by Nana Malone
Neela laughed. “I say less.”
Bryna frowned. “I don’t know. I feel like Sebastian might make him sweat it out. I say probably tomorrow.”
I laughed. “You’re all crazy.”
“Yup, you better believe it.” Ariel’s expression turned serious. “Now, Miss Olivia Ashong, let’s find those assholes who took you and make them burn.”
Somehow, I knew I was going to like her very much.
9
Ben
“So, how mad is she?” East asked when I stepped through the entrance to Bridge’s. As always, I held back my gag at all the white marble. It was as if Mina thought all the white marble would give her a modicum of class.
Mad was an understatement. Olivia had been tight lipped. She’d taken the news a little too well. Been a little too understanding. I had left Livy under Jessa’s watch at her townhouse. I left her with a guard too. She had Erik and his team as well as Jessa’s Royal Guards. I knew she needed a moment away from me. She was in no mood to see me, and she was absolutely right.
I should have told her my suspicions about the photos the moment I’d seen them. I had spent too much time keeping secrets, hiding things, protecting people, trying to use secrecy as currency. And of all people, why had I been trying to protect my father? Not like he would have done the same for me, especially if it didn’t serve him. He’d never protected me.
So, I had jeopardized things with the woman I loved for a man like him. Fucking brilliant.
“Let’s just say she’s been happier with me.”
East winced. “She looked right pissed off when we left.”
“Yeah, that would be a mild way of describing how she felt.”
Lucas had made some calls trying to find floorplans for the Van Linsted mansion. There was a knock at the door, and Bridge frowned as he came out of his study, carrying a stack of papers. “This is what I have on the Van—“ He glanced toward the door. “Who the fuck is here?”
Roone winced as he spoke. “Lucas, don’t be mad.”
Lucas pushed to his feet. “You didn’t.”
“I didn’t, but the wanker tapped my phone. He wanted to know why I’ve been avoiding his calls.”
Lucas cursed under his breath, the string of fucks, while not particularly inventive, were certainly emphatic.
I glared at my cousin. “What’s he on about? What’s wrong?”
“An unexpected visitor,” Roone muttered.
Mina sauntered through the living room with a sour expression on her face. “Bridge, why didn’t you tell me we would have royalty visiting? I would have prepared the house or something.”
Bridge’s scowl deepened. “Mina, what are you talking about?”
She plastered a smile on her face, and then an armed guard in a black suit stepped forward. Behind him was someone who towered over him. Dark hair, hazel eyes, scruff on his chin. I would have laughed and, under other circumstances, been extremely happy to see King Sebastian, but now was not the time. And the way Lucas was cursing, I didn’t think the king was welcome as far as he was concerned.
East recovered first and stood. “Sebastian, mate. You certainly know how to make an entrance. You don’t call. You don’t write.”
Sebastian shook hands with him as they one-arm-man-hugged and slapped each other on the back. I went and shook his hand next. “Sebastian, if you’d told us you were coming, I could have picked you up with the helicopter from the airport or something.”
He chuckled low. “Still pompous I see.”
I lifted my lip in a smirk. “What? Don't you have a helipad at home?”
He rolled his eyes. “Penny put her foot down about the helicopter once we had Cash. As to why I didn’t call first, I wanted to make sure no one knew I was coming, because apparently, people are trying to keep me out of the loop too.”
Hellos and cheers were made all around, except by Lucas. The prince glowered at his brother. “What are you doing here?”
Sebastian gave him a mirthless chuckle. “Well, when my little brother, who insisted he was coming to London to make his mark and help out with crown affairs abroad, instead decides to go back to being a thief, what choice do I have?”
Lucas jabbed a finger toward him. “See? That right there… That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
Sebastian threw his hands up. “What, because you didn’t want me to worry?”
I felt like maybe I shouldn’t be watching this argument, but after the shit show that had been my conversation with Livy, it was nice to see someone else in the hot seat for once. Also, I loved good gossip.
