by Elle Boon
With her heart banging like crazy, she moved as quickly as she could, being sure she was as quiet as a mouse and kept to the shadows. Once she was at the stairway that led to the next level, she took a deep breath and held it until she reached the suite where her brother put his girls. The sound of a quiet sob drew her up short, making her think Rico had already gotten to the room, but then she heard a young girl’s muttered curse through the door, the words sounding like she was trying to muster up the courage to bang on the door.
Kailani pulled out the skeleton key she’d had copied, the one her brother had no clue she even knew about. Before she could change her mind, she inserted the new key into the door, hearing the snick of the lock disengage. One hurdle down.
“Rico, thank god, I was...Oh, I’m sorry. I was expecting Rico. Who are you?”
Kailani took in the gorgeous features of the other girl, shaking her head. “I’m Kailani, Rico’s younger sister. I would love to stay and explain everything, but we don’t have time.” She shut the door behind her, locking the door just in case. “Rico isn’t who you think he is, or rather what you think he is. He’s not a teenager, or however old he told you he was. Nor does he plan to come back up here and be the gentleman you’re expecting.” Kailani took a deep breath, taking a quick sweeping glance around the room, shocked to see the grandeur in which it was kitted out.
“I...I kinda got that idea. He um, looks older in person than he did online, but he was still really nice. I thought maybe it was his heritage. My name’s Tiana.” She ducked her head, her voice wobbling. “I tried to open the door after he left, but it was locked. I banged on it for a long time, but nobody came, and the phone doesn’t work. I want my sister,” she cried.
A shaky sigh left her at the young girl’s real fear. “I have a plan. Hopefully I can get us both out of here, but we’ll need to hurry and be very quiet. I don’t know where any of your things are, so if you’re attached to anything, you’ll have to leave them.” Kailani didn’t want to give her false hope.
Tiana nodded. “I just...I just want to go home,” she cried softly.
“Where exactly is home?” God, please let it not be New York or some other state.
“Northern California, just north of Los Angeles.” Tiana took a deep breath. “Rico picked me up from school and said he had a great adventure planned, then we boarded a small plane and came here. I...I didn’t know what to say or do. I thought he was taking me out to eat, maybe shopping. I didn’t get to tell my sister I wasn’t coming home or anything. She probably thinks I ran away.” She bit her lip and turned away.
“Listen, we can talk about this once we’re on the road. Right now, we don’t have time. Get your shoes on.” The longer they stood there chatting, the greater the chance they had of getting caught. She pulled the camera app back up, releasing a sigh at the image of Rico and his guys still sitting around the table drinking. She nearly dropped her phone as she watched her father storm into the dining room, his anger rolling off him in waves even she could see through the small screen. Good lord, she was glad she wasn’t in the room with the men. Whatever her brother did had clearly ticked her father off. She watched her brother sit back, a smug look on his handsome face as he gestured toward the wine on the table. Her father, Ricardo Trevino Senior picked up the bottle, looked at the label, then without pausing broke it over the head of the man to his left. Her brother sat up, his face registering shock then wariness. The other men scooted away from the two Trevino men. Although her father was over fifty, he was as fit as men half his age and wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. A shudder shook her.
“Hurry, we must go, now,” she said.
Tiana hurried over, her hands rubbing together in front of her. “Where are we going?”
Kailani unlocked the door, opening it quietly as she peered down the hallway. She looked back over her shoulder. “Stay right behind me and keep your mouth shut. Walk where I walk and don’t say a word. Understand me?” She waited for the other girl to nod. “We’re going to my room, then out the window there. I have an escape ladder out my window. It’s made of rope, so I hope you have some muscles in those arms.”
“I’ve been in gymnastics since I was two years old. I can climb down a ladder.” Fire lit her eyes, letting Kailani know she could count on her to hold her own.
