After an hour of necessary socializing, which Daniel was no good at, he made his moves on his targets of the evening, drawing from them, or not, the information he was after about Baron Brauer. Lisle had remained close to Daniel, however, he put Val in charge of her while those delicate exchanges took place.
A half hour later, as Val and Lisle passed through the main lounge on their way to the tiny women’s lavatory in the basement they found Daniel. Val leaned in to his ear and whispered, “Just taking her to the restroom.”
The location of the ladies room was no accident. When the men’s rooms were installed at the turn of the 20th century, there were three, one on each floor of the club, all as lavish as one would expect for its well-heeled members. The ladies room had been an afterthought, added in the 1950s, because lowly females had to relieve themselves somewhere, and it was no longer feasible in the alley behind the club. There was still only the one ladies room—and that was just a single toilet and small sink that had been crammed into a tiny alcove under the stairs. The peeling paint and dingy linoleum floor would never look clean, no matter how often they were scrubbed. The metaphor was obvious, another suggestion that females held little importance to men other than as their pretty playthings.
Not more than ten minutes later, Valerie was back in the main room with her arms draped around the man she’d nabbed for the night.
“Where’s Lisle?” Daniel asked her as he moved toward the front hall.
“She was just finishing up. I told her to wait by the front door; that you’d be there in a few minutes.”
He nodded and walked on. But Lisle was not in the front hall. He checked in the basement then in the women’s lavatory, banging back the unlocked door on two females primping in front of the broken mirror.
“Sorry,” he said to the stunned women and he bowed out. Returning to the main level, he strode toward the doorman.
“Have you seen a young woman, about thirty in a grey skirt and blue sweater?”
“If she’s the one that was on your arm when you came in, sir, yes I have. Went flying out of here about five minutes ago like she’d just seen her worst nightmare.”
“Dammit!” he swore and he raced from the club, praying he’d find Lisle cooling her heels somewhere along the sidewalk waiting for him to appear. The thought of her setting off on foot at that hour had him panicked; his anxiety further intensified when he viewed the street in all directions and found it empty. He called her cell, but she didn’t answer.
“Fuck!” He fumed for several minutes, pacing the sidewalk as he sorted through his options, then because he spotted a taxi heading in his direction, he stopped it, hopped in and headed home, which would be the only safe place she’d know to go. He prayed that this was not another weird break in her reality and she hadn’t done something impulsively stupid.
When the taxi pulled up to the curb, Daniel threw a couple hundreds into the front seat and strode up the sidewalk. For the first time since he’d discovered her missing he felt a modicum of relief. The downstairs lights were on when they left and the house was pitch black now. A sign that she was home, he hoped.
“Lisle!” he hollered at the top of his voice as soon as he entered. He heard nothing, not even the usual groaning and creaking of the old house. “Lisle,” he bellowed again from the bottom of the stairs, “I know you’re up there. Get down here now!”
He waited, the silence screaming through his brain, then just as he was about to start searching, the upstairs floor creaked above him, then creaked again.
He sighed, feeling a wave of relief wash through him. No longer in a panic, he called to her again, his voice calmer this time. “Lisle…?”
She appeared at the top of the stairs looking like something he’d pulled from the gutter, wearing a dingy nightgown she must have picked up at one of Alice’s thrift stores. Everything about her disturbed him: the nightgown, the sad grimace, the way her fists were clenched. Even though she seemed calm, he had to wonder which version of the waif was in charge of her now.
To his surprise, she actually spoke. “You’re angry, aren’t you?”
“Damn right, I’m angry.”
Rather than frighten her, the comment seemed to ease some of the angst he saw just seconds before. She crept down a stair at a time—without the clenched fists and the terrible grimace.
“You scared me, Lisle. You leave without warning, running off to God knows where.”
She fell on her reply with an almost frantic, “I wouldn’t do that to you! I wouldn’t run off I swear.”
“But you did.”
“But I came back home—”
“Yes, that’s true. But why take off in the first place?” He was more befuddled than angry now.
She was halfway down the staircase looking for a moment as if she wanted to run right back up.
“Did someone approach you?” he wondered.
She hesitated then nodded.
“Speak to me, Lisle.”
“Two men. They were huge, like wrestlers or bouncers.” Her eyes got big. “You must remember them; they were there when we arrived. The one with the ugly beard who smelled like rat poison. The other was real nicey nicey, that cocky blond brute with the boisterous laugh. It shook me up to see them, but I didn’t think they would know who I was.”
Daniel searched his memory trying to pick out the pair from a dozen club members and guests who had been milling about the front entry when they arrived. Though her descriptions were odd, he knew exactly who she was talking about.
“So they approached you while you were downstairs. Why not just walk away?”
She hesitated, struggling for words, and for a moment seemed wholly incapable of answering his question. Daniel wasn’t certain if behind her reluctant response there weren’t a trace of manufactured drama. But then she worked through whatever dilemma that left her so confounded and answered simply, “They touched me.”
“Touched you where?”
“Their hands were all over me.”
“And where did this happen?”
