“Thanks. You two kids have fun,” I said as I left to collect Agatha and prepare to leave. I said a little prayer for Isabella’s patience and hoped Cabe didn’t screw this up with her.
The ride over to Safe Haven was uneventful. Except meeting Lucas and him calling me ‘Chica’, which I came to realize was a form of endearment from the big black-haired guy, without being overtly affectionate. I thought he was sweet in a dark moody bad boy kind of way. The girls at Safe Haven were going to lose their shit when they got a look at him. Tall and built with short black hair, dark green eyes surrounded by short thick black lashes, full lips, and a well-kept goatee. His skin tone was on the paler side making him look like a modern-day villain.
Oh yeah. The girls were going to lose their shit.
Chapter 9
Not Another One
T he old Victorian house I’d purchased was downtown smack in the middle of the city of Stockton. Yes, that same city all the bad guys lived in and operated their reign of terror.
We’d wanted our residents to have access to all the amenities the city could provide: counseling, medical care, education, anything they needed. The city had all of the troubles of a large metropolitan, but also came with access to all of the necessities the girls would hopefully come to rely on. The county and city government buildings were located there as well, and since many of the girls were under some type of court order, this location was ideal.
I also wanted to have them close to Harmony Grove. That way Cabe, his men, and now I would have easy access to the house.
When I bought the place five years ago, Frank, Francesca, and their construction crew did an amazing job rehabbing the house and bringing the antiquated home up to code compliance. My two friends had also taken on the job of keeping the home maintained and donated all of their time. With Frank in hospice care, I needed to check on Francesca and see who would be in charge of this now.
Safe Haven was a rather large three-story Victorian house. It was white, with light blue trim. We’d managed to keep all of the beautiful Victorian assets and attributes, the gingerbread trim, the beautiful landscaping; we had large overgrown hyacinth bushes around the perimeter of the home and the secure decorative wrought iron fence and gate.
Arbors and white iron bistro sets scattered the overgrown gardens, with beautiful lavender flowers and climbing flowering vines. The girls had a vegetable and flower cutting garden in the back that they took care of.
A swimming pool and an outdoor kitchen had been installed, and most nights you’d find the girls outback making dinner and swimming.
There was a huge reclaimed wood table that sat at least twenty and encouraged the girls to eat family style. For some of them, this would be the first time in their lives.
All of the girls were encouraged to learn to cook. Most often when they came to us, they didn’t know basic kitchen skills. One of our main missions, regardless of how long we had them, was to make sure they had basic skills to survive on their own.
This was a gift the last foster mother I had gave to me. She was the best foster parent I’d had by far, and she taught me all I needed to know to get by in the world before she passed away. I think she would have been so very happy to see what I’d done with the skills she gifted to me.
Lucas parked us on the street and as we approached the locked gate, Susan walked down the sidewalk towards us in a hurry. Her face gave nothing away because she was always calm; the only thing that made me stand up a little taller and brace for whatever she was going to lay on us was how quickly her long strides brought her to us. Lucas saw it too, I felt him brace as well.
Susan ran a tight ship; nothing got past her. But she loved each and every one of the girls we welcomed into Safe Haven and did her best to equip them with as much as she could before their time with us was up. Whether it was from their choice, court ordered jail time or them leaving for college, she made sure they knew the necessities of living a real-life, a normal life. Whatever that was going to be for them moving forward.
“Girl get your butt in here.” She said as she unlocked the door and pulled me in. Lucas followed close behind as Susan slammed the door shut and locked it.
“What’s going on Susan?” This was such unusual behavior for my cool as a cucumber Susan, I knew whatever it was, it was huge.
“Girl…” She began as Lucas’ phone started ringing, and he turned his back to us to answer it walking briskly towards the house.
“We lost another one Sydney.”
“What?”
“I just heard over the scanner they’ve recovered another body. They think she’s the youngest they’ve found yet.”
“What?” I couldn’t believe it, the last one they found wasn’t more than eleven.
My phone started ringing, looking at the screen I saw Roman was calling. I denied the call and looked back at Susan who had tears running down her face.
“How many does this make Susan?” I asked.
“Too many Sydney. Too damn many!”
Lucas dropped his phone from his ear and approached us saying, “Susan, you have any African American residents currently?”
We both went still and Susan said, “Yes, four. Two of them are very young.”
“I am going to need a count, description and location of them. Also, it would be best if we could get them assigned security when they leave Safe Haven.” Lucas was quickly becoming one of my favorite people .
“Okay, that will work for all of them but Sara. That girl has been through more than most can imagine. She is terrified of men. But especially white men,” Susan looked pointedly at Lucas.
He didn’t seem bothered by this info. “No problem, does it need to be a brother we send over for her or can it be any nonwhite ethnicity?” So professional, his bad boy villainous appearance didn’t match his calm collected demeanor.
“That’s a great question, one I don’t have an answer for.”
