by Elle Boon
She broke him. He, a royally fucked man was getting broke by this little bit of a woman, who had been betrayed by her own blood, just like his had done to him.
“King. She looks like she’s about ready to pass out. Have they seen a doctor?” Ayesha asked.
Real fear washed over Tai’s face. “No. No doctors, please.”
Cosmo pulled Tai back down beside him even though he wanted her on his lap, he conceded to let her sit next to him.
“I’m feeling better. Whatever they injected me with is mostly worn off, but we can call my dad. He’s a doctor, Tai. I’m thinking since she’s so tiny it might affect her differently.” Lennox looked over at King.
Duke muttered something too low for him to hear that had Lennox raising a brow. “Want a beer?” he asked.
“Ayesha, you ask your old man if you can have a beer. You two can’t have a beer because we don’t know how it’ll affect you after you’ve been drugged.” Duke handed a beer to Cosmo, giving a water to Lennox and sitting one in front of Cosmo for Tai.
“King isn’t the boss...fine, whatever,” Ayesha mumbled.
“Duke, we’ll be talking about your issue with Doc later. For now, I agree about the no alcohol for any of the ladies.” King took a long pull of the beer, still crouching in front of Dai-tai.
Fuck all. He wanted to be the one crouching and asking questions, instead he stayed next to her where he planned to post up like a protector, letting King the Prez do his thing.
“So you were taken away from your family and put in some government holding. You were sent to America and sold to one man, then sold again to another? How the fuck did you end up working for my club?” King asked but didn’t waiting for an answer because they all knew she didn’t have one. “Fuck, I don’t follow.” He stood, taking another drink from his drink. “Anyone following?”
He was in the same boat as King, only he knew how fucked-up the world of sex and drug trafficking actually was from the inside. While his MC worked to take them down, he had inside knowledge from the time he was on the inside. Time he’d been sold to the fuckers by his father, or rather gifted to them, until he was too big to control.
Cosmo’s phone rang, making him curse. “Hold that thought, brother. This is my security firm.”
King walked away and took a seat, pulling Ayesha onto his lap. “You’re in trouble when we get home.” He nuzzled his woman’s neck, making her moan.
“What do you mean the tags I put on them are in the Pacific Ocean and seem to be moving in opposite directions at a fast speed? All three of them?” Cosmo stopped speaking for a few seconds. “Send satellite images to my phone. Yes. That’s fine. No, keep tabs on them for another twenty-four hours and then do occasional pings. Check back in twelve hours.” He hung up, sliding his finger across the screen of the phone “Motherfucker,” he growled. If what he was hearing was true, either the dead guys were fish, or they had been picked up and were now on boats. Luckily for him, whoever picked them up had separated them for whatever reason.
“What is it?” Tai asked.
Her luminous green eyes shined brightly. He didn’t want to add anymore fear or unnecessary worry to her plate.
“King, Duke, can I talk to you both in the other room?” Cosmo asked, looking at his phone then at them.
“No this is about me.” Dai-tai stood up, teetering back and forth. She’d have fallen if Cosmo hadn’t grabbed her.
“I decide what you know and what you don’t, Baby Girl. Now sit before you fall,” he ordered.
She shook off his arms. “You don’t own me.”
Her words were tough, but they didn’t come out nearly as firm. Cosmo lifted one hand, running the back of two fingers down her cheek. “No, I don’t, but I do protect what is mine, and you, my feisty little firecracker, are mine until I figure out who tried to take you tonight and, in the process, tried to kill me and my friends. Until then, you will do what I tell you, or I’ll put you over my knee and spank that sexy little ass of yours.”
She shivered under his touch, her eyes widening. Oh wow. She enjoyed his touch and his words even though she was confused by him.
“Before any of that happens, tell me what you found out. Might as well just tell the entire group. I have a feeling we won’t have any peace if you don’t.” King tugged on Ayesha’s hair. The same blissed out feeling he’d witnessed earlier when King gave her an order appeared on her face.
