Violet Ends

by Jisa Dean

  I pull her into a kiss wanting her to taste herself on me, taste the fact that she's marked me just as much. We lay close to one another for some time, letting our racing hearts get back to normal before either one of us try to stand or speak. Finally, I break her hold around me, reluctantly, so I can look down on the mess we made of one another.

  She's still being rocked by tiny little baby tremors that make her tits bounce and sway. "You okay, baby. You need another one?"

  Her eyes widen and she shakes her head no, "I don't think I'm going to be able to stand if you make me cum again." Her breath is still coming out fast and she speaks so softly I can tell she's still exhausted. I wish I could let her sleep but there is no way I'm leaving her here while I go poke the bear of an international trafficking agent. I wouldn't be able to keep my mind on what's needed without worrying about her and how she's doing. That's a good way to get myself killed.

  "Come on, Cherry. I want this over with so we can move on to our next clue. If I don't have you soon I'm afraid for the people around us." I flip her skirt down and take her by the hand and pull her to stand beside me.

  "My underwear...?" She makes a move to go back and maybe find some new ones but there's no way I'm letting her cover her cum-drenched pussy. I want everyone who sees us to be able to tell she's mine and if it takes my semen streaming down her thighs to get that point across than she's going to have to be ready for that to happen.

  ***

  The club isn't as loud as a normal club would be. Yes, music is playing but not overly loud. There is no thumping bass rattling the walls and shaking the floors. No, in this club the only thing rattling the walls are the chains being pulled against. Club Tease is one of the higher echelon kink clubs in Europe. Very upscale and very serious about the clientele they choose to let in.

  I show my invitation to the guy at the door and pull Nat closer to me. Yes, she's wearing my collar but that doesn't mean I'm going to take it easy with so many other dominate people around her. I'd kill everyone in this damned club if another person so much as tried to touch what is mine. I make my way through the double doors and into the heart of the club. In the middle of the room is a bed with two women going down on one another.

  Scenes like this used to make my dick throb with the tease of what's to come throughout the night. Now I look at the two women writhing on the bed and all I can find are their flaws and how they're not my Cherry. I spot the guy right away, he's got the biggest table in the whole place and the two women next to him look like they are so high they don't know what continent they are on. I take a table close to him and pull Cherry into my lap letting her nuzzle into the crook of my shoulder. All around us are men and women in the throes of passion, most being eaten out or finger fucked to just shy of heaven.

  Cherry has her eyes on me and only on me. I spot the blush riding high on her cheeks and can't help but smile at her. It's a unique thing to get used to, a kink club. When the waiter comes around I give him our order and drop a word to him that we are looking for Mr. Sargsyan. I put enough money on his tray that I have no doubt by the end of a cocktail someone from Sargsyan's gang will be over to talk to us soon.

  In less time than I thought it would take, a big rough looking security guard, if I had to guess as to his working title, comes to our table and sits down.

  "What do you want to see Mr. Sargsyan for? He is a busy man. He doesn't have time for...fans." His eyes track to my girl and I feel her shrink into me.

  "You keep looking at what's mine and I blow this whole fucking club apart." I throw the detonator on top of the table and will him to call my bluff. I would never take a risk on Cherry's life but I also know where to sit in a club I rigged to explode. If bad shit went down me and my Cherry would be the only people walking out of here tonight.

  The guy gets up and leaves as quickly as he came, and after a few seconds, a new guy is standing on the other side of our table.

  "Mr. Sargsyan will see you now." I stand but the guy holds out his hands to stop me, "just you, not the girl."

  "Now why do you fuckholes try to piss me off?" I sit back down and pull my lady back in my lap. "You tell your overfed, very open to sniper fire boss that she doesn't go anywhere without me so we have a problem. He can come to my table and talk to me at or he won't make it home tonight." The guy bristles and makes like he's going to reach for his gun. "Tell him Zeus sends his best and that it's in his best interest to get up off his fat ass and join us for a drink."

  The guy's eyes go wide at the mention of my name. He doesn't hesitate to scurry away like the rodent he is and transfer the information I gave him to his boss. Cherry is shaking on my lap but she's doing so good hiding her fear from these predators we're around.

  "I promise you, I won't let anything happen to you." I wait for her to look at me before I say it so she knows how important her believing it is to me.

  "I know." She takes a deep breath, "I just hope three hundred other people know that too and get to leave here alive."

  "Cherry, my only concern is you and your happiness and well being. I am a cold man, baby. I would tear every last human being in this room apart to get to you and keep you safe. Without blinking."

  "We really got to talk about your idea of romantic when we get home. Dead men and nightclub bombings are not going to cut it on the dirty talk."

  This time I do laugh, not being able to hold it in, "No? And here I thought all women wanted a man who would kill for them." Her smile is worth every year I had to endure life as a street kid.

  Five minutes after talking to the last man, Sargsyan is pulling out a chair with just one of his guards standing behind him ready to talk to me.

  "I am sorry for the lack of respect my security has shown to you, Mr. Zeus." I cock my eyebrow up at his sniveling. "Good help is hard to find these days."

  "I wouldn't know. I've always been a very hands-on person. I tend to do it for myself."

