with the doctors so far. If we continue taking them all out, then she won’t be able to make the soldiers anymore.” I can see the fear in her eyes. My beautiful woman has been so strong for so long, but this scares her. I can’t exactly blame her. I’ve got the same feelings twisting in my gut.

  “She will just replace them. We have to strike at the heart.”

  “No!” Samara shouts and pushes the chair away from the table. “End of discussion.”

  She doesn’t give me time to answer because she rushes out of the room.

  Hunter gets to his feet and goes over to a safe in the corner of the room. He presses a code and opens it, pulling my mobile from inside and hands it to me.

  “I’ve been sending Rebekah texts the last few days to explain your absence. It’s probably about time you called her with an update. She seemed a bit pissed off on the last one.” He hands me the phone, and I turn it on. I scroll to my messages and see the brief conversation he had with my employer.

  Archer: Got a lead. Message when I can.

  Rebekah: What? Archer? Call me!

  Archer: Can’t, undercover. Be patient.

  Rebekah: Call me now, you arrogant prick!

  Archer: Your dirty talk gets me so hard.

  Rebekah: I better have a head when you return!

  Archer: You better “give” me head when I return.

  “You’ve captured my personality well.” I raise an eyebrow at him. “You knew I’d go back in?”

  “Samara knew you would as well. She’s just worried. That girl has been through hell.” Hunter returns to his seat at the table and brings the laptop toward him. I notice he flicks the screen to a grave. “You better go to her. I want this finished. I’ve got a life to liv
e.”

  Chapter 23

  Samara

  Fear.

  It trickles through the bloodstream like venom. Inch by heated inch, my body burns with it. I don’t want him to go back into that house, but I know he has to. If he doesn’t, Rebekah will find him, somehow, and she’ll do something worse than she’s already done.

  Pulling out my laptop, I open the lid, and the screen lights up. Something Archer said had my mind reeling, but with everything going on, I set it aside. Till now.

  Clicking on the searching software, I type in her full name, Rebekah Ward. My eyes scan the numbers as they trickle in. Knowing Hunter and Archer will soon be in here, I want to do this and confirm my suspicion before they do. If what I think is true, they both need to know.

  My mind drifts back to a moment of innocence when I had first seen Archer, when he’d stalked up to me to introduce himself. The new boy in the orphanage.

  “Hey,” the strange boy smirks. He looks older, but not by much. Tattered jeans and a torn T-shirt are the only clues to why he’s here. Perhaps a runaway. Maybe even an addict. But when I meet his gaze, I don’t see any inkling of him being on drugs.

  “Hi,” I respond finally.

  His gaze tracks my hair, face, neck, and slowly, inch by inch, down my body to my shoes. When he lifts those dark eyes again, he pins me with a look that makes my stomach flutter.

  “I’m Archer,” he tells me, holding out a hand, which I shyly accept. We shake, but the contact of his hot skin on mine makes me shiver.

  “Samara,” I inform him of my name.

  “Pretty,” he tells me. The corner of his mouth lifts, a small dimple forms in his cheek, and his eyes shimmer with mischief. “So, I figured I’d come and say hi.”

  “Hi,” I stupidly mutter, cringing that I’m acting like an idiot in front of the cute boy.

  “Would you give the new boy a tour of this place?” he asks, arching a dark brow at me in question.

  “Uhm, yeah, sure.” I smile finally, attempting to calm my erratic heartbeat.

  “Good.” He reaches for my hand once more, this time twining his fingers through mine and tugging me along as if he’s the one giving me the tour.

  The computer dings loudly, dragging me from the memory of the moment I knew my life would never be the same with the boy I’d loved since that day to now. When my gaze focuses on the screen, my heart catapults wildly.

  “Hunter!” I shout, racing into the living room to find both men staring at me. “I just figured out something. When Archer mentioned Rebekah, he told us her name, and something that Diana had told me a while ago struck me as strange.”

  I set the computer down to show my partner for so long the truth of the woman we’d been working for.

  “They were sisters?” Hunter asks, glancing at me, then at the screen.

  When I turn to face Archer, he looks as confused as we feel.

  “She’d never mentioned family,” Archer says, furrowing his brows. The photos of both women side by side are uncanny. It’s almost as if they’re twins. The only differences are hair color, and I’m certain Diane’s nose was broken and reconstructed. There’s a slight bend in it, which gives off the feel that she certainly was a fighter.

  “It seems we’re not the only ones keeping secrets,” Hunter says, paging through a folder. When he sets it on the desk, I scan through the information that states there was indeed two girls born. The problem is, they were separated at the age of sixteen after a house fire. Both parents died tragically while the girls were left as orphans.

  “I need to go,” Archer finally says. His voice is low, almost a whisper, but I hear the pain and fear that drips from every word. He shouldn’t have to go back in there, but I know we don’t have a choice.

  “I’ll walk you out,” I tell him, offering Hunter a nod before following the man I love to the door. The sun is bright, scorching the arid ground as it beats down, making it stifling outside.

  “I’ll be back. We’ll fix this,” he tells me then, his hands on my hips, pulling me closer to him. He reaches up, tipping my head back with his index finger under my chin. “Don’t give up on me.” It’s a plea; he’s begging me now, and I nod.

