by Snow, Olivia
With Christian, everything happened without warning. It was almost like drinking water from a fire hydrant. Too much too soon, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Being with him was freeing. Maybe that was why I wasn’t as upset about losing my bike as I would have been if Christian hadn’t been in my life. He was an extra pair of lungs for me, so I didn’t need anything but him.
My gaze wandered from the back of the seat in front of me to the small window to the side of me. I watched the sheer clouds pass by. Before the plane took off, I texted Jade to let her know I was okay and would check in with her later. Don had sent me a message, a picture of a shamrock. He was wishing me good luck. Another message let me know Connor would pick me up at the airport.
Suddenly afraid, I thought of what he would want to do when we were alone. I wasn’t sure I could train my body not to recoil if he tried to touch me, let alone kiss me. The thought made me feel like insects were scurrying all over my body.
Hours later, the plane landed in Logan International Airport. I clenched my purse against my stomach, pumping myself up. You have to do this, Billie. You have to put him away. I hammered that into my head until I felt fingers wrap around my shoulder. I jerked up see Agent Vaughn looking down at me.
“Breathe. You can do this,” he whispered. “You’re the infamous Billie McAllister, daughter of Don McAllister. You got this.”
I gave him a curt nod before standing and setting my shoulders back. He let me walk in front of him, letting others fill some space between us. Entering the airport was a blur, an event in my life I wanted to remember very little of. Connor stood right outside the gates with bright gray eyes and a sinister smile. I wanted to vomit.
“Come here.” He pulled me to him once I was close enough. My first instinct was to pull back but I kept those strong feelings down and let him take me into his arms and kiss me.
“You smell like him,” Connor said against my ear. “But, no worries, I’ll make sure to scrub that off of you regardless of how hot the water has to be.”
God, I couldn’t do this. How the hell was I going to do this?
“Come, we have a lot to do today before we spend some time together.” Connor led me out of the airport, into a black SUV that was waiting for us. He opened the door for me, then sat inside before closing the door behind him.
Not even a second later, he was all over me. His mouth was on mine as he squeezed and tugged at my body. I wanted to scream, cry out for him to stop. The only thing I could do was try to envision it was Christian touching me and not Connor. This torture couldn’t end fast enough and when we arrived at the hotel I almost jumped out the window in relief.
Connor planted one more peck on my lips before he pushed the door open and got out. With my hand in his, we walked straight to the elevator and up to the fifth floor. There, we entered a room with four men that included my brothers. Donnie stood behind one of the men as he typed away on a black terminal. The other sat on the queen bed loading ammunition into guns. Lincoln was off to the corner watching everyone work. Donnie gave me a look of disgust while Lincoln’s jaw clenched.
“Why is she here?” Lincoln asked.
“Because I say she can be. The whole crew is back. Now we can really start to take over Don’s business.”
“You could have at least let me know, Connor.”
He let go of my hand and stepped in front of my brother. “Lincoln, let me remind you that you’re only here out of courtesy to your brother and my future bride. The second you become a liability to me, I’ll throw you away.”
When Lincoln looked away, Connor backhanded him. God, this was worse than I thought.
“You got that?” he said.
Linc slowly swallowed before nodding. “I got it.”
“Good. Now I need her checked for bugs.”
I scoffed, feigning that I was insulted. “Is that really necessary, Connor? When have I ever betrayed any of you?”
Donnie smirked while he walked slowly in my direction, holding a device which detected frequencies emitted by listening devices and phone taps. It was a good thing Agent Vaughan and Gilmore had listened to me when I said they would be checking.
“Well, what did you expect, little sister? With you rolling around with that dirty wetback, it’s expected you’d get some dirt on you as well.”
It took all of my strength not to reach over and grab one of those guns and shoot my brother in the foot. But I had to play the part. I stepped up to him, our toes touching.
