Mission Mercenaries Series by Marie James – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Mission Mercenaries Series by Marie James – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com Sun, 11 Jun 2023 19:41:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 http://www.books2020.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Mission Mercenaries Series by Marie James – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com 32 32 Redemption Refused (Mission Mercenaries #5) Read Online Marie James http://www.books2020.com/redemption-refused-mission-mercenaries-5-read-online-marie-james Sun, 11 Jun 2023 19:41:58 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/redemption-refused-mission-mercenaries-5-read-online-marie-james Genre: Angst, Dark, Suspense Authors: Marie James Series: Mission Mercenaries Series by Marie James
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Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)

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Hooking up with the college freshman I was supposed to keep an eye on was easier than tracking her.
Kidnapping her after that first night was easier than following her around campus.I’m massive, scarred, and tattooed. I don’t exactly fit in with her crowd.
After the job was done, cutting her loose was the hard part.
Making it through the day without seeing her became impossible.
Some may call it stalking, but I call it vigilance.
She seems invested in this game of cat and mouse we’re playing, but she’s mistaken.
I’m not a toy she can discard when she’s bored.
Trying to get her out of my system may leave us both in pieces.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

Elio

I know how cruel it is to squeeze my eyes closed at the sound of her screams. If I could cover my ears and block it all out, I would. I should be stronger for her, but I’m a coward.

I want to look in her eyes and promise her that I’ll find a way to save us both, that I’ll devise a way to put an end to the pain he’s caused her—we’ve—we’ve caused her.

We were careful, so careful, sneaking around. I’d keep my eyes lowered at school, would go above and beyond not to draw any attention to her. I could love her in the darkness. Despite it causing so many fights between us, I did it to keep her safe.

Until my initiation, I didn’t heed many of the rumors about how we were required to prove our loyalty to the Severino family. Killing someone, especially a girl, we knew, was absurd. No one was that cruel. At least that’s what I thought until Alessio, the oldest Severino brother, whispered in my ear and told me to pick one while I stood on the edge of the dance floor at mine and his younger brother Marcello’s senior prom less than six months ago.

The quiet is so loud it forces my eyes open. Her chest rises and falls, telling me Maya’s still alive, but it doesn’t bring the relief it should. I know how this night ends. I know I’ll never be the same, and with that comes a swarm of guilt and a burn behind my eyes.

I shouldn’t have gotten involved with her. I shouldn’t have thought I could have something of my own. That loving her was worth the risk of losing her. Her love, that peace I sought, comes at a price, and I wasn’t even man enough to warn her. Instead, I made promises of a future, whispered in her ear all the things we would do together in the lifetime I knew I couldn’t give her. Each word was a lie, a fantasy of my creation.

I want to beg for mercy, to plead with Marcello to just get it over with because I know begging for her life to be spared would be a waste of breath. I know he feels betrayed. We aren’t supposed to love. We aren’t supposed to make connections with anyone outside of the family. When it’s time for us to settle down and marry, their father is the one responsible for telling us who that is. I haven’t gotten my orders, despite my sister being almost a year younger and already being promised to the man that’s placing a soft hand on Maya’s subtly swollen belly.

I choke back a sob, the first one I let escape since all of this started.

He knows, I realize when I lock eyes with him.

“Please,” I beg.

The word is broken. I’m broken.

As he presses his knife to her flesh, I can only fucking pray he kills me next. Living without her is a torture I’ll never survive.

The only way to endure any of it is to never love again.

By the time I reopen my eyes, I’ve managed to shut all of it down. The pain, the self-hatred, the need for vengeance, all of it is gone. I’m blank. The part of me that had the ability to give a shit about anything is gone.

Numbness is all that’s left, and as her heart stops beating and Marcello smiles at me, I realize he was successful. His plan worked.

He turned me into the monster I pretended to be for so long.

Chapter 1

Alani

I tilt my head back, my eyes closed, but my nose pointed to the ceiling. Pretending to have a good time doesn’t make it happen, and waiting for the alcohol to take over and dull the edges of boredom frustrates the hell out of me. I don’t need to be drunk to have fun, but it sure does help.

