Chapter Nine

NINE

It hadn't been difficult to attach the device Mechanic had engineered onto Azelie's hoodie. It wasn't detectable with normal equipment, which was what made the tiny camera so perfect. Even when Azelie went through the security screens, that hidden camera would never set off the alarms.

She went through a side entrance and then stopped at the desk of a guard. "This is why we can't find the offices," Maestro said to the other members of Torpedo Ink watching the situation unfold as Azelie made her way into the lion's den. "The door is hidden in the wall panel. I've been there several times. I have an affinity with wood, and I didn't find it."

"You weren't exactly running your hands over the wall," Keys pointed out. "We didn't have time, and we were ensuring no one could see us."

Wood spoke to him in ways he didn't understand. It always had. He touched it for any length of time and memories crowded in. Emotions long lost after others had touched the wood or worked with it. He saw and felt things others had no possibility of seeing. It was a strange gift to have, and one he was thankful for. Trees could be extremely old. Patient. Serene. Strong. They stood against vicious storms and sometimes endured fire, drought or flooding and survived.

Over the years, Maestro had learned a lot from wood he'd come into contact with. But there was always a downside with any gift. Sometimes it was seeing all the ugliness the trees had witnessed or the pain of the saws cutting through them. Sometimes the drawback was extremely simple, such as having to have his hands bare when he touched the surface. That meant fingerprints. DNA. His cells left behind.

When Torpedo Ink was on a mission that would likely include blood, violence and death, they always wore thin gloves. The gloves were really just a thin coating of barrier cream covering skin, impossible to detect. The fingerprints were not their own.

"She didn't unlock the outer door with a key. She used that same keypad we used to break in," Preacher pointed out.

"The fact that Billows has a guard sitting right in the hall entrance speaks volumes," Czar said. "You were in the right place."

The club members were gathered in the Airbnb they'd rented in preparation for raiding the nightclub to find the victims sent to Billows for training. They were certain the women would be held there if Billows had any victims at the time, but they had no blueprints to show them the underground offices. That was unusual. As a rule, Code was unstoppable with his computer. He was patient and meticulous and persevered until he got results. He hadn't found the blueprints of the underground offices. They knew there were rooms below the two floors housing the Pleasure Train and the Adventure Club, but they had been unable to get inside them.

Code had managed to find Billows' illegal accounts, powering through the layers of companies and diversions to find what they needed. He'd drained those accounts, making Torpedo Ink much wealthier. It was standard when they went after criminals to take their money. That enabled them to divert attention, so they had more of a cover when they physically went after their targets. It also ensured they had whatever funds they needed in their fight to stop human trafficking and pedophiles.

"Look at that guard," Ice pointed out. "He can't read her at all. She's all smiles and politeness, but that's the last place she wants to be."

Maestro agreed. "She's guarding what she says."

The audio was astonishingly good. Azelie spoke in a low tone, but they could hear her clearly. They heard the guard warning her that her boss was in a lousy mood.

"Notice how carefully she chooses her words when she answers him. She doesn't trust that man," Lana said.

"Her brother-in-law got her involved when she was sixteen," Maestro added.

"Once in, she isn't getting out unless they kill her," Master said. "Not with what she knows."

"It's clear she's very aware she's walking a tightrope," Alena added. "She must be living under so much stress every single day."

"He's got eyes on her," Storm reported. "Not all the time, but one of his men sits outside her apartment and follows her to the park occasionally."

"Man by the name of Andrew McGrady," Code chimed in. "He's a real peach. Domestic violence charges with nearly every girlfriend. Bar fights. Breaking and entering. He's got a rap sheet the size of Texas."

Maestro had clocked the man the first day he began following Azelie, but Billows' investigator was lousy at his job. Most of the time he was looking at his phone, not paying attention to his surroundings. Maestro hadn't once been seen by him. He'd even walked next to the parked car. Maestro was a man people noticed, yet the investigator had been playing a video game on his phone and hadn't even looked up.

"I could have killed him multiple times," Maestro pointed out.

"Same here," Storm agreed. "He doesn't bother following her most of the time. I think he's bored out of his mind."

