Pulling a pillow toward me, I scrunched it beneath my chin and gazed at Eric’s headboard. Although I knew I’d made the right decision, it didn’t take away the sense of dread simmering in my belly. I had no idea what this meeting would entail, but I knew I’d have my work cut out for me.
No part of this assignment was going to be easy.
I closed my eyes and drew in a slow breath.
The girls.
I just had to think about the girls.
11
Caitlyn
Kaplan chose a dinky little diner up in Santa Clarita. It took me about forty minutes to get there, but I didn’t mind. I wanted the drive after a stony conversation with Piper that morning, which in retrospect had been the perfect excuse to leave as quickly as possible.
Eric understood that I didn’t want to hang around and help her move. Although the truth was, I actually did want to be there, except I wanted to be putting my own boxes in the back of Eric’s jeep, not taking off to have a clandestine meeting with a woman I didn’t even like!
I pulled my Mini into the small diner parking lot and stopped next to a black SUV which I assumed was Kaplan’s. Didn’t the FBI have any other kinds of vehicles? Black SUV, tinted windows—it basically screamed law enforcement.
Flicking open the door, I spotted Kaplan immediately. She was in a corner booth, away from the windows. I nodded and smiled to the waitress who told me she’d bring me a menu.
Dropping into the booth seat, I forced a tight smile. “Parked next to your SUV.”
“Not mine.” Her thin lips smirked. “This is an undercover operation; you seriously think I’d bring a black SUV? It practically screams FBI.”
I hid the scowl I wanted to throw at her snarky tone by looking at the tabletop.
“The less people who know about this, the better. So far it’s just you, me and my two guys — Rex and Eddy.”
“That’s it?”
“My superiors know I’m trying to go after Mendez, they just don’t exactly know how.”
I frowned.
“Don’t worry, I’ll write a full report when this is over—dot every i, cross every t—but I need to keep things under wraps until then.”
I could tell she was lying. Her report wouldn’t include every single detail. If we succeeded in this case, she was going to fudge the facts, probably like she did on the last one, playing down my involvement to a bare minimum in order to cover her own ass. All those freaking interviews I’d sat through with the FBI and the police, they’d probably been for nothing. I could see the guilt scorching the edges of Kaplan’s expression and wondered how she’d gotten away with it. She was not shy about admitting she played dirty sometimes. She did whatever it took to catch the bad guys and she never failed. I bet her bosses even turned a blind eye as long as she got the job done...
Rubbing my thumb over my knuckles, I squeezed my fingers, suddenly doubting myself. This could potentially be the world’s worst decision. I thought about Piper and Scott setting up home together while Eric helped out then went for his surf. I should have been there with him. Eric should have been helping me unpack my stuff, but...the girls.
I closed my eyes and swallowed.
“Here you go.” The waitress’s voice was chipper as she handed me a menu. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please.”
She put the mug down and poured it for me. I snatched two sugar packets and emptied them into the dark liquid before splashing in a little milk and stirring the heck out of it.
“Having fun with your whirlpool?”
My head snapped up to take in Kaplan’s raised eyebrows before I whipped the spoon out of my overflowing cup and tapped it on the edge.
With shaky hands I lifted it to my lips, spilling a few drops onto my jeans.
“Look, calm down. You’ll be useless to me if you can’t control those emotions. Now, take a breath.”
I sucked in a slow breath and closed my eyes. “Okay.”
“You did fine with our last sting operation. You’re going to be fine with this one, too, but I need you to stay focused. Can you do that for me?”
My eyes popped open and I met her gaze with a short nod.
“Good.” Kaplan slapped a file down on the table. “Quella Maria Mendez.”
I flicked it open.
“Born January 4th, 1998.”
I gazed down at the photos. There were no really clear shots of her, just long-lens stuff, most a little blurry. She wore big glasses in over half of them and was surrounded by men in suits.
“I take it she’s well protected.”
“This is the first time Daddy is letting her roam free, which is why I’m suspicious. My guess is he’s getting her out of the way while he starts up his new business.”
I grimaced. “Human trafficking. How can you call it a business?”
“Because that’s exactly what it is and that’s how these men see it. These girls are just a commodity to him; something that will earn him big bucks. He doesn’t care.”
My eyes fell back to the page. “But he obviously cares about her.”
“Yeah, well, she’s his daughter. I guess she’s the exception to the rule.”
“But, how can someone who has children do this?”
“That’s irrelevant,” Kaplan snapped. “I don’t care about the psychology. I just want you to help me get these girls back.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Of course.”
The waitress approached and Kaplan snatched the file back. I flipped open the menu, feeling anything but hungry.
“Blueberry bagel, please.”
“Is that all?” she asked with a friendly grin.
“Um...and a fruit bowl. Thanks.”
“Egg white omelette.” Kaplan handed the menus to the waitress and flicked her hand in an obvious buzz off gesture. The waitress took it with a kind smile, but I could see the glare behind her mask.
If she wasn’t careful, Kaplan might end up with more than egg whites in that omelette. I squashed my grin, focusing back on the file slapped in front of me.