“In that awful room downstairs, right after Valerie left. They were on me…my ass, my tits, my crotch… like they were going to rape me. They were going to rape me!”
“In the ladies room?”
“No, in the room down the hall. I got turned around and confused and suddenly they were right there. I didn’t know where I was. The room was dark and I could barely see.”
“And you’ve seen these men before?”
She nodded. “I remember them at the master’s house. The last party before he got so sick. They said I owed them and they wouldn’t let me go. I finally kicked them off and ran.”
As angry as Daniel still was, the visual of the waifish little sub kicking two behemoths was almost amusing.
“In the balls,” she added. “I kicked them in the balls.”
With that picture lighting up his brain, how could he be mad at her?
“Did they say anything in particular?”
Her brows knit and she stared at her bare toes, then her head shot up. “Only that they thought they’d never see me again—like I belonged to them or something.”
“Well, they are not here, and they’re not going to hurt you. Come down here, Lisle.” He held out his hand and she accepted the help, gliding down the stairs and into the living room where she took a seat on the edge of the living room couch. She sat on her hands, gently rocking back and forth, still anxious and still frightened.
Daniel poured a drink and handed her the glass, “Drink it. All of it.”
He’d never done this before and she stared at the jigger of Scotch looking oddly confused.
“Go on. Drink it down.” He watched as she lifted the glass and sniffed, hesitated a moment longer, then finally downed the drink in one gulp, choking briefly on the liquor as it burned her throat.
“I guess you don’t drink much.”
“No, sir. I hate the taste.”
“You’ll appreciate the e
ffect. Now sit back and try not looking so petrified. I’m not going to bite, at least now.”
He sat down in his own chair, leaning forward with his drink in hand and trying very hard to look less like the brutal mercenary and more like her friend.
“So how did you get the cab fare?”
He wouldn’t put it past her to confess to stealing it and was surprised when she said with little fanfare, “I have my own money.”
“You do?” He viewed her with such skepticism that she figuratively backed herself into the corner of the sofa and clammed up. “Answer me, Lisle.”
“Alice.”
“Alice gave you money?”
“Yes, yes she did,” she announced quite firmly, shaking off her reticence. “She took some of my drawings to the Farmer’s Market and sold them for twenty dollars each. Six or seven of them, I think.” She was defiantly proud of this. “She says the market is closing soon but maybe in the spring…” She stopped before she finished and looked at Daniel, seeking his approval. “Did I do something wrong?”
He leaned back in his chair and humphed like men do, grumbling a bit. Then he shook his head, looking more amazed than anything.
“You know, instead of running off, you could have found me and it would have saved us both a lot of grief. Of course, if you’d done anything that reasonable, I would never have known about your business venture with Alice. The list of things I don’t know about you is getting longer every day.” Maybe she wanted him to be proud of her but he hadn’t any idea how to respond to this news so he waited for her to say more.
“Was it okay to sell the drawings?” she finally broke the awkward silence.
“Of course it was. They’re yours. Although you could have told me.”
“I never know what you’re going to think.”
“Well, that makes us even since I never know what you’ll do next. C’mere.”
She scooted from the leather couch and to her feet, taking the short path to Daniel’s chair very slowly. As soon as she reached him, he stood up, pulled her over his left arm and vented what was left of his irritation and anger with a dozen smacks directly on her bare ass cheeks. He spanked as hard as he’d ever spanked her with his hand alone, and for a moment she waged a silent, struggling fit. But by the time he stopped that war had eased, and she was quite surprised that this was all the punishment she was going to get.
“That’s for giving me such a scare.” He set her firmly on her feet and gave her bottom another hard swat. “Go to your room and get some sleep.”
She dashed on as he expected and turned at the door, “You’re not coming up?”
“Not yet. I have work to do. Either way, you’re sleeping alone tonight.”
This may have dashed her hopes, but her mood was much improved and she was already up the stairs before he moved into his office.
***
Daniel had just enough new information and insinuation to keep him busy at the computer and on the phone until 4 am. He began with the two drunks that hassled Lisle at the club, and found himself suddenly opening up access to an area of Brauer’s computer he’d not seen before. Most of what he saw confirmed information he already knew, though it appeared that Baron’s covert activities were more far reaching than he first believed. The man was not your typical dime store bdsm fanatic whose wealth could buy him a master/slave lifestyle most enthusiasts would only dream of. What he practiced was far more real than parlor games, and the worst news was that his organization did not die with him as Daniel had been led to believe. However, with the messy plot surrounding the girl becoming more complicated, he needed answers that a computer search alone seemed unable to provide. His hands were tied if he tried sorting out the facts in the comfort of his Washington house, but he had a contact in Vienna and two in Turkey that could help him determine fact from supposition and hopefully get to the truth.
At 7 o’clock the next morning he was in the kitchen, showered and dressed with his travel bag over his shoulder. Lisle was eating a bowl of cereal. Alice was already there, awakened by his 6 am call. He addressed Lisle specifically since he’d already explained his plans to his housekeeper.