"Good for us, bad for him," Mechanic said. "Although it's a pain in the ass having to keep a lookout for him."

"When we move, he'll be the first to go," Storm said.

Maestro shook his head. "The goal is to keep Azelie safe while we're getting those women out and getting information from Billows. We can't risk tipping him off." He looked directly at Czar. "Maybe coming clean with her and asking her outright for her key and a map of the underground is the way to go. We could move her to a safe house until it's over."

"That's not your head talking, Maestro," Czar said. "If Billows doesn't have women down there, but you find evidence he trains them there, we missed a shipment. There is bound to be another coming immediately. We don't want those women to be shipped somewhere else without our knowledge. We need to see this through."

Alena and Lana exchanged a long look. "What if she isn't safe now, Czar? Can we risk that? Look at her. She's holding herself in check but just barely. Mechanic programmed heart rate monitoring into that camera as well as audio. You can see she's terrified."

"She's been living that way for a long time," Czar said. "I know it's rough, but she's under our surveillance. We're not going to let anything happen to her."

"I just would like to point out that she's alone in that hallway with that guard and scared out of her mind," Destroyer said.

Czar sighed. "We put a lot of effort into this before we got any kind of a lead. Years of work. This is it, all we've got. We can put it to a vote to abort the mission and pull her out of there, which is fair. She doesn't deserve to live the way she's living. And she's Maestro's. That makes her ours. Before you vote, weigh the consequences to the other women lost to trafficking that we know we'll never get back against the fact that leaving her would be like leaving Blythe or Soleil or Anya. Seychelle or Zyah. Any of our women."

There was a long silence. Maestro broke it with a sigh of resignation. "I want her out of there. I'm not going to lie, I want her out more than I want my next breath, but I want her out for myself. For my peace of mind. I know damn well I'm never going to find another woman like her. No one else is going to do it for me. Do I want to protect that? Fuck yes."

Savage nodded. "I would feel the same way if it was Seychelle hanging out in the danger zone."

Reaper, Ice and Player murmured agreements, as did Master.

Maestro shook his head and then ran both hands through the sides of his hair. He had to do the right thing even though it went against everything his mind screamed at him to do. "But it wouldn't be what Azelie would want. She would put those women first every time. She'd be pissed beyond hell if she found out we'd sacrificed other women to get her out. She would tell me she's worked there a long time and knows how to handle Billows and she could work there for several years more if that's what it took. She may be soft inside like Alena, but just like Alena, she's got a core of absolute steel."

Azelie looked small and fragile to him and to the others. But he knew her now. "She would never agree to be put somewhere safe if that meant jeopardizing other women's freedom. And she wouldn't forgive me for taking that decision out of her hands." He knew that to be true, and it was the most difficult thing for a man like him to tell his brethren and sisters.

For years he had advocated that women obey their men when it came to matters of safety. He'd said it shouldn't matter what the woman said or did. She should be punished for not trusting her man to make the right decision. She should always follow his lead. He'd not only advocated for that shit, but he'd also believed it. To some extent, he still believed it. He needed his woman to allow him to lead. He needed control. But after watching Azelie with others and seeing the way she was with him, he also knew their relationship had to be about trust.

Like Maestro, Azelie had known betrayal—the ultimate betrayal by a family member. Someone she loved. She'd lost everything she valued. To be her partner, he had to always give her reason to trust him. That meant he had to know her. Read her smallest cues. It was important to provide what she needed for her happiness if he was going to keep her.

Maestro was a man who looked at himself closely. Kept himself in check. Knew what he had to work on about himself and what he needed in his life to keep those around him safe. He was dangerous, and when he was dangerous, that meant lethal. Azelie made him even more lethal. He had never expected a miracle. A gift such as she was. Every instinct in him was to wrap her up in Bubble Wrap, keep her in a safe room, never let her leave his side, but that wasn't going to make her happy.

He struggled to find a balance between his intense personality and needs and her gentle independence. She wanted to stand on her own two feet, when he wanted her to depend on him. Needs versus wants. He absolutely knew Azelie would never forgive him if she thought other women suffered because he took her out of play.

"You're saying you want to leave her where she is." Czar attempted clarification.

