by Evelyn Glass
Breaker ordered, and it was quiet between us for the twenty minutes it took for the food to arrive. Breaker made sure to close the door behind him when he went out to fetch it. Despite my cooperation, he still didn’t trust me. I would feel the same in his position, so I couldn’t blame him, but still—it made me feel like a prisoner. If I tried to leave, would he let me? Breaker must have known as well as anyone that I could have taken him down if I wanted to, and yet he was still standing. After he paid the delivery kid and closed the door, he started laying the cartons out on the small table near his miniscule kitchen.
“I ordered a bunch of different things,” he explained, passing me a paper plate and a plastic fork. I piled it high, not realizing how ravenous I was until the smell of the Chinese food hit my nose and my mouth started watering. I stuffed my face until I couldn’t manage another mouthful, and then flopped back, groaning, against the bed.
“I’m exhausted,” I yawned, and went to pull the covers over myself.
“Hey, don’t hog the blankets,” Breaker said. There was a tone to his voice, like he thought he was joking. I slowly turned over to meet his gaze.
I let my expression chill down to where it would have frozen water. “You don’t seriously think that we’re going to be sharing a bed, do you?” I demanded, raising my eyebrows at him in incredulity. He shrugged.
“Why not? This is my place, after all,” he reminded me. I sat up, irritation pulsing around my head.
“You fucking bought me, Breaker, don’t you remember? I didn’t exactly have much of a choice about coming here.” He just shrugged again, infuriatingly. How on Earth had I fucked this guy earlier today—and enjoyed it as much as I had? I flushed at the memory, and pushed it quickly from my brain so I could keep a clear head.
“Yeah, well, that doesn’t mean I’m crashing on the couch another night.” He pulled off his shirt and made his way to the bathroom. My belly cramped in sudden fear that he was going to be that close to me again, while I was asleep.
And then it clicked—he was worried I was going to make a run for it while he was asleep. Yeah, he had to get some rest, but I’d be a whole lot less likely to get out of there without him noticing if he was crashed out right next to me. I rolled my eyes, lay back down, and tugged the covers as tightly around myself as I could manage. Well, if he had to, it wasn’t like I was going to give him a show at the same time.
He brushed his teeth and returned to the bedroom, sliding down in the bed next to me and flicking off the light. I stared at the bedside table next to me, daring him to reach over and touch me—but he didn’t. Instead, he rolled over, let out a small snort, and started snoring, leaving me awake and alone in that strange little apartment. But, as I focused in on the pace of his breath, I found myself drifting off to sleep in not time.
***
I woke with a start the next morning. Once again, it took me a moment to remember where I was and what in the name of holy hell I was doing there. The last twenty–four hours flashed through my mind. Fucking Breaker, realizing I didn’t have to, and having him break the news of his plan to me. And…I agreed. I stayed. I was still here, after all. I flipped over and stared up at the ceiling, tucking my hand behind my head to prop it up. Whatever drugs they had given me the day before last had started to wear off completely, and I was almost feeling back to normal once again.
It was something Dad could never have prepared me for, being a woman on the force. To him, policing was an entire community built up entirely to make sure that he was supported and cared for. The guys loved him, the women looked after him, and the force made up a whole other family in his life, especially on those nights that he was forced to stay away from us to keep us safe. But he never realized how different it was for women. How could he? Why would he? He was old–fashioned, a man of his time, and I didn’t hold that against him. I just wish that I’d known how to deal with something like this, known how to wriggle out of circumstances like this one when they arose. He had never taught me that. Still, I was pretty sure I was doing the right thing.
I turned to check if Breaker was in bed next to me, but he wasn’t. I could hear the shower going from the room next door, and enjoyed the few minutes of solitude I got before he returned once again. I had a feeling that he would be keeping a hawk–eye on me as long as I was under his care, but that was probably for the best for the time being. We were about to try and gather information on a criminal organization that went far beyond dealing and swaggering around town intimidating the locals. We were talking human trafficking, prostitution, maybe sexual slavery. My palms itched when I thought about all the terrible things these men must have done over the years, and the fact that I was finally getting a chance to take them down. Yeah, we were being idealistic, but I was a cop. I had to have a little of that running in my veins, else I’d have given up years ago from the cynicism of it all.
Breaker appeared in the doorway of the bathroom, wrapped up in a towel. My eyes swept appreciatively up and down his body before I could stop them, and I scolded myself internally for my actions. No need to swell his already oversized ego more than it already was.
“Morning,” he greeted me, and I had an odd moment of déjà vu. This moment, it reminded me of something I’d shared with one of my exes. Well, aside from the kidnapping and human auction side of things. I just…I had to admit, I was attracted to Breaker, and being in such close quarters with him didn’t make that any easier to handle.
“Morning,” I yawned, and pulled the covers up to my chin.
