The Truth Comes Out

LAUREN

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I’d seen a new side to Mason. A side I had no idea existed, one that shook me to my core.

Mason took a step towards me, but instinctively, I moved away from him. After seeing what he was capable of, I was scared.

Scared of him, but even more scared of the fact that I still felt an intense attraction to him. That terrified me more than anything else.

I knew I should be disgusted with him, part of me was, but I just couldn’t make myself hate him completely.

Mason dropped his hand and cleared his throat. He spoke to me quietly, trying to be as gentle as possible.

“Lauren, are you okay? You’re not—”

“She’s fine,” Ginny interrupted, a smirk on her face. She held Mason’s gaze, adding, “You know I wouldn’t hurt your asset, Mason. Frankly, you should be more worried about how she’ll handle the truth about how she came into your life.”

A fresh wave of confusion washed over me.

“His asset? What are you talking about?”

I turned to Mason.

“What is she talking about, Mason?” My voice was filled with confusion and unease.

But he didn’t look at me, didn’t acknowledge me. His jaw was clenched, his gaze focused solely on Ginny.

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” he warned.

“Me? I’m just doing what’s right. You’re the one who’s been hiding the truth since the moment you met her.”

She threw the words at him like stones, then glanced at me with disdain.

“She’s already seen the devil you try to keep hidden inside of you,” Ginny said. “Don’t you think it’s time she learned the full truth?”

I turned to Mason, my head spinning.

“What is she talking about, Mason?” I asked, my voice quavering.

I felt my insides freeze. I locked eyes with him, and a wave of anger washed over me at his blank expression.

I couldn’t hold his gaze for more than a few seconds before my breath hitched and my heart squeezed painfully in my chest. It felt like someone was gripping it too tightly.

Tears welled up in my eyes, and I squeezed them shut to keep them from falling. It was the only thing keeping me from screaming.

“Laurie, dear, why don’t I tell you about how I met your husband,” Ginny said, waltzing her way over to where my dad and I stood.

“He was only seventeen, but he was more cunning and intelligent than any adult I knew then. I needed money, and a friend introduced me to Mason.

“At the time, it was hard to believe such a young boy was part of such a brutal organization like the Omens, but he held his own. He knew exactly how to play the game and move up in that world, all without getting his hands too dirty.

“That’s a hard thing to do in that world. Do you have any idea what the Omens do Lauren? Or are you too innocent to know what really goes on in the world?”

I hardened my gaze, I didn’t want to show Ginny an ounce of weakness. Before I could say a word, my dad took a step towards Ginny. She waved off one of the guards who tried to pull him back.

As I looked around quickly, I could see guards lined the perimeter of the building, their eyes locked on us, hands twitching near their weapons. The air was thick with the weight of knowing that we were surrounded with no way out.

Ginny stood at the center of it all, commanding the attention of the entire room like a queen surrounded by her loyal soldiers.

The tension in the air was palpable. One guard, a hulking figure with a scar running down his cheek, took a step forward. His hand hovered near his weapon, and I saw it, a smirk showing his readiness for violence.

Ginny’s gun, still in her hand, gleamed in the dim light, and her finger twitched near the trigger. My stomach churned as she brandished it, pointing it casually in Mason’s direction, as though she was merely testing his nerve.

“You know this won’t stop me, right?” she taunted, her voice dripping with mockery. “But I bet it’ll make a hell of a mess.”

Mason glanced down at the gun, his expression hardening, but he didn’t flinch.

But the guards were still there, their presence heavy, their eyes locked on Mason. Any second now, they could spring into action, and we’d be caught in a firefight with no chance of escape. I could feel the walls closing in around us.

Behind us, Diego moaned again, and one of the guards finally stepped forward. He grabbed Diego by the arm and dragged him back toward the far side of the room, where more guards waited, their faces unreadable beneath the dim overhead lights. Diego’s blood smeared across the concrete as he was pulled away.

Mason stood his ground, though I could see the weight of the situation sinking in. His eyes flicked toward the guards, then back to Ginny.

My father stood beside me. I could sense his fear, but he remained resolved in his determination to get through to Ginny.

