Blood & Lace

by Trinity Scott

  “Try nineteen,” Gage corrected, sliding a manila folder across the desk.

  “Pardon?”

  “Nineteen girls linked in one way or another to Red Light Productions have disappeared over the past year and a half.” Gage waited, letting that sink in.

  Callahan thumbed through the file. “Christ Almighty.”

  “It’s one thing not to tell the sister, but to not tell me? A federal agent? What are you playing at, Frank? You just wanted to get all the glory? At what cost? Another dozen girls going missing while you sit on your ass?”

  Gage watched him leap angrily to his feet.

  “I haven’t been, I swear to you. I eat, sleep, and breathe this case. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want the Feds coming in and destroying what I’d worked so hard on. If Eden hadn’t gone missing, I would’ve had the bastard on multiple counts of trafficking.”

  “But she did.”

  Frank Callahan turned to him with pleading eyes. “I have focused every possible effort on finding out what happened to Eden Sterling. And Caroline Isla. Hand to God, I have. But if the boys in IAB find out I put a civilian in that situation and lost her, I’ll be retiring early because of it.”

  “Tell me what happened. In detail.”

  Callahan swallowed thickly and nodded. “She was getting strange vibes from some commenters on her online webcast. They were creeping her out. She’d had a guy attack her once at a signing for some modeling event. Worrying about him and the comments started to mess with her head. I told her to take a break. She was MIA for a week. When she came back she said she’d contacted her sister and wanted to tell her everything. Said the sister was real smart, some reporter type from Boston. Thought the visit would help. I told her to enjoy her visit and that we’d try the wire again after.” He shook his head. “Next thing I know, the sister is here saying Eden never showed. I swear on everything holy, that’s all I know.”

  “Eden never said who, specifically, was commenting and freaking her out? Or what they were saying?”

  “She said they were acting like they had some type of ownership over her. They were using viruses to infiltrate other users who contacted her and keep them away. By blocking or by making legitimate threats. We tried to track him, but the username kept changing and so did the IP address.”

  Which is why you should’ve called me in on this, dipshit.

  Gage pulled out his notebook. “What were they? Any of them, all of them.”

  Callahan leaned over his desk toward the computer and scrolled down the screen. He read off a series of seemingly random screen names and IP addresses that Gage planned to run by Alyson.

  She’d been combing the transcripts of Eden’s webcast commenters but the only one that had ever stood out was Brian.

  Because this person kept changing the username.

  “I’ll get you a copy of everything I have.”

  Gage huffed out a snort of disbelief. “Damn right you will. And I’m raiding Red Light tonight. I want all the guys you can spare. SWAT included.”

  “I can do that.” Callahan cleared his throat. “Are you going to report this? My not cooperating fully with your investigation?”

  Gage thought it over. “No. But I’m going to tell Chloe Sterling the truth. I’ll let her decide if she wants to or not.”

  “I’ll deserve it, if she does. For what it’s worth, I wasn’t trying to keep evidence from you. I was trying to keep a case I care deeply about from getting trampled on and exploited by people who would only see supermodels making smutty videos. I met Caroline when we were investigating Joey Lester. It was so much more than that. She was so much more than that.”

  Gage nodded. “I know. Believe me, I know.”

  Turning to leave, he had one last thing to say. Not a parting shot, just a warning.

  “If Eden Sterling isn’t found alive . . . part of that is on you, Detective. And if her sister comes after you with a wrongful-death suit, or sues the department for negligence, or if she kills you herself with her bare hands, that’ll be on you too.”

  Callahan nodded his understanding. “I know.”

  Even though Frank Callahan hadn’t cooperated, so far Ulrich was playing right into their hands.

  Alyson had been able to snag the keys from his desk, but none of the storage units registered to Red Light had contained a single incriminating thing. It was all just props and equipment. Techs were still combing through the footage and emails looking for evidence of the missing girls, but according to Alyson, Ulrich had wiped a lot of his data clean recently.

