The Hacker and his Heart's Desire

by James, Rebecca;

  I frowned and sat. “What are you talking about?”

  Tony got out of bed and walked naked into the other room, returning with his laptop. He sat next to me again and pulled up something on the screen.

  I swallowed. “Where did you find these?”

  “In a hidden file on Bruder’s computer. These are pictures of people he’s taken; they have to be. Some of them look underage too. God, the man’s complete scum.”

  I stared at the pictures, realizing a part of me had hoped that Karl had been lying about the human trafficking in order to manipulate me into doing what he wanted, but with the proof right in front of me, I couldn’t ignore it. Men, women, fucking children. All of them undoubtedly watched until the perfect time then snatched away from their families. The notes included with the pictures listed names, ages. Some had initials beside them.

  Tony rested his chin on my shoulder, face flushed from sex and blond curls disheveled by my fingers. He was gorgeous.

  He took the computer back and opened a new window. “Paula Wight,” he said as he typed. “Here.” He pointed at the screen, and I maneuvered myself around so I could see it with him.

  “Went missing the day after Christmas. Nineteen years old,” I read. “Fuck.” I turned to Tony, desperate for him to believe me. “I didn’t know about any of this. I swear. I knew he pimped people out. Willing people. I suspected he dealt in drugs and possibly guns. But I never imagined this.” I gestured to the pictures. “Even when he threatened to take you and Lake, a part of me still didn’t want to believe it.”

  “I get that. This is your family we’re talking about. But, Cane, we can’t let it continue.”

  I swallowed. “I know.” I took a deep breath. “I went to After Hours this morning to look around.”

  “Did you find anything?”

  I shook my head. “No, but I figure the list of clients would be helpful. Can you break into the database?”

  “We’ve got to figure out where he’s holding them or if they’re even still there.”

  “Fuck!” I slammed my hand down on the carpeted floor. “I should have known this was happening. Should have paid attention, and I would have seen it long ago.”

  “You never knew to look. You can’t be expected to be suspicious that your family is that evil.”

  “I knew some things, though. I just didn’t want to face it.”

  I suddenly felt as though I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to be away from this place. I got up from the bed and picked up my pants, and Tony did the same. When we were both dressed, I pulled him into my arms and kissed him long and hard.

  “Let’s get the fuck out of here,” I said.

  ****

  Back at the clubhouse, Tony got straight to work on the contents of the flash drive while I changed and went over to the warehouse and helped move sets. By the time I got back, Tony had put on more comfortable clothes, had an empty coffee cup and half a bag of pretzels on the table beside him, and was leaning over the computer and tapping furiously at the keys. Hung, Blaze, and Skitz—or rather, Adam—were playing a card game at the dining room table and making enough noise to cover me and Tony talking.

  “Find anything?” I fell into the big chair and rubbed my eyes for a moment before propping one booted foot onto my knee and giving him my full attention.

  “I got into the After Hours database, and there are names here, but they all correlate to a specific date and specific employee who escorted them. Unless they all are also clients for sex trade, we’ve got nothing.”

  “Karl was talking on the phone this morning and mentioned the twenty-fifth and something about holding merchandise back if they had to.”

  Tony evidently felt the same way I did about the possible meaning of the word “merchandise” because he wrinkled his nose and looked disgusted.

  “Maybe you can find out what’s going on on that date. Does he have an agenda in his office?”

  “Keeps it all on his phone.”

  “Which is probably linked to his email.” Tony started typing again. “I’ve gotten into his main email account, but it’s standard business for After Hours and B-Natural. He’s got to have another.” His fingers flew over the keyboard. “Yep.” A satisfied smile spread over his face. “Here we go. Any idea what his password might be?”

  “No, not really.”

  “We’ll start easy. What’s his birthday?”

  I told him, and Tony tried variations of it before sighing. “Guess he’s not that dumb. What about his girlfriend?”