“I’m not dirty, Donnie, and that’s the last time you speak to me that way.” I smiled, moving back to Connor’s side. I reached up and tugged on his long blond hair, bringing him in for a deep kiss. “I’m the new boss lady around here. Isn’t that right, baby?” I spoke against Connor’s lips, not breaking eye contact with him. He made a groan of approval. The kiss was intended to make him believe me. And judging from his reaction, it worked.
“That’s right, love.” He kissed me again. “All right, boys, start packing up, we’re headed out.” Connor grabbed my hand and bag, then led me across the hall into another room. “This is ours,” he said while throwing my bag on the bed. I quickly looked around, taking in the exits, doors, and windows. Just then, there was a knock on the door. Connor snapped his fingers silently, telling me to move away from the door. I did as I was told.
There was another knock followed by a voice that called out, “Housekeeping.”
I saw Connor’s relief from the way his shoulders slumped a little. When he opened the door, an older Hispanic woman handed him some towels and an extra robe. “For extra guest.” She smiled when I appeared from behind Connor.
“Oh, good,” he replied, moving away to place the items on the bed while I kept the door open. When Connor turned his back, the lady signaled for me to follow her.
“Oh, no, I forget your shampoo and lotion,” she said. “Come, I give you some.” She pulled me into the hallway with the room door propped open. Her supply cart was close, and I knew Connor was looking at every move we made from the burning sensation on the back of my neck. The housekeeper reached in her cart and grabbed three small bottles. Once she placed them in my hands, I felt a small piece of metal against my skin. Quickly, I glanced up at her. She didn’t smile, didn’t nod, but in her eyes was a look of understanding. She was in on what was going on.
“Thank you,” I said, grabbing the items with both hands.
When I turned around back to Connor, I handed him the bottles, making sure to keep the piece of metal out of sight with my other hand. He took the shampoo and lotion into the bathroom and I quickly glanced down to find a metal pin. I clipped it inside my shirt on my bra strap so it was out of sight. Connor returned, taking my hand once again.
***
The six of us drove in a white van with a phony green logo on the side, promoting an electrical company.
“What’s with the van?” I asked after twenty minutes of Connor kissing and groping me. He didn’t care that my brothers were in the car. He was kneading my breast when he spoke against my neck. I was terrified he would move his hand up my shoulder and feel the pin.
“It’s our front.” Of course it was, and from the looks of it we were close to our destination. We’d gone from the city streets of Boston to a more remote place scattered with warehouses.
“Plus, it’s great for when we need to…test out the merchandise,” Donnie joked, fist-bumping Hans, the computer guy. Connor chuckled.
“I won’t be needing to do that anymore, now that I have Billie.” He slid his fingers under the waistband of my jeans. My heart started to race. I panicked, and I was pretty sure if Connor were paying less attention to his dick and more to me he would notice the horrified expression on my face.
“Baby,” I cooed. “I wasn’t into having an audience before and I’m not now. Can we save this for later?” Connor’s hand froze, and a small wave of relief flooded me until he backhanded me without warning, snapping my head to the side. Tears swelled in my ey
es, but didn’t fall.
“What the fuck, Connor!” Lincoln almost flew from behind the wheel and over to Connor. The van jerked, and my forehead slammed against the window at the movement. Connor simply snapped his fingers, and Hans held a gun at Lincoln’s temple.
“No! Connor, please, baby, I’m sorry. Please, he’s just being a good big brother. It’s all my fault, don’t punish him for my mistake!” God, I felt sick saying those words to him. I was not a victim. I was not defenseless, and this wasn’t the first time I’d been hit by a man, but this was the first time I was letting one walk away without any repercussions. Now, the men that protected me all my life were the ones doing the harm. All but Lincoln. I knew he couldn’t do anything right now without getting killed. I grabbed Connor’s face and kissed him. He gripped the back of my hair and yanked me off.
