Chapter 27

TWENTY-SEVEN

A very scared, brown-eyed woman in a pink nightie stood trembling next to Martin. Cat was now sitting alone in the chair, her face perfectly blank. Her hands clasped tightly in her lap, knuckles white. She, too, was having a hard time not putting a stop to this.

The woman now front and center was the third such woman who Gavin had brought in from the movie room. The first woman who had been sold was a blonde. Phillip Buchannan, the first-time buyer, had taken her straight to one of the bedrooms. The second woman had been escorted to another room while the buyer remained in his seat.

Eden’s gaze went around the room, stopping on me to smile.

This must be the ‘pretty little thing’ she’d mentioned.

Martin gave his sick-fuck speech about the woman and started the bidding.

“Brick,” I called out, my hundred-thousand-dollar bid.

Eden’s smile widened.

I waited for a few other bids to come in, noting Phillip was watching closely.

A sick-fuck in training.

I heard a glass shatter. Dale looked to the stairs. Neither Eden nor Martin looked concerned.

“Half a rock,” I called out.

The half a million-dollar bid caught Dale’s attention.

Everyone else in the room shook their heads and relaxed.

“Mr. Barker.”

I stood to claim my prize. Made short work of hooking the now out of her mind with fear woman around the waist and looked at Martin.

“Any available room,” he answered my unasked question.

The poor girl’s body was shaking uncontrollably by the time we entered the bedroom.

There were many parts of this job that sucked. Having to breathe the same air as the dredges of society was one. Having to watch women be paraded like cattle another. Being close to a woman who was violently quaking thinking I had just purchased her and was going to violate her…was a different kind of hell and there was nothing I could do at the moment to ease her mind. I couldn’t take the chance she’d blow my cover.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Whatever you want,” she whispered her trained response.

“No, sweetheart, your real name?” I tried again.

The woman just stared at me with pretty brown eyes that indeed reminded me of Atlee’s. Though they held none of Atlee’s fiery spark.

“I want you to go sit on the bed and no matter what you hear I want you to stay in this bedroom.”

“Whatever you want,” she meekly replied, already resigning herself to her supposed fate.

I waited until the woman sat on the bed before I slipped out of the room and quietly shut the door behind me. I reached down to pull my Sig P365 from my ankle holster. Not my sidearm of choice but the easiest to conceal.

I inched closer to the end of the hallway. My molars clenched when I heard a woman crying behind the closed door I stopped in front of.

There was a special place, an infinite inferno of pain for men who hurt innocent women and men.

The woman’s cries turned into sobs.

Just as I was at my breaking point, the need to get into that room and help her an overwhelming urge, all hell broke loose in the family room.

I came around the corner, Sig up, ready to find my target, when Catarina violently attacking Martin distracted me from zeroing in on Dale. A swarm of black-clad men had taken over the room but it was clear which one was Jack. He was moving to Cat and Martin. Eden was already facedown, easily subdued. All of them were buyers in various positions of arrest.

I spotted Dale taking off toward the stairs. Two men stepped in front of him. Dale’s gaze swept the room and found me.

“You’re fucking dead,” he threatened.

Not the first time I’d heard that.

“The line is long before you’ll get your turn,” I returned. “And if you think Rohan’s your ace, think again. You’re nothing but a piece of shit American. He won’t help you.”

One of the Marshals stepped forward and jerked an arm behind Dale’s back.

Dale’s smile sent chills down my spine.

“Good luck.”

Fuck.

“Don’t need luck, asswipe.”

I had other more important shit to do than listening to scum spout meaningless threats.

“You’re right. Luck won’t help her.”

Her.

That got my attention.

I was across the room with my hand around Dale’s throat before a Marshal could stop me.

“I see you think you’ve got bigger balls than you actually have. You obviously know who I am, but make no mistake, motherfucker, you don’t know me,” I growled and lowered my face to his, enjoying the fear in his bulging eyes. “One more word about my woman and you won’t make the inside of a cell. I’ll end you.”

I shoved him back into the awaiting Marshal.

“Take this piece of shit out of here.”

“She’s already gone,” Dale choked. “You did that all on your own.”

He’d been watching Atlee so of course he knew she’d left.

Fucking dick.

Joan came into view and I almost didn’t recognize the woman in jeans, a black, long-sleeve shirt under her vest, black baseball cap pulled low, a grim scowl despite the flawless execution. There were two women besides, both dressed similarly. Joan paused in front of the movie theater door and I watched her pull in a fortifying breath before she and her companions entered.

I knew what that breath said.

I knew what it felt like to face a group of victims and wish the relief of being rescued could wash away the trauma they’d endured—yet, it couldn’t.

