Exchange

by Katherine Rhodes

  “One million, Mister Castor,” came the voice that opposed my bids. “That’s impressive for your first-time purchase. And two?”

  “I haven’t been able to make up my mind about a boy or girl and that was the easiest solution.” I wanted to chew my own tongue out of my head. I watched the man walk around from behind my seat and had to do everything in my power not to gasp.

  Mister Belmont was my biggest account, David Greene Maguire.

  “Well, congrats. I was going to give the boy to my son for this birthday, but I shall have to find something else to please his palate now.”

  Holy shit, they were passing on their perversions.

  He slapped a hand on my shoulder. “A million is just too rich for my blood, no matter how good of a financier you are. There’s plenty of ass out there to buy.”

  He laughed. I laughed. Vince laughed.

  I died a little more inside.

  “Good luck with them, Mister Castor. If you need help training them, let me know. I have some excellent break men on my staff.”

  “Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.” I nodded gratefully.

  He walked away, and Vance grabbed my shoulder to keep me from rolling forward. “Boss?”

  “How are you not reacting to this?” I asked.

  “War is Hell, Linc. I’ve seen worse. Not much, but I have.”

  Half the reason I’d hired Vance was for his time in the SEALs, and I realized his excellence as a bodyguard wasn’t the only thing he had brought back from overseas.

  It took another twenty minutes before it was time to pay for my purchase. The auctioneer, an older man with a snappy suit and slicked back white hair approached with a man who was clearly the accountant.

  “Mister Castor. How would you like to handle this transaction? This is one of the largest—”

  “Eurobond.”

  “What?” the auctioneer asked, as the accountant’s eyes went wide.

  I pulled out my phone and unlocked the screen. “Euroyen. Will that be okay?”

  “I’m not sure what…” The man glanced at the accountant, who was nodding vigorously. “That will be just fine, apparently.”

  Essentially, I was paying with a Japanese yen bond that had been issued in Luxembourg, a non-yen native market, and they were sort of a form of bearer bond. They might be electronic, but they were only a number held in a clearing house. I’d had Vance buy up enough of them and open an account to store them.

  “I need your deposit information to transfer,” I said, opening the app that would allow me to do just that.

  It also had a number capture installed.

  The accountant took the phone and tapped in the transfer information on the screen and hesitated to hand it back. I nodded. “You can hit the transfer button, if that makes you feel better. I still have to scan my fingerprint into the phone to verify.”

  He nodded and tapped the screen, handing the phone back. I held my ring finger against the scanner in the back when the word Verify? appeared on the app.

  Confirmed. $1,000,000 in Euroyen bonds transfer to specified account.

  The accountant looked at the iPad he was carrying and we waited. A minute went by and he nodded. “I’ll have them cashed by Luxembourg now.” He walked off a little way, and found a flat surface to work on. His fingers flew over the front of the device and in less than three minutes, he was back.

  “All clear. A firm in London purchased at face plus interested,” he nodded.

  Money, laundered.

  “Mister Castor, please follow me,” the auctioneer said, and motioned us to the cages in the back.

  A blast of fear shot through me. I had to be careful in the next few minutes so these kids could get out of the building and away from this life. I wished I had been able to buy all the kids, but as Haden had proved last time, once we knew who they were purchased by, she and her officers, as well as the FBI could recover a lot of them in just a few weeks.

  There were only three missing from the first auction, and Ben was still one of them. I was so pissed Frankford had him and we couldn’t find the boy.

  They had put the underwear and shirts back on the twins, and they were still sitting in the corner, clinging to each other. They looked just as petrified as they had on stage. Now, though, they were wearing collars.

  “Did you bring your own leashes?”

  “Yes.” Vance stepped forward and held out two leashes with clips on them.

  The man grabbed them and yanked the two of them out of the corner to stand in the middle of the room. He grabbed the link on the girl’s collar and snapped the leash on. He was no kinder to the boy.

  Offering the handles to Vance, he walked out of the room. The auctioneer smiled and motioned to the door. “They are all yours, Mister Castor. It was pleasure doing business with you.”

  Children, acquired.

  “Likewise,” I managed and motioned Vance to lead the children out of the cage. I could see that we both wanted desperately to bend down and tell them we were getting them out of there.

  They didn’t resist, though, and just clung to each other, the boy crying softly as his sister stroked his hair as they fumbled along. Vance went ahead of me to lead them, and I walked just behind them.

  “Just examining your purchase, Mister Castor?”

  “Yes, indeed. I think I’ve got a lot of potential with both of them. I’ll have to train them and decide which to keep.”

  “Or, keep both. They can be fun together.”

  Jesus. Christ. They were all perverts.

  “Madam Richmond is pleased you’ve decided to purchase,” the auctioneer said. “She has been concerned people would seek to fill their needs elsewhere after the…uh…incident with Mister Passyunk.”

  “Ah, yes,” I said. “Heart attack, wasn’t it?”

  “So they tell us.”

  The skepticism in his voice was clear. “You don’t believe that?”

