by Eden Rose
“Fucking hell. Are you Emily?”
She nods and then breaks down in tears. “I’m not stupid like they think. I know I’m going to die in here or something is going to happen to me that is so bad that I wish I did.”
“Don’t worry, honey. Everything is going to be all right.”
“Don’t lie to me. Nothing is going to be all right. They said they have a buyer for me.”
And with that, she turned and walked away from me.
Chloe- Then
Barry is acting weird. I don’t know what the hell his problem is lately, but he’s acting like he did when he was using. Sketchy and unreliable.
I don’t have to tell you how nervous that makes me in this field, because you should know. If he slips and tells them who I am, everyone I know will be dead and there is nothing I could do to stop them.
Fuck.
“When we leave here, I’m going to talk to you about something,” I tell Barry as I walk past him.
He shakes his head and then looks off to the side. “Fuck you. You are pregnant with someone’s babies but you are fucking his friend. What kind of person are you?”
Something about what he said, touched home for me, so I made a fist and punched him in his gut. “Don’t you ever talk to me like again, you fucking asshole. Brother or not, you are here to do a job. Don’t make me have to hurt you.”
Wait- how the hell did he know I was pregnant with twins? I sure the fuck didn’t tell him and I haven’t talked to anyone in my family since I left. How did he know?
Barry coughs a little and then straightens his back. “Fuck off, Anya!”
Before I could say anything that would drag this along some more, I turn on my heels and walk towards the warehouse. I don’t even make it past the main door when a gun is pulled and pointed to my temple. “The fuck?”
“Listen, I don’t know what kind of game you are playing here, but Dom and Vlad are going to fucking kill you if you don’t step up. This whole, sneaking around shit and then disappearing shit is going to get you killed. You need to get your head straight because they won’t kill you with a bullet. No, they will rape you and then have all of the other men doing your slutty mouth.” The gun gets shoved into my head a little harder and then he says: “Watch yourself, cupcake.”
I feel the gun moving and then feel him leaving me too. I didn’t even get a chance to see him or pick out his voice but I know he’s not native to Russia. His accent is the same as mine, so there’s a bigger chance of him being from the Mid-West. Which in the end will make it easier for me to find him.
Shit! My heart is beating so fast as the adrenaline is coursing through my blood. Fuck! I wanted to beat his ass for threatening me.
My blood is boiling as I spin on my heels and stalk towards the sound of footsteps. When I get to the end of the hall, I don’t see anyone, but I draw my gun just in case. I’m not allowing some asshole to threaten me like this. No! Fuck that.
With the weight of my gun in my hand, I walk into a hard chest. I look up out of curiosity and also wonder as to who is always strutting across this back hallway.
“Anya , chto ty delayesh' ?” Dom asks as he picks up my side bangs and lightly twirls it.
I quickly translate what he said roughly as “Anya, what are you doing?” Or something along those lines. Of course, I’m not entirely sure but I’m guessing that is what he said.
“Zdes' byl chelovek. Vy videli vy yego videli?” My fingers are crossed that I asked him if he saw that man as well. Fuck. Russian is really fucking hard.
“Where did you say you from?” He asks me in English and places his hand on the lapel of my coat.
Shit! “Uh, Petersburg?” I try to say it as a declarative sentence but I think it sounded more like a question. The truth is, I never pegged down where I’m from. Damn it.
Things are falling apart and I don’t have a way of fixing them! Fuck!
He smiles at me and then brushes my hair over my shoulder. “Mmhmm, interesting.”
Before I can say anything else, he had turned on his heels and began to walk away.
I place my hand over my heart and try very hard to breathe. Holy shit. I mean, seriously. Holy fucking shit. They are on to us and we are all about to die. This is not good at all.
I see Howard talking to Natasha once I get back to the main room and he looks at me as if he’s worried about something. Quickly, I shake my head and then walk over to where Vlad was standing. I’m fishing right now to see if he is suspicious as well. I’m pretty sure that if something were to be wrong, he would tell me.
You know, since he’s a priest and all. Aren’t they obligated to tell the truth? Well, I’m guessing since he’s in sex trafficking, he doesn’t abide by those rules.
Fuck my life.
I cleared my throat and looked him up and down to maintain my flirting with him. Yeah, right. The guy is hot as fuck and he knows it too judging by the cocky smile on his face. “Yest' yeshche odin chelovek zdes' ?” Hopefully I asked him if there was another man here.
He takes a drink of whatever the amber liquid is in his drink and shrugs. “Why?” He asks me in English.
“He threatened me,” I reply back in English.
There’s that damn cocky shrug again. “I don’t know wvhat you are talking about.”
