“I didn’t go easy,” I confirmed.
With a nod of approval, Jasmin went back to looking at Anaya and immediately changed directions.
“You shoulda sold ‘em out and saved your face,” Jas said.
Here we go…
Anaya’s body went solid, her shoulders went back, and anger flashed. She was pissed and unlike all the men in the room, she wasn’t trying to hide her feelings.
“Sold them out?” Anaya spat out the words like they tasted like shit.
“Yeah. I heard that’s what the asshole who was slappin’ you around wanted. All you had to do was give two names and he would’ve stopped.”
Anaya sucked in a breath and my temper flared. I knew Jas was testing Anaya, but she’d gone too far. I promised Anaya she’d be safe and Jasmin was making me a liar. I understood her need to feel out Anaya but I would not allow her to push any further.
“Jas,” I growled.
“What? I’m just sayin’.”
No, she wasn’t just saying anything. Jasmin had almost died protecting the identity of her team. She was putting Anaya through unnecessary bullshit and I was done.
But before I could speak, Anaya did.
“What kind of person do you think I am?”
Jasmin shrugged like it was all the same to her. “Most people would talk.”
“Then most people are assholes. I wasn’t giving up Kyle and Declan no matter what. I’d rather die before I sold them out.”
There was a small gasp and Anaya and I turned to our right. A very pregnant Violet had come down the stairs along with Emerson.
The team had obviously not shared with Violet that Anaya had taken a beating to protect her brother.
Good to know some things could be kept secret around Z Corps.
I glanced over at Declan and he was looking down at his shoes shaking his head. Violet was getting ready to go all mother hen on his ass.
Time to shut this shit down, for good this time.
“On that note, you’re fuckin’ done, Jas. No more of that shit,” I demanded, barely keeping my temper under wraps.
Her eyes locked with mine and she nodded. She felt like hell she’d gone down that particular road with Anaya. And more so because Violet would now be upset, too.
“Great,” I grunted sarcastically, too pissed-off to articulate the word any better.
“Conference room,” Zane barked. “You, too, Emerson.”
I waited for everyone to file into the other room, then turned to Anaya.
“You okay?”
“Stop asking me that.”
“Anaya—”
“I’m fine. I’m not stupid, I understand what she was doing even if I didn’t like the reminder of what happened to me. Look around…” Anaya paused and motioned around the room. “I’m an outsider among a group of people who work behind more security than Fort Knox with a command center that rivals NASA. I get it. I have to earn their trust, and if you keep babying me in front of them, they’ll never respect me. I have nothing to hide from any of you. They can prod all they like, I won’t break and that’s something you’re gonna have to trust me about.”
My eyes went over her shoulder and Max stood in the doorway waiting for us. Arms folded over his chest and eyes hard, with a lift of his chin he dipped back into the room.
“Fuck. You’re right. I’m sorry.”
She gave me a tentative smile and grabbed my hand.
“Let’s get this over with.”
She yanked my hand and moved toward the door.
I needed to pull my head from my ass and stop doubting her. But fuck if I knew how to stop my insistent need to protect her, even from my teammates who were doing exactly what she’d said they were doing.
Chapter 17
My ribs ached and my head throbbed but there was no chance in hell I was going to complain. Admitting weakness would be like tossing blood in the water while sharks were circling.
I had something to prove to these people and I wouldn’t back down.
Ten men and two women sat around a huge table with Zane at the helm, all looking at me like I was an interloper. Well, eight of the men were, save Declan and Kyle.
“Violet thinks she found something,” Zane started. “She sent all her intel to Tex and Garrett. They’re combing through it to verify—”
“Respect, Z, but do you think this should be discussed in front of Anaya?” Max asked.
Kyle sighed beside me but held his tongue. Something I was grateful for. I couldn’t have him fight my battles for me.
“Just come out with it,” Zane instructed. “I hate this fucking part of the game. Every time one of you fucknuts falls in love this shit happens. You got something to say, Max, air it.”