“I may be gone as long as a week. Alice is going to stay here and sleep in the guest room. And you’re going to behave yourself. You remember what I told you? No going out unless you’re with Alice. And don’t be hunting around for the computer. I’ve locked it away for now.”
Lisle looked alarmed then she sat back with a petulant scowl.
“You don’t need to go there, girl,” he said, narrowing his gaze on her. And because her irritated look didn’t change, he added, “I’ll get you your own computer if that’s what you need.” There was still no change in her expression, but this was not surprising. He knew she’d been in Brauer’s computer when she was alone in the house; the trail of her on-line activities wasn’t hard to follow and most of what she was looking into seemed innocuous enough. He’d let her do this without commenting on her clandestine behavior thinking that she might find something useful to him. As far as he could tell, she seemed uninterested in Brauer and his illegal activities, and was mostly surfing the web for more mainstream reasons having nothing to do with black-market trafficking, slaves or porn. Though her browsing appeared innocent enough, he wouldn’t take the chance of leaving the computer available to her while he was away, and having her impulsively bolt on Alice if she found something that disturbed her.
“Hey don’t look so grim. It won’t be too bad, a whole week without me should be a blessing for you both. Call it a weeklong pajama party if you want. Just don’t mess the place too much.”
Hearing his parting words, Lisle came out of her gloom with her own snappy retort. “So why is messing the place a problem if we’re the ones cleaning up?” The question was innocent enough if it weren’t for the biting sarcasm in her delivery.
The comment surprised him and he came right back, “And since when did you start having such a smart mouth?”
She shrunk back. “Sorry, sir.”
“So, you know what you’re going to do while I’m gone?”
He made sure she was looking straight at him when she offered up her perfunctory, “Yes, sir.”
He studied her a moment more, then he moved around her toward the door, affectionately ruffling her hair like she was his pet. He stalked out of the house without saying more.
Alice, who had watched the scene with both curiosity and amusement, saying nothing the entire time, darted out the door after him.
“Aren’t you being a bit abrupt?” she whispered heatedly.
“Alice, I have a plane to catch and I really don’t have any time to waste.”
“You will call, won’t you?”
“I might, but that may be a lot harder than you think. Where I’m going there may be no cell phone towers.”
“Oh.” She stepped back and watched him climb into his old Mercedes, then moved back inside the house.
As he was backing out, he saw Lisle standing at his office window looking like a lost kitten. He wondered what he’d find in his house on his return, but he couldn’t think about that now. Women were too much damn drama, he’d leave them to console each other and get on with his business.
***
Daniel’s sources in Vienna came up with nothing that would assist him; they had no knowledge of a wealthy American, fitting Brauer’s profile, trading in slaves. There had apparently been someone who might have fit Daniel’s description of the Baron making efforts to sell a few females to black market traders. However, without notice, and without any sales taking place, as far as anyone knew, the man disappeared and was never heard from again.
Moving on to Turkey, his contact had more current information. Brauer had gotten much further along with a slave sale than Daniel’s Vienna contact was aware. In particular, there was a well-trained, unmarked female property known only as #86, who had been sold to an unknown buyer, pending the receipt of funds. The funds had been transferred from the b
uyer’s account, apparently received by the seller, but there was no indication that the sale had been finalized. As far as anyone knew, the buyer was still awaiting the arrival of his purchase, and the property in question had dropped off the radar.
Daniel was unsure if Lisle was that property, but all the signs indicated that she was. The anxious and very well connected buyer had been working through the underground network to retrieve his slave, and though Brauer had carefully hidden his identity, burying himself behind code names and layers of security that left him nearly untraceable, there had been recent cracks in that security, leading Daniel to believe that the intricate patchwork leading to Brauer had been breached. More disturbing was the reemergence of a website, believed to be run by one of Brauer’s associates and through which the Baron solicited interested buyers. The site had been removed from the internet around the time of his death, by Marcus. According to Daniel’s sources however, a smaller, leaner version of the original had appeared a few weeks before he left on his trip. An intercepted email indicated that property #86 was still available and living somewhere on the East Coast of the United States. The website presented a huge enigma to those monitoring its activity. It came and went like a fickle breeze, always returning with a new IP address and requiring a new password for entry. The purpose for the disappearing website was unclear.
In questioning Marcus further, he revealed that the website had not only been removed from the net but destroyed as well—by Brauer himself two weeks prior to his death. Marcus suggested that one of Brauer’s associates, or even the angry buyer, might have uploaded a copycat site in hopes of tapping into the Baron’s network. Daniel left Turkey without all the information he was looking for, but he had enough to believe that the hunt was on for Lisle. The likelihood of her whereabouts being discovered was enough to send him directly back to Washington.
Chapter Eleven
Matters of the Heart
As soon as Daniel entered his house, an uneasy feeling grabbed him in the gut. The atmosphere was restless, agitating, though nothing about the place seemed amiss. He set down his bag in the entry and went straight to his office and saw that everything seemed to be as he left it, other than a pile of mail sitting on his desk. Before he could explore the uneasy feeling further, Alice crashed through the door.
Little Savage Page 18