Realizing that I’m not going to get anywhere with this conversation, I spin on my heels and stalk out of the room. As I’m leaving, I take notice of the zip ties that are laying on the floor and the duct tape that lays next to the ties. This is bad.
*
I don’t even wait to find out what happens. I rush out of the warehouse and to my apartment. Even though Howard and I drove separately, I walked home anyways. It took me approximately a half an hour to walk home but by the time I made it, my feet hurt so bad that I could cry. Damn it! Why did I have to be stubborn and walk? I should have just drove the fuck home. Great! Now how the hell am I supposed to get my car back?
Once I saw the stairs leading up to my place, I kicked off the torture devices and left them at the base of the stairs.
Fuck my shoes. And fuck that they cost the bureau seven hundred dollars. Fuck that I hope someone steals them.
As soon as I was at my door, I take my keys out and unlock it and then lock it back up. I do a quick scan of everywhere in my apartment and then pull my phone out. God damn it. I’m so paranoid right now. I take the case off of the phone and then dissect it to check to make sure there isn’t any bugs on it.
Fuck.
If the Russians are on to me… Oh my god. They will find out everything about me and kill me. I’m positive of it. This is not good.
I slip the battery out of it’s placement and then hold it sideways up to the light. Huh. I don’t see anything on it that makes me worried.
I walk over to my dog and let him out of his crate and he barks at me. Steve is prancing around my apartment with his squeak toy in his mouth and he looks happy as hell. The dog is crazy. I know I should let him out, but I have business to attend to.
I walk over to my room while I’m sliding off the fur coat. I drop it on the ground knowing full well that Steve is going to make it his bed; but I don’t care. He could tear up the fucking coat for all I care.
Fuck!
Deep breaths. Come on. Deep breaths. It’s not that bad.
Nope. Didn’t work one bit. Damn it.
My eyes fall to where my closet is and I walk over to it. After reaching my hand up and into some of the clothes that are folded up there, I pull down a box. Inside the box are six different pre-paid phones that are activated already.
Feeling like a failure, my finger hovers over James’ number. Damn it. This is awful. He’s going to think I don’t know how to do my job. I’m going to get fired for this. That’s a no-brainer. He’s going to fire me because I’m too stupid to keep a low profile.
Oh my god! I bet Natasha told them everything! I’m not going to be held responsible for when I strangle the bitch.
With great hesitation, I press his icon and hit the green button to dial him. Please don’t answer. Please don’t answer. I beg silently.
“Delacruz, this better be important; it’s nine at night.”
Without even thinking about it, I blurt out: “No shit. Thank you for letting me know.”
He let’s out a groan and then says: “It has been so quiet since you've been gone. What can I help you with?”
I close my eyes and just let everything come out. I tell him about the whole investigation and Barry’s lack of involvement, I tell him that I don’t trust Natasha and then I tell him that I’m worried we have been found out.
“So, that’s why I’m calling. I’m fucking pissed off that my investigation isn’t working out how I want it to but I don’t know what else to do. If we back out now, it’s going to be worse. We need to bust it up. They are going to kill those fucking-”
“Delacruz!” He shouts causing me to shut my mouth. “Shut up! You are not shutting down anything and things will continue to move on how they are supposed to.”
“Did you get the pictures we sent you?” I ask regarding those photos that Howard took from our stakeout.
“Yeah. I did.”
Shaking my head, I feel my emotions bubble up. Damn hormones. “But-”
He grunts and then hangs up on me.
Fuck. It’s not just my life on the line here. Those girls are being sold into sexual slavery and once they leave that warehouse, the chances of seeing them again are slim to none.
I look over at my alarm clock on the side of the bed to see what time it is. Even though James told me it was nine, I had an inkling to look again. Call it one of those crazy wants, but I check the clock.
Wait? Did it move? I could have sworn it was right next to my bed. Like right next to it so I didn’t have to over extend my arm to turn off the alarm. Now it’s about a whole arm’s length away.
Did I move it? I scrunch up my face and try to think about whether or not I did and I can’t remember. What the fuck is happening to me? Am I this paranoid that I’m thinking something is happening and it really isn’t?
I have gone completely crazy.
Or at least I thought I did until I walk out of my bedroom and reach for Steve’s leash that is always resting on the dining room table and is not there. I place it there because I always forget where I stash it if I don’t. Where the hell did it go?
Grant- THen
“So, when are you going to marry this girl?” Mom asks me as we are all sitting at the table for family dinner. And by all, I mean every single one of my family members are here including Kayla.
Kayla blushes and rubs her hand over her belly and looks at her lap. Shit. My mother and her damn big mouth. “Mom, come on!”
My niece comes up and puts her hand on Kayla’s belly. “You’ve got a baby in there,” she whispers and then kisses her stomach. “Can the baby feel it?”