“The girl spent most of her life growing up in Albuquerque and Palm Springs. Those are where the two main family homes are. She has been home-schooled by several different tutors and she’s basically been raised by two nannies who have been there since her birth. Her mother died when she was six.”
“Wow, that’s sad.”
“She’s had a charmed, sheltered life. I wouldn’t feel too sorry for her. She was probably closer to her nannies than her mother anyway.”
I’d had Kaplan’s mask off since sitting down at the table, so it wasn’t hard to miss the wave of jealousy riding over her features.
Jealousy? What was that about?
“I have a feeling Mendez owns one more home somewhere. We haven’t been able to find any financial trace of it, but it’s a gut-instinct thing. He has a business of operations somewhere and I need you to find it.”
“If he’s sending his sheltered daughter off to UCLA so he can start up some shady business, he’s not going to be bringing her back to his hub of operations.”
“Mendez hasn’t been seen in either Albuquerque or Palm Springs for the last two months, and his daughter arrived in L.A. from an undisclosed destination. My guess is he’s sending her off to iron out the kinks in this new operation of his, but as soon as he has it up and running, he’ll want her back. Even if you can’t get her to take you wherever the hell he is, at least you can do some snooping into the other places. There has to be something somewhere, some little clue that will open up the can of worms we need.”
I could feel my eyes narrowing at the corners as I watched Kaplan’s face. Her desperate need to get this guy was showing again. She was hungry for it, ready to sacrifice anything, and everything, to get it...including me.
I sat back with a cautious frown. “You know, you didn’t say anything about me sneaking into someone’s house. You just said get to know this girl, that’s all.”
“Yeah.” She
nodded. “Enough to get inside her father’s life. I need you to read her in order to get to him...and then read him. We need evidence, Caitlyn. We need the location of these girls.”
“You don’t know for sure he has them.”
Kaplan slammed the table with her fist, making the coffee mugs dance. “It’s him.” She pointed at me. “Caitlyn, it is him.”
I leaned back from her rancor, licking my lips and breathing in through my nose. “I don’t want to go to some hidden location.”
“You won’t be alone. We’ll keep a close eye on you throughout this entire thing. We need to find these girls. Whatever it takes.” Kaplan’s eyes were sharp and unrelenting. “You can’t back out now; you’ve already said yes.”
I couldn’t help firing a cold glare right at her. Trying to hide the sick foreboding brewing in my stomach was a challenge, but I kept my expression hard and angry.
She smirked at me before taking a slow sip from her mug. Placing it back on the table, her expression snapped back into business mode. I threw her mask on, tired of watching the hard emotions within her. She was right, I had said yes, and those girls needed me to stay strong. I couldn’t back out on them.
The breakfast arrived just as I sat back. I thanked the waitress and she smiled at me before simpering at Kaplan behind her mask. I squashed my grin and looked away from the egg whites. Oh, yeah, they definitely had something gross in them.
Kaplan doused them in salt then grabbed up her fork.
“Now, Quella has been at Rush all week trying for a place with Lambda Theta Alpha and has unfortunately missed out.”
“Thanks to you?”
Kaplan’s tight smile told me she was responsible.
“So I’ve pulled a few strings and she’s going to be moving in with you.”
I swallowed, hating that idea. It burned so much more knowing that I had the chance to be out of the dorms and living with my boyfriend.
“You need to watch everything she does, get her talking. Go through her stuff when she’s not there, be a real sleuth about it, okay?”
I squirmed in my seat, pushing my bagel around the plate as Kaplan shoveled in a forkful of food.
“I don’t like the idea of going through her stuff.”
“Please don’t be a princess about this. The sooner we get the goods, the sooner we can find these girls...before they’re sold. If they’re purchased by someone across the border, which is highly likely, they are gone for good. You understanding me?”
I gave a stiff nod and tried to swallow the lump in my throat.
Placing her fork down, Kaplan reached inside her bag and pulled out a black phone.
She placed it next to my plate. “You need to call me every night with an update. Even the smallest comments can be researched. We need to know exactly what’s going on at all times. Rex and Eddy will be on a rotation, keeping an eye on you, so you don’t have to worry about your safety.”
“Why would I be worried about my safety? I’m just making friends with a freshman, right?”
“Right.” Kaplan accented her T, making nerves skitter down my spine. Peeling her mask off confirmed the fact she was making this job out to be far less dangerous than it actually was.
She could sense me reading her and tried to open up her expression, but it didn’t really work. All I got was a true snapshot of her desperation. This case seemed so much more than work and I wanted to know why.
“You seem pretty desperate to get this guy.”
“He’s selling underage girls for sex; of course I’m desperate to get him. I want this asshole locked up for life.” Her venom was sharp and exposing.
“Are you related to one of the girls or something?”
Her eyes snapped to mine. “No! Why would you think that?”
I shrugged, trying for casual in an attempt to dampen the fiery warning on her face. “You just seem more emotionally invested in this case than you were in the Hoffman one.”
“Slap my mask back on, sweetheart, and stop reading into everything. The stakes are higher this time, so obviously I’m more invested,” she finished sarcastically.