  “S-h-i-k-a. I don’t know her last name or birth date. I doubt she’s important enough to him to use her anyway. She’ll be gone and replaced by other woman or man in a few months. It would have to be something longstanding.”

  “His father?”

  “Maybe.” I gave him my uncle’s full name and birth date.

  After a moment of tinkering with variations again, Tony made a frustrated noise. “Anything meaningful? Like an award, hobby, or something?”

  “He’s into snakes.”

  Tony made a face. “Figures.”

  “Try Juno, or python.” When that didn’t work, I closed my eyes and tried to think. What had Karl had for a long time that meant something to him or his father? My eyes flew open. “Try Schwarze Sonne.” I wrote it on the pad of paper on the table and handed it to him.

  “What is that?” Tony typed it in.

  “It means ‘black sun’ and it’s a post-war Neo-Nazi symbol. He wears a ring with the engraving on it that belonged to our grandfather.”

  “What was his name?”

  “Detlef Bruder.”

  “Spell it.”

  “D-e-t-l-e-f.”

  Tony grunted. “Got any idea what his birthday was?”

  “Hold on a minute.” I pulled out my phone. “I keep information like that on an app. Here it is. November twenty-fourth nineteen twenty-nine.”

  “Bingo.” A grin split Tony’s face. “Sonne underscore Detlef1124. We’re in.”

  “Holy shit. Really?” I moved from the chair to sit beside him on the couch.

  “Cane! Tony!” Adam called from the dining room. “We’re about to start another hand. Want to play?”

  I met Tony’s eyes and called, “I’m in.”

  He nodded. “I think I’ll head to bed,” he said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Tony

  I was tired. Really tired. I’d gotten less than four hours of sleep, and here I was back at Bruder’s. He’d texted me the night before to let me know he had everything I’d need to begin Shika’s portrait, so at least I hadn’t had to lug a canvas, easel, and my painting supplies. Turned out, he’d ordered what looked like one of everything from an oil painting supply store.

  I was not psyched about painting Shika. She was a beautiful woman and no hardship on the eyes, even if I didn’t swing that way, but I was used to painting whom I wanted when I wanted. A creative person needed to be led by their muse, and my muse wasn’t interested in painting a nude of Karl Bruder’s girlfriend.

  Bruder, being the controlling son-of-a-bitch that he was, insisted upon arranging Shika exactly as he wanted her for the portrait, and that was lying on a chaise lounge, a sheet artfully draped between her legs but her breasts bare. She wore a silver collar around her neck.

  As I sketched out the general shapes on the canvas, my mind wandered. I’d briefly spoken to Cane that morning, but I hadn’t had time to fill him in on what I’d found out while researching in my room. Hung hadn’t been home, which had become a habit I wondered about more and more. Was he staying the night at strangers’ houses? I worried about him and promised myself I’d talk to him as soon as he’d let me. Axel had expressed a similar concern to me recently. Naturally soft-hearted, the big guy worried about us a lot now that he was living with Caleb and not around the club as much. At our last club meeting—or “church” as many MC’s called it, but Matteo had had a strict religious upbringing that made him hate the word too much to stomach its u
se—we had tried to have an intervention of sorts, but Hung had become angry and distant and had refused to talk.

  Sketch completed, I began laying down background colors while Shika chatted about the recent improvement in the weather, not bothered one iota having her tits out in front of me.

  Maybe Blaze should let Hung have his conquests to the clubhouse again. I didn’t mind sleeping somewhere else if I had to. It was dangerous to pick up people at bars and go home with them. Hung was in really good shape, but muscles aren’t much when faced with a gun. I decided to talk to Blaze about it that night. He wanted to know what was going on with Cane’s cousin anyway. Lake still insisted upon working at The Yellow Banana, although hopefully Bruder wasn’t paying attention to him now he’d gotten Cane to give him what he wanted. The asshole.

  “Can we take a break?” Shika’s soft voice broke into my thoughts.