“I put a tag on the sumo looking fuck who tried to kill me, along with the ones that Duke took care of. The men definitely weren’t moving on their own. However, it seems they are moving at a high rate of speed in the opposite direction in the Pacific Ocean.” He turned his phone toward King and Duke. “See these red dots.” He pointed toward the moving beacons. “Those are our dead guys. Either they’re really good at driving speedboats dead, or their friends have decided they’d make really good shark bait. In my experience, dead dudes don’t go out on a cruise. That means, whoever cleaned up their mess would’ve alerted their boss. Which means they’ll be looking for their quarry. They’ll also be looking for those who took out their guys.”
King sighed. “Who hired her?” he nodded at Dai-tai.
Duke pulled his phone out of his back pocket. “I’ll call Hawk and find out. Did you come in off the street or what?” he asked, putting the phone on speaker.
“I’ve never done that type of thing before. I...I was promised a chance at freedom when I left my country. The doctor promised me he’d help. I was so stupid.”
Cosmo wrapped his arms around her as sobs shook her small form. He cut his gaze toward Duke and King, both of them raising their hands in the air. Neither of them had said or done anything, yet he wanted to kill something.
Shit, he was in over his head with Tai, a woman he barely knew who could be bringing a boatload of trouble to their doors.
“Wǒ zhēn chǔn a,” Tai sobbed.
“Hey, calm down. You’re far from stupid.” Cosmo tried to soothe Tai, only his words appeared to make her cry harder. He looked at Ayesha, then Lennox, but neither woman made a move nor said a word. Finally he bent, lifting her up and then sat with her in his lap again. She felt right there. “Stop it, you’ll make yourself sick. Listen, we’ll figure this out. Tell me, or rather us, how you ended up at The Club.”
King and Duke had named the strip club they owned in LA, simply The Club. It was a higher-class establishment where men of all walks of life could go, enjoy good music, top notch alcohol, and dancing. In the back, they could get a lot more, or if you were an MC brother, they had a private club in the basement. Of course, there weren’t many who knew about it. Only exclusive MC brothers and the ole ladies were able to get in, and that was for their play and pleasure.
“When I was taken into custody, I found out my family had sold me. They lied and said I had converted to Falun Gong. It was for money. My family sold me for money to pay off a debt. I was slated for my first donation six months after being there. Most prisoners only survive two maybe three donations. When they die during imprisonment, the government lies and says they fell ill. Sometimes they make up another excuse. My family probably wouldn’t have been notified either way, since they sold me.”
Cosmo held her a little tighter, nobody saying a word while she paused, her hands in fists on her lap. He wasn’t sure if she was going to continue, but there had to be more. Their club wasn’t into organs unless a dick and pussy were involved.
“Some of the others said they fill the dead’s body with cotton or other elements because once the donor dies, they take every viable organ they need. I saw it with my own eyes. The horror they do is unlike any you can imagine. I was there six months as they put me through testing, sending out my samples to various labs. Skin grafts, blood, and tissue samples. They even took my eggs.” She shuddered.
“Organ trafficking? Are you fucking kidding me?” King growled.
“Yo, brother, tone it down,” Cosmo said when she buried her face against his chest. She’d
been through so much, had almost died in a fucking hellhole. If she hadn’t by some miracle been rescued, she’d be dead.
“Sorry, man. I can’t wrap my head around this shit. Alright, so fast forward to how you ended up in America, please?” His arms tightened around his own ole lady, Ayesha.
“The doctor I met, he saved me, twice. He said he’d help me escape. I was leery of course. Men don’t do things for nothing, but I was willing to do anything to get out of there. I think Dr. Jefferson had been protecting me, or something. The guards could push me around if I didn’t do what they said fast enough. But I mainly had to help the others when they returned after...surgeries. At first, I was clueless when I was brought there. My only thought was surviving. The others who were there, I thought they belonged because they were Falun Gong, but that wasn’t the truth. Nobody deserved what happens there. We all became the same. And then each person who I met that first week slowly left and never came back, replaced by another, and another. That was until the order came for my first donation. I guess I was finally matched as a donor. My heart was being donated.”