Fall in love?
“Yeah, I got shit to say. We’re at war with Omni. They’ve proven to be one step ahead of us, around every turn. And here we are in the presence of a woman who has ties to Harry Landry and we’re getting ready to discuss business. Who the fuck is this woman anyway? She shows up out of the blue, Kyle takes one fuckin’ look at her, loses his goddamn mind, and now what? She’s just here?”
“I don’t have ties to Harry Landry,” I told Max.
“Sure you do. You admitted to knowing him.”
“Meeting someone at a donor gala one time and having ties with them are two different things.”
“Not in my book. Not when Landry’s proving to be pretty high up in the Omni food chain. We’re all just supposed to believe it’s a coincidence you know the man we’re after?”
My blood was boiling.
“You…you…” I was struggling to find my words I was so frustrated. “You think I’d work with some asshole who you say traffics women? Are you out of your goddamn mind?” I shouted. “No. Don’t answer that, because you are if you think that. I was taken and sold when I was a teenager. Paraded around in front of a room full of sleezy men and auctioned off. I was bought, you asshole, and put in a cage. Picture that, a man bought me like I was a fucking animal and caged me. So, I don’t care what you fucking believe. But I am not now, nor would I ever, work for or with anyone like Harry Landry.”
“Anaya—” Max started.
“Anyone else have any questions?” I ignored Max. “Wanna talk more about the dickhead who slapped me around while I was chained up on the boat? Want a play-by-play of my life? Anything? Wanna talk about how I freak the hell out if someone tries to touch me? I’m an open book and have nothing to hide.”
“Anaya,” Kyle growled from his seat next to me.
“Don’t start, Kyle. They all need to know, I may be completely fucked-up from what happened to me but I’m not a bad person and I have never and would never be associated with a dick like Harry Landry. And—”
“Enough, Anaya,” Declan gently cut me off before he turned his angry eyes to Max. “You done?”
Max nodded and looked away from the table, but I could feel everyone else’s gaze burning my skin. I took a few deep breaths and tried to calm my temper.
“Sorry—”
“Nothing to apologize for,” Zane interrupted. “Swear to all things holy, when the last two of you lose your shit over a woman, I’m sending you away. Far, far away from the rest of us so you can figure shit out on your own.”
“What’d Violet find?” Declan asked.
“A woman named Monica Chandler,” Zane announced. “Violet’s not sure if she’s an accomplice or a victim but we had her picked up. Emerson, have you ever heard of the woman?”
“No. When I was with him, he was careful to hide his women from me. But he did visit a massage parlor four, sometimes five times a week. I never gained access to the building.”
“No secretary, women who worked for him?”
“No. Out of all the men, Harry was the most careful. He kept everything locked up in a safe. He was extra careful on the phone.”
Wait? What? Emerson, Thad’s wife, knew Harry Landry?
“What about you, Anaya? The night
of the gala, was Harry there alone?” Zane asked, but I couldn’t pull my attention from Emerson.
“It’s not what you think,” Emerson said when she caught me staring at her.
“So you don’t know Harry?” I asked her.
“No, I do know him. I was pretending to be his girlfriend—”
“What?”
Emerson’s face twisted in disgust. “It’s a long story. One I’d very much like to talk to you about after Zane’s done with us.”
“Anaya? The gala?” Zane’s tone was impatient.
“I don’t know. I think he was there alone.” I shrugged. “But I wasn’t paying attention. My boss was walking me around the room introducing me to so many people I couldn’t keep track of who was with who. I only remember Harry because he asked me to dance. It was one song, and he talked about how happy he was his company could contribute. You know what creeps me out the most? He was so normal.”
“I know what you mean,” Emerson commiserated. “Like you’d never guess he was a dirtbag if you saw him walking down the street.”
“Exactly. He was nice—non-threatening. He wasn’t leering at the women in the room, or acting strange. He was just normal.”
