The Joy of Revenge

CHAPTER 121 The World Has Seen Joy my pillow, | woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the door. | covered my head with praying the sound would just go away.

too The knocking, however, turned into incessant banging. | quickly sat up, my tussled hair falling over my face as | scowled.

“I'm up, I'm up!” | yelled, hoping the sound of my voice was good enough to stop whoever was on the other side of my door.

But it wasn’t. The banging continued.

Wait just a second... If | was at home, why would someone be banging on my door? | flipped my hair away from my face and opened my sleepy eyes... just a tiny bit... and realized | was in my office.

| forgot. Cristos stowedaway in one of Bo’s delivery trucks after Xavier successfully rescued Sebastian from the Huff Hills mansion. He toldto spend the night at my shop because going hwas way too risky.

| slipped into my bunny slippers, groggily walked towards the door and slightly opened it, peeking through the tiny slit with one eye open. It was Xavier still dressed in his tactical gear. He must have just arrived back from Bismarck.

| swung the door open and allowed him to enter “The hero's finally back. What tis it anyway?” | asked, walking back to the sofa so I could go back to sleep.

“Almost two in the morning I think,” he said, entering my office and closing the door behind him. “Sorry to wake you, but | need you to get dressed and cwith me.” | stopped by the side of my sofa and sniffed. He smelled like smoke and urine.

“You smell funny,” | said, yawning. “Why don’t you go take a shower and csleep with me.” “I'd love to, but we have somewhere to go,” Xavier said.” Con, Virtue. Be a good girl and CHAPTER 121 The World Has Seen “Someone’s waiting forat two in the morning?” | asked, sounding skeptical. | was fully awake now. Maybe it was my dad? Or maybe my mom? “Yes... and no, it isn’t your parents,” he answered, reading my mind. | pointed at the direction of the warehouse thinking that someone was waiting forin his office, but he shook his head.

“Where then?” | asked.

“Mandan HQ,” Xavier answered. “I, uhm, | did something incredibly st upid... out of anger. I'm terribly sorry that | did this to you... Unfortunately, there's no turning back now.” He sighed, apparently frustrated, like a heavy burden lay on his shoulders.

What was he talking about? He was speaking in riddles.

| shrugged. The man in front ofwas Xavier, the hero. | wanted to hug him for saving Sebastian, but he smelled awful. He was actually already starting to stink up my office.

“Do we have to do this now?” | protested.

“Yes. We need a decision from you now. Chip and Dom are waiting. While you get dressed, I'm going to take a quick shower. I'll meet you outside.” He turned and left.

After spritzing my office with air freshener. | went to the bathroom to wash my face and my business. Then, | put on a pair of jeans and a plain white T-shirt, then twisted my into a messy bun. After putting on a pair of white sneakers, | grabbed everything | need placed the items in a small tote bag and went to the warehouse through the wall panel.

Xavier was already waiting forbeside a black BMW holding two disposable cups of coffee and a paper bag, his hair still damp from his shower. He was wearing a dark blue T-shirt, black jeans, and a shiny pair of black boots.

| stopped and looked down at what | was wearing. He looked dressed up considering he was only wearing a plain shirt and jeans.

“Should | change?” | asked.

“No, you're beautiful,” Xavier said, walking towardsand givinga kiss on my forehead. “Coffee and donuts for my queen.” He lifted the bag in front ofthen pointed at the car. “As well as a chariot, my queen.” “Seriously? A black BMW?” | asked, my eyebrow raised while | took a cup off coffee from hi 12:02 Mon, Apr 1 CHAPTER 121 The World Has Seen and the paper bag. My stomach suddenly grumbled at the mention of donuts. | was hungry.

“People will think it’s Liam driving at this ungodly hour and won't even dare try to stop us, he replied, gesturing to the passenger side of the car. “Get in. Chip is getting antsy and as for my coffee, Dom, well, let's just say he'll feel much better with you by his side.” | took a sip of realizing it was my favorite... a cappuccino. | closed my eyes in bliss, savoring its delightful cin namon flavor.

“Mmmmm... perfect,” | purred before opening the car door. After | was seated comfortably inside, Xavier turned on the ignition, clicked on his small remote, opening the giant warehouse doors in front of us, and drove off.

“Where are we going?” | asked as we exited the boundary of New Salem.