College is supposed to be a blast. I’m supposed to live life and celebrate the new freedom I have, but it feels more like torture. I don’t even want to be here, and I’m regretting my decision to attend Lindell University. I wanted to put some distance between my sister and myself. I wanted to get far enough away that she couldn’t just pop up and surprise me. I got my wish and then some because I haven’t seen Ayla since she dropped me off in the fall. Hell, I spent the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with my roommate’s family because Ayla took a job out of the country. It seems she couldn’t wait to get away from me either.

I feel orphaned, abandoned. I never confess those things on our weekly calls. The woman had to put her own life on pause to take care of me after our parents’ tragic deaths. I fought against her parenting, at times because as a teen it’s the instinctual thing to do, at other times because I wanted to punish her because of the role she had to take. It wasn’t fair, and I knew it at the time. Maybe her silence is her vengeance.

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Advertisement Depravity Delivered (Mission Mercenaries #4) Read Online Marie James http://www.books2020.com/depravity-delivered-mission-mercenaries-4-read-online-marie-james Wed, 12 Apr 2023 20:59:24 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/depravity-delivered-mission-mercenaries-4-read-online-marie-james Genre: Alpha Male, Angst, Dark, Suspense Authors: Marie James Series: Mission Mercenaries Series by Marie James
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Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >85

The job I took was personal for my boss, but my abduction quickly made it personal for me.
There’s no forgiveness for the things they made me do to her.
It would be easy to point fingers, but what about the part of me that liked it?
Something triggered that sickness and left me needy.
I made a choice to protect her when I could, but the need to hurt her again is always in the back of my mind.
The crazy thing is, I see that same darkness in her eyes when she looks at me.
If we survive captivity, there’s still no guarantee we’ll survive each other.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

Ayla

4 months ago

“You have that same disappointed look Mom always had.”

“I do not,” I argue, looking away from my sister because I know exactly what look she’s referencing.

“You’re annoyed with something, and your face says it all.”

Alani stares at the side of my head until I face her. I don’t respond immediately because I know if I share what’s annoying me, she’s going to remind me that she’s an adult, and I can’t coddle her for the rest of her life.

“It’s nothing,” I assure her with a quick smile rather than telling her that I know she left out the fact that she’s in a coed dorm rather than one with all women.

She narrows her eyes at me, the same blue as mine, sparkling with the almost too-bright overhead lights.

I want to growl in irritation when some bro-dude yells about partying twenty-four seven in the hallway.

“I know how important this is for both of us,” Alani says, the direction she’s taking shocking me.

She clasps my hand in hers, and the kind gesture makes my eyes burn.

“It’s college. I have to be here. I promise I won’t get into trouble or skip classes. I know there aren’t extra reserves in the bank to cover me if I fail.” Her voice begins to clog with her own unshed tears. “I won’t let you, or them, down. I promise.”

Them. Our parents. The sting of their deaths is still raw even three years later.

I have a million things I’d like to say. I can count at least a hundred mistakes I’ve made over the last couple of years as her guardian. A hundred things my parents would’ve handled differently had they not died in a car accident when I was twenty. But in a way, I was still a kid then too, thrust into adulthood and asked to raise a fifteen-year-old girl because letting her go anywhere else was out of the question. I don’t regret it.

Do I wish my parents were alive every single day? Of course I do. We both deserved more time with them.

“You have a long drive ahead of you,” Alani reminds me.

“Trying to get rid of me already?” I give her a smile, but I can’t handle much more than a twitch of my lips.

“If you cry, then I’m going to cry,” she warns.

I blow out a harsh breath, trying to get better control of myself. I know I can keep calm in front of her. It’s something I’ve mastered in the last couple of years. She didn’t need to see me cry when life got to be too much. It wasn’t her fault that the stress of making sure she was taken care of and nursing school was almost too much to handle. We got through it then, and we can get through it now. Her leaving for college was supposed to make things easier, but I’m certain her being four hours from our home in Plano will only increase my anxiety level.

“I’m going to need more lemur stuff,” she says, changing the subject, something she has always been good at when the topic of conversation got too serious. “Did you see that girl in the hallway? Everything she brought with her was white, black, and purple.”

“I’ll keep it in mind for Christmas.”

Just the thought of having to wait until the holidays to see her again makes my skin crawl and my throat threaten to close.

