by Sam Crescent
Mandy was happy to use everything those bastards had taught her against them.
“This is what they took from you. Every time you do a spelling assignment, or read a paragraph, think about what they wouldn’t let you do.” John smiled. “Think of it as a way of giving the finger to those assholes. You’re alive, Mandy. You’re living, and they didn’t want that for you. Think about that, every time you look at a textbook and wonder what the hell you’re doing it for.” He patted her hand. “You’re doing it for all those women who couldn’t.”
“You’re going to make her cry with that little speech. I happen to need some woman advice,” Jamie said, spinning a chair around and straddling it. “So, there’s this woman that I like.”
“O-kay.”
“She’s got a kid, and she works for one of my—”
“Stay away from Cameron.”
Jamie glared. “You know I’m a very nice guy.”
“She’s been through a lot, Jamie. You’re a nice guy, I know that. You’re also a good-time guy, and she doesn’t want her heart broken.”
No woman wanted their heart broken. The thing was, each of these billionaires was broken in some way. What they didn’t seem to understand was that they could break a woman’s heart just as easily.
Chapter Three
“Everything seems so quiet,” Lewis said, typing away at the computer. He worked his way through the security. Some of the men they had eyes on, ones with past association with traffickers or known to have purchased girls, had been spotted near sales sites.
The club was keeping a close eye on those targets for any signs of another auction. There had been no recent reports of missing girls. Usually they followed that trail, which always led them to an auction, and to the fuckers responsible for taking the girls and making a shitload of money off them. Mandy had showed them how to access the darker market, and how to find them on the internet. She’d seen how they’d set it up from the start. Lewis didn’t even want to think about the time she’d spent with those bastards. Everything wasn’t always clean and simple by her telling them some secret formula. Traffickers moved around, and Mandy was able to point out exactly where they were hiding, or where they were storing girls.
“Maybe we’re finally getting through to them,” Russ said.
“Or they know,” Blake said.
Lewis turned around to look at a couple of the brothers. “What do you mean they know?”
“We have interrupted every single shipment of women for the past couple of years. If it’s not us, then we get the cops to handle it. Don’t you think that’s going to look a little suspicious to some of them? We know we don’t get all of them. It’s next to impossible to do.”
Lewis sat back and stared at his brothers. They were not related by blood, but he’d trust them more than his own family. The family he’d turned his back on when they had turned on him.
“They could be trying to hunt for us,” Lewis said.
“Or, they may know that we have someone of value to them,” Blake said, and pointed to the computer screen of the main room, which showed Mandy with John and Jamie. “Let’s face it, she’s been the one helping us find them. This silence could be them hunting for her.”
“They think she’s dead,” Lewis said. Fear gripped him in a way he’d never known before. It made total sense.
“It doesn’t take a lot to find out that she’s not, Lewis. You and I both know that. As much as I hate to say this, I think if a bunch of girls suddenly go missing, we need to let them,” Blake said.
Lewis saw that the idea didn’t appeal to any of them.
“All this quiet, and if they start taking girls, I believe it’ll be a trap.” Blake had great instincts. Those same instincts had saved them a time or two in recent years.
Lewis ran a hand down his face, feeling exhausted. “I’ve got a guard on her. What else do you want me to do?”
Russ and Blake looked at each other. “We think it could be best if you take her to your island. Give it a couple of weeks, rest, relax. You can work from there, and then when a little time has passed, we think of a way to handle this that doesn’t cause too much finger-pointing.”
“You want me to take a break? A vacation when we’re just speculating about what’s going on? Maybe we got them all.”
“And maybe pigs might fly someday, Lewis. We’ve been doing this too long for it to be a coincidence. You and I both know that,” Russ said. “Something is going on. Something big. What if they’ve thought about Mandy? What if she’s well-known to a lot of people?”
Lewis gritted his teeth.
“They’re right,” Mandy said, pulling their gazes to her. “You’re not getting anything. It’s like radio silence?”
Blake spoke first. “There’s not even a single missing girl.”
She nodded and moved closer. Her hand was on the table, resting as she looked over the multiple computer screens.
Lewis saw her thinking.
“Their business was always supply and demand. Not just for the auctions but for their brothels, and women on the streets. This is a worldwide network. Not just stationed in one city. You’ve interrupted them, and saved so many girls.”
“You couldn’t have expected us to let them go. Not with the information we have,” Lewis said.
Tears filled her eyes. “But maybe we should have. Allowed them to get a little further along in the selling process, then intervened.”
“You were part of it,” Blake said. “You were known, right?”
The tears started to fall. She didn’t sob, and Lewis watched as she wiped those tears away. “Yes. It’s how I know so much. I was part of it all. I was their success story. They would show me off to the girls as if I was some queen.”
He saw the pain in her eyes, and knew this was Mandy’s guilt all over again.
“None of us blame you,” Lewis said.
“You were trying to survive,” Blake said.