I turned back to the room and watched Jack sweep a furious Catarina off her feet. Her face went to his throat and he angrily stomped out the door to the outside patio.

There was definitely something going on there.

I hoped Jack knew what he was doing. Not that I had any room to speak on the matter, seeing as I’d royally fucked up with Atlee.

Soon.

I’d fix that soon.

Shouting from the back bedroom spurred me into action. I quickly made my way back to the room I’d left victim number three in. When I entered, her back was pressed to the wall, her hands in front of her warning off the Marshal who was trying to get her back with the other women.

“Miss—” He tried but the woman shook her head.

“He told me to stay here no matter what. He’ll be angry if I leave.”

I stepped closer and put my hand on the Marshal’s shoulder.

“I got it.”

He stepped to the side. The terrified woman stared at me.

“My name is Wilson. I work with the Sex Offender Investigative Branch. It’s a unit within the Marshal service that finds women like you. You’re safe now.”

“You…bought me,” she sobbed.

“I didn’t buy you…” Damn, I didn’t know her name. “What’s your name?”

She didn’t answer.

“Will you come with me? I want to introduce you to one of my colleagues. Her name is Joan. She’s going to help you.”

The woman’s eyes turned wild.

“No. They said if I talk they’d take my sister, too. She has a family. Two little girls. They’ll take them, too.”

Motherfuckers.

“They can’t hurt you or your sister.”

“They—”

“Sweetheart, they’ve all been arrested. You’re safe. No one is going to hurt you.”

“But you bought me!” she shouted, her fear finally morphing into anger.

“I did, to keep you safe.”

The woman dashed forward. Her hands came up and she pounded on my chest.

“You. Bought. Me.” Each word was accompanied with another fist to my chest.

My insides warred. I wanted to hold her through her pain, but I didn’t dare touch her. That was, until her legs gave out. Then with no other option I caught her and scooped her up.

“You’re safe,” I told her again, knowing it was fruitless. It would take a long time before the woman in my arms felt safe. And after that, she’d spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder afraid.

I was carrying the woman through the family room when Jack tore through the back door.

“Wilson.”

At first glance my teammate looked almost scared. His clipped tone wasn’t much better.

“Let me get her to Joan.”

“Hurry.”

Unfortunately, it took some time for me to convince the woman to stay with Joan.

By the time I got back to Jack he was on his phone. Catarina was standing next to him, her dress torn, wisps of hair pulled free from her fancy twist. She was barefoot and blood coated her hands. She, too, was on her phone.

“What’s going on?”

Jack’s hard gaze lifted and he snarled, “Turn on your phone. Atlee’s missing.”

Atlee’s missing.

No, that wasn’t right.

Atlee was in Montana, safe.

The room became hazy. It started to spin as I pulled my phone out of my pocket. My chest was a mess of emotions by the time I powered it on. And when I saw I had twenty-two missed calls my vision turned red.

“Rhode’s tracked her watch.”

Jack’s words barely registered.

“The last location he has is Lima.”

Peru?

You’re right. Luck won’t help her.

She’s already gone.

You did that all on your own.

“Where’s Louis?” I roared.

Two brunettes.

“He has a buyer in Buenos Aires.”

Catarina flinched before she informed me, “Your man tapped the security feed at LAS. Louis nabbed her from the Delta terminal. I’m working on getting flights out of the executive terminal now.”

“Mrs. S has been trying to get in touch with you all day. Atlee’s phone has been going to voicemail for two days.”

Two days.

Two. Fucking. Days.

She’s already gone.

Red-hot fury seeped in. Slowly at first, building as it oozed into my blood. Soaked my soul until there was nothing left of me but overpowering rage.

I ran up the stairs taking them two at a time, through the formal living room, out the front door, and down the driveway.

Whatever humanity I had left in me snapped when I yanked Dale free from the Marshal who was putting him into the back of an SUV. Dale’s eyes flared with fear before he smiled.

“I see—”

My fist landed on his jaw, followed by my elbow. His head snapped to the side, blood flung from his mouth.

“Where is she?”

He spat out a mouthful of red tinged saliva and shook his head.

My next two blows were to his kidneys.

“We can do this all night, asshole. Where is she?”

“Gone.”

The rage flowing through me went incendiary.

I was blinded by fury and indescribable fear. I had no control. Strike after strike, damaging flesh, bone, and muscle. My fists collided with Dale until a strong arm went around my neck and pulled me back.

“Enough,” Jack snarled. “Rhode has a lead.”

I was wasting time.

Time Atlee didn’t have.

I sucked in a breath that felt like fire searing my lungs.

You did that all on your own.

Fuck.

Atlee was gone and it was me who’d put her in harm’s way.