“Lucas, what the fuck are you doing?” Sebastian asked his brother.
I felt responsible. After all, Lucas had come because I’d called. “Sebastian, it was not Lucas’s idea. I called and asked for a favor. It was pretty urgent, otherwise Lucas would certainly have said no.”
The prince did not take it well that someone else was speaking for him. “Shut up, dude. I don’t need you to protect me.”
I put my hands up. “Mate, I’m just trying to help.”
Lucas shook his head. “I don’t need your help.” He turned to his brother, meeting him eye to eye. Should there be a fight, they were so evenly matched I wasn’t sure who would win. Sebastian had been given the best military training in the world. But Lucas had grown up a street urchin, learning to fight and survive, so he was scrappy.
“This is important. Ben needed my help. None of them have the skills that I do. And it’s a good skillset.”
Sebastian watched him warily and then slid his gaze over at Roone. “And you too, Brutus?”
My cousin, ever the asshole, smirked. “It’s Roone, actually. Brutus is my middle name."
Sebastian scowled. “Is there a fucking reason you’re helping my brother be a thief again?”
“Actually, it’s not just your brother I’m helping. It’s your sister too.”
Sebastian’s brows dropped. “You have Jessa involved in this shit too?”
I could sense the tension between them, like this was a disagreement best had solo. But we were all privy to it, ensnared in their escalating argument.
“I didn’t do anything. Jessa’s in it to help these morons. By her own choice, mind you.”
“Hey, we resemble that remark.” East muttered, trying to break the tension.
Bridge, ever full of sarcasm, muttered, “I would have honestly said wankers. Wankers fits better than morons.”
I wanted to interject, add my two cents, but I didn’t think that was the best idea.
Sebastian slid his gaze back to me. “Since you’re in charge, obviously, do you want to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
Both Bridge and East muttered, “In charge, my arse.”
And then East muttered, “Oh, beauty before brains, is it?”
I grinned. “Isn’t that always the way?” Then I exhaled. “Look, while your brother may not want my help, I certainly needed his. We’re on a time crunch for something big and time sensitive. Something we cannot buy. Otherwise, we would have just done that.”
Sebastian’s brows drew down. “And why is this urgent?”
“We have a limited time to pull this off to set a debt right. I’m sorry to involve your brother and your sister, but Jessa works for me. And when she heard Lucas was involved, she wanted to help.”
Sebastian stared at his brother for a long moment. Then he said, “Lucas, when are you going to realize that when you try to do shit on your own, it reminds us of when you fucking walked out of our lives? If you need help, just fucking say so.”
Lucas crossed his arms. “I don’t need help.”
Sebastian cocked his head. “Oh yeah, is that why you called in Xander and Alexi?”
Sebastian had him there. He had called them for our first heist. We needed the extra bodies.
“I don’t need your judgment.”
“I’m not judging you, you idiot. I want to help.”
My brows lifted. The King of the Win
ston Isles wanted to help us… with a heist. “I’m sorry, Sebastian, but you’re a king. You’re very visible, and you are not a thief.”
“No, not a practiced thief, but I am a body. I have good hands. And I’m good at hand-to-hand combat, thanks to that idiot.” He inclined his head toward Roone.
Roone shrugged. “I mean, you could be better. You could focus more. Your wife is a better fighter.”
Sebastian grinned then. “She’s pretty badarse. And we both know I’m as good as you are, so you can feel free to suck my cock.”
Roone just shrugged off the jibe. “No thanks. Partial to pussy. In particular your sister’s.”
That made Sebastian’s brow creep down, and Bridge stepped between them. “Okay, easy boys. Tempers are high. We get it. Sebastian, you’re ticked off you were left out.”
“Yeah, I’m pissed off I was left out by my fucking brother, and my best mate, and my sister, all here having fun in London without me.”
Roone watched him warily, and then a harsh laugh tore out of him. “Oh my God, you’re not pissed off. You’re here because Penny and Ariel found out that they were being left out and harangued you to come.”