“Mandan HQ, sleepyhead,” he answered, chuckling. Oops. “I drove here to cand get you after Chip toldhe sent you here through a delivery truck of mine.” | noticed the angry tone in his voice. “I had thought he would listen toafter | explicitly told him not to leave your side. But what does he do? He sends you back here...

alone.” “Bo, | was tired and needed to get ssleep. You've seen Chip’s office... it doesn’t have anything to sleep on,” | argued.

“Then he should have gone with you...period, Xavier argued back. “We can’t afford to be reckless anymore. If anything were to happen to you, | know | won't be able to stop mysel “You won't be able to stop yourself from what?” “From killing everyone in New Salem, that’s what,” he admitted. “All this is getting ridiculous. Dom’s hurt, you're engaged to a man who raped you, there's an angry underboss hunting you down and there’s an unknown capo who's an even bigger threat to all of us because we don’t know who the hell he is. It's getting dangerous and | don’t know if | still have it into wait until the Spring Formal. I'm on edge... this fear | feel is beginning to swallowwhole. You know me... I'm usually as cool as a cucumber, but tonight, | couldn't stop myself. | gave in to the fear... and my anger.

“Bo, you've been speaking in riddles since you wokeup. What are you talking about?” | asked, confused.

“You'll see,” he said. “We're almost there.” 3/5 “No, Bo. You wokeup at two in the morning, so you owean explanation,” | said, CHAPTER 121 The World Has Seen turning in my seat to look at him. “Why don’t you just say it? Hmm.... Everything is my fault. Yep, | was the one who got everyone into this mess. But | just wanted to stop them from hurting more people. Sure, it may include making them pay for all the pain they've caused me, but | deserve it.”l pointed to my face. “You probably think just because I'm beautiful now that I'm okay. No, Bo. | am not okay and will never be okay until | get the justice those pricks owe me.” | turned around to look out through the window hoping he wouldn't notice the angry tears that were about to fall. “If you don’t want to continue with what we first set out to do, fine... all of you can go home. I'll do this myself.” “Joy,” he uttered, reverting to my real name. “That's not what | meant and you know it. | just want to be done with this whole masquerade. You know what | want to do? | want to grab a gun and just shoot all of them in the head. Including Veronica Ortiz. That b itch was in on this the whole time. She earned money from all those sick m otherf uckers who like watching all that horrible stuff happen to all those girls Pete and Cris abducted. When we're done with New Salem, I'm going to Houston to make a house call.” | turned my head to look at him, a stunned expression on my face.

“What do you mean she earned money?” | asked, urging him to explain. He sighed.

“I found a hidden basement door in Pete's office at Huff Hills mansion. It was filled with monitors and computers.

I had Dina check it out and there were tons of videos of women being ng sexually abused, mostly by a tall man wearing a black hood over his face. The server transmitted all the feed to a site found on the dark web that caters to all these sick f ucks all over the world. From what Dina was able to pull out from the data of the million subscribers who pay to watch, it showed Veronica Ortiz has earned hundreds of that’s not including the fee from the feed they send to their VIPS.” | saw him ope to say more, but he hesitated.

“Xavier,” | said, using his name, “what else did you find?” | saw him inhale deeply ther exhale. There was more bad news.

nd “W-We, uhm, actually, Dina found the video of your assault. You were one of their first celebrities. Of course, | had her delete it. But there might be copies of it lying around. somewhere. Who knows what these sick f ucks have done with it!” | heard the stone cold fury in Xavier's voice. He must have seen it. No wonder he said he wasn’t able to control himself.

I, too, felt my anger bubble up inside me. Not only did | have to suffer through the agonizing experience, those as sholes took a video and distributed it to their sick pals... for a price! The world has seen what those a ssholes did to me... and loved it! | wanted to scream.

4/5 CHAPTER 121 The World Has Seen My hands clenched into fists as my rage took over me. | punched the dashboard of the car over and over again.

“I'm so sorry, Joy. This is why | wanted to tell you at headquarters,” Xavier said meekly, maneuvering the car into what appeared as a neglected compound with a big warehouse and a rundown building beside it. “Whatever rage you're feeling right now, feed off it and channel it towards the person | want you to see.” The doors of the warehouse opened, allowing Xavier to park inside. After he had turned off the ignition, | placed a hand on his to stop him from exiting the car. There was something | needed to know, “See who, Xavier?” | asked. “Is it Pete?” Chapter Comments Morgan cup of coffee Morgan mother of all cliffhangers!! VIEW ALL 3 COMMENTS > 5 POST COMMENT 5/5