"Fuck no! That's the last thing I want, but that's what she needs. I'm asking every one of you to be vigilant if we leave her there. The moment we have the information from Billows we need, and if we manage to find the victims, we'll get her out of there. Hopefully, she won't be in any danger once Billows is gone, and I can just come clean with her."

There was another long silence. The other members of Torpedo Ink stared at him in astonishment. He couldn't blame them. He'd been spouting so much shit for years, voicing his opinion of women and what they should or shouldn't do, none of it good. He was telling them he thought they should do just the opposite of what he'd always proclaimed should be done.

"Maestro." Alena's voice was soft and soothing. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Steele," Keys said to their resident doctor, "you should check him out immediately."

Maestro gave them the finger when the snickers started.

"Are you certain, Maestro?" Czar asked.

"We've got eyes on her," Code pointed out. "We keep someone on her all the time."

"I want her out," Maestro reiterated. "But if I choose that path, it will be for me, not her, and not the other women caught up in this mess. She wouldn't forgive something like that."

"You going to be able to live with this choice?" Savage asked. "Think about it, Maestro. Things can go to hell fast. We all know that. We've lived through it."

He had been thinking about it. He'd been thinking of nothing else. It wasn't as if he could move in with her, lock himself to her side. He had the feeling Billows would sweep her up the moment he realized she was with Maestro.

"I know what can go wrong. I'm putting a tracker on her tomorrow when I take her out."

"She knows his entire business. She might not know what he's doing, where that illegal money is coming from, but if she turned on him and talked to the Feds, he would go down fast," Master said. "What I'm saying, Maestro, is that Billows might decide to kill her, not traffic her."

"What the fuck is wrong with all of you?" Maestro demanded. "I'm finally trying to do the right thing here, not for me, but for those women we're looking for and for Azelie. You're all trying to talk me out of it. It isn't going to take that much."

But he'd lose her. He'd have to go to the grave never admitting the truth to her. The lies would stand between them for the rest of his life. She would always know something was wrong because she had intuition, awareness. Especially when it came to him. She saw inside him where few others ever did. That was part of the reason he had leapt with both feet down the path he was taking them on. She saw him—the real man under his armor—and she was okay with that. She even seemed to admire that man. Definitely she wanted him.

Maestro was not only certain that Azelie was attracted to him physically—the chemistry between them was off the charts—but convinced she could love him. He'd never once thought that of another human being. Not even his Torpedo Ink brothers and sisters. They were loyal and protective toward him and even affectionate, but it wasn't what Czar had with Blythe. Or what Savage had with Seychelle. He needed what Savage had. A woman willing to love him despite his many flaws.

"Do we want to put it to the vote?" Czar asked again. "If Maestro is right, and he reads people better than any of us, he will lose his woman if we take away her ability to choose to help."

"She isn't choosing," Lana pointed out. "No matter which way a vote goes, she isn't choosing, we are."

Maestro knew that was true, but he also knew what her choice would be.

"Can't risk pulling her out or letting her in on what we're doing," Reaper stated. "Sorry, brother, she may look in control when she's talking with Billows, but she's scared out of her mind. Anyone with a brain should be able to see that. Billows is an asshole."

That much was true as well.

"He sees only what he wants to see," Mechanic said. "He wants a behavior, and he uses threats and intimidation to get his way. He does it with his employees as well."

"When we work something this hot, we can't afford to bring in an untried person," Steele agreed. "I'm sorry. Maestro, I'm with you. I think if we lose this opportunity, we're not going to get it back. You know how I am with Breezy. I don't want her out of my sight. I lost my mind when I first had her back. And I'm not much better now, although I'm trying to give her freedom." Even as he said it, he winced visibly. "She understands when we communicate. If Azelie is the woman you think she is, it's my belief she'll understand the reasons why you left her in play without telling her what's going on."

There it was. Steele was one of his closest brothers. He and Keys guarded the vice president and his family. Steele didn't like having them watch his back so closely until Breezy and Zane, his son, came back into the fold. When it came to needing control, Steele was right up there with Savage and Maestro. He was over-the-top protective and needed to know where his woman was at all times. Breezy gave him that. Maestro was fairly certain Azelie would give him that same consideration without freaking out or thinking he was doing it just to control her. She would recognize he was working hard to overcome those needs that had been ingrained in him since his childhood.