My girlfriend starts tearing up in the eyes and then I look over at her and see her looking at my niece. “Yes, I’m positive the baby felt that. And you want to know what?” The little girl nods her head frantically. “I bet she’s blowing kisses back at you.”
My mouth drops and I look over at her as she places her hand over her mouth as if she couldn’t believe she let that slide. We had a deal that if she wanted to know then she could but I wanted to be surprised. And so did my family.
“Uh?” Dad says and takes a drink of his beer.
“Crap! Erase, erase! Sorry. I lied!”
I get up from my seat and then drop to my knees in front of her. I didn’t care if we were in the middle of family dinner, I needed to be close to her. As soon as I was positioned so my hands were resting on her thighs, I brought my face in and kissed her belly. “Marry me.”
I have never once told Kayla that I’m in love with her. Hell, I don’t know if I am or not but I’m feeling this urge to get married before she has this baby. Fuck, I don’t know if I’m over Chloe. But in this moment, no one else existed besides Kayla and I.
Her eyes get big and they blink back tears. She still hasn’t answered me and I’m getting impatient. “Kayla?”
She look from my hands back to my face. “Oh, I didn’t answer yet?” Her words are whispered but husky. I shake my head as she nods. “Yes. Yes, I will!”
My family shoots out of their seats and begin to cheer.
Later that night, we are laying in bed and she’s on her side. I’m rubbing my hand up and down her back as she purrs. “I know you are still in love with-”
“Sh, baby. We don’t talk about her in here. It’s just you and I.”
I’m denying that I’m still in love with Chloe but I don’t know what else to do. Yeah, Chloe is pregnant with my twins (twins, what the fuck?) but it’s obvious she doesn’t want to be found.
But I won’t give up on trying to find her.
Howard- Then
“Put these girls in boxes,” Vlad demands as he points to a group of five girls who are trembling with fear. Damn it. This is not going as planned and if these girls leave the warehouse, they aren’t going to be found again.
I step in front of him and shake my head. “Where are they going?” I request.
Vlad stands up straighter and sticks his chest out some. “That none of your concern. Do it or you will be walking with cement shoes on the bottom of river.” His accent is thicker and stronger as he gets more angry.
Without hesitation, I do as requested. This is the part I hate about undercover operations. I can’t do anything to help those that are suffering from what is happening to them but I have to think about the bigger picture. And that’s the WHOLE ring. Not just this little one.
“Come on,” I whisper to the girls crying in the corner. I gently take their elbows and load them into the crate. They are past crying now and past showing any emotion. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing right now but I don’t question it. Once they are loaded, I step away from the crate and look over to Vlad.
“Where Anya?” He demands and pulls his phone out.
The truth is, I don’t know where the hell she ran off to but I hope she is all right. “I’m going to step outside for a minute.”
Without waiting for his reply, I walk out of the room and then walk fast out of the warehouse. Once I’m past the building, I bend at the waist and breathe heavily.
Fuck me! That was really fucking hard! Holy shit.
The worst part about it? Is that Emily was right. Those girls that I loaded up in the crate had only been there for two days. I remember when they came in and they looked as if they are walking skeletons. Their bodies devoid of all nutrients and I can tell that they are in need of the sun.
Once my breathing is under control, I look up and see Chloe’s car that the bureau gave her for the mission. It’s a Mercedes and it looks like something she would drive if she actually cared about the expensive cars. That’s something that I love about her. She doesn’t give a fuck about what the cars she drives.
I pull my phone out of my pocket and enter in the code. Once it’s up and loaded, I click on her name and tap out a text.
ME: where r u
While waiting for her to reply, I walk around her car to see if she’s in there but she’s taking a nap or something. I know she wouldn’t be that stupid to take a nap in this area, but I know the babies are keeping her up at night. She gets up at least four or five times a night to go to the bathroom. It would be cute if it didn’t make her grouchy.
There doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary on her car, so I unlock my phone again to see if she messaged me back. Well, looks like she hasn’t.
I walk back into the warehouse and pass Barry who is frantically typing on his phone. He looks as if he’s struggling with something and I look him over. His face seems hollowed out and his eyes are shadowed. “What’s up? Have you seen her?” I ask as soon as I’m close enough to him.
He shakes his head and points forward. I follow his f
inger and see that he’s pointing at Emily who is curled in a ball. “What happened to her?” I ask and turn back to face him.
“I don’t want to talk about it. There is no saving her now.”
Before I can ask him what he means, he walks away from me and out the door.
Chloe- THen
I take my gun out of the holster inside of my fur coat that is still on the ground and slide it into the back of my panties. I pushed off the Russian clothes and changed into some of the clothes that I am more comfortable in while I pace my apartment looking for this damn leash.