I know she chose Lindell University because she needed a break. I know there were times I was more than a little smothering, but it comes with the job of being her sister and her parent. There were rules after my parents’ deaths that didn’t exactly match her age and activity level. She wasn’t allowed to drive after dark. If she needed to be somewhere, I would take her because she definitely couldn’t ride with anyone else. It really put a damper on her social life because there were days I had class or study sessions before I graduated that prevented her from being very spontaneous.

“Stop,” she says, as she swipes at a few tears that have wandered down my cheeks. “I’m going to be fine.”

“Don’t get—”

“Don’t get in the car with anyone,” she interrupts. “I know. Everything in town is within walking distance to campus, remember? We looked at the map together.”

The small town of Lindell is just right off campus. It’s kitschy and cute. Very quiet and safe. At least that’s what the brochure that came with Alani’s “Welcome to Lindell” packet said. It’s close enough to Austin, about an hour west of the state capitol, to keep from feeling like the town is out of touch with the world, but just far enough away to maintain its individuality.

“I’ll be fine,” she says when all I can manage is trying to blink away my tears. “Now, I’m not rushing you off, but I need to organize my half of the room before my roommate gets here tomorrow. I don’t think she’ll be very impressed with the way I have all my stuff scattered on her side.”

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Advertisement Bridges Burned (Mission Mercenaries #3) Read Online Marie James http://www.books2020.com/bridges-burned-mission-mercenaries-3-read-online-marie-james Fri, 03 Feb 2023 20:32:01 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/bridges-burned-mission-mercenaries-3-read-online-marie-james Genre: Alpha Male, Bad Boy, Dark, Romance, Suspense Authors: Marie James Series: Mission Mercenaries Series by Marie James
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Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >81

I didn’t swear vengeance on the Severino Family after Ellie’s death. I was only a child after all.
I didn’t swear vengeance when my father, a coward who wasn’t man enough to seek justice for her, drank himself into a divorce.
Going after them would be a death sentence.
I chose to live my life in the shadows, seeking revenge for others.
That was until I ran into the very man that took Ellie’s life.
I can still smell the smoke clinging to my skin from all the bridges I burned because of that man.
Walking away was no longer an option.
Killing him would be easy, but taking the woman that was promised to him seemed like a better wager.
Exacting retribution through her was the gamble I made.
Surviving her now seems impossible.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

Hollis

10 Years Old

I angle my head a little to the right, but it doesn’t help me hear the television any better.

Closing my eyes only makes the noise louder.

My chin trembles, but I refuse to let the tears fall.

I’m not a little kid anymore. Crying won’t help me, but the tears I hear in my mom’s voice cut me in a way I can’t explain.

“You don’t understand,” Dad mutters, his words sounding different right now than they used to.

“I do,” Mom argues. “I understand what it’s like to lose someone. You’re right in front of me, but you’re already gone.”

He huffs, a familiar sound these last couple of years.

Dad changed when Patrick, his partner in the police force, died. Patrick changed when Ellie died.

I miss her, and I think a part of me always will, but I miss my dad, too.

Mom is right. He’s here, but he’s not.

The man I knew, the one who couldn’t get his gun belt off fast enough after his shift to throw a baseball with me, hasn’t made it to a game all season.

They don’t think I hear the arguments. I can tell they try to keep their voices down, but Dad struggles with his volume after he starts drinking.

“It’s not the same!” he yells, and I can picture him raising his arms before letting them fall at his sides. He’s always done this when he’s upset. “He was like a brother to me! Ellie was like a daughter!”

“And you have a son,” she says as if he needs a reminder, as if he couldn’t remember me himself.

I swallow against the threat of tears. I know I lost a part of Dad the day Patrick was buried beside his daughter. I know Patrick lost a lot of himself the day he got the call about her accident.

Accident.

That’s what everyone says when they speak about it around me, as if I’m a baby that needs protecting. What people don’t realize is I have ears. I listen all the time. What else could I do over the last two years when others around me are spiraling out of control? I heard Mom use the phrase regarding Dad, but I didn’t understand it fully until recently, until the argument about him losing his job due to drinking.

I heard them mention Ellie and her accident a hundred times in front of me, but the conversation is different when I’m listening outside of the room.