"I'm making the call," he decided. "She's mine. I'm asking for everyone's help in keeping her safe until we get this taken care of."

"She going to be okay that you played her?" Gavriil asked.

"She'll be pissed." He amended that. "Hurt. She'll be hurt at first, but once I explain it to her, she'll understand. She's like that. Hate hurting her for any reason, but we need the information Billows can give us to get to the next level. We also need to get those women out before they're sold."

Czar indicated the screen to Code. "Keep playing it. We need to see where the door is and how she got in."

"It isn't a key," Master observed as they watched Azelie stand in front of the wooden wall. "Anyone count how many steps she took?"

"Seventeen," Alena said. "She doesn't have a long stride either."

"I've got her stride down," Maestro assured them as they all kept their eyes glued to the screen.

Azelie stopped in the hall, facing the wood. She took something from her pocket, palmed it, and then adhered her hand to a spot on the wall among the intricate carvings. Her fingers were splayed, and she pressed whatever was in her palm tight against the wall.

"Her fingerprints are being scanned," Code observed, moving closer to the big screen. "Look at the color around each finger. It's faint, but it's there. There's some kind of electronic plate there, and her fingerprints are critical."

"I can lift her prints," Maestro said. "That won't be a problem. But it's more than her prints. Whatever she palmed is also being scanned. That's what I need to find. I have to know what that is."

"My guess is a chip of some kind," Code said. "That's what it has to be."

"He's got two kick-ass clubs that are full every night," Player said. "Both clubs bring in massive amounts of money, but he isn't satisfied. He doesn't have that kind of security on either of the clubs, which is insane."

"Not if you're training women as sex slaves and intend to sell them to the highest bidder," Czar said. "You need a large space where you can hold them where no one can find them. You need another space to train them, and then you must have a setup for an auction. After that, you still need to ship them out without getting caught."

"Hence the rooms beneath his underground Adventure Club," Transporter said. "And the extra security."

The door slid open, and Azelie stepped into a narrow staircase lit only by LED lights. Those LEDs were dim, throwing off enough light to illuminate the stairs and that was it. The stairs seemed to have walls close on either side. Azelie descended cautiously.

"Her heart rate doubled," Code reported.

Maestro found his heart rate accelerated right along with Azelie's. Her descending that steep staircase in such poor lighting gave off the feel of a very real horror film. Ominous. Sinister. Downright evil. He'd lived in a hell. All of Torpedo Ink had. They'd come from brutal torture, pedophiles for instructors. They were forced to become assassins at a very early age and became outstanding at it. Still, seeing the darkness as she descended slowly felt the same to him as the thousands of times he had been forced into the basement dungeon located below the school where he grew up.

"Mine has as well," Alena reported.

"You're not alone," Lana confessed. "I hate this for her."

Azelie turned to the right at the end of the stairs. They caught a glimpse of another corridor to the left, but once she made that turn, it was impossible to see anything but what was directly in front of her.

"She's doing something with her hand," Ice said. "Go back a couple of frames, Code."

"The hand she's holding the chip or whatever it is," Storm agreed. "See, right there, she fished in her pocket and took out a chain. A necklace of some kind."

She appeared to do it automatically, but she turned her jacket slightly, just enough for the camera to see her push her hand into her pocket and come up with a chain. It was long and made of what appeared to be silver.

"You see that before?" Czar asked.

Maestro shook his head. "She has jewelry on her nightstand in a little box but no necklaces. It's cheap stuff. Cute but cheap. I couldn't find a safe."

"I thoroughly searched her apartment three times," Keys said. "I didn't see that chain either. Or find a safe."

Azelie hesitated briefly just before an open door. She pushed what appeared to be a tiny square into a pendant hanging on the chain. The pendant looked like a small envelope charm. She put the chain around her neck and then dropped the pendant inside her clothing.

"That's what you're going to be looking for, Keys, when I take her out tomorrow night," Maestro said. "We get that, we're in."

