For several beats, we just stare at one another, suspended in time.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asks, sitting up and swinging his legs over the edge of the couch.
I can barely hear past the thrum of my pulse, and my vision tunnels, on the verge of blacking out from the fear. If he calls out for Rocco or Francesca, I’m done for.
Rio’s done for if they find out he was involved. Then, his sister will be sold, and I’ll never get out of here-
Focus, little mouse.
Swallowing, I straighten, deciding that keeping my mouth shut for now is the best option. I have no explanation.
“You trying to escape, diamond?”
I shake my head, eyes widening further as he stands, and starts walking toward me. Instinctively, I take a step back, kicking the fallen water bottle.
“Then you want to explain what the fuck you’re doing?”
Once more, I shake my head. The only excuse that comes to mind is that I was bringing snacks to the guards. Which is honestly laughable, and the last thing I want this man to do is fucking laugh. He certainly wouldn’t be quiet about it considering he’s always been the loudest one in the group.
He pauses, scanning over my form, and the moment I see the spark in his dark eyes, I know precisely what the fucker has planned. A slow, insidious smile grows on his face.
“Come here,” he directs.
All I can do is shake my head again, like a broken toy that can only perform one trick.
He snarls, snapping his hand out and seizing me by the arm. I wince as he tugs me into him, my senses overwhelmed by body odor, stale cigarettes, and rank breath.
“You fucking listen to what I tell you to do, diamond, or I’ll have Rocco come out and join in on the fun. Which do you prefer, huh? Me, or both of us?” he spits harshly, though keeping his tone hushed. It would seem he wants me to himself, so he’ll stay quiet for now.
Tears burn the backs of my eyes, and I nod my head quickly, hoping to assuage him. The drugs tend to get them riled up, and their tempers are unpredictable.
“Good girl,” he croons, loosening his grip. “I want you to turn around, push down those pants, and touch your toes. I want to fuck you from behind.”
My mind races as I pivot, keeping my movements slow as I try to figure out what the hell I’m going to do. There’s no way I’m just going to let this asshole rape me again.
He nudges me firmly, “Hurry up.”
“Let me set my bag down first,” I whisper, voice shaky. He harrumphs but doesn’t protest, so I bend down, deftly grab the knife and slide it out, hoping my body is concealing what I’m doing.
“Fucking slow-ass bitch,” he curses, growing impatient and tugging at my waistband, attempting to slide them down for me.
I straighten, which allows him to get them halfway down my ass before I’m twisting at the waist and slashing out my knife. The blade cuts through his throat, and his eyes widen, nearly silent from the shock.
And I spring into action, pulling up my pants, quickly grabbing the sack, the stupid fucking water bottles, and booking it out of the door, leaving Jerry to choke on his blood.
The muscle in my chest pounds so hard that it hurts as I skitter across the porch and down the rickety steps, barely pausing when I spot the two dead bodies piled next to the stairs. The guards-their throats are slit open.
Panting, I round the house towards the back. Rio is nowhere to be found, and I pray to god he got the hell away already.
Because he may be the only one to get out of here alive.
Chapter 21
The Hunter
“Motherfucker, I will fuck you up,” Daire snaps from his computer chair, his chin tipped over his shoulder as he glares at me.
I roll my eyes. “You say that every time and never do.”
I wouldn’t mind if he tried. These men are trained killers just as I am, and a good old-fashioned fistfight might serve to release some of the tension crammed in my muscles. The weight of carrying frustration, anger, and anxiety in my bones is taking a toll. I’ve gone out on a few missions to take down rings in Oregon to relieve some stress, but it’s never enough.
I push away and pace the floor behind him. His office is inside the vault, but you wouldn’t be able to tell if it wasn’t for the door. They hollowed out the room and transformed it into a basement. Right at the round entrance is a staircase that leads you down to the bottom, which has been expanded to run beneath the ground floor, where Kace’s work area is. Just like the rest of the bank, it’s washed in browns, creams, and blacks; all of it screams money.
So of course, his get-up is a computer nerd’s wet dream. His desk takes up an entire wall, filled with monitors and TV screens hanging above. LED lights flash colorfully around the room, highlighting the sharp edges of Daire’s face as he searches through his channels again, checking to see if Addie was tagged in any locations.
“You’re looming over me. I can feel your breath on the back of my fucking neck.”
I exhale extra heavily, prompting him to whip around and send a fist flying towards my dick. I easily avoid it, but he manages to surprise me and stomp on my foot with his, forcing me to step back.
Touch?.
“You hover worse than a wife checking over her cheating husband’s shoulder,” he snips.
“I would say the scorned wife and I both have valid reasons.”
He grumbles something under his breath, leaning his face farther into the computer as he checks over the grid. His pet kneels beside us, head cast down, but I catch the hint of a smile on her face.
“Did you find out where Jillian and Gloria came from?” I ask.
Daire shakes his head. “Not yet. I can easily trace the ones kept in a holding facility-like the ones you take down-because those are checkpoints for girls to be transported to and from. But many of the victims are taken to groomers before they’re auctioned, and those are usually residential houses and oftentimes off-grid to protect the homeowners. Whoever Francesca is, she’s obviously a groomer and a well-hidden one.”
He has an entire map of transportation routes and checkpoints and insists that he would know if Addie were put up for sale or transported. There are minimal places to list girls for sale on the dark web, even for those who are selling their own children for profit, and Daire has access to every one of those channels. There is also an entire network for the auctions, moving girls to and from holding facilities, and other events where high-profile people can buy women and children, which Daire also has access to.
But Addie is too high-risk to be put through those standard processes. Claire is smarter than that. So, we’ve shifted our focus to tracking down this Francesca woman, but there are no homes in the state of Oregon owned by her.
“What was their last known location before they disappeared?” I ask. We’ve been narrowing our search down to surrounding towns within an hour’s drive from Jacksonville-where the auction was held-but unless they have cameras within or outside of the house, we have no way to confirm if Addie is inside any of them.
“Prior to being auctioned, Gloria was last seen getting into a vehicle in Grants Pass, and Jillian was picked up in Portland. She has records for prostitution, so she most likely was being trafficked beforehand that way.”
“Those cars are dead ends?”
“Yep,” he confirms. “Drove somewhere with no cameras and never seen again from there.”
“Fuck,” I curse, beginning to pace again. It’s the same ordeal with Xavier Delano. We were able to track his flight to Portland, Oregon, and a town car that drove him to the outskirts, but he fucking disappears again after that. They’ve taken every fucking precaution to make sure there is no trail leading to this house.
Daire clicks through a map as he says, “There are hundreds of thousands of homes in our targeted areas. Addie has to be in one of them, but narrowing down where is-” He cuts himself off, his eyes narrowing in concentration as he murmurs, “Interesting.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.