“Ginny, please,” dad begged. “You don’t need to do this. She’s already been through enough. ~You’ve~ already put her through enough.”

“Oh, shut up, Vincent,” she lashed out. “You’re the reason she turned out so soft. You were always coddling her, always doting on her as if she was the only one you cared about.”

For a moment, I glimpsed the wound in Ginny. The desperate need for love that she so clearly craved, but it only flashed for a brief second and then it was gone. Then, the armor she insulated herself with reappeared.

“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, the Omens are one of the most wanted groups in the country, known for human trafficking and kidnapping children.”

I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me.

My face went pale as terror flashed in my eyes, and I turned to Mason with a cold look.

“You were part of them?” I asked in disbelief, my lower lip trembling and sweat beading on my forehead.

A vein throbbed in his neck, and he glared at nothing.

“I was, but I didn’t know what they were doing, Lauren. Not really. I didn’t ask who those kids were when I was told to feed them.”

“Why didn’t you ask Mason?” I could feel the anger rising in my voice.

Mason turned to look at me. I stared into his silver eyes, searching desperately for the man I hoped he was, but all I saw was shame.

“I didn’t want to know the truth,” he answered.

He lowered his head, his chest rising and falling with rapid breaths. How could I have misjudged him so badly? I knew he had a bad boy reputation, but this was a whole new level. He was a criminal. Not just any criminal, but a criminal who separated children from their families.

Mason took a moment before he answered

“I was a stupid, neglected kid who wanted to feel something, so I thought joining Omens would be exciting and give my life meaning—”

“Hey!” Ginny barked. I flinched back while Mason glared at her. “I’m the one telling the story here. Unless you want me to start breaking her fingers, you’ll let me continue.”

She reached out to touch me, trying to provoke Mason. She lunged towards me, but stopped when one of the men pulled a gun and aimed it directly at her temple.

“If you touch her, I’ll kill you.”

A muscle twitched in her jaw before she forced a smile.

“You should save that energy for later when you try to convince Lauren to stay with you. We both know she still doesn’t have the full story.”

She looked at me with contempt in her eyes.

“I needed your hubby here to help me get in with the Omens, for whatever reason, he had made an impression of the leader of the Omens. He was my ticket to the life I wanted, the life I deserved.

“Eventually, with his help, I was able to work my way into the gang. I climbed the ladder, I was driven by the promise of success, the promise of more money than I could dream of. But then, I got greedy. The money was good, but I wanted more.

“So, I started my own side gig—I began kidnapping kids and demanding ransoms. But the Omens found out and they were pissed. They gave me an ultimatum, leave the gang in disgrace or face the consequences. I still think you ratted me out, Mason.”

“I don’t give a damn what you think. You got yourself into this mess and you paid the price.” Mason’s voice was laced with anger.

“I went to your husband for help. I begged him to get me back into the network and he said he would, but I had to do something for him.

“He wanted out of Omens, but you can’t just leave. Not unless they let you. And Mason was determined to get out.

“He tried talking his way out at first, but that didn’t work and he’d be putting himself, his family in danger.

“That's where you come in Lauren,” she said, turning to face me. “You were the key to his escape plan and you didn’t even know it. He used you to get what he wanted and then he dumped you into my lap.”

I stared at her trying to process everything that she was saying to me. It just didn’t add up, how was I the key to Mason’s escape when I had only met him last year? I’d had so much information thrown at me already, what more could there possibly be?

“That doesn’t make any sense, Ginny,” I cried. “You’re not making any sense!”

I couldn’t handle more of her lies, more of her deceit. She was only saying all of these things to get to me, to hurt me even more than she already had.

But my pleas fell on deaf ears. She didn’t care about how I felt, not now. Not ever.

“Your clever, scheming husband figured the best way to escape the Omens was to take the gang leader’s daughter away from him.”

Ginny let the weight of her words linger in the air.

“What does some gang leader’s daughter have to do with me Ginny?” I asked, but the dawning realization made me sick to my stomach.

I knew what she was implying, but there was no way it could possibly be true. Yet, the pieces were slowly falling into place.

“It was you Lauren,” Ginny said. “You were his daughter. You ~are~ his daughter. The daughter of Anthony Brown, head of the Omens.”