  He gave me a sidelong glance as we walked. “You haven’t been in this world long enough to realize that you should never, ever take what others say at face value. It’s not that we wouldn’t trust the medical examiner on this, it’s that the ME wasn’t looking for the right thing.”

  “So, murder?”

  Offering nothing more than a one shoulder shrug, he watched the children ahead of us. “We learned our lesson there. No one person can be trusted with the keys to the kingdom.”

  “A wise move, always,” I mumbled.

  Vance reached the door and waited for me. I cocked my head, and held my hand out to take the leashes.

  “Right back with the car.” He opened the door and stepped out.

  “You could just make them walk. They are yours.”

  “I don’t want to damage what I just spent a million dollars on,” I answered simply.

  “Good point.” He nodded. “It was the highest purchase we’ve had here. Usually we stay under one hundred thousand. So you’ve really stepped in boldly.”

  “I don’t dip my toes into anything,” I said. “I jump in headfirst and let my speedos ride down.”

  The auctioneer let out a hardy laugh as Vance pulled up with the limo. He walked around and opened the passenger door, and walked back into retrieve the leashes. With a nod, he led them out and shoved them, not carefully, into the back of the limo.

  “Thank you for your time,” I said with a nod.

  “Thank you for your payment. I hope you will join us again soon. There are always more options at the next auction.”

  I inclined my head and walked outside. Vance said and did nothing as I climbed in, save to close the door behind me and climb in the driver’s seat.

  The screen was down between the driver’s area and the passenger, but the car was dark inside. We pulled smoothly away from the building and made it to the side road that would take us back toward Philadelphia.

  I reached over and flicked on the floor lighting and found the twins on the floor, shaking with tears wetting their faces. They wer
en’t sobbing anymore, but they were terrified.

  Slipping off the bench, I sat on the floor with them.

  “I’m going to take the leash and collars off, okay?”

  The boy’s lipped trembled, but he nodded for both of them.

  “Please,” the little girl breathed.

  My fingers felt fat, and I fumbled with the clasps on the collars. “Please what, honey?”

  “Please don’t hurt us,” she whispered.

  I gave up on the clasps. The collars were buckles and my nervous fingers were better there. I had hers off in an instant and his a moment later. I threw them over the partition into the front seat. “Evidence bag,” I called to Vance, who nodded.

  I backed up just a little bit and looked at the two of them. “We’re not going to hurt you, at all. What are your names?”

  The little boy swallowed. “You haven’t told us.” His eyes flicked to his sister and she nodded.

  God, these fuckers had nearly, nearly broken these two. I shook my head. “No, bub. I want your real names. What did your parents call you?”

  They hesitated, and I could see the fear coursing through them. It was also freezing, and I could see them trembling from the cold as well. Backing up a bit, I lifted the seat of the bench, and pulled out two blankets. “Here. Stay warm. I don’t want you to get sick.”

  The girl took the blankets and first wrapped her brother up, then herself. They had moved so they could sit with their backs to the partition, and they were watching me with shockingly gorgeous green eyes that was topped with white blond hair.

  “Please tell me your names?”

  “Our real names are—”

  “Ssh,” the girl snapped. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “Honey, I didn’t buy you to hurt you, or break you, or make you my slave,” I said. “I bought you because we needed information to stop those people from stealing and selling more children to evil people.”

  “I don’t think he’s going to hurt us,” the boy whispered. “Can we just try to tell him our names and see if it’s okay?”

  She thought for a minute, the concern on her face magnified by the way she was chewing on her bottom lip. After a minute, she nodded.

  The little boy looked at me. “I’m Timothy.”

  The little girl let out a breath. “I’m Tabitha.”

  I smiled carefully. “My name is Lincoln. And the man driving is named Vance. We aren’t here to hurt you. We needed information on how those people work and what they do. When we saw you in those cages we decided we needed to get you two out of there with that information.”

  They looked at each other, and Timothy spoke, “You’re really not going to hurt us.”

  “Not even close,” I said. “Do you think you’re up for a few questions, or would you like some food? We can stop and get something.”

  “I am very, very hungry,” Tabitha said.

  “They wouldn’t give her much to eat,” Timothy added. “They said she was fat, and she should get used to living on lettuce and a bit of apple.”

  “I’m not fat,” Tabitha whispered.

  “No, you’re not,” I stated. “Vance?”

  “There’s a McDonald’s up ahead,” he answered. “That good?”

  “Perfect.” I grinned and winked at the kids.

  “You’re really not going to hurt us…” Timothy said.

  “No, we’ll even try to get you home to your family,” I answered.

  Tabitha bit her lip. “Could we maybe not go back to Canton?”

  “Ohio?” I asked, storing that information. “Why ever not? I’m sure that someone there would be eager to see you.”

  Timothy answered, “No one wanted us.”

  I took a deep breath. “Well. I wanted you, and I wanted you safe.”

  That made them shiver a bit and I cursed at myself. That was the wrong way to say it. “No. No one is going to hurt you. No one is going to touch you in a way that makes you feel bad. Not on purpose.” I glanced between them. “Do you have a last name?”