“So, I got a call from the club,” he went on, dropping the niceties. “They’re having a poker night tonight and they’ve invited me to join them. I thought you could come with me, as my date?”
“How will that work? They all know me as a cop, and as the toy you bought.” I scoffed, unable to keep my incredulity under wraps.
“It gives you a chance to see how they function up–close,” he replied patiently. “It’s not much, but at least it’s an in.”
“Fair enough,” I held my hands up. “But I’ll need something to wear.”
“Didn’t like other dress, huh?” he teased, and I almost hissed. “I’ll pick you something up later today, but we need to start on our game plan. Figure out what we’re going to go in there looking for.”
“Can I wake up a little first?” I protested his deluge of orders.
“I thought cops were meant to be good in the mornings,” he teased. “Oh, wait, you need a donut and a coffee first, don’t you?”
“I don’t need them, but if you’re offering…” I was starving again, and realized that I must have gone twenty–four hours or so without food before I got my hands on that takeout.
“There was some leftover Chinese. I put it in the fridge.” He gestured through the door that led to the kitchen and I managed to pull myself out of bed. My head was still pulsing with a little pain from the drugs, but I was feeling substantially better than I had the day before. Maybe that had more to do with the fact I knew I hadn’t been purchased to enter into sex slavery with a man who hated me, now that I actually thought about it. I grabbed myself a bowl of dry cereal– there was no milk in the apartment, unsurprisingly– and Breaker got dressed.
“What size are you?” He asked gruffly. I wanted to make a comment about the fact that he’d already seen enough of me to make an educated guess, but I knew that wasn’t going to get the two of us anywhere.
“Uh, small,” I replied.
“I’m going to go out and get you a dress now,” he went for the door. “But you’re…shit, just don’t go anywhere, right? If someone catches you running out of here, they’re going to put you right back out there and sell you again, and I don’t have another ten grand to keep you safe this time.”
“I won’t,” I threw back at him. “Oh, and I’ll need shoes, too.”
“Size?”
“Six and a half.”
“See you soon,” he went for the door, and I made my way over to the window t
o watch him wander down the street and towards the cheap clothes shops at the other end of the road. I had never had a man buy me clothes before– this would almost have been romantic, if it weren’t for, you know. All of it.
He arrived back a half–hour later, carrying a small bag. He tossed it in my direction and I opened it and looked inside.
I wrinkled my nose up when I saw what was in it.
“What? Is it the wrong size?” Breaker sighed, and I shook my head. I plucked at the fabric between my fingers, holding the dress up and peering at it, moving it back and forth in front of me.
“It’s just not really…uh, me,” I commented.
“Sorry, but you’re going to need to play the part if we want to find anything out,” he reminded me. “Come on, put it on. We should get there on time.” He paused, then grinned. “Think of it like going undercover.”
I resisted the urge to flip him off. “When does this thing start?”
“Soon,” he glanced at his watch. “Cops aren’t going to come bust places during the day so this is the safest time to do it.”
“Fair enough,” I muttered, making a mental note to pass this information on to my colleagues when I got of here. If I go out of here. I pushed the thought from my head at once, peeled off the clothes I had been wearing, and changed into the stuff Breaker had brought for me.
I didn’t have any make–up, but I did my best to clean myself up and look as presentable as possible. That was tough, considering what he’d gotten me to wear. The dress was short, hitting a few inches above my knee, and tight, hugging my hips and my waist all the way up to my chest. The straps were thick, and the dusky teal color suited my skin. I wondered how much time he’d spent picking this out, if he’d thought about how good it would look against my coloring. He’d probably just wanted me to look like the nicest eye candy in the room. I grabbed the heels he’d picked up—black, simple, and very, very high, and slipped into them. I was instantly reminded why I didn’t like to wear anything but the flats I wore on patrol, or the sneakers I used to go running in. I fluffed my hair, washed my face, and dabbed on some of his aftershave to cover up the smell of sleep and Chinese food that was clinging to me like nobody’s business. I looked in the mirror—not bad. I could pass for a trophy girlfriend in a pinch.
I made my way back outside, and Breaker’s jaw hung open as he looked at me. I stared back at him, tugging the hem down as far as I could.
“You look…” he trailed off, leaving the words unsaid. I didn’t want to hear the end to that sentence and I knew it.
“We should go,” he suggested, offering me an arm. I took it, stumbling forward slightly in my heels.
“Shit,” I muttered to myself. I wished I could wear something a little closer to the ground, but I remembered the way those women who’d been all over Breaker dressed, and I knew that heels were part of that uniform.
“I think we’re going to keep you away from the booze tonight,” Breaker remarked with amusement as I grabbed for his arm to make sure I didn’t tip over on the spot. I shot him a look, one that warned him that he was already pushing his luck and that he should play it very, very careful if he wanted to keep me on side. He held his hand up in apology.