  God, I love making powerful men get that terrified look in their eye when they know they've met the person who is going to kill them face to face. Always have. It used to be the only thing that got me hard once the club life grew tiresome for me. Until Cherry that is, now I get hard at the thought of brushing up against her naked flesh. But the fear thing still does it for me too. I am going to fuck the hell out of her when this is all over.

  "Tell me, are your brothers with you as well." I smile at that. Most people in the darker world we inhabit know if all three of us come for you it's a guarantee you're dead.

  "I just want information, Mr. Sargsyan. Nothing more."

  He inclines his head. "How can I help you?"

  It must take so much restraint to hold in how he really feels when he has to grovel. Hell, I'm holding myself back tonight. Any other night I would have waited for him to leave, killed all of his guards in the parking lot and stuffed him in my trunk to play with later. He should be so fucking lucky that I took Cherry's sensibilities in mind when I was coming up with the plan to get what I want.

  Not that he isn't a dead man already. Tonight when we walk out of the club Mr. Sargsyan will have breathed his last. Just principal really. He hurt Cherry by buying her friend, if he had been a good man I would never have come for him. He gets what he gets.

  "Six years ago, someone sold you a girl." I describe Noel to him. I know what he is going to tell me isn't going to be good when he pales and sweat breaks out on his forehead.

  "I, uh, I remember the girl, yes. I have gone through so many since then but I recall her. I remember her because I paid for a girl and I never got her. A man out of Montenegro sold a girl to me that fit that description calling herself Noel. When I went to pick the girl up there was no one. I sent my best men to find out where my money or my girl was and when they brought me the man in charge of the brothels there he informed me the girl had killed herself in her cell just that afternoon."

  I feel the pain pour off of Cherry. But her facial features don't change. If anything I can see in her eyes the de
ath of her hope but on the outside, she is giving a stone front. My brave tough girl.

  "I remember so clearly because the man said it was the first time one of the girls had been clever enough to sneak a piece of metal into the cell with them.

  I slip a piece of paper over to him with a pen on top. "Name."

  Sargsyan quickly scribbles a name on the paper and slides it back towards me.

  "Another thing, Mr. Zeus, you won't find this man in Montenegro any longer. He has a route he takes to drop the girls off to the buyers and he runs back and forth from Attpu to Montenegro. He was about to be prosecuted in Montenegro so he had to move his operations to another country."

  I slide the paper back over to him and he looks like he doesn't want to write anything else down.

  "I have a horrible memory. If it's not written down for me I'm afraid I'll just have to take the person with me and traveling can be so dangerous to people's health."

  He takes the paper back and starts scribbling things down. When he pushes it back to me I tell Cherry to take it and slip it in her little bag hanging between us.

  "You and your brothers will leave now. You won't come back." It could be seen as a threat but the fear in his eyes tells me it's more of a question of whether he'll be allowed to live or not.

  I hold out my hand. "My business here is done. Have a nice night, Mr. Sargsyan." He hesitates to take my hand but when he does I can't hold back the satisfied smile that tips my lips into what I can only assume must look like an evil ass grin. "If you want your men to live don't send them to follow me. Or I will send them back to you in body bags."

  As we're walking out the door I discard the needle and vial in the trash bin at the front entrance. I don't falter in my steps and do it so smoothly even Cherry doesn't realize I've just killed a man, another, right in front of her. I will, of course, let her know when we get back to our hotel. I want her to have the certainty that men like that are not in the same world as her.

  Twelve

  ____________

  As soon as we are in the car I see her break. Her face crumbles and her whole body shrinks into itself. Nothing in this world could break my heart like the sight of Natasha crying. This time there is nobody to kill, no dark shadow to chase down, for her. This is something I cannot fix for her.

  I carry her into the hotel. We went in the back way so the number of people milling around is down to zero and it takes a matter of minutes to have her in our suite. I want to throw things and break shit and rage against something but that is not what is going to help Nat right now. Right now she needs me to help her finish this and start a life where this is not hanging over her head. A life where she has all new problems to struggle through with me by her side.

  I let her cry until she can't anymore. When she's all cried out I wash her face with a warm cloth and put her in the bed so she can rest some before we have to be back in the air. I have a lot to do to make sure the end of our journey is better than the start. I want so much for Nat it hurts me to think about all the things she missed when I wasn't there for her.

  I put in a call to my brothers to check in with them and their ladies. I relay the information I have for them and they tell me about things that might directly affect my hunt. It's brief. I hate it. I miss them, surprisingly. I want to be back at the newly remodeled club with all of our women on our laps drinking something hard and blue while the rest of the world melts away for just a few hours.

  I'm packing things for our flight when my phone buzzes. The number doesn't show up. It's not a restricted number, or a hidden caller. No, it's like the damned phone isn't ringing at all but I know it is. When I pick up, a voice from my past I haven't heard in nearly eight years answers back.

  "Zeus." Man, nothing will take you back to a memory quicker than the sound of a voice. This particular voice, The Archer, is the same one I heard telling me to hang on and not bleed out all over the back of the damn chopper. "I see you are making quite a fuss in Europe. In fact, the news is traveling fast that an arms dealer with connections to this human trafficking ring has just gone into cardiac arrest at a very swanky night club. Know anything about that."