Several men hurt Ellie. Men who Dad and Patrick could identify but for some reason couldn’t arrest. Patrick had an accident, too, only a couple of months after Ellie’s “accident”, but it still makes no sense to me. He was a cop. He’d been trained on gun safety. Dad blames the bad men that hurt Ellie, but the whiskey he drinks hasn’t made it any better.

“Do you think Patrick would do this if the tables were turned? Would Patrick drink himself into an early grave if Ellie were still alive?”

Silence follows, but I don’t understand why Dad doesn’t know the answer. Ellie was Patrick’s world. He’d never do anything that would hurt her.

“You know he wouldn’t,” Mom answers for him. “Please, just sign the papers.”

“I’ll do better,” Dad says, sounding like the broken man I’ve become all too familiar with recently.

“It’s too late, Ray. Sign the papers.”

He begs a little longer, but Mom stands her ground.

He’s letting the bad guys win, and he can’t even see it himself.

I’m losing my dad because he feels helpless. He won’t punish the men that hurt Ellie and caused Patrick to hurt himself by accident. When I see a bully being a jerk at school, I punch them in the nose. Dad should do the same thing. He should hurt the people who caused all of this, especially after the lawyers said there was nothing they could do.

If Dad knows who it is, he should solve the problem.

Instead, he’s going to lose his family.

One tear slips down my cheek at the sound of my dad’s sobs.

As I dash it away with the back of my hand, I vow to never be that weak.

I’ll never be the type of person to let an injustice go by without speaking up about it or solving the problem myself.

I don’t care what the lawyers say. If someone is guilty of hurting someone else, I’ll make sure they get the punishment they deserve.

Chapter 1

Hollis

Present Day

I’m all for playing a trick on someone. It’s not often in my isolated world that I get to engage with people I don’t have the first inclination to kill, but what happened here tonight is a little out of my comfort zone for several reasons.

First, I want to warn Liam about his woman. Any chick willing to have you kidnapped, hit over the head, tied up, and gagged, is someone to run from, not smile at. But despite Liam looking around the room with an expression that tells me he’d slit all of our throats, he also seems ecstatic to have just experienced what he did. I don’t mean the sex he had in that fucking room. His woman, Raya, looks just as love drunk as he does.

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Advertisement Mistakes Made (Mission Mercenaries #2) Read Online Marie James http://www.books2020.com/mistakes-made-mission-mercenaries-2-read-online-marie-james Fri, 25 Nov 2022 12:33:16 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/mistakes-made-mission-mercenaries-2-read-online-marie-james Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Dark, Romance, Suspense Authors: Marie James Series: Mission Mercenaries Series by Marie James
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Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 77841 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >84

The worst thing you can ever do is make an assumption about me, despite my job resting solely on making people think I’m someone I’m not.
I know that makes me crazy, narcissistic, and a little out of touch with the reality of how the world works.
I’ll never argue that fact with anyone.
Maybe it was the hundred-degree Texas weather.
Maybe it was overstimulation from the crowds at the beach.
Maybe it was one of a million other things that irritated me that day.
But when Raya Reed looked me up and down, finding me lacking on some scale I’m sure no man in her life would ever live up to, I snapped.
It wasn’t until she was tied up in my house that I discovered she was Senator Thomas Reed’s daughter.
A normal person would let her go.
I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my past, but making Raya MINE will never be one of them.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter 1

Liam

“This is the worst fucking idea,” Hollis grumbles as he leans down and sweeps sand off his cast for the hundredth time since we met up today.

“This was your idea,” Nash reminds him.

“Still a bad fucking idea,” Hollis says. “I’m never going to get this shit out of my cast.”

I keep my eyes on the ocean. South Padre is where I called home. Well, at least that's what the guys sitting beside me think. No one knows where I really live, and I’d never give that information up.

I would consider these guys friends, but only on the surface. They’re fake friends, if you will. Social interaction is a requirement in order to look normal.

I’m anything but normal. The guys sitting beside me are anything but normal.

We're all just keeping up appearances, being who those around us expect us to be. I’m sure my blond hair and tanned skin give off a surfer vibe because that’s the goal. The truth is, I can look like anyone I want, anyone I need to be, for whatever occasion I may encounter.

“Why won't you tell us about him?” Nash asks.

I don't even have to speculate on who he's referring to.

Angel Guerra.

The man is our boss. Not that Hollis and Nash have met him.