  “I promise.”

  “As do I.”

  And with that, he leaves, and I watch the tires of his Jeep kick up dust in his wake. My heart hurts. It aches violently, recalling every nightmare I had of him walking out and never coming back.

  “He’ll be back. He loves you.” Hunter’s reassurance eases the pain, but deep down, I know it won’t stop until we’re all free.

  Chapter 24

  Archer

  Mara fades into a sea of dust kicked up by my car tires, and I’m fighting with myself not to turn the wheel and go straight back to her. I know if I do, we’ll never finish this. We have to rid ourselves of the demons before we can have a happily ever after and all that monotonous shit.

  It doesn’t take me long to return to the compound, and before I even walk through the front door, one of the foot soldiers is informing me Rebekah wants me in her office immediately. I take my time though, stopping by my room first to freshen up. I know I can smell Mara all over me, but I don’t need Rebekah doing the same. My woman may have taken the chip out of my head which made me a monster, but deep down, I think we both know a part of me will forever return to the demonic nature of the man I’ve become. I’ve done things so dark they can never be wiped from my soul.

  They’ve ingrained themselves in the inner workings of my mind like a parasite embedded in my soft tissue. The chip wasn’t the only thing controlling me. The darkness which grew within was a dominating factor. Mara is the only one who can temper it down. The longer I’m away from her, the more prone to corruption I’ll become. I can sense it, feel it, fight against it for now, but for how long?

  Eventually, I find myself outside the impatient Miss Ward’s office door. I can already feel the anger emanating from inside the room. It makes me chuckle, but then it’s time for the game face. I’m cocky but not stupid. I know whatever I do from now on puts Samara further at risk. Knocking, I don’t wait to be asked to come in.

  “You wanted to see me.” I raise an indignant eyebrow at the woman dressed in a sharply tailored pinstriped suit sitting with a face like thunder behind her massive, carved oak desk.

  “I wanted to see you a few days ago.” She gets to her feet and smooths down the lines of her skin-tight skirt before giving me a stare which would render a weaker man to his knees. “Details.”

  I amble slowly over to her desk and pull out a chair on the opposite side and slide down into it. My feet are placed firmly on the ground, my muscular arms are resting on my knees. I suck on the inside of my lip in an indifferent stance.

  “I thought I had a lead, stuff happened, nothing came of it.”

  “Bullshit.” She slams her fist against the desk.

  I yawn with boredom.

  “I want answers, Archer. You disappeared.” She stills and looks at me, her facial expression softening. “You’re covered in bruises.”

  “They’ll heal.” I’m not going to fall for her new tactile approach. Once upon a time, I would have played into it to get my dick wet, but now, it’s staying firmly in my pants unless Samara is the one I’m going to stick it in.

  “Archer. What happened?” Rebekah asks me again, her patience wearing thin at my nonchalance.

  A dangerous idea floods into my head, and I decide on impulse to go with it. With slow and deliberate, calculating movements, I get to my feet and stalk around her desk. I stand behind her and press myself into her. I’m not hard, this woman repulses me, but I feel her shudder with the memories of what I can do to her. She softens into my arms, and I reach around to bite on her ear.

  “I know what you did to me,” I whisper. She tenses, and I react. In an instant, I spin her around, and I have my hand around her throat. She’s pushed up against the wall, and I’m squeezing my rough fingers around the column of her delicate neck. I
could so easily break it.

  “Archer,” she tries to choke out, but it’s more of a garbled need for air.

  “You put a chip in my head,” I snarl. Her eyes go wide with shock at my revelation.

  “I . . . I . . .,” she stutters, and I tighten my grip a tiny bit more. “Please.”

  “I don’t take kindly to being treated like a slave. I make my own fucking decisions.”

  “How?” I allow my hold to loosen slightly this time. She needs to be able to ask me questions, and if I hold her any tighter, I could lose it and strangle her.

  “The headaches. Middle of a fucking fight, Rebekah. I’m being told things by the scum I’m hunting, and next thing I know, my head is ready to explode, and they are escaping. You put me in a dangerous position.” I spit my words into her face, so she understands the level of anger supposedly surging through my body. “Why? When?” I ask.

  “Years ago. I’m sorry,” she whimpers. “It was a prototype. All the boys have it now to make them feel no emotions. It causes you to forget. Makes you a better soldier. What are you going to do?” Her eyes are filled with tears. She knows the type of man I am with the chip. I’m a cold-blooded killer, and what I do next will convince her I’m the same without it.

  I push her up the wall, so her feet are barely on the ground. She is gasping for air in my hands, and I know I could so easily kill her, but I can’t do it yet. Not until we have answers and freedom for everyone involved in this place, this nightmare of a life.

  “Worried I’m going to kill you?” I smirk, and her lips move in a plea, but no words come out. “I should. I should shake the fucking life from you until you tell me everything you’ve done to me. I get I was a kid when I first started this, but not now. You know exactly what I’m capable of, and I’m pissed you don’t trust me enough. What have you made me forget?”

  I inhale deeply and reluctantly let her go, but not without a push across the room; she stumbles and falls to the floor but recovers quick enough to spin around and look at me from the ground.