“Let’s do this.” She tried to smile, but their lives were literally on the line. If she got caught trying to escape with a girl Rico had basically kidnapped, an underage one at that, she might find herself six feet under at best, sold like the others at worst.
They made it to her room without incident, her backpack feeling heavier with every step. Not because it was filled with a lot of stuff, but because she knew once she made the steps out of the window with or without the girl, her life was going to be forever changed. She would no longer be Kailani Trevino the welcomed daughter, but Kailani Trevino the traitor. Seeing the faces of all the girls, girls she knew were either dead or wished they were, the choice was easy. She was no longer going to standby and watch while another was ruined.
“Alright, you go first,” she instructed Tiana.
Tiana shook her head. “What if they find me down there?”
Kailani peered out the window at the huge shrubbery that hid where they’d land. “If you stay up here, and they come looking for you, what then?”
A shiver wracked Tiana’s frame. “What if you get caught and I’m out there all alone?”
She shrugged off the pack, the expensive LV symbol that emblazed the bag meant nothing to her, but the items inside were enough to set them both up if needed. “Inside this pack there’s a cellphone and enough money to get you anywhere you need to go. Take it,” she said, putting it over Tiana’s shoulders. “Go, we’ve fucked off enough.” If the girl didn’t go quickly, Kailani was going to throw her out the damn window. “Tiana, do you know what his plans are? He will take your virginity if you still have it, then he’ll let the guys with him have you, do what they want, after he’s had his fill of you, then, after they’ve used you up, taught you how to please a man, they’ll sell you to some third world country dignitary or drug dealer. It doesn’t matter to them who you go to, just as long as they make a few thousand dollars off your body.”
Tears welled up in her youthful eyes, making Kailani feel like a righteous bitch. “Is that what you want? Do you want to be his whore for a few weeks, or months, then become someone else’s whore, because that is what you are facing? Now get your ass out that window. I didn’t risk my life to save yours for nothing.” She didn’t care that her voice shook, or that her own horrors probably showed in her face. No, if this young thing thought for one minute Rico wouldn’t do that to her, Kailani would gladly show her the error of her ways.
“Please don’t leave me down there alone,” Tiana begged.
Kailani turned her toward the window. “Trust me. The last thing I want is to be up here when they find you gone.” That was putting it lightly.
Once Tiana was over the ledge, Kailani checked the app once again, her hand going to her throat when the image in the dining room showed her an empty table save for some plates and bottles. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit,” she swore, hurrying to the window ledge and looking down. Tiana was almost to the ground. The weight limit on the ropes said two hundred pounds. If she and the other girl were both to be on it at the same time, she feared their combined weight would be too much, but if she didn’t get out now, she had a sneaking intuition her window of opportunity would be closed. With one last glance toward her own closed door, she slid her leg over the windowsill, sent up another prayer, and hoped her mother was watching down on her.
The last five feet seemed to take forever, and in her life, forever was long. Tiana stood with her back against the house, her hands in small fists at her sides, sweat dripping down her forehead, but she didn’t mutter a word.
Kailani dropped down the last foot, her breath coming in and out in harsh pants like she’d just run a five mile mara
thon. “Come on, stay behind me and don’t make a sound. They’re not in the dining room, which could mean my brother is on his way up to see you, or he’s with my father. I don’t really know, but we don’t have time to fuck around.”
Tiana only nodded, her taller frame straight and sure.
“ARE YOU SEEING WHAT I’m seeing?” Traeger asked, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Surely he didn’t just watch two women scale their way down the side of the mansion. Well, small in the sense it wasn’t a Kennedy size mansion. Fuck, this mission just became a little more complicated.
“The first girl looked like the one Keys gave us information on. The other one, I didn’t recognize. What do we do with her, boys?” Digger asked.
Traeger looked at the other man. “We grab ‘em both and figure out the what the fucks after.”