Cosmo tried to bring her back down to him. He didn’t think he’d heard her correctly. Fuck, his mind couldn’t wrap itself around what she’d said. He wondered just what the doctor had planned to get from Tai.
“They were going to be taking your heart? You don’t mean figurately, but actually taking it?” he asked. The same horror Cosmo felt was in every word Duke spat.
She nodded, her slim arms wrapping around her stomach. “Yes. That’s why the guards knew they could play. I would be dead in under a week. That night, when the lights went out, I was prepared for them. Since I was going to die anyhow, I decided I wasn’t going to go without a fight, and I wasn’t going to just let them have their fun like a good little lamb.”
“Good for you,” King murmured.
“Yeah, a whole lot of good it did me,” she said with derision. “They’d taken Ling. I think to knock me off balance, or maybe they just did it because they could. I don’t know. I must’ve fallen asleep or something because when they shocked me, I wasn’t prepared for that or the pain even though they’d tazed me a couple of days earlier. So nǐ hǎo shǎ of me. By the time I could move without every part of my being feeling as though it was being electrocuted, they were wheeling me down the hall in a wheelchair. That was when Dr. Jefferson saw us. He stopped them and asked what they were doing with me. They were scared of him because he was American, I guess. When he ordered them to leave me with him, they did. The next thing I know, he offered to take me out of there, but said I’d have to follow his orders to the letter. Again, I never questioned anything he said. So nǐ hǎo shǎ.”
Cosmo gripped her by the arms. “You aren’t stupid.”
“You speak Chinese?” she asked.
“Only a little. Mostly curse words,” he acknowledged.
“Well, if I’m not stupid, then what do you call allowing myself to be put in a cargo hold with a group of other women, and then instead of going to the authorities when I arrived in America and demanding sanctuary, I was forced into a hotel with a handful of the same women who made it. Did I mention some didn’t? We had to lay, side-by-side with the dead for days on end. The scent of death still haunts me.” She put her hand over her mouth.
Chapter Five
Tai inhaled, knowing none of the people would ever look at her the same after she told them the rest of her story. Dropping her eyes, she took a deep breath before she spit the rest out. “We were stripped down, inspected like pieces of meat, then sold like cattle. I then was made to audition for my position, or I would have been killed like the girl to the right of me who refused. You see, she was only sixteen and didn’t want to drop down and take his member into her mouth. She was brought up thinking she wasn’t to do such things.”
“You don’t have to tell us anymore, Tai.” Cosmo reached for her.
She shook her head. He was being nice, looking at her like she wasn’t trash. He was wrong. “I didn’t refuse. You see, I had her blood on me, but I stood straight. I didn’t let a little thing like her blood make me wobble. We’d been made to shower and get clean before we were told to stand straight, shoulders back. Do you know why?” She fought the tears that burned her eyes. No more tears, she prayed to the God that Bao said was good.
“Stop,” Cosmo ordered.
“No, you look at me like I am innocent, but I am not. I did what I had to in order to survive. With that child’s blood on me, I dropped to my knees on that filthy floor, and I did it. I’ve never in my life seen a...cock until six months before that day. I th...thought I was finally free when I got on that cargo container. And then, with blood on my face, I did what he asked. I’m no innocent virgin. Dancing was new, but that was only because the man who bought me decided he was done with me. I had lost my appeal.” She raised her chin, holding herself upright.
Cosmo cursed, punched his fist through the cabinet, and walked out the door.
“You see, this is why I must go. I bring danger to all of you. I don’t know their names, but their faces, I know. I am a liability.” She held her hands up, palms facing the ceiling. She tried to hide the way Cosmo leaving had hurt. The tears she’d held back fell as his cursing could be heard through the back door.
“He’s upset at what you went through. His anger isn’t aimed at you, hun.” Ayesha wrapped her arms around Tai.