  I think about telling him the guy didn't have a healthy lifestyle at all. He was bound to go out like that sometime but I go with short and simple, "Nope."

  "Hmmm, if the cause of this incident isn't out of the country in the next two hours I'm afraid it's going to fuck my day up as well as yours. I really don't want to have to come pick your bloody ass up again. Zeus," he pauses, "I'm running out of aircraft."

  "What are you talking about? You stole the one you got me out with."

  "Borrowed, we borrowed it." Such a diplomatic answer and one that is complete bull shit. Although I am grateful to him for giving me a heads up, I'll still call him out on his shit.

  "Did they get it back?"

  A rough, booming laugh comes out of the phone and I find my own mouth turning up as I pack quicker.

  "I'll be wheels up in thirty."

  "The man you're looking for," this makes me stop what I'm doing. Now how the hell did he know just exactly who I was looking for? The only person that would have a clue is Kronos, whom I told via private messenger on my laptop. The certainty of something I have wondered for too long is starting to grow in me.

  "His name is Vikander Camergo, yes?"

  I have often wondered if I have not met the great and mighty Kronos in the more human form of The Archer. Even in human form so to speak he is formidable and one hell of a fighter. I would not want to go up against him in a battle.

  "Yes, that is the man."

  "He isn't just buying women and reselling them. He's also buying names. So far the Senator doesn't seem to have a god damned clue about any list, which leads me to believe whoever is helping ship the girls for the Senator," I interrupt him to finish, I can already tell where he's going with this.

  "Is also selling the names."

  "Yes."

  "And you want me to bring this Camergo back to the U.S. with us so your guys can have a go at getting the name of the inside man." It leaves a bad taste in my mouth not just to kill the guy and have it over with but if what I suspect is true and Archer really is Kronos than death would be the easy way out for the man.

  "How much? I'm retiring you know." If I didn't ask him he would suspect something was wrong immediately. You don't do shit in my world for free.

  "I have heard something about that, yes." He names a figure and we haggle back and forth for a few minutes before both of us are satisfied and cut the connection. By that time I've packed the room and called a car to take us to the airport.

  Attpu is in Laos, which is strategically positioned in the middle of some of the worst countries known for human trafficking around the world and is also our next stop. Right before we disconnected, Archer told me one of his guys had eyes on him not twelve hours ago in his compound in Attpu. I glance over at Nat asleep on the sofa beside of me as I pour over blueprints of the guy's house and make plans to extract him. Normally I would call on my brothers for help but this is one fight I have to go alone. I would never forgive myself if one of them got killed when there's a woman waiting back home for them with her stomach full of the family they are going to make.

  The thought of family draws my eyes back to Nat. She doesn't want children. I can understand her aversion to them. Hell, if you had asked me three weeks ago if I wanted children I would have laughed at you and then shot you. Clearly something was wrong with you and I would have been putting you out of your misery by doing it. But now everything has changed. I wonder if once she loves me will her world change too.

  Not about wanting kids. How god damned shallow would I have to be to try to push her to have a baby just because I want one? If she never wants anything but a fucking dog for the rest of our lives than we'll just have to pull babysitting duty for my brothers to get my kid fix on. It isn't like they're not going to have a shit ton. No, this isn't about her wanting or not wanting children,
it has to do with if she'll ever love me. When she was crying I could hear her heartbreaking and that is something that it takes time to get over. Will she let me in or will there always be a part of her that died with Noel?

  Either way, I'm prepared to love her. If she never feels the same about me I would die a happy man just knowing I got to spend my time with her and love her. I won't just kill for Nat; I will live for the both of us if she finds she can't.

  Thirteen

  ____________

  Laos in the spring is not what I thought it would be. It's a lot like the South in summer, the humidity so thick it's deadly and mosquitoes will carry you off if you sit still long enough. It's also beautiful. Everything is green and lush and there are hundreds of little streams and creeks branching off from the main river. The resort we're staying in is like something out of an old adventure novel complete with the romantic, yet functional, flowing mosquito nets draped over the bed.

  I cried myself to sleep again on the plane ride over and then I decided that I've cried enough for Noel. I've cried six years of tears, enough to fill the river outside our window, but I think the time has come to stop. Don't get me wrong, my heart lurches to a stop every time I have a memory or thought about her. It breaks all over again when I remember she's gone.

  But I want to remember she lived. I want to remember the happy times we had instead of the last time I saw her. I want to stop hurting every time I think of her. Zander was right when he told me she would want me to move on and to not let this consume me. She was such a special person, so full of life and fun and wanting so much out of life so quickly. If I lie down and die now it wouldn't be the memorial I would want for my friend. It wouldn't let me honor her spirit like she needs.

  I think the place we're at has a lot to do with how I'm feeling. It's peaceful here, quiet and light, calming. It also weirdly helps to know. To not have to wonder if she's out there waiting for me to save her is oddly...freeing if not achingly painful due to the death of my hope that one day we would find her. I don't think I would have ever found out if not for Zander.