I was just about to tell Lucas I was in love with him when both our phones started ringing again at the same time. Looking down I saw it was Roman. I denied the call again and looked back up to see Lucas walking towards the front door of the house with his phone to his ear.
“Susan, let’s go inside,” linking my arm with hers and moving us through the front door.
Even with my heart racing from this last news, I couldn’t believe how great the house looked when we entered. How full and active it was. TV’s and games going in different rooms of the house. Girls in the library studying. Girls in the kitchen, girls in the bathroom getting ready for classes and work. The house was full of girls, and if you didn’t know why they were there, you’d be fooled into thinking this was a home full of healthy happy college students.
The home had one large area Frank’s guys had converted to a safe room with thicker than normal fire-rated walls and a steel security door, in case the girls needed to get to a safe and secure location. Safe Haven did occasionally have problems with the human trafficking predators showing up at the house to try and retrieve or scare the girls who might testify against them. Cabe had installed effective security, and I knew that his team took care of all the security needs.
“Let’s go into my office and see if there is any news,” Susan had several scanners she monitored for several reasons. She wanted to know if there was a bust or raid that included the recovery of girls who had been trafficked, but also so she could hear if our girls were ever in trouble.
As we headed towards Susan’s office, located off the large kitchen, I was hit in the side and strong arms wrapped around my shoulders.
“Sydney you’re here!” Sophie was the youngest original resident from the busts six years ago and was one of the victims of the Russian Mob trafficking ring. She was twelve when she came to stay with us, and was graduating in a few weeks. We set it up so that she would leave right after high school graduation to go off to college. She had an internship in Chicago where she was heading before going on to college at University of St. Franci
s which was located in Illinois.
Sophie made a few more unrecognizable squealing sounds mixed in with a few words, squeezed me a little tighter and then suddenly let go of me, as Lucas approached.
“Whoa,” She said looking at Lucas.
This was to be expected, but also a little heartbreaking.
The first time seeing my little nugget in person, and she completely forgot about me in the presence of a hot guy.
Placing an arm around Sophie’s shoulders, I said, “Sophie this is Lucas. Lucas, Sophie.”
Lucas not being anything on the inside like he looked on the outside; said back to Sophie, “Hey little Chica ,” so softly even I swooned.
Sophie stared up at Lucas with flushed cheeks.
I tried to ease the tension a little, “Sophie, Lucas is going to be in and out of here for the next day or so. Do you think you could help him out by making sure all of the girls know he will be here?”
Sophie was no longer the youngest resident at Safe Haven, and hadn’t been for some time. But she’d lived here longer than any of the other girls, and was always ready to lend a hand with them. She and I face-timed at least two times a week. I didn’t have a close relationship with some of the newer girls but if they stayed for any length of time at all, I tried to get to know them, so they knew they could reach out to me anytime they wanted.
“Sure,” she breathed, not taking her eyes off Lucas. And then to make matter worse, he gifted her with a genuine, eye crinkling smile you knew he really meant.
Oh, Lord Almighty!
Poor Sophie, her whole body did this kinda slump thing and she let out a big sigh.
“Alright, we need to listen to the scanner. You need to alert the residents, Sophie.” I said moving away from her towards the office. “Lucas, try not to make all of the girls fall in love with you before we leave.”
Ignoring my remark, he said, “I’ve got three men checking in. We need to assign their charges to them as soon as they arrive,”
I nodded in agreement.
Lucas said, with a dark look on his face, “I need a list of all the residents, their ages and schedules. We’ll secure all the residents but based on the victims recovered so far, we really need to focus on the four you identified as most at risk.”
“Sara really isn’t going to like having a man around. I’m going to have to talk to her first,” Susan said.
Nodding at Susan as she left the room to find Sara I said, “Let’s see what else we can get from the scanners.”
When we couldn’t get anything more from the scanners, I busied myself visiting with the residents and getting to know them.
Spending time with the girls at Safe Haven and talking to Susan and seeing what glorious transformations these beautiful girls were making, I knew I made the right choice and this is where I needed to be. Now was the time to get my sisters of the Women of Wine Country tribe involved. With those strong women guiding these girls there was no possible way these girls couldn’t come out ahead. I also knew that this was something that my tribe would be able to really sink their teeth into. I decided right then and there, during my visit to Save Haven and talking with Susan, I was going to set up a mentoring program with my tribe.
Why wait? I fished my phone out of my handbag and found Becca’s contact, touched it placing the phone to my ear.
I planned to go hard at Becca because she did the animal rescue thing, and one of her main focus was breaking up dogfighting rings and rescuing animals that were suffering the most.
“Hey, sister!” Becca yelled into the phone. I could hear she had something she was working on.
“Hey back. Whatcha doin’?” I asked.
“Washing out kennels. What about you?”
“I am at a very special place and it’s time I share it with my girls. But especially you.”
“Me? Why me?”
“Because you have gifts my friend, gifts that can help change some very deserving young lives.”