They’d driven down with Digger and Coal, both men driving their cage vehicles. While the MC preferred their bikes, when they went on a mission, they used what they needed, and a cage or a vehicle on four wheels was usually needed. Digger drove the lead SUV, a tricked out armored Escalade that fit eight, while Coal drove a van that could hold a dozen, and also housed a state of the art computer system.
“Sounds solid to me,” Duke agreed.
“My facial recognition program says one of the females is the sister of the fuck who took the girl we’re here to rescue, which by the way, it appears she’s helping our target escape,” Keys explained through the speaker system of their vehicle, letting them all in on what he’d found.
“We better move. I see movement on the upper floors. I think the fucks in question know their girl is missing.” Traeger opened the door, moving before he’d finished speaking, blending into the waning night. There were a few things he was excellent at—fucking, shooting any type of weapon with accuracy, and blending into his surroundings. Even at over six feet two, he knew how to find the shadows and become one with them. He made sure his rifle was close just in case he needed it as he moved toward his targets, keeping his ears peeled for any indication that the men from inside had come out. Thanks to Keys, they had already disabled all the alarms inside and out, so even if the women inadvertently would’ve triggered one, none would go off.
He and King moved like a team, both silent and deadly when needed, each of them taking a route toward the women that was sure to intercept wherever they planned to go, before they had a chance to get there. King motioned for him to stay closer to the house, while he moved farther ahead in case there was trouble waiting in front of the women. From the intel they’d gotten on the drive down, there shouldn’t be, but Traeger knew it only took a moment for shit to hit the fan. In cases of human trafficking, none of them liked to gamble with the lives of women or children, or in this case a teen girl.
Flood lights began lighting up the front yard, making it nearly impossible for him to find his shadowy spots, but he didn’t change his course, staying low, picking up his pace until he finally reached the two women at the same time as King. His arms came up and around the older of the two, his hand clamping over her mouth, silencing her scream. “Sssh, I’m not here to hurt you. Well, that is unless you’re part of your brother’s shit, then all bets are off,” he growled.
Traeger held her slender body against his, feeling her instant surrender against his chest.
She shook in his arms for a moment, then relaxed as if all the fight went out of her.
“We need to move. Keys says there’s movement inside and lots of it,” King said, his deep voice barely above a whisper.
Both girls whimpered but between the both of them, neither could say anything.
“Your sister’s looking for you. If you’re a good girl, I’ll have you back with her by sunup,” King assured the young girl.
Traeger’s woman stiffened in his arms. “What’s the matter, you upset we’re taking away your money maker?” he asked, venom lacing his words.
The younger female in King’s arms squirmed, trying to get away. “She saved me, you asshat,” she muttered out between King’s fingers.
Traeger raised his brows but didn’t say a word. “We need to move. You got your target under control Pres, or you need a little assistance?”
King raised one brow, his eyes, from what Traeger could see reflected from the moonlight, clearly telling him his friend, and President of the Royal Sons, would be paying him back for that remark. Traeger gave a low chuckle, figuring they’d both need to blow off some steam when they got back to the club, unless they found another way to expend the pent up energy. The woman he held moved against him, reminding him of another way he could blow off steam, a much more pleasurable way for sure. However, fucking a woman who had clear ties to one of the largest drug cartels on the west coast, one that also dabbled in human trafficking, was a sure way to wind up dead, or in jail. Neither option held much appeal.
“You two done playing? ‘Cause you got about ten fuckers coming in hot right behind you. I can give you a distraction, but you’re not gonna make it back to us the same way you went in. Find another way, and we’ll meet you at plan B.” Keys rattled off the coordinates for the rendezvous location, his fingers, which never seemed to stop tapping on a keyboard, were even louder through their earpieces.
The woman he held shook her head. Her fingers dug into his hands. “We can take my car, that’s where we were heading before you so rudely dropped in on us.”
Traeger grunted. “I’m supposed to trust you?”