  Thankfully, he’d not only continued emailing his contacts about trafficking his actresses, but he’d also texted several potential buyers Alyson’s headshots.

  She’d left a short but sexy audition video on Ulrich’s computer that also contained a virus that extended to his phone and tablet, since it was conveniently all linked from his MacBook.

  Gage hadn’t seen the video and he didn’t care to. He didn’t like the thought of her compromising herself the way Chloe had, and he prayed neither of them would ever have to again.

  But tonight, she’d have to risk her life one last time.

  Ulrich had called Alyson.

  He had a buyer interested in a daddy-stepdaughter role-play fantasy video. She and Gage had seen the email come through that morning—right after Ulrich had uploaded her audition video into the buried section of his site called ‘Hostel.’

  “That’s a quarter of a million dollars. To make a video. What in the world is wrong with people? Damn. I am in the wrong business.” Alyson put her fingers to her mouth and bit her thumb nail. “This guy wants to pay that kind of money for me to call him daddy while he spanks me over his knee? What kind of sick—”

  “What did Ulrich say to you?” Elaina broke in.

  “That he had an ‘opportunity’ ” for me. That I could make ten to twenty thousand dollars if I was up for playing the part.”

  Holt snorted. “It’s like personalized porn. Sorry, buddy. You won’t be playing with any parts today, kid.”

  Gage nodded. “We just have to let the money exchange hands and have the guy proposition her. Then we’re going in.” He looked at Elaina. “The warrant covers everything not nailed down, right?”

  “It does,” she confirmed.

  He fired off a quick text to Chloe, letting her know they were about to go in. As much as he’d bitched about her interfering in the beginning, it now felt strange not having her in the fold during the thick of it all.

  He told her so in the text.

  She didn’t respond, and some jealous male part of him twisted into knots.

  She was too busy cozying up with Brian to respond to him. Brian was the one comforting her in a way that Gage couldn’t. Because Brian knew Eden.

  He shoved the irritating thoughts out of his head and focused on organizing the raid.

  After they’d designed the plan of attack on the warehouse, Alyson stepped out of the bathroom wearing pigtails and what looked like half of a punk-rock schoolgirl outfit.

  “No.” Holt folded his arms across his chest. “I can see your ass cheeks. Try again.”

  Alyson smirked. “Relax, old man. You’re not supposed to play my dad until we get there.”

  Shaking his head, Holt turned to Gage. “She wears that, every single one of those guys is coming out in a body bag.”

  A smile tugged at Elaina’s lips. Gage realized it was one of the first times he’d seen her look amused or entertained by anything or anyone.

  Holt was a protective guy. It was in his nature, so Gage knew he’d play the part well.

  “This is what fantasy dude wants,” Alyson argued, gesturing to her pleated miniskirt and knee-high socks. “We can’t afford for him not to follow through. This is how we nail them and how we find Chloe’s sister.”

  Gage hated it, but she was right. He tossed Holt a sympathetic glance. “I don’t like it any more than you do, but she’s got a point.”

  Holt gru
mbled under his breath but didn’t voice any more concerns. Elaina placed a hand on his arm and said something quietly that seemed to appease him.

  Gage glanced around. They were a motley crew—the misfit in her schoolgirl outfit, the rogue FBI agent, the jaded ex-military man, and the ever-patient doctor. It was either a well-rounded team or a plot for a comic book.

  Only time would tell.

  Alyson and Holt played runaway daughter and overprotective father so well it was easy to forget they were playing. Gage watched on the screens in the AV van with Elaina as Holt kicked the door in and carried Alyson out over his shoulder.

  He punched her “client” and Alexander Ulrich directly in the face first. Elaina had told him that was permitted earlier, and it had seemed to ease his concerns about letting Aly go into that situation. Even Gage winced when the blows made contact.

  It was enough of a distraction that Ulrich never saw the SWAT team surrounding his building until they were flooding the warehouse like ants at a picnic.

  “Here we go,” Gage called out before gesturing for Elaina to follow.