She had dogs, cats, horses, goats, chicken and I think some type of llama. Getting those girls on to her ranch and involved in caring for and rescuing animals that were so much worse off than they were, was going to be a game changer for these girls.
“Whatever you have in mind count me in.”
“Without me even telling you what it’s about?”
“I trust you Sydney. Besides, if it’s something sideways, I want in on it too. You always did bogart all the exciting adventure.”
I barked out a laugh and replied, “Not on purpose!”
“Darlin’ whatever you need, I’m in. Can’t say it any plainer.”
“Thank you Bec’s. This means a lot to me.”
“Shit, don’t you go and turn soft on me. You’re the only other hard ass in our tribe. Now, these kennels aren’t going to clean themselves. So unless you’re coming over to help me clean up this shit and piss, I gotta go.” And she was gone.
I was so happy to be home. I had lost so much of my life, and I forgot how much I loved these crazy gals.
After Susan counseled Sara on her new security detail, I shared my idea about using my tribe of amazing women and setting up a mentoring program. “What do you think?” I asked.
“I think it’s perfect; we may want to tap into some of the local government officials too. Now that our old Deputy DA is retired…”
“What!? Maria isn’t heading up the Human Trafficking division any longer?”
“No.”
“Who is in charge now?”
“Deputy DA Dan Jones and he is not the same as Maria Vasquez, let me tell you, and not in a good way either. I’ve been trying to get a meeting with that man since he took office and he refuses to ‘make time’ to see me.”
I’d opened my mouth to respond to Susan when my phone started up again and I saw it was Roman. “Oh crap! I forgot to call him back. Just a sec Susan.” I walked a few feet away for privacy and said, “Hello.”
“Angel,” he breathed.
Shoot, Tall Dark and Handsome was worried.
“Roman, I’m so sorry. We got to Safe Haven, received disturbing news and I got distracted and forgot to call you back.”
“We?”
“Lucas and I. One of Cabe’s men.”
“I know who Lucas is. Is he there with you now?”
“He’s here at the house, but not standing by me.”
“Please don’t leave without Lucas, or let him leave you there alone.”
“What is going on with you and Cabe and all the security? Is there something I should know?”
Ignoring my question, Roman went on to say, “I’ve increased patrols around Safe Haven, but I can’t have men there all the time. I want you to have Cabe station men there. We need to talk tonight.”
Finally! Someone was going to let me in on the danger and why they were so security conscious!
“Thank you Roman. We actually have security coming now.”
“Good.” He sounded relieved.
“Hey, do you know the new Deputy DA for the human trafficking division?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Do you think you could get Susan and I a quick meeting with him?”
“You need me to do that for you?”
“Yes, it seems he won’t make time for Susan. She’s tried numerous times and she’s been denied time and again.”
“That guy is a jackass.” My stomach dropped.
“You don’t like him?”
“I don’t know him well, but what I do know of him hasn’t impressed me any. I’ll text you with the time and date. Don’t worry, I’ll get you in.”
My tummy fluttered like I was fifteen.
“Thank you again, Roman.”
“Anything for you, Angel.”
Stupid tummy flutters.
“Okay-well, this is my first day here, so I’m going to get back with the girls, I’ll see you tonight, yeah?”
“Yeah.” And he hung up.
The next few days went very much like that
first. Work in the morning at the estate. Sexy kissing with Roman before he left for his day. Work at Safe Haven in the afternoon and then I’d meet up with Justine and we’d go check out properties. On a few occasions, Sophie would accompany me to view the properties and give her two-cents.
It was such a blessing I was getting this time with her before she left. She was sweet and funny, and so full of positive energy, you just felt better after spending time with her. I completely understood why the other girls looked up to her and why she had been such an amazing asset in recruiting and ultimately rescuing other victims who were so much like she had been.
In the evenings I headed back to Bellini Estate to check on Isabella. She’d run into some misfortune, but Cabe seemed to have everything under control and I trusted him, so I gave them space. She had the best security money could buy and Cabe knew the winery like the back of his hand.
I made arrangements to rent out the homes I’d purchased in Spain, France, and Italy. Chances were I probably wouldn’t ever live in them again, but it would be nice to have them available if I wanted to visit. I hired a management team for each of the countries the homes resided in, and set them up as vacation rentals. Since they were all located in their respective country’s wine regions, I felt confident it would be a profitable little venture.
Roman stayed with me at Bellini Estates in a bedroom next to mine. The beautifully appointed rooms were located on the second story and shared a balcony with common bistro set. We enjoyed our morning coffee together on the patio before he was off to the station. If he was called out on emergencies, which happened often, he made sure to check in with me, and I was under strict orders to let him know if I was leaving the estate.
Meanwhile, I also did a little digging and visiting people who had been crucial helping with the trial and investigations, in an attempt to re-establish a few old contacts.
True to his word, Roman made an appointment for Susan and I to meet the new Deputy District Attorney heading up the Human Trafficking division. Apparently, he was new to the area and had just moved here right before I returned home.
Lawyer & Liar Page 8