Keys studied the picture frozen on the screen. She had placed the chip in the envelope charm so quickly, her hand shielding the item, but at least they knew where it was. It was a matter of finding where she kept the necklace.

"We'll need eyes on her all the time. She doesn't have a safety deposit box at the bank, does she?" Czar asked.

Code answered. "No. And she would always need access to that part of the key. Billows seems to call her randomly. This crisis is most likely because he's been informed his money has disappeared from his various accounts and no one can trace it. He's acting out of character from what Azelie told Maestro."

"No shit. I'd be flipping too if fifty million dollars disappeared into thin air," Master said. "A little more than fifty million," he corrected, "but who's counting?"

"I think Billows is. He made bank with trafficking," Transporter said.

"And a few other illegal businesses," Code said. "The man knows people. Has the information we need. When we make our move on him, we need to be certain we keep him alive until we have a chance to get that information." He glanced at Destroyer and then Savage.

Savage grinned at him and held up both hands. "Some men are pansy asses. They give up before we can extract the information. Just sayin'."

Maestro knew he was full of shit. They all did. Savage didn't like pedophiles or traffickers. He made that known to them immediately and he did so in extreme ways. He knew how to keep an informant alive and make them suffer the worst pain imaginable, but there were times when his disgust and need for vengeance outweighed his desire to allow the informant to talk.

Savage had it particularly difficult as a child. Intellectually, Maestro knew they all had suffered tremendously, but to him, what happened to Savage was some of the worst. They had turned him into a sexual sadist, unable to get off without causing his partner pain. Hell of a thing for any man to live with, especially when you loved the woman more than life. There had been a time Torpedo Ink had worried they would lose him. They'd come close until Seychelle had entered into his life. Maestro almost managed to fuck that up with his idiotic advice to the two of them.

He ran his fingers through his hair in agitation. What was he thinking? How was he supposed to do the right thing for his woman when he didn't have a clue about relationships? He detested most women. He didn't believe a word coming out of their mouths. They seemed to delight in betraying their man. The only good ones were the ones married to his brethren and Alena and Lana. The rest of the world of females seemed fucked up to him. Or maybe he was the one fucked up. More than likely, he was.

"Maestro." Czar used his low, commanding voice. "We're going forward with the recording. Has anyone else noticed that it's eerily silent? We can't hear her breathing, and we should be able to, shouldn't we, Mechanic?"

Mechanic was the king of gadgets. He continually came up with new and unique designs for keeping eyes and ears on their enemies as well as communication devices.

His head went up alertly. "Damn it, the lower she goes into that hellhole, the more the audio is affected. He has it soundproofed down there, but I didn't think that would matter."

"Jamming device?" Transporter asked, moving up beside his birth brother.

Maestro stopped with the introspection, his heart clenching hard in his chest. Azelie's heart rate had accelerated. The camera was still sending that data, and they could see the shadows of grays in front of her as she approached the office. What they couldn't do was hear anything.

Billows waited for her, pacing back and forth. He swung around and snapped something at her, but she wasn't looking directly at his face, so they couldn't read his lips. She made her way to the desk and sank into an office chair. That was bad. The camera was pointed at the computer, not at Billows, and they didn't have audio.

Mechanic swore under his breath. "Sorry, Maestro. I thought we'd have it all when she went in."

The worst of it was, there was no doubt that Azelie was frightened. She held it together, but Maestro couldn't see her. He could only read her heart rate, and at times it was frantic. Once, she changed positions in the chair, shoving away from the desk, and they caught a glimpse of Billows coming close.

"The discussion is a long one," Lana said. "I can't see her directly, but I've caught several glimpses of her reflected in the computer screen. Can you enhance that, Code?"

Maestro looked to Code, the miracle worker. Code immediately tried to adjust the screen on the scene he'd frozen. He stepped closer as if that would get him what he wanted—her safety. Could he leave her hanging out there virtually unprotected to finish what they'd started more than two years earlier? Did having relationships make you indecisive?

"I'm sorry, Savage," he murmured aloud. "Really sorry, brother. I'll go to Seychelle and apologize to her."

"You did apologize to her, multiple times, Maestro," Savage reminded him.