  When she didn’t move right away, he glanced back and saw a thoughtful expression on her face as she stared at the monitors.

  “You good?”

  She blinked and grinned, almost as if she were embarrassed. “Yeah. I’m good. Let’s do this.”

  30

  He’d instructed them to make arrests first and ask questions later. And to save Ulrich for him. He was grateful that they’d listened.

  He’d had the man in metal bracelets for two minutes, and already Gage wanted to shake the shit out of Alexander Ulrich. The prick had clammed up the moment he realized both Alyson and Holt were part of the FBI sting.

  When he did finally speak, he wouldn’t shut up about his high-priced lawyer.

  Gage shoved his cuffed figure forward and spoke only loud enough for him to hear. “You will tell me where she is, Ulrich. One way or another. When you go down for murdering Caroline Isla, I will visit you every day if I have to. And I’ll make sure my favorite, most violent friends in lockup visit you too.”

  The man had the audacity to laugh. Gage twisted his arms tighter behind his back as they passed the agents loading up the electronics and computer hardware. Elaina was somewhere among them, but he didn’t have time to look for her.

  “For the tenth time, I don’t have a clue where Eden Sterling is. Like I told you before, I didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Caroline. And my lawyer is going to think this is hilarious.”

  “Oh yeah?” Gage jerked him around to face him. “Do you think your lawyer will think the dozen counts of underage prostitution and unlawful solicitation are funny? Bet he’ll be giggling his ass off at how much you’re going to have to pay him to defend you when he sees the evidence of human trafficking on your hard drive.”

  Ulrich’s mouth slammed shut. Then opened. “You can’t prove I know anything about anything. What these girls do on their own time is—”

  “—Is bullshit, Ulrich. You profited from it. You sold them to the highest bidder like cattle. You’re a murderer and a scumbag and if it were up to me—”

  “I’m not a murderer, goddammit! Stop saying that.” The panic and outrage were evident on his face. Either he was a really good actor or it was genuine. “I’ve never murdered anyone. Or even hurt anyone physically. Did I coerce those girls into some unsavory situations? Yeah, okay. But I never murdered anyone, and I haven’t seen Eden since the day Brian told me she quit.”

  Gage froze for a moment. “Brian told you she quit? When?”

  Ulrich frowned. “Shit, I don’t know the exact day. She hadn’t been doing her webcasts and people were complaining. I left her some angry voice mails and told her I wasn’t paying her if she didn’t get online. Brian came in all tough-guy and told me never to contact either of them again. I told him she had a contract, but he told me to go fuck myself. I still haven’t found anyone to replace her. I was hoping your little girlfriend might be interested, but clearly she wasn’t.”

  Gage didn’t have time to register his annoyance at Ulrich’s mention of Chloe. Because something didn’t add up.

  “Ulrich, listen to me,” Gage said barely inches from his face.

  “Like I have a choice.”

  “I need some clarification. Now. Be a helpful scumbag and I might recommend some leniency.”

  “No, thanks.”

  “Want to know what’s funny?” Gage growled low in the other man’s face. “I don’t even have to bribe anyone to ruin your fucking life. A few strokes on a keyboard and I can make sure you get locked up with the biggest, baddest motherfucker currently in federal prison. Or, better yet, I can cause a computer glitch that puts you in solitary confinement all by your lonesome until they forget you even exist.”

  Ulrich’s eyes narrowed. “What do you want from me?”

  “I want to know what you know about Eden Sterling. And Caroline. And Adrianna Dunn. And I want to know it right the fuck now. Play any more games with me, Ulrich, and we’ll play a game called ‘how long can I keep you in prison on a technicality.’ Trust me when I say I’m very, very good at that game.”

  “I don’t even know where you want me to start. I told you everything I knew when you questioned me about Caroline.”

  “Try again,” Gage prompted. “Tell me why you think Adrianna left. Which photographer on your payroll freaked her out? And who was involved with Caroline’s webcasts besides you?”