Sebastian crossed his arms then. “What’s your fucking point?’
Lucas grinned then. “So, you’re not ticked off?”
Sebastian’s brows stayed low. “No, I am. You should have told me.”
“Well, all those ‘don’t steal things’ lectures pretty much made me think I shouldn’t tell you about this.”
“Yeah, but don’t steal things for fun is really the lesson I was trying to impart there. If we have family that needs help, we give it.”
“So let me guess… You’re on the team now?”
“You already have half my team with you. Hell yeah, I’ve been conscripted. And don’t listen to Roone. I’m as good as he is, if not better.”
Roone leaned back and finished off his scotch, clinking the ice in his glass. “Right, ladies, if we’re done swinging dicks to see who has the bigger one, can we start figuring out how the hell we’re going to get into the Van Linsted estate? I don’t fancy dying any time soon. Jessa and I are trying to make a rugrat, and all the practice is making me real happy but exhausted.“
Sebastian and Lucas made gagging sounds, but joined us as we all crowded around Bridge’s living room table and the blueprint he’d taken from the Van Linsted estate. “Mate, looks like we can make room for one more in this crazy plan. Hopefully, we won’t get the king killed.”
Lucas laughed. “Oh, but I’m expendable?”
“Right now, I’d settle for none of us going to jail,” I mumbled.
Lucas nodded. “That’s a good point. I’m too pretty for jail.”
I rolled my eyes. “Please, you and I both know I’m better looking than you. So let’s make sure prison isn’t a thing, okay?”
“You’ve got a deal.”
Sebastian just laughed. “If you two are done posturing over who’s prettier, show me how it is that my sister, my brother, and my wife are not going to die in this cockeyed plan.”
10
Livy
Ariel and Telly had their laptops out, sitting side by side, chattering amongst themselves. I could tell Telly was having a blast by the excited way she waved her hands around, all too thrilled to be talking to someone who spoke her language. I sat next to Penny, and she leaned forward, a notebook in her hand and questions at the ready. “Okay, so tell us what you’ve got.”
“Oh, well, now that we’re digging in, I realize it would have made more sense to have done this over at Ben’s. I had my whole board.”
Telly laughed. “What, you think this is amateur hour?” A few taps of her keyboard and my whole work board was plastered on one wall of Jessa’s townhouse. Jessa stood up and reached out to lift a painting off the wall, setting it on the floor against the couch. “Yeah, that’s better.”
“Telly, sometimes you alarm me.”
My best friend grinned. “Well, a girl should always be prepared. I took a picture of this earlier, and thanks to a portable projector now you can have your wall of human trafficking wherever you go.”
I ran my hands through my curls, trying to force them back into the bun I’d made. It wasn’t working though. I needed a deep condition and a detangling session with enough product to fill a store. It had been a while since I’d washed it. But frankly, with everything going on, I hadn’t had time. I pushed to my feet. “Okay, so based on what the women I’ve spoken to have told me, what we see in the first half is the human trafficking ring. But there are two arms of information there, right?”
I looked around and Jessa and Penny nodded, as if I spoke all the sense in the world and they were following me. Telly already knew this. Ariel would look at me and then look back at her computer and type something, and I guessed she was paying attention.
I continued. “So on the one hand you have young girls travelling abroad, snatched up or targeted at places like the airport, train stations, hostels, et cetera. I think it’s some kind of scout who waits to see if they’re traveling alone or with a group, at least that’s the MO indicated in both Caroline’s and my mother’s notes. Young, pretty, student, sort of free spirit, the kind of girl people don’t immediately run and look for. Adventurous, usually off to explore the world, right? These girls are generally sold to brothels.”