  “Of course.” I wasn’t sure how long we’d been at it, but I got the feeling she’d stopped trying to make small talk with me a long time ago. Gradually becoming aware of the aches and pains in my own body, I stretched and checked my watch. “Wow. We can stop for the day. It’s close to noon, and I’m sure you’re tired of sitting in the same position.”

  Shika stood and reached for her clothes. “You get really lost in your work.”

  I smiled. “Yeah. Sorry I’m not better company.”

  “That’s okay. I can always meditate.”

  I texted Cane, asking if he’d have lunch with me. I got a quick reply that Bruder was keeping him busy, but if I’d go to the deli down the street—the same one I’d eaten at after turning down Bruder’s job offer—he’d try to make it.

  I put away my paints, cleaned myself up, and headed that way.

  I was seated and halfway through a sandwich when the bells on the door jingled, and Cane walked in. My eyes swept over him, as did many of the other patrons’. With his height, dark hair, and spectacular eyes, he was a stunning man. He smiled when he spotted me, and my heart flipped over like a teenager’s while my hole contracted, remembering how it had felt having Cane inside it.

  He ordered and then joined me at the table with his food.

  “Fun morning?” he asked, knowing I’d not been enthused about painting Shika.

  “Thrilling.”

  “He didn’t have her in some lewd pose, did he?” Cane bit into his Reuben.

  I chuckled. “Thankfully, no. It was pretty tasteful. She was wearing a collar though.”

  Cane licked a piece of Sauerkraut from his lips. “What kind of collar?”

  “A thin silver one. Purely a statement of ownership.”

  Cane grunted. “He’s a piece of work. As far as I know, they aren’t in any kind of Dom/sub relationship. My guess is he just likes the idea of owning her. Be glad he didn’t ask you to paint her with his python.”

  I raised a brow. “Is that a euphemism?”

  Cane laughed. “I kind of wish it was.”

  “He really has a python? What did you say its name was…Juno?”

  He nodded. “Twelve feet long and still growing.”

  “Wow. I’ve never understood why people keep animals like that as pets.”

  “I’d say for some it’s the adrenaline rush of working with something that could kill you. For Karl, I think it’s more about looking tough. I don’t know. To be fair, he’s always been fascinated by snakes and owns quite a collection.”

  “Does Bruder deal in tea?” I asked, wanting to get to what I’d found in the emails.

  “Tea? Like, the drink?”

  I nodded. “There’s a lot of talk of tea in your cousin’s emails on his secret account.”

  Cane wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I think B-Natural sells different kinds of herbal teas. What are they saying about it?”

  “People who are planning a trip here soon want to make sure they get certain kinds of tea. They’re pretty specific about their orders. No mention of supplements. Just…tea. I thought it was kind of weird.”

  “That is weird.” Cane put down his sandwich. “Unless…”

  I looked at him. “Unless what?”

  “Unless tea isn’t tea.” He met my eyes. “I’d like to see those emails.”

  “I’ll show you tonight.” I looked at my watch. “I’d better get back and start on the computer work, although painting Shika’s more interesting, to be honest. What’s he got you doing today?”

  “I have to be at the warehouse to meet some shipments.”

  “Supplements, or something else?”

  Cane looked uncomfortable. “I hope you don’t think—”

  I reached out and touched his hand. “I told you I believe you when you say you didn’t know about the…” I looked around the crowded deli and lowered my voice. “You know. I just wondered about weapons or drugs.”

  “He knows better than to send me to deal with those kinds of shipments. Karl wants to control me, but he isn’t so cocky he can be sure I won’t rat him out if handed something like that on a silver platter.”

  “Well, while you’re there, why don’t you see if there’s any tea in those boxes?” I smiled at Cane. I wanted to kiss him, but that would have to wait until later.

  ****

  I was starting to wonder if Karl really needed me looking into his competitors. I couldn’t find anything of interest. Grandma’s Vitamins certainly didn’t appear to be a threat. As far as I could see, B-Natural was way ahead of everyone else in sales. Bruder had nothing to worry about.