  “It wasn’t a photographer. It was the videographer who recorded her audition. Brian. And same answer on Caroline’s webcasts, and he edited Eden’s too, for that matter.”

  Adrianna Dunn told Elaina a “guy with a camera” creeped her out. A cameraman, not Ulrich. Gage and Chloe had both been thinking of a photographer like Paulo when she said that. But she could’ve meant a videographer like Brian.

  Fuck.

  Gage’s entire world threatened to tilt sideways on him. “Brian as in Brian Wells? As in Eden Sterling’s boyfriend? Did he quit when Eden did?”

  Ulrich pulled a face that indicated he thought Gage was brain-dead. “Yeah. And he didn’t quit. I fired him. As far as being Eden’s boyfriend, I never took that seriously. He followed her around like a lost puppy, and she was too nice to tell him to go the hell away. He said they were together, but I never even saw her look at him twice. The day I fired him he told me if he was fired, Eden was as good as gone. I told him that was her decision and to have her come talk to me or at least call.”

  “Did she?”

  “Come talk to me? No, she didn’t. I filed the paperwork with my attorney to sue her for being in breach of her contract and moved on with my life.”

  “Why did you fire him?”

  Ulrich looked annoyed by the line of questioning. “He kept being late. Didn’t even show up one day. And like Adrianna mentioned, he creeped some of the girls out. I suspected he was the reason Eden wanted to start filming her own webcasts from home instead of in the studio. To get away from him.”

  “Did it strike you as odd that you hadn’t heard from or seen Eden? That she didn’t come in and turn in her resignation herself?”

  Ulrich rolled his eyes. “Not exactly that kind of business. We don’t always take résumés and resignations around here. The girls come audition, sometimes they get hired, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they dip out and that’s it. No forwarding address. We replace them and conduct business as usual. The show must go on and all that. But Eden was special, I’ll admit that. I wanted to talk her into staying. Or sue her into it. She didn’t want anyone to know she worked here, and I threatened to go public with her videos. But she never even responded.”

  “So Brian filmed the auditions for Adrianna, Caroline, and Eden? You’re positive?”

  Ulrich nodded. “Yeah. He was pretty good at his job. The guy I just hired isn’t as good but he doesn’t leer at the girls so—”

  “Leer at the girls how?” Gage waved Aly and Holt
over. They arrived just in time to catch Ulrich’s answer before he was shoved into a police car.

  “Staring. Interfering. I respected his artistic vision, but he got a little too into it. Posing the girls this way and that. Acting like it was important for the ‘integrity of the shot’ but really I think the BDSM stuff just got his dick hard. Another reason why I fired him.”

  BDSM stuff. Caroline Isla had bondage wounds all over her body. Marks from being bound and electrocuted.

  “But he seemed to know exactly what the viewers wanted, so I guess he was representative of our target audience.”

  Gage knew in that moment why Brian had been “Anonymous Guardian.” His story about protecting the girls was a load of shit. He was filming and watching. Stalking Eden from both sides of the camera.

  Gage turned to Holt, a sickening feeling threatening to consume him entirely. “Follow me to Brian’s house. He has Eden. And Chloe.”

  31

  Chloe woke up slowly. Her head hurt.

  She couldn’t remember going out drinking, but she had a hangover from hell. It wasn’t until she tried to sit up that she realized she was bound to the bed.

  “The fuck?” Her vision cleared and she saw black lace ties restraining her to the bed. They matched the black lace bra and panties she wore but had no recollection of putting on or even owning.

  Candles flickered in the distance, but the room was otherwise dark. It was damp and cold like a basement. No windows. No natural light.

  She wanted to scream, but some unrecognized instinct told her not to.

  Or fear had paralyzed her lungs, she wasn’t sure.

  Breathing alone took some serious effort.

  Gage and his team had been right. There was a serial killer on the loose. He’d probably killed Eden and now she was next. Thinking that her sister no longer existed in the world was almost enough to extinguish her will to live.