“You didn’t see him leave with anyone?” Zane continued.
“No. But again, I wasn’t paying attention to him.”
“Sucks I have to ask, Anaya, but we need to talk about the men who took you.”
Now that I wasn’t having a come apart and my temper was in check, I really didn’t want to talk about being kidnapped.
Kyle’s hand landed on my thigh and I jerked in surprise, but he didn’t move it away. He gave me a gentle squeeze then waited for me to relax.
“Okay. What do you want to know?”
“Everything. Take us through it from the time you and Kyle parted ways.”
I took a deep breath and told them everything I’d told Kyle back in Darwin. From start to finish, I didn’t leave anything out, save my regrets about Kyle.
“This Italian guy, he said he already knew who Kyle and Dec were, he just wanted to hear you say it?” Zane asked.
“That’s what he said. And I don’t know that he was Italian. He just looked like he was. Olive complexion and dark hair and eyes. I think he was from Jersey or Philly. Not quite a New York accent but definitely east coast.”
“He was the only American?” Lincoln, I think his name was, clarified.
“Yeah. The others were local, they all spoke Tetum.”
There was a knock at the door, and after Zane shouted for the person to enter, the door opened and a man appeared with a deep scowl on his face.
“Check your tablet. I sent you more info on Monica.”
“Thanks, Garrett.”
“Tex called in. He thinks he identified the man who interrogated Anaya. I sent you that intel as well.”
The man backed out of the door and closed it behind him and the room was silent as Zane swiped his tablet and stared at the screen. His face a mask of concentration, the only indication he didn’t like what he was reading was the small tic in his cheek.
“Let’s get this shit over with,” he said.
A large flat screen TV mounted on the wall flickered to life. A second later an image filled the monitor and I flinched. Kyle’s arm came around me and he held me close. I wanted to tell him not to baby me in front of his team but I couldn’t inhale enough oxygen into my lungs to get the words out.
“He can’t ever hurt you again,” Kyle whispered.
“That him?” Zane clipped.
“Yes,” I answered.
“Yeah,” Kyle confirmed.
Thankfully the image disappeared but it was too late, I was shaking and my head was spinning.
“Anaya,” Emerson called softly. “Look at me.”
My gaze swung from the screen to her and she smiled.
“You’re safe here. No one’s going to hurt you again.”
I nodded because what else was there to do? The man who’d beat me up was dead. Logically I knew that. But the fear was still raw, the bruises on my face still fresh. I wanted to believe, but right then in that moment, I couldn’t. What if there were more of them? What if—
“Anaya,” Max snapped and my back shot straight.
I’d had enough of his attitude.
“No one will touch you again,” he vowed.
I didn’t get a chance to answer. The screen filled with a very pretty young girl. Glossy blonde hair and dead blue eyes.
“Monica Chandler,” Zane started. “Born Monica Tremblay. She’s twenty-three now. Monica disappeared from Ontario, Canada, when she was thirteen.”
I couldn’t pull my gaze from her eyes. The poor girl looked lost and defeated. She was smiling in the picture, perfect straight white teeth, flawless skin, but her eyes—dull and dead.
“What’s that on her wrist?” someone asked and Zane zoomed in on her hands.
A hint of a black tattoo peeked out on the side of her inner wrist.
“A QR code,” I answered.
“Come again?” the man asked. I really wished they had name tags on. I thought his name was Jaxon but I wasn’t sure.
“Welcome to the technological age of prostitution,” I told him. “I’ve seen it before. Pimps brand their stables with QR codes or regular bar codes. A john scans the code and pays with Bitcoin or any other type of cyber currency.”
“No shit?”
“No cash exchanges hands. If a girl is nabbed, the pimp doesn’t lose that night’s take. Also makes it difficult for the prostitutes to run away. They never have cash in hand.”
“Fuck me,” Zane growled. “If I have the man who has her scan the code Tex and Garrett can track the account.”