  After hours of fruitless searching, I shut down the computer and walked downstairs, ready to go home. I could hear Bruder’s voice coming from down the hall behind a closed door. I paused, listening. When I couldn’t hear well enough to make out any words, I quietly moved down the hall and put my head close to the door.

  “…the perfect cover. All those people…the tunnels. Just fucking hurry up and…harbor.”

  Another male voice said, “…fast as they can.”

  “Well…fucking faster!”

  I moved away from the door and down the hall. I had just reached the elevator when I heard Bruder’s office door jerk open. The elevator doors parted just as Bruder and one of his oversized henchmen rounded the corner.

  They both looked surprised to see me. I smiled.

  “Hey. I got to a good stopping place, so I’m headed out. See you in the morning.”

  Bruder nodded, and I stepped onto the elevator, pushing the button for the lobby as casually as I could. There had been nothing to make Bruder think I’d heard anything he’d said. I hadn’t been standing near the door when he’d opened it, and I could barely make anything out as it was. Still, he’d had a look in his eyes of distrust that had unsettled me.

  Man, I’d be happy when all this was over. Bruder gave me the fucking creeps—even more so now that Cane told me about his obsession with snakes. I could just picture the man with a huge python wrapped around his shoulders. Cane was right—I was lucky Bruder didn’t want the snake in the painting with Shika. What could be more titillating to someone like him than a painting of his python slithering all over his nude girlfriend? Fortunately for me and probably for Shika too, snakes won’t stay still for a portrait.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Cane

  Tony sat next to me on my bed. He’d waited until late and snuck in with his computer. He took me through the emails one by one.

  “So, what were you thinking about the tea?” Tony whispered. All around us, the clubhouse was silent except for occasional bouts of snoring.

  “What if,” I said slowly, rereading the last email. “What if tea stood for people?”

  Tony stared at me. “What do you mean?”

  “What if a certain kind of tea equals a certain type of person? Like an age group or particular gender. Right here, Bruder’s telling some guy in Brazil he has his sixteen ounces of pure black herbal tea. Could that mean an African American? Age sixteen? And when he says ‘herbal,’ he means male. Or female, and pure might mean no
t of mixed race. Or maybe ‘blackberry’ is a male African American. Hell, I don’t know. There has to be some way it coincides.”

  Tony looked sick. “Like they’re choosing new furniture or something to eat.”

  I nodded. “It’s disgusting, but we have to think like they do if we want to figure it out. For this person, Bruder’s holding a two pack of chamomile.”

  Tony shook his head. “No telling what that means. I remember one of these emails saying something about aged Chinese tea. So, if that means an older Chinese person, how would they know the gender?”

  “Amount? Price? Something else? I have no idea. I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as we know it’s what they’re doing.”

  “I overheard Bruder talking when I was leaving today. He had one of his men in a room with him and the door shut. I could only make out a little of what they said, but something about tunnels and the harbor.”

  I leaned back on my pillows. “There’s a health convention coming up where B-Natural is going to have a booth. I’ll find out if that’s on the twenty-fifth. I don’t know about tunnels.”

  “There are actually a lot of tunnels running under New York City. You’d be surprised.”

  “Oh, I managed to look in a few of those boxes going out today. Lots of supplements, but no teas, which supports our theory. The whole thing doesn’t make sense anyway. If people want tea, why not just order it to be mailed? What’s the deal about coming here and picking it up?”

  Tony shut his laptop. “Right. It’s just a mask so nothing can be pinned on them. And tunnels…some might lead to the harbor, which would be awfully convenient.” He turned to me. “Does your cousin have access to a ship?”

  I nodded. “A few. Oh, my God. He’s loading people on them?”

  “It makes sense.” Tony set his computer on the floor and rolled onto his side to face me. I kissed him, our lips gently gliding over one another before our tongues met.

  In a matter of moments we were breathing hard and completely carried away.