They haven’t, and I think that pisses them off a little.

I don’t know how I got an actual meeting with the man, but it was brief, lasting only a few minutes. The only reason I think he ever gave me the time of day after that meeting is because of what we have in common.

We don't work a regular nine-to-five job. What we do is dangerous.

Many would look at our profession and think that we're saviors, heroes.

But we're not.

I can't count how many times someone has looked up at me from a dirty floor after months of abuse, like I was Jesus walking the earth.

Taking time out of my life to make sure that others are safe isn’t why I do what I do, but I don't correct them.

That's not what they need at the time.

They don't need to be told that I'm there for a paycheck.

That I wouldn't bat an eye if I showed up in front of them, and they were dead.

I don't tell them that I would just walk away a little disappointed that I wasn't getting paid, but not heartbroken.

I don't internalize the bad jobs. We all have shitty days at work. It just so happens that my shitty days usually end up with someone dead.

Hell, I don't even celebrate the good jobs.

Work is just work.

“We all work for him,” Hollis says. “There's no reason you can't tell us what you know.”

Nash grunts his agreement.

“He's dangerous,” I tell them not for the first time. “Just do your damn jobs and leave the rest alone.”

“We're all dangerous,” Hollis argues, but the man has no idea.

I sigh in irritation, the sound getting lost on the ocean breeze.

“I only met him once,” I remind them.

Nash scoffs. “We all know how much you can tell about a person by just meeting them once.”

I look over at the two of them, wondering why I even showed up in the first place today.

“He’s deadly.” My eyes dart back and forth between the two of them so they know how serious I am. I’d never tell them how I know he’s deadly, but since Angel and I have had similar experiences, I know he has to be. You don’t survive what we did and walk away unchanged. “Not to be fucked with. Not to be researched. Not to be tracked. Just get your jobs, get them done, get paid, and leave it alone.”

I can tell by the look on both their faces that this isn't something they're going to give up on easily, and that makes them stupid and deserving of whatever they may get as a result.

But why should I care if they want to track Angel Guerra? If they want to end up dead on the side of the road, then who am I to stop that from happening?

“He met with you,” Hollis says, the sound of his voice like nails on the chalkboard, like a stubborn child who just won't take no for an answer. I have no doubt that Hollis is an only child, that he’s been given just about everything he’s ever wanted. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover the man only works for the thrills the job provides, for that adrenaline rush when you’re staring down the possibility of death, and how it makes you feel when you survive.

“You met him so you know more about him than we do,” Hollis continues.

“He's my boss just like he's your boss,” I tell him. “I haven't gone out of my way to find out information about him.”

That's the truth. I'm not gonna hunt Angel Guerra down. I'm not going to try to find out more about his life.

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Advertisement Lessons Learned (Mission Mercenaries #1) Read Online Marie James http://www.books2020.com/lessons-learned-mission-mercenaries-1-read-online-marie-james Wed, 26 Oct 2022 19:50:43 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/lessons-learned-mission-mercenaries-1-read-online-marie-james Genre: Action, BDSM, Dark, Erotic, Romance, Taboo Authors: Marie James Series: Mission Mercenaries Series by Marie James
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Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83519 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >86

They call me a soldier of fortune, a hired gun, a man with no morals only looking to get paid—a mercenary.
That’s true… mostly.
From where I stand, I don’t see it as a bad thing.
Getting paid to do the dirty work, to take the jobs saner people refuse is my bread and butter.
I love the danger, the thrill, the warmth that attempts to spark something in my cold, black heart.
Why shouldn’t I get paid for that?
Does it really matter if I’m indifferent about who I step on to succeed? The job always gets done, and I never look back.
The same went for Lauren Vos, an undercover FBI agent working in some of the most dangerous trafficking circles known to man.
Our paths crossed on a job years ago, and somehow fate has thrown us together once again.
Only this time around she isn’t interested in letting me forget.
The problem for her is that I’m not the same man she thought she left for dead.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

Angel

The sunlight streaming in feels out of place.

Days like today are meant to be shrouded in darkness.

Bad things only happen in the black of night.

That’s how things are supposed to be.

The limited amount of cartoons I’ve watched tells me so.

My experience has been different.

Time of day doesn’t factor into the traumas I’ve endured.

The cartoons lie.

