Phantom hums thoughtfully. “Six? Eight? I can’t remember. Siren would know better, since they manage our assets.”
My eyes go wide and my jaw goes a little slack. “H-How?”
Phantom chuckles, sliding his hands into his pockets casually. My heart skips a beat as the motion causes his biceps to flex. Joker shoots me a knowing look, and I roll my eyes, cheeks heating.
“We sell the data we get from our raids on the black market and the dark web. And it’s safer to have our wealth tied up in assets like real estate and shell companies. Harder to trace back to us,” Phantom explains.
I nod thoughtfully. “Is that why you guys raided Love Wins? To get more data to sell?”
Phantom’s eyes shift to Joker for a moment, some silent but brief conversation happening between them. But after a moment, Phantom sighs, his shoulders dropping slightly.
“We raided Love Wins to shut down a trafficking ring. We’ve been doing similar raids all over the country for years. Or at least Bones and I have,” Phantom says, suddenly serious.
“It’s how they found me,” Joker says casually, dropping the now flatten vacuum bag into the tote before flopping onto the next one.
I suck in a sharp breath, my heart aching. “You…you were…”
“Picked up and sold to the highest bidder? Yep. How do you think someone with this glorious accent ended up all the way across the pond?” Joker says, laughing at his own joke.
But neither Phantom nor I laugh. My heart aches for him, only imagining the horrors he must have seen in his life.
“I’m sorry, Joker,” I whisper empathetically.
Joker’s expression sobers as he looks up at me, his smile softening. “It’s okay, luv. I’m here and I made it out mostly okay. Can’t say the same for the bastards who omega-napped me but…” He trails off with a false grimace before laughing at something again.
I turn and look at Phantom with a confused pinch to my brow. But I find the alpha pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing, exasperated.
“When we did our raid, we expected to find armed guards, alarms, the whole production. But instead we find a particular omega guarding the rest, covered in blood, shooting his mouth off like he had bullets for breakfast,” Phantom explains flatly, his accent coming forward slightly.
Joker laughs out loud, a hand coming up to his chest as he cackles. “Your cornbread is showing, mate.”
Phantom rolls his eyes, but his smirk is fond. I look between them, half alarmed and half amused.
“You killed…” I whisper, a little hoarse.
Joker looks up at me smiling. “Twenty-two rapist scumbags and omega traffickers. Save your pity for the omegas who were being sold off like cattle. The real victims.”
I mouth the number, looking down at my lap. I knew these men were dangerous; I would be fooling myself if I tried to think otherwise. But Joker taking out nearly two dozen people on his own, presumably mostly alphas, put him in a new light. Not a bad light, but it does make his behavior make more sense. But I remember how he saved me from the facility, specifically when he shielded me from watching him kill more people.
“You know I’d never hurt you, right? None of us would,” Joker says, voice suddenly very close.
I look up and find Joker kneeling in front of me, our knees practically touching. He takes my hands in his and brings one then the other to his lips, kissing my knuckles tenderly. I melt a little, nodding softly.
“We only hurt bad people, and you are the furthest thing from that, beautiful,” Joker goes on, dropping his voice to just above a whisper. “But I won’t hesitate to kill or hurt anyone who has ever or will ever hurt you.”
“Same here, baby doll,” Phantom agrees from across the room.
I nod, smiling despite myself. Joker’s scent is bright and sweet, honey and expensive vanilla swirling around me like playful tendrils of smoke. I believe them, and instead of making my instincts light up with fear, I find myself relaxing, trusting them. I realize then how much anxiety I’d been holding onto about this mission, how I’d been worried about Tyler hurting them to get to me. But now I understand how capable these people are, and my stomach unclenches from the tight knot it’s been in since last night.
“Why are we standing around? We are going wheels up in an hour twenty. Let’s go.”
Bones’s voice from the hallway makes me jump slightly, but Phantom chuckles, throwing him a sarcastic ‘Yes, Alpha’ before winking at me and Joker andmoving off down the hallway back to his room. But Joker keeps hold of my hands and pulls me toward the bathroom.
“What are you doing? We already packed there,” I ask skeptically.
Joker pulls me into the bathroom and closes the door behind me before pushing me up against it with a low rumbling purr.
“We’ve got an hour twenty left. And when I’m done with you, we’ll still have an hour and ten to finish packing and get ready.”