She wiped more tears as they fell. “It doesn’t matter now. If they figure out that you’ve got someone who knows everything about them, it’s only a matter of time before they figure it out. I always hoped I’d get away. When I saw your picture and your details, I knew this was my chance to save them.”
“You risked your life, Mandy,” Russ said.
Mandy took a deep breath. “What do you need from me?”
“They want us to go away to my private island. To take some time away. Let all of this die down.”
“I’m thinking the club could be quiet as well,” Blake said. “Like we’ve quit and gone our separate ways.”
“But we stay in touch. We keep up to date on everything. It just appears that we’re no more.”
They had known some of the traffickers were onto them.
What if they shared information with each other, just like the club did? It wouldn’t take anyone long to figure out what was going on, that the club was indeed a club.
Lewis rubbed his temples. “We can’t give up on them.”
“We won’t. This is what we do, Lewis. We can’t do it if they find out about Mandy, or worse, if they take her.”
He saw her tense up. Reaching out, he took her hand. “I’d never let that happen.”
“You can’t watch me twenty-four-seven, Lewis. I think Blake’s idea is right. We need to take a little break for now. This isn’t going to go anywhere. You’ve got to think of the club, and the safety of the future girls you’ll save.” She squeezed his hand. “You can do this.”
She wouldn’t let him give up.
He loved her more than anything else in the world, and would gladly do whatever she said.
“I’ll leave you to talk.” She gave his hand a final squeeze, and then left.
Lewis watched her go out into the main clubhouse.
“What do the other guys think?” he asked.
“We’ve all talked about it, Lewis. It’s for the best.”
He wasn’t pissed that they’d had church without him. Over
the years whenever someone had been busy, they’d always updated each other. They didn’t work like other MCs.
“I guess I better get everything together and organize some vacation time.” He wouldn’t not work. The bonus in running his own corporation was the fact he could do it from anywhere in the world.
All he needed was a computer and a cell phone, and he was all set.
Glancing back at the screen, he turned them all off, ceasing his control. He had to step back. It was taking over his entire life, and that wasn’t going to do. Not for him.
After the conversation with his father, the past few years, and life in general, as much as he hated to admit it, he needed the break. Each time he slept, he woke up because all he could see was the bodies of the girls he couldn’t save. Russ’s old lady, Anna, had lost her best friend to them.
He wouldn’t ever forget that image of them finding Karen’s body. They had both been so young.
Standing up, he shook Russ’s and Blake’s hands. Heading out to the main clubhouse, he shook each of the guys’ hands, and then held onto Mandy as they made their way back down to the car.
“You’re feeling guilty?” she asked.
“Yeah. It’s been a long road to get here. It’s going to take some getting used to having to take a step back.”
For the sake of future girls, and for Mandy’s safety, he had to stop hunting.
Those that he hunted knew he was on their tail. Blake’s instincts and his own had never failed him. He wasn’t going to ignore that.
Let the bastards think they were gone.
Lewis intended to smash them into the ground until there was nothing left.
****
Mandy glanced down at the piece of paper and then looked up at the house that her parents had moved to. This was not the house she remembered, nor did it even resemble the place that she had once called home.
It was a plain white house, and it looked exactly the same as every single place on the street. Nothing stood out about it, and she didn’t much care for it either. There was no character, nothing.
Just a house.
Licking her lips, she looked back at the car. Her bodyguard leaned against the car. He was waiting for her to take the next step, or to jump back in for him to drive away.
Lewis was packing their things and getting his home on his island ready for a visit. She liked the thought of being alone with him, of having the rest of the world away from them. The professor she studied with was great, very patient with her, but at times she felt overwhelmed.
Everyone expected so much of her, and she couldn’t give it to them. Her world hadn’t been about education for so long, and certainly not learning about mundane bullshit.
Her teacher always told her it was simple, easy, and she should get it.
She didn’t give a shit what happened in World War One or Two, or that there had been a Cold War. He didn’t understand, nor would she tell him that she’d stood and watched as a teenage girl got beaten to death for trying to escape. Or that she herself was starved because she had caused a scene in a public place.
The violence had been part of her world, and all she’d known was surviving from one day to the next. She didn’t know if she’d be alive the next day. Or if her captors would be displeased, or a guy would complain about her lack of enthusiasm. She had seen so much in her life, and because of it the small shit didn’t bother her.
He was the best damn teacher according to Lewis, but she didn’t care if he was the worst. The only reason she kept on going was because education in this world meant she got a job. A job gave her independence, and she wouldn’t have to rely on Lewis. She never wanted him to think she was using him.
She wanted to stand on her own two feet.
Lewis had wanted her to go to a therapist. She had sat in a chair and stared at the man, then told him bluntly what had happened.
The therapist had cried his eyes out, and she hadn’t returned.
The female therapist wasn’t much better.
Talking about stuff didn’t help Mandy.
Therapy was out of the question.
All she wanted to do was to try to make a go of a life she’d never known was possible to her. Her freedom had come to her when she thought it wouldn’t happen.