“The next time I want to finger fuck you, I will do it. I don’t care who’s around. You won’t say no to me again. Got it?” he said through gritted teeth, pulling harder. I whimpered, nodding. “Good.” He pushed my head again, hard enough that it bounced off the window. I felt a gush of blood and immense pain on the side of my head. This time, the tears fell without resistance. I took a quick glance at the rearview mirror, catching Lincoln’s eyes glistening with tears, while Donnie threw a rag at my face.
“Don’t ruin the upholstery,” he said.
Pressing the dirty piece of cloth to the side of my face, I wondered where Donnie’s hatred for me came from. I wasn’t sure what I had done for him to act this way, and that hurt more than any busted lip or slashes ever could. The van stopped in front a newly built warehouse. Our surroundings weren’t shady, and it didn’t look like anything illegal was going on. My first thought was this was where they sold bootlegged merchandise or possibly even cut coke, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when we went inside.
The possibility of my brother and Connor being involved in human trafficking never crossed my mind. Hans opened the back door to what looked like a waiting area. There was a flat screen TV that hung against the front wall and three black leather couches against the other walls. A glass coffee table was placed in the middle of the room. We all walked around it as Connor punched in a security code to a door that led farther into the warehouse. He let the four guys go in before he gripped the back of my neck and pushed me inside.
My stomach filled with bile, threatening to spill, while my eyes blurred with tears. In front of me was a line of girls chained up by their hands attached to a pole above them. A few feet away from each lay a dirty mattress and bucket. I quickly counted ten girls hanging limply from their restraints. They were dirty and appeared to be drugged. I looked up at Connor with terror, and he displayed a smug grin.
“Your da was always too much of a pussy to take his business to the next level,” he said. “I managed to expand his business without him even knowing in a matter of months. What he made in a year, I make in a few weeks, Billie. This is the future. This is our legacy. And with my numbers queen at my side, there’s no stopping us, baby.”
Fucking psychopath. I wanted to kill him. No, not kill—torture for all these women and the countless others he’d managed to get hold of. But I swallowed all that down for now.
“What do you mean? What can I do?” I asked. Connor took my hand and walked me down the side of the warehouse like he was giving me the grand tour of a sideshow attraction. I couldn’t look at these girls without breaking down, so I avoided them by staring at the floor.
“I have ledgers of the sells we make. How much a certain type of girl costs, and to whom we’re selling her. All that needs to be kept up with, along with how we launder the money. This is what you’ve been trained to do all your life, Billie. All that was for this.” Connor threw his hands in the air as if presenting me with a long-awaited gift. This was not what my father had in mind when he taught me the things he did. “Come, I’ll show you where we’ll be working,” he continued. “But first I’ll show you where we break the girls in.” I could only imagine what that looked like.
“Connor, if it’s all right by you, can you not show me that today?” I sounded pitiful, and at the moment it was how I felt. I could only pray to God he would take pity on me. Connor sucked his teeth and smiled.
“Fine. Tomorrow, okay?”
I smiled weakly, nodding in return. When he led me to his office and locked the door behind him, I knew what was coming next. I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to do this.
Chapter Forty
Christian
Sunny, Marquis’s man, was an ex-Marine, ex-detective with a shaved head and brown eyes that were almost black. He looked like someone from the armed forces, but he wore these small rounded glasses that threw me off. Still, the dude was scary. I was beginning to piece together Marquis’s crew and wondered why, if he had such talented people working for him, he was only dealing in Aurora and not the entire state. Hell, with his staff he could run his drug business across the nation and be extremely successful.
Sunny and I were driving to an area in Boston that had nothing other than warehouses. Before arriving in the city, we managed to get Lincoln alone. I explained everything that was going on, and he already knew what Don had agreed to. Without hesitation, he gave me the security code to the warehouse where Connor would most likely take Billie. He agreed he would play along and pretend not to know that Billie would be there, since Connor hadn’t said anything to him. I also made him promise he’d keep her safe. When we spotted the warehouse, Sunny parked a good distance away so we wouldn’t be spotted.