“Sorry,” he grinned, and I could tell that he barely meant it. “Come on, let’s get going. It’s going to take us at least a half–hour to get you down those stairs, after all.”
He was right, the bastard. Eventually, I had to take off the heels and clutch them in my hands as I made my way down the steps, worried was I that I was going to tumble down and break my nose. How did other women do this? I had no clue—I would have to get someone to teach me, for the next time I needed to play at being a willing sex slave in order to take down a human trafficking cartel. Police work required skills that I hadn’t even thought of when I’d got into it, that was for sure.
When we arrived at the club, I was surprised to see that it was already buzzing with activity. I had assumed that a place like this would usually operate under the cover of darkness, but then, it wasn’t as though the criminal underworld had much of a schedule to keep. Breaker led me over to one of the tables at the other end of the room and sat me down, and I did my best to ignore the little looks I was getting from the rest of the clientele there. I was the only woman in the place, and the way they were looking at me made the hair on the back of my neck prickle with discomfort. I knew I shouldn’t have let them get to me…but damn.
“Stay here,” Breaker murmured. “I’ll be right back.”
He vanished in the direction of the bar, leaving me alone under the gloomy lights—and I found myself staring at the stage, reliving the moments I had spent up there and praying that I would be able to stop any other woman suffering the same fate.
Chapter Ten
The place was ripe with the smell of smoke and liquor, and I knew that I had to act as though I wanted a bit of both. I waved down the barman and acquired a couple of drinks—a scotch for me and a lemonade for her. She was already wobbling like a teenager in those ridiculous heels, and I didn’t want her broken ankle on my conscience.
But all sense of fun had vanished from the scenario now that we were in the club once again. I looked around as I waited to get served. No sign of Thaddeus anywhere, which gave us a chance to establish ourselves before he arrived. No doubt he’d be here—this place was his baby—and now I’d be able to surprise him with my presence instead of the other way around.
I felt a hand come down on my shoulder, and a little jolt of panic moved through my system before I turned and laid eyes on the auctioneer from the night before. He grinned at me, and then glanced over to where she was sitting. I had to admit, she looked pretty gorgeous. Her hair was falling down her back in soft waves, skin smooth and glowing even in the dim light and without makeup. The dress suited her, and she was way hotter than either of the women who’d been attempting to chat me up the last time I was in here.
“You’ve got her looking good,” he commented, his hand still on my shoulder. Despite his friendly demeanor, I could tell that he was scouting me out. There was a searching look behind his eyes, just a hint, just enough for me to know that Thaddeus probably had something to do with this little encounter.
“Yeah,” I nodded noncommittally, plastering a smile on my face. “Thanks, man.”
“How’s she treating you?” He went on. “Putting up much of a fight?”
“Uh…”
“A cop like her, you know, I feel like you’d have to really beat her down to get her into all of it,” he continued enthusiastically, and I could tell that this line of conversation was all for him—the way his eyes lit up when he spoke told me that much. Jesus, what a creep. What kind of bastard auctioned off women like this, though? How often did he ‘sample the merchandise’?
“Trade secrets,” I replied. Maybe that would be enough to shut him up and get him out of my face.
“You’re a lucky man, my friend,” he shook his head. “A lucky man.”
“Sure,” I agreed, shooting the bartender a look that I hoped told him to hurry the hell up with my drink already. I wanted out of this conversation—even being part of it made me feel dirty. The auctioneer shook his head, the grin never leaving his face.
“You still got her drugged up?” He leaned so close that I could smell his foul breath on my face. I jerked my head back without thinking on how rude that would come across, and managed to plaster a grin on my face. They needed me to think I was on their side, after all, and I couldn’t do that if I was acting too protective of her.
“Sure thing, man,” I nodded. “She probably doesn’t even know where she is right now.”
“What have you got her on? We usually keep—“ He went to continue, but as soon as I was about to pick up some information that might actually have come in handy, he fell silent. He was looking over my shoulder, and I twisted around to see what had caught his eye— of course. Thaddeus.
The smile solidified to a rictus grin on my face as
he approached. He held his hand out to me, and I took it. We eyed each other for a moment before he spoke, and I could tell he was still trying to get the measure of me.
“Good to see you again,” he remarked. “I see you’ve got her in hand.”
“Did she give you trouble when you picked her up?” I asked. Maybe I could figure out where they’d gotten her from—if I could work that out, maybe we could head down there and try and intervene in another kidnapping. I didn’t want to spend a whole day lurking around this place for nothing, that was for sure. The smell of smoke and booze was already choking me, and I was dreaming about the docile, clean apartment upstairs and the warm bed I could be in right now. With her, my brain added before I had a chance to stop it. I shook the thought from my head and cocked my head at Thaddeus in faux–interest while I waited for him to answer.