Sometimes she wondered if it would have been easier to have died from that final beating.
She’d prayed for death, to finally feel peace.
It hadn’t been granted. Waking up in the hospital, she’d been terrified. Seeing Lewis had grounded her.
Throughout it all, he’d been the one to give her hope in a sea full of darkness and despair. Seeing him, knowing what he did, she’d made the decision to turn every single piece of information they’d given her against them. She wanted to bring them down.
And Mandy was determined to do it.
First, she needed to deal with the people behind that door.
“You don’t have to do this,” her guard said.
She did.
Lewis had done so much for her. He’d become a billionaire just to protect her. The least she could do was handle her parents.
“I’ll be back in a second. I know Lewis asks you to keep an eye on me, but I need to do this alone.”
“He’ll have my ass for this, Mandy.”
“I’ll deal with him. I promise. I need to do this.” She smiled at him, and then stepped up to the house. Her hands were all sweaty, and she was nervous.
Knocking on the door, she stood and waited.
I can do this.
Seconds passed, and finally the door opened.
She stared at her mother for the first time since she was ten years old. The years had blended together. Age didn’t matter to her.
Her mother had aged well. There were a few traces of white in her blonde hair.
Mandy had dyed her hair as she didn’t want to remember the color. It was the simple things she wanted to change.
“Hello, Mom,” she said.
“Mandy? Oh, Mandy.”
When her mother went to hug her, Mandy couldn’t handle that, so she took a step back. She knew she hurt her mother, but she couldn’t help it. This was not really a social call. Right now, she didn’t want to hug her parents.
“Ryan, come here,” her mother said.
Seconds later, she saw her dad. The smile on his face didn’t make her feel anything.
“Come in, come in,” they said.
Mandy hesitated but finally succumbed, stepping over the threshold of their new home. They didn’t feel like her family. There was no familiarity with them. Just … a sadness.
When her father went to hug her, she took a step back. “I don’t hug.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Of course.”
It was awkward.
She didn’t know what to do, so she stood waiting, wondering if she’d made a big mistake. Lewis hadn’t pressured her to come, but she’d wanted to get this out of the way and figure out what she wanted to do.
They were her parents, but she didn’t feel like they were.
“Let’s go sit down.”
Nodding her head, she followed them into the sitting room. The place was covered in photographs.
Mandy kept her jacket on, and saw that there wasn’t a single image of her.
For ten years she’d been with them. They were her birth parents, and she’d been taken against her will, but now there was nothing here.
“I’ll go and make some tea,” her mother said.
She saw her brother and who she guessed was her little sister.
Still, nothing of her.
Like she’d been wiped out of existence.
“It’s so good to have you here,” he said.
Looking at her father, she wondered why, so she asked.
“I don’t understand. You’re our daughter, Mandy.”
She stared at him again. Didn’t he see the truth right in front of him?
“I came to tell you to stop pressuring Lewis. What you’re doi
ng is not fair to him.”
“He’s keeping you from us.”
She shook her head. “No, he’s not. I’m the one deciding what I want.”
“You’re in no position to make that judgment.”
Mandy snorted. “And you think you are.”
“I’m your father.”
“You stopped looking! You gave up. Moved away and stopped looking. You had another little girl to replace me.”
“You were never replaced.”
“There’s not a single picture of me,” she said. Her anger, her rage of years gone by, built to a fever pitch inside her.
“It hurt to see you.” Her mother walked into the room, putting a tray of cups filled with tea.
Mandy clenched her hands into fists. She felt sick with how annoyed they were making her.
“We asked Lewis if we could see you, honey,” her mother said, perching on the arm of Ryan’s chair. “He wouldn’t let us. We just wanted to see you.”
“I begged him not to. I didn’t want to see you. I wanted nothing to do with you.” Her words caused them pain, she could see. “They told me you gave up on me. That you’d moved on. The men that took me. made sure that I knew how easy it was for you. You say looking at my picture hurt. You don’t have any idea what true pain or hurt feels like. I was alive! I was begging for you to find me. You don’t know what it was like. What it was like to be held down, to be trained for what I had to do. You think I want to sit here, drinking tea? I’m struggling to even look at you without remembering what those monsters did to me. How they used your life against me. I was forgotten. You were my own parents, and you forgot me. Instead, an eighteen-year-old boy didn’t give up. He never gave up on me when you did.”
“Mandy—”
“I’m not ready for this. I only came today to ask you to leave him alone. He’s done everything to protect me. Don’t make this hard for him. I’m a grown woman. I’ve seen things that would disgust you. Don’t make this about yourselves.” With that, she stood up, and without looking back, went to the waiting car. Climbing inside, she closed her eyes and took some very deep breaths. She’d done it.
She had seen them.
Mandy didn’t feel happy or sad. She felt … gutted.
They hadn’t made it easy for her, not once. The family they had together, she was no longer part of.