Liar. The way her eyes had rounded when I said the words “related to” definitely pushed a button. Something pretty big was fueling her and it worried me. What kinds of lines would she be willing to cross in order to axe the demons haunting her?
“We need you, Caitlyn. You can’t let us down.”
The lump came back into my throat with a force so strong it was hard to swallow. If she’d said me, I could have brushed it off, but she used the word us and I knew she was talking about those helpless girls.
It didn’t matter if Kaplan was doing this to settle some past vendetta. It wouldn’t change the fact that those innocent girls needed rescuing.
All I could do was nod.
“And I’m serious about keeping this to yourself. Do not let Eric know what you’re up to. It’ll be a challenge, but you put on the best damn show you can, you got me?”
I kept nodding, the lump still thick in my windpipe.
Images of those young girls’ faces buzzed in my brain for the rest of the meeting.
I was in, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I felt like I was on an express train heading for a broken bridge.
Yes, that did sound kind of dramatic, but the responsibility I felt for those girls was enough to paralyze me. If I screwed up, we could lose them to a life of slavery...and I couldn’t live with that.
I drove back to UCLA in a daze, feeling overwhelmed and under-prepared.
It wasn’t until I pulled into my spot on campus that I realized my phone was off. I quickly turned it on and it dinged with a message from Eric.
Hey babe. Move went well. I’m hitting the water now if you want to come down and join me. Love you xx
I smiled and checked the time. He’d been out for just under an hour. If I hurried, I could make it down to the beach in time to meet him.
I scrambled out of the car and raced up to my room, the idea of seeing Eric helping to dull the buzz in my head. Yes, it was going to be hard to pretend around him, but I couldn’t let that stop me from seeing him. I just needed to come up with a good story.
Swinging my door open, I kicked off my shoes and rummaged in my suitcase for a bikini. I needed to unpack again. I rolled my eyes, hating the idea.
Pulling off my shirt, I unzipped my shorts and wiggled into my bikini. It wasn’t until I was tying the neck strap that I spun around and noticed the three Louis Vutton suitcases on Piper’s old bed. My legs gave out and I slumped onto my mattress.
Those bags belonged to Quella Maria Mendez.
Holy crap, this shit was suddenly real and there was no backing out now.
12
Eric
The waves were sweet. The sun was shining and my entire body felt relaxed as I bobbed in the water on my board. I could see a new set rolling in and watched them, eyeing up which wave I thought could give me the best ride. Spinning my board around, I lay flat, ready to paddle. The energy in the water flowed through my fingertips. It was like the ocean was talking to me, telling me what to expect.
Pulling in a breath, I paddled hard until the wave caught my board. Jumping fast, my feet landed on the board and I balanced quickly, twisting my body and bending my knees. I couldn’t help a smile as the ocean moved beneath me, the board flying across the wave. I banked up, hitting the top of the wave and spinning back down. My eyes caught the beach when I came down and I spotted my girl, her hand raised against the sun as she scanned the water for me.
It was a relief to see her. I’d tried calling a couple of times that morning, but her phone was off. I was glad she got my message.
I slipped from my board and dove into the water. Yanking on the leash around my ankle, I pulled the board toward me and slid on top of it, paddling for shore. The waves carried me in and I jumped up, snatching the board beneath my arm and running up the beach.
Caity’s sundress fluttered in the breeze, fla
shing her turquoise string bikini. She looked so damn hot in that thing I could barely stand it. Her long legs were sun-kissed, the rich tan giving her an edible quality. I grinned as I dug the board into the sand beside us then gathered her into my arms.
Her breath tickled my skin as she laughed into my shoulder.
I squeezed her against me and kissed her face, then worked my way to her lips. They were a hot contrast to my cold, salty ones, but she didn’t seem to mind. Her fingers gripped a handful of my wet hair and she dove into the kiss with a fervor I wasn’t expecting.
Finally, I pulled back for some air. I kept her firmly against me, though; otherwise, the entire beach would be able to see the effect she had on me. I blushed just thinking about it.
She felt me against her and gave me a wicked grin—the little minx.
I cleared my throat. “So, how was your morning?”
“Good.” She shrugged, her nose wrinkling. “Just went for a drive to clear my head.”
“Did it work?”
“Sort of.” She nibbled at her lip. “How was Piper?”
“Fine.” I tucked a lock of hair behind Caity’s ear. “The move went smoothly and when I left the house, she was pinning up posters in that third room...just in case you change your mind. As far as I can tell, no one else is going to be invited to live with us.”
“That doesn’t make you feel like a third wheel, does it?”
I grinned, hoping to ease her worries. “It’s okay, babe. We don’t have to talk about this again.”
She sighed, looking a little glum.
“Are you sure you’ve made the right decision? You seem really sad about it.”
She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against my shoulder.
“It’s what I need to do for now,” she mumbled.
Placing my fingers against her chin, I gently forced her to look at me. Her dark look fled and she replaced it with a smile. “It won’t be forever and knowing there’s a place waiting for me feels good.”
I couldn’t help a niggle. Was she telling me the truth? She seemed so torn.
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