"Yeah, I know, but I didn't mean it the way I do now," he admitted. "I told her I was sorry, and I was, but it was because I hurt her. Seychelle isn't a woman who ever deserves that kind of hurt. She didn't think I wanted her with you. I'm sorry for making her feel that way. I was trying to save the two of you, keep her from getting hurt when things got extreme, but I still didn't understand."

Savage touched him briefly on the shoulder. Savage rarely touched anyone other than Seychelle unless he was interrogating them—and no one wanted to be the man Savage was questioning. It was shocking to Maestro that Savage gave him that brief moment of affection and reassurance. And it meant a whole hell of a lot, especially when he felt so confused and frustrated.

Maestro didn't do well in the world of confusion or frustration. It was the reason he always maintained control and demanded it in his life. It was safer for him and everyone around him. Not knowing whether to allow Azelie choices when her life could be in danger was maddening. He was a decisive man. He was in charge.

He guarded their vice president for a reason. Every move was instinctive and precise. He could easily run an army if need be. His brain worked at high speed to solve puzzles, particularly problems that put those he cared about in jeopardy. Yet now, when he needed clear thinking the most, he found emotions hampered him.

"I can see her reflection much clearer on the screen," Lana reported. "What about everyone else?"

All of them could lip-read, but Reaper was particularly adept at it. He appeared totally absorbed as he stared at the screen.

"She's telling him she doesn't have the skills to track money that was stolen from the accounts. She's being upfront with him about what kind of specialist he needs."

It was all Maestro could do to keep from laying his hand on the screen. He wanted to touch her. To hold her close. In the reflection, her expression appeared surprisingly serene, but they had the evidence of a pounding heart to clue them in to the fact that she was terrified.

"Look at that woman of yours holding it together," Reaper said, awe in his voice. "She knows he's an asshole and dangerous, but she's standing up to him. I have no idea what he's saying to her, but she's not letting him walk on her."

"Can you tell what the conversation is about?" Lana asked. "It seems intense."

Reaper shook his head. "She turned her head, and I can't see her mouth anymore. I suspect she's looking directly at him."

"Another spike in her heart rate," Code reported. "Big-time."

"I'm looking as close as possible at her reflection in the screen," Reaper said. "I can see the side of her face, but there doesn't appear to be a change in her expression. That woman is pure ice." He grinned at Maestro. "You've got your work cut out for you living a lifetime with that one."

"I can read her." Maestro was confident he could. She might try to hide from him, but he was too adept at reading people. It was a gift, instincts he'd developed and honed over the years. He didn't miss the slightest nuance when he was with others. He knew when someone lied. He knew when they were uncomfortable. He knew when women were attracted to him. He was always aware of the most dangerous man in the room and kept his eye on him. He knew who was a bully and who was the real deal.

He'd started out learning the hard way about deception and betrayal. After years of living with both deception and betrayal on a regular basis, it wasn't difficult to begin to see the signs in people the moment he met them. He had been so ready to condemn Azelie, and yet, despite what she'd gone through, she was honest. A ray of sunshine in his dark world.

"She has a protective streak in her a mile wide," he informed the others. "She actually tried to protect me from Billows. No doubt, she will again."

Lana and Alena flashed him a smile. Savage scowled. The others exchanged worried looks.

"Spit it out," he invited.

"You can't have your woman standing in front of you, Maestro," Savage counseled. "I'm serious. You're going to have to stop being the good guy and make it very clear she's to do what you say. She's in a very dangerous position and she needs to understand you're the man to trust. What you say goes."

Maestro didn't need to be reminded. "Not a pussy, Savage. And I'm not whipped. I'm still feeling my way with her. I trust her, but she isn't there with me yet. Her instincts are to run."

"Girl's got good instincts," Alena murmured. "You can be overbearing, Maestro, sweet and gentle, but you're always going to want your way. That can be trying to independent women."

"She's a pleaser," Maestro said. "She thinks for herself, but she likes to do things for others. If I can find a way to win her trust completely, I'll have it all."

This time he did touch the screen, his touch as gentle as Alena had claimed he was. There was a lump in his throat and a fist of heat in his gut just looking at her.