“You don’t think the Feds are already here, do you?” I asked as we walked swiftly in the direction of the warehouse.
“No. That’s why they needed Billie. They have no idea about this warehouse. Connor’s good, man, he’s smart. But I’m smarter. You’d think with having the Grifter as your teacher your entire life, you’d be as good as or better than him, but I hear Billie’s the one who inherited her dad’s gift. And the Feds…well, let’s just say sometimes they can’t see what’s in front of their faces. Even when it’s in flashing lights.”
I didn’t think I could ever see Billie as this big criminal mastermind, nor did I want to. Just because she was capable of the things Don was, didn’t mean she would follow in his footsteps. Deep down, I knew she wanted a normal life. She wanted a white picket fence with a dog and two kids. After a life of a twists and turns, it was tranquility she was looking for, and I was ready to give it to her. Sunny handed me a black ball cap and black gloves when we reached the door. Quickly, I slipped the items on. Looking up, I noticed a small red light flashing at us. A camera.
“Sunny, we have eyes,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Ye of little faith. I’ve got it covered.” He laughed, opening the door with a key. My brows furrowed.
When I stood still, he chuckled. “Connor’s men aren’t very loyal,” he explained, “especially his computer geek, Hans. Marquis bought him out.” When my eyes widened, he added, “Don’t look so surprised. Marquis really cares for you, kid. He wants you out of the game, living the right way, the way you want to live.”
Sunny shoved me into a waiting area before pressing a code in the only other door available. He took in a deep breath before turning to me. “We know what’s behind this door. Don’t talk to them or look at them. Just stick to the plan, okay? As soon as we can, we’ll free them.”
I felt the muscles on my neck strain. It was one thing for someone to tell you what you’d find. It was another thing entirely to see it right in front of you. These poor girls.
Sunny doubled over at the sight and almost threw up. I stepped forward in their direction with the intention of letting them out of their restraints, but he stopped me by gripping my arm. “Tunnel vision, kid.”
We could have pounded on drums in here and the girls would never have noticed; that’s how out of it they were. The only thing they did was sway slightly back and forth and whimper at random times.
“Come, on. Let’s get in position.”
We waited almost an hour until I heard the door that led inside the warehouse slam shut. I was inside Connor’s office while Sunny was in one of the back rooms that had an exit. The plan was to get Connor to confess his crimes so the Feds would be able to arrest him, and then get Billie safely out of here with Sunny’s help. I was hiding inside of a small closet when I heard Connor talk to Billie. Then I heard the sounds of kissing and I lost it. Throwing the closet door open, I froze instantly when Connor held a gun to my head.
“You two think I’m stupid?” He laughed. I started panicking, and at the sight of Billie’s face I knew I didn’t care if I came out of here alive. I was going to kill him. “You’re being followed around by two idiotic detectives. You think I don’t know what you’re up to? Whose pocket do you think they’re in, huh? I own the Aurora Police Department. Nothing happens there without me knowing about it.”
Connor moved the gun, gesturing for me to step completely out of the closet, and that’s when I noticed he had a grip around Billie’s neck. She moved whenever he did. My hands were slightly raised in the air when I moved out in front of him.
“Let me guess, Lincoln is also in on this,” he said. “That’s how you were able to break in, isn’t it?”
I wet my lips before speaking. “Let her go and I’ll tell you.”
Connor grunted, then I saw his inner arm muscles constrict and instantly Billie gasped for air. My nostrils flared.
“Fuck off, Christian. That was a stupid thing to say, man.” He loosened his grip a little and Billie started to cough, but he held tight. “You know what?” Connor moved his hold from her neck to the back of her head. “I think I’m going to teach you a lesson. How you should never take a man’s girl.”
He brought Billie closer to him, and I fought the urge to lunge at him. Not yet.