Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 299

Chapter 299

When I eventually found you, you were already under Big Bryan’s control. And I am no match for Big Bryan. I may have a few skills, but he is way out of my league. Sparrow is the only one who can stop him. Sparrow is way stronger than Big Bryan, he has more reach, more influence, and he has a personal vendetta against him. Big Bryan did something horrible to Sparrow years ago, something he has never forgiven. So I knew that no matter what, Sparrow would not be able to turn down a chance for revenge.”

Tasha was quiet for a long moment, her eyes searching my face like she was looking for the lie, the catch, the angle. I let her look. I had nothing left to hide.

“So you are saying you met with Sparrow, you took all the risk, you slept with him, just to help me and the other girls?”

“Yes.”

“And you did not want Julian to sleep with me last night because it would be too painful for me to still go ahead and sleep with Sparrow today.”

“That is exactly right.”

“But it still sounds strange to me.” She shook her head, her voice trembling. “Even though I am your blood, you barely know me. I am nobody. I am just a girl who grew up in the wrong house with the wrong people. I am nothing.”

“You are not nothing.” I gripped her hands so hard my knuckles went white. “You are the only family I have left in this world. Everything I did, every man I slept with, every lie I told, every line I crossed, I did it for you.

I joined the Phantom Circle for you. I got close to Damon for you. I convinced him to convince Big Bryan to let us come to this city for you. I let Julian catch us, I let him lock us up, I let him think he owned me, all because I knew that eventually, somehow, it would lead me to Sparrow. And it did. It led me right to him.”

Tasha stared at me, and I watched the understanding dawn in her eyes like a slow sunrise.

“Big Bryan may have acted as though he liked you. I saw how friendly he was with you. But he was a horrible man, Tasha. He slept with all the girls who worked for him, except the ones he called the caged birds. You were a caged bird. He left you untouched because you fell under a different category. The caged birds are sold off at auctions to rich, horrible men, and these men turn them into sex slaves. Eventually, these men get bored, and many of the girls do not survive. That was what was waiting for you. Bryan would have made sure of it.”

She shuddered, and I pulled her into my arms without thinking, holding her tight the way Lynette used to hold me when I was small and afraid.

“You also have something in your body,” I said against her hair, “Something called Hemovax. Every three months, Big Bryan arranged for you girls to get check-ups, right?”

She nodded against my shoulder.

“Those were not check-ups. You were being poisoned. Every three months, you had to get another dosage. If you failed to do it, you would die. Jasmine, Maya, you… all three of you. I never got those drugs because I joined voluntarily. But you have just one month left. If in one month you do not get the antidote, all of you are going to die. Everything I am doing now is to prevent that from happening.”

Tasha pulled back and looked at me, her eyes red-rimmed and swollen but clearer than I had ever seen them.” Okay. So now you have gotten me out. But what about Maya and Jasmine?”

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