“No. If she’s gone from the stable the QR code will be a dead link,” I told him. “We’ve tried that when I was with NCMEC. We rescued one girl and tried to scan her code within the first hour we had her and the link had already been disabled.”
“You have a man sitting on a sex trafficking victim?” Emerson gasped. “Zane! She’ll be scared out of her head.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’re still eliminating her as an accomplice,” he shot back.
“No way. She’s a victim. Look at her eyes,” Emerson demanded.
“I agree.” I looked at Emerson then back to Zane. “You can fake a smile, but the eyes? They tell the story. She’s lost and defeated. She’s given up. And don’t mistake willing accomplice with being forced to do something against your will. Most prostitutes are sent out to recruit. And they do it because the alternative is so devastating, they don’t fight it. I’ve interviewed girls who’ve told me that recruiting is worse than the sexual assaults they experience every day. They’ve told me, that was when their soul died, when they had to lie and bring an innocent girl into the life knowing what was going to happen to her.”
“She’s not talking,” Zane stated. “You think you two could get her to turn?”
Before I could speak, Kyle and Thad simultaneously barked a very loud hell no.
Zane sat back in his chair and rubbed his palms over his face.
“Just once I’d like my team to think with their heads and not their dicks,” he muttered.
“My woman was kidnapped a few weeks ago and held in a goddamn shipping container,” Thad seethed. “You think she needs to be around a victim so all that shit can bubble back up?”
Kyle had told me one of his teammate’s wives had been kidnapped, but now seeing Emerson, I couldn’t believe it. She looked normal. At ease. Happy. How was that possible?
“Long story,” she mouthed. “Tell you later.”
She didn’t look all that upset about her abduction being talked about and I was envious of her strength.
“And mine was pulled off a boat forty-eight fucking hours ago,” Kyle barked. “No fucking way.”
Mine. Warmth spread over me at Kyle’s outburst. He was trying to protect me and damn if that didn’t feel good. But I still wanted t
o do it.
“I want to do it,” I told Kyle.
“Me, too,” Emerson added. “She’d not going to talk to a man. She needs someone who can relate to her. Anaya and I know the ins and outs of—”
“Emmy Baby, hate to bring this up, but the team has worked hundreds of trafficking cases. We’ve rescued enough women to know how to handle the girl.”
They had? I glanced at Kyle and he nodded his confirmation. There seemed to be a lot more about him than I thought, that I didn’t know.
“That may be true but she won’t speak to you. And just because you’ve rescued victims doesn’t mean you understand what it means to be a survivor. Anaya and I do. We are proof there’s hope. She needs to see that.” Emerson turned from Thad to face Zane. “I’ll do it.”
I glanced back at Kyle, his face a mask of pissed-off male. I slid my hand over his and laced our fingers together.
“I need to do this, Kyle. But I’m gonna need your help.” I squeezed his hand and some of the hardness subsided. “I admit I’m still scared, but if you stand by me, I can do it.”
His features softened and he reluctantly nodded.
“Thank you.” I couldn’t help the smile that pulled at my lips.
“Well, fuck me running,” Max muttered. “She has dimples. That explains a lot.”
Zane chuckled and looked over at him just in time for a broad, panty-melting smile to grace his face that took him from menacing to hot. Two deep indentations had formed.
“It’s always the dimples, brother,” he stated. “How do you think I hooked my wife?”
“Not with your fun-loving, chipper disposition, that’s for sure,” Lincoln mumbled. “God knows your attitude leaves a lot to be desired.”
I was enjoying the lighthearted turn the conversation had taken, when Jasmin cut in.
“If we’re done, I’m gonna go check on my boys. I left Asher and Robert upstairs with their aunts and we all know how much they love to feed my kids sugar. Before they start tearing apart Z’s office I need to go get them.”
What the what? Jasmin was a mom? I watched as the woman stood. She may’ve been my size but there was an air about her warning you that you didn’t want to be on her bad side.
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