Telly, ever so helpful, clicked her little portable clicker at the projector and my next slide showed up. “Then you have this girl. Rich, educated, wealthy parents, the kind of girl everyone would notice and miss.” Telly advanced to another slide. “These are the women I have spoken to so far, the ones I’ve been able to track or who had given statements to Interpol. These women had parents who ran in the same social circles. Even if they didn’t know each other, they have the same kind of background. They’re extremely wealthy, snatched up like these others, but kept separately. And these girls all have one thing in common.”
Penny steepled her fingers. “What is it? They’re all white, obviously.”
I nodded. “Yes, but I think that’s a by-product of who their parents are.”
She nodded slowly. “Underage? They all kind of look innocent.”
I nodded. “Yup, innocent is the keyword.”
Jessa muttered. “Let me guess. They’re all virgins?”
I tapped my nose and pointed at her. “Give Jessa a cookie. That’s exactly right. Every single one of them was a virgin when they were taken. From what I have been gathering from the notes and my interviews, it seems like they were all taken like these others, but for a different purpose. As a power play and for possible ransom, but a few of them had their virginity sold.”
Penny wrapped an arm around her waist and shook her head, lips pursed, eyes narrowed to slits. “Jesus fucking Christ, what the fuck is wrong with men?”
I had to agree with her there. “Those whose fathers paid right away within twenty-four hours had their daughters returned, and as far as I’ve been able to ascertain, they were untouched, but there’s no way of verifying that other than their own personal accounts. I haven’t been able to get into confidential patient records, and there’s no way to know if they were really virgins before they were taken. It was just assumed that they were virgins, and most doctors don’t even track that information. All that matters is what the people who took them thought.”
Jessa nodded. “Especially in some cultures where virginity is the marker of purity. To be able to deflower a virgin, somehow makes you more of a man.”
I continued. “The others whose fathers thought they could find their daughters on their own and didn’t pay the ransom immediately, those women met a different fate. These are the ones who admitted to being rape victims.” I put up two photos of women I was trying to reach who had spoken to Interpol. “This is based on self-reported information. They were returned, but they reported being raped. Sometimes by one man, sometimes by more. All older men like their fathers, rich, powerful, and all wearing mask
s.” My blood boiled just thinking about it.
Ariel cursed under her breath. “Jesus fucking Christ, so you think these are all sex crimes?”
“I think so, yes.” I pointed to one of the photos. “This is Sadie Ritter, Caroline Ritter’s niece. Several years ago, she was on a trip to Europe to see family on her own. She was taken, but seemingly by accident. And as soon as her captors discovered who she was, she was sequestered. Kept alone. Her father paid millions in ransom, and she was returned unharmed.”
Telly clicked the clicker again, and another photo appeared. “This woman is Missy Stanton. She was taken and held for longer, more traumatized. But she was taken on purpose, as if the people who took her were testing out their ability to get more girls like her. And she told us something interesting. The man who took her, she remembered him. He had a burn on his hand. Again, she was returned unharmed. Sadie was taken completely by accident, but Missy Stanton was a test case, to see if men like her father would pay. It was the worst kind of blackmail scheme. Pay up or your daughter gets sold. If you do pay up, but you pay late, she’ll be assaulted but returned. Forever damaged.”
Penny ran her hands through her hair and then pushed to her feet and started pacing. “All right, you said these other women reported being with older men like their fathers, rich men. How do they know that if the men were all wearing masks?”
Ariel smiled at her best friend from the couch. “Good thinking, Pen.”
Jessa jumped in then. “It’s fairly easy to tell. Smell is the first thing you notice. Someone clean and well groomed, the way they carried themselves, the way they spoke, if they talked at all, or if they were wearing any jewelry. Lower income men would have had more tattoos, piercings, that sort of thing. Even if they were average, you can tell from the speech patterns, words they used, if they spoke at all. And the fact that these men wore masks is another indicator. They weren’t the kind of masks you wear when you’re robbing a place, but the kind of masks you wear at masquerade balls. That screams that they were either trying to pretend they were rich, or they were actually rich and this was some kind of sick ritual.”