Unlike the bird that gets up and runs away after being hit in the head with an anvil, Momma doesn’t move.

My eyes dart from the pool of red spreading across the floor to the hammer.

Maybe that’s the difference.

Daddy didn’t have an anvil like the coyote had.

Wetness drips down my cheeks, and I swipe at it repeatedly. If Daddy sees, he’ll be angry.

Making Daddy angry is never a good thing.

He’s always angry, though.

At me.

At the world.

But mostly Momma.

Women will never learn.

She had it coming.

If she’d just done what she was told…

Correcting her is the only way she’ll learn.

But Momma never learns.

As her skin turns ashen before my eyes, I know her lessons end today.

“What a fucking waste,” Daddy says with a chuckle, his foot lashing out and hitting Momma’s side.

She doesn’t move like she normally does. She doesn’t cry out in pain. She doesn’t beg him to stop.

The silence is as strange as the sunlight coming in through the curtains.

It doesn’t belong.

“See her?” Daddy snaps. “See how useless women are?”

I nod. I’ve known women are useless for as long as I can remember.

Good for only one thing, Daddy always says.

I don’t know what that one thing is.

Momma wasn’t good at cooking, nor cleaning, nor raising me the way he saw fit.

As the red continues to grow, I still don’t know what Momma was good for.

“Fuck!”

My eyes snap to Daddy, watching as he runs rough, irritated hands over the top of his head.

Wild eyes dart around the room, but this is nothing new. Daddy always looks a little frenzied, a little out of control.

“I have to go,” he snaps. “I’m calling Poppa. He’ll come get you.”

I tremble with the news. His father, Poppa, is worse than Daddy.

Daddy only taught lessons to Momma.

Poppa likes to teach me lessons.

But when I learn, the lessons change. I can never get it right.

Silence swims around me, the soft swish of the ceiling fan the only thing I hear.

The sun rises further, casting shadows over Momma.

The red pooled around her turns black before I’m yanked up from the floor by rough, calloused hands.

“I fucked up with your daddy,” Poppa says, his dark eyes wilder than I’ve ever seen. “I won’t make the same mistake with you.”

I was born Benito Corea.

That person died the day my mother did.

The man I became later is much worse.

Chapter 1

Angel

Numbness.

Most people feel it at some point in their lives.

They try to chase it away.

They medicate.

They seek happiness.

They seek pain.

Anything to just… feel.

I live in a constant state of emptiness.

It’s the only way I feel at home.

Silence.

Solitude.

Seclusion.

Only the constant itch of needing more pulls me from isolation.

More pain.

More violence.

More lessons.

This is what I fill up on.

This is what I devour.

All things I learned from birth.

My father taught me lessons.

My grandfather taught me lessons.

It’s my turn to teach, to punish.

William Varon is my latest pupil, and the sight of his ostentatious home makes my skin crawl.

The landscaping, the welcome mat, the flimsy curtains that are always pulled back in invitation. It’s all smoke and mirrors. What lies behind the walls would make any normal person sick to their stomach.

It’s a good thing I’m not normal.

From the outside, the man looks like a model citizen.

He smiles and laughs at all the right times and greets people by name when he sees them on the sidewalk.

He donates to charity, buys girl scout cookies, and drops money in the iconic red kettles during the holidays.

He’s normal, a successful businessman, a philanthropist.

That’s what others see.

That’s what he wants them to see.

People can’t see past the gleaming smile to the darkness inside of him.

They don’t know what happens in the dark, what he’s capable of behind the fancy double doors of his home.

They don’t have a clue that he’s a third-generation abuser, a sex trafficker.

They would be surprised to discover he has a woman enslaved inside, that he’s purchased a little girl meant for unmentionable things.

They would probably be appalled, disgusted, downright sickened by the lessons he’s taught to those he has owned over the years.

If she had just done what I said.

Women will never learn.

As those thoughts invade, my heart kicks up a notch.

It’s not that he’s teaching them that bothers me.

It’s that they aren’t his to teach.

The woman’s husband hired me, contracted me for my skills.

I need my wife back, he’d said to me after I found his plea online.

I don’t care that he sold her in the first place because he was disgusted with her. It’s not my business.

Women will never learn.

Sometimes you have to cut your losses. Trade up. Replace.

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