“Hello, did you not find us shimmying out of a third story window? If we were part of whatever you think we were, or rather I was, do you honestly think I’d have risked breaking my damn neck?” she asked, her whisper yell making him grin.
“We ain’t got all night, Trigger. I’m leaning toward believing her since she did technically break herself and this one out. Besides, our options are limited. Let’s roll, and if she’s lying, we’ll just shoot her.” King shrugged.
The thought of shooting the sexy as fuck beauty didn’t sit well with him, but he did agree with taking her ride. However, he and King both came to an abrupt stop when they reached the garage, both men grunting out curses at her ride. “A motherfucking convertible,” Traeger muttered. “We’ll be sitting fucking ducks in this thing.”
“Let’s go, we ain’t got many other options unless you want to hotwire one of the other vehicles, but then, they might have a shut off option. Roll out, I’m driving,” King announced.
“Fuck that, I’m driving,” Traeger said, hopping into the driver seat. “I’ve seen you drive a cage, and it ain’t pretty. Let’s roll,” he announced, shoving his captive in the passenger seat while King and the younger girl hopped in the back. By now, every light in the house was on, and guards could be seen checking the grounds. Traeger knew as soon as he started the vehicle they’d have men with weapons lining the drive, ready to fire at them. “How likely is it that your brother will shoot you and your vehicle?” he asked the girl. Shit, he needed to get her name. “What do I call you?”
“Kailani, but my friends call me Lani,” she said softly.
“Well, I’m Trigger, and I need to know one thing, Kailani. Is he gonna give a kill order, or no?” he asked, not missing the way her back stiffened when he said her full name. Oh, he’d call her many things while he was balls deep in her, but Lani wasn’t one of them. He didn’t do friends.
“I don’t know. It depends if he thinks I helped Tiana escape, or if I was kidnapped along with her.” She fidgeted with her hands in her lap, her sexy voice rolling over him, making his dick hard. Shit, he never reacted like he was with this woman unless they were both naked and she had her lips wrapped around his dick.
“Well, which do you think he’s gonna think happened?” Yeah, he was going to pretend she was innocent too, maybe that would keep his dick on a leash, or not.
Chapter Three
Kailani could feel the heat of the man named Trigger’s stare. The other man, the one who was in the back with Tiana was no less i
ntimidating, but for some reason, he did nothing for her. Oh, she had no doubt he was every bit as dangerous, maybe more so, but her mind and body didn’t scream for her to let him take over. Good god, here she was on the run with a young girl from her brother, and father, basically with the clothes on her back, yet she was lusting after a man she’d just met. Yep, she’d lost it. Maybe it was Stockholm or something.
Trigger snapped his fingers in her face, drawing her attention to the fact his hands were large, scarred, and tattooed. Shit, he really was all kinds of wrong for her. Of course, the men her brother planned to sell her off to were even more wrong. No, scratch that, they were worse.
At least this gorgeous specimen was...sex on a stick.
“Are you deaf, or stupid, or stalling for time. Because I hate to break it to you sweetheart, I’ll shoot every motherfucker who sticks his face in through that door, then I’ll make sure you suffer a worse fate than death.”
She couldn’t help it. The thought of suffering worse than she had made her laugh. “You’ve no clue what I’ve suffered, but trust me, I have no love for my brother or any of his men. But to answer your question, he’s probably already figured out I helped her escape. I mean, the rope ladder hanging out my bedroom window was probably a dead giveaway, don’t you think?” she asked, staring straight ahead, ignoring the way her heart pounded. It was easy to admit to this total stranger the bald facts, or almost the facts. Her innocence had been stripped away from her just like her clothing when she’d been only a little older than the young girl in the backseat.
Her nightmares were filled with the horrors she’d suffered since the day she’d turned eighteen and had to start earning her keep. It was the night all her teenaged dreams had been shattered and she’d realized monsters were real, and that they didn’t just come out at night, but were those who were men she’d known her entire life, men she called family.