Tai stood frozen, fearing she’d break into a million jagged pieces if she allowed herself to rely on these people. She heard the other girl, the one who’d almost been hurt solely because of her offer to call her father, a doctor. She couldn’t let these people in any further.
“Wait a minute. If you were working at the club...as part of a business, won’t your Handler be looking for you?” Lennox’s question had everyone going quiet.
The back door came crashing open while she’d been lost in her own thoughts. Now, it seemed as though Cosmo came back just in time to hear. Gah, she wished these nice people would just shut up and let her leave. For the first time in her entire life, she had a chance to be...alone and free.
The two men across the room stopped talking at Lennox’s question.
“Shit, your bag and the rest of your stuff was left at the club. Did they just drop you off and assume you’d stay there until you were picked up at the end of the night? Or since guy who was beside the stage was your Handler, he made sure you didn’t do anything that wasn’t allowed?” Cosmo fired the questions one after the other at her.
“My Handler is dead. When I walked on the stage, I saw him standing there like always, and then when I went to walk off, he was laying there with unseeing eyes and blood dripping down from a gash in his throat. I’m sure our absence has been noted” Her tone was flat.
“Sit, both of you. I need to call Keys and Hawk.” The sound of the phone ringing on the other end made Duke curse, then a deep voice answered. “Keys, I need you to pull up the camera feeds from inside The Club. All of them. Yeah, now, and send them to me and King. Thanks, brother.”
“I got Hawk on the phone.” Cosmo passed Duke his phone.
Tai watched as the men talked and acted like they were invisible. She hated feeling like she was nothing, nobody. However, if nobody was paying her any attention, she could breathe easier. She put her hand over her chest, feeling her heart beating steadily. To think, if she’d have stayed in China, she’d have had to give up her life for someone else to have her heart. If she’d have been forced to do that, the last six months wouldn’t have happened. She wouldn’t have been forced to sell her body, over and over. All for what? She had nothing to show for it, besides a bed in a small room she shared with three other women. Her only freedom was getting to see the sun come up through the window in the tiny cramped space during the day. Of course, she was usually so tired, or sore, she didn’t even get to enjoy that small pleasure.
“Hawk, are you still working? Was there a body near the stage?” Duke looked up and shook his head. “Alright
, King wants you and Rosco here tomorrow. Church at ten in the morning. Yeah, just need to get some shit straight. Alright, see you then. Have a good night. Thanks, man.” Duke handed Cosmo his phone back.
“What’s going on?” Cosmo asked.
Duke shook his head. “Come outside.”
“You alright?” Cosmo asked Tai.
“Yes, go on.” If she’d been a little bolder, she’d have shooed him off.
Cosmo grabbed two beers before heading out the door.
“Oh, yeah, can’t talk in front of us bitches.” Lennox glared at Duke
She put her hand out, wanting to protect the other woman as she watched the man walk over to Lennox. He bent, brushing a finger down her cheek. Tai couldn’t turn away from the pair as he spoke directly to her softly.
“Don’t test my patience, little girl. You won’t like what happens when the slim piece of thread I have holding it together snaps.”
However, when he kissed her, it was nothing like the ones Tai had experienced. She did turn away as soon as Lennox sighed, feeling like an intruder, like she was witnessing a private moment.
“Hmm, you taste good.”
“You got it bad, my friend.” Ayesha smiled, turning toward the direction the men had gone, sighing loudly.
Lennox lifted her shaking hand, touching her lips. “I know,” she agreed.
“Men like him and the other one scares me. They take what they want and leave when they’re done. You should run when the first opportunity arises.”
“Is that your plan?” Lennox bit her lip.
Dai-tai dropped her gaze to the floor. “I am sorry. I shouldn’t have said bad things about your friends.” She moved backward until she had the cabinets at her back. When would she learn to keep her mouth shut? She had no doubt she could take both women, but if the men came back, they’d hurt her, and probably kill her.