  “Governor,” Timothy answered after clearly consulting with his sister with a simple look.

  I wanted to just pull them on to my lap and tell them everything was going to be fine. And it would be now. But I didn’t want to scare them again. I had a hundred more questions for them, but Wren had impressed upon me that I shouldn’t rapid fire questions at any children we rescued. She wanted to see them before we grilled them.

  Reaching across the limo, I pulled open the mini fridge under the bench and pulled out two bottles of water. The bottle of cheap vodka was tempting, but I’d had too much already. I held them out for the two of them.

  “Thirsty?”

  “Yes please,” Tabitha said, taking one of the bottles. She cracked it open, and handed it to Timothy.

  That was just an example of her taking care of her brother. “Are you the older sister, Tabitha?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I’m ten minutes older. Timothy was always sick when we were littler and I had to do things for him.”

  “One time, I was really, really sick and I had to go into the hospital,” Timothy said. “Tabitha couldn’t stay with me and I didn’t like that at all. I didn’t like being away from her. We used to share a crib, then a big bed. Then, we got our own beds, but we were still in the same room.”

  “When we got big enough, Mom and Dad gave us our own rooms.”

  “But we put the beds on the same wall, so we knew where we were in the middle of the night.”

  These two were utterly fascinating. We had made the right choice.

  Paige stood next to me with the clipboard, and Wren walked back into the room from the observation room she had set the two kids up in.

  “They’re going to be okay,” she said. “We’re going to start some simple play therapy and it’s going to take a few months to get them to relax and start trusting other people. They like you, Lincoln. They seem okay with me, as well. Paige, you scared them, so…just hang back.”

  “We need to get them homes when they are out of the hospital.”

  “They’ll stay with me,” I said.

  “Lincoln—” Paige started.

  “No. They’re going to stay with me. They trust me and I promised no one would hurt them. I can better keep that promise if we aren’t shuttling them off to people they don’t know.”

  “You’re not set up in the system—”

  “Then set me up,” I snapped. “You really think I’m going to let these two just disappear into the system that has lost Benjamin already?”

  Paige paled, and I felt a pang of regret for just a moment. But she knew Ben wasn’t lost because of her, but because of the insanity of a man who was now dead. She nodded a moment later and started writing something on the clipboard.

  She stopped.

  “No. You know what? I’m not going to put them in the system at all.”

  Both Wren and I looked at her, shocked. She nodded to herself firmly. “No. I’m not. Give me a day. I have a different idea. I don’t think we need to put them in the system. I think you can just care for them without the formalities, and we’ll deal with that later.”

  Tucking the clipboard under her arm, she spun on her heel and walked out of the room.”

  I looked at Wren. “What the fuck just happened?”

  “I…I have no idea.”

  I blinked a few times and looked back at the two little kids I was now in charge of. “Can I take them home?”

  “No,” she said. “Not yet. They need to stay for observation. Tabitha has an upper respiratory infection and Timothy has a rash on his legs we want to get cleaned up.”

  Laying my hand on her arm, I turned her to look at me. “Whatever happens, make sure they stay together. If the policy is one bed, one patient, make sure they are in the same room. I’m telling you, they totally have that twin thing going and they need each other. They draw strength from each other.”

  “I will leave a directive in the psych no
tes.” She nodded. “I would also like a chance to talk to you, Lincoln. This has affected you, and I’m not sure you realize how much just yet. It’s important to work through this…”

  “There’s the shrink.” I smirked.

  “I’m quite serious.”

  “Yes, Doctor, I know you are. Give me a day. I’ll call and set up a time we can talk. You might want to bring Haden because I can’t tell you if I’m going to be able to walk through all that shit twice.”

  Nodding, she tucked her papers away. “I will. I have some things to take care of. I want you to go home and take care of yourself.”

  Surprising the shit out of me, she leaned up and gave me a sweet kiss on the cheek. “You’re not a terrible person, Lincoln. Stop hiding.”

  Before I could answer, she was gone from the room and it was just me and the two kids beyond. The two little lives I had spent one million dollars on to make sure that they would never suffer a moment more at the hands of those sick fucks.

  Fischer

  I danced my tongue around Wren’s navel, teasing the skin there, and she let out a sweet little laugh. Her simple giggle was like a bolt of lightning through my body.

  She trailed her fingers through my hair, sighing.

  “I can’t believe Lincoln spent a million of his own dollars on those kids,” she whispered.

  Nipping at the soft skin of her belly, I trailed my way up her body. “What’s surprising you more? The money or the kids?”

  “Both…oh…”

  My tongue traced circles around her nipple. Her nails dug lightly into my shoulders as I did, and she let out a few long breaths.

  There were times when she and I loved domination play, restraints, toys, teasing, all manner of sexual filth. Then there were times like this where all we wanted was hours of touching, tasting, sweet foreplay.

  “Do you ever feel like we’re missing…” Wren’s voice trailed off.

  Humming against the skin of her breast, I encouraged her to go on.

  “Feel like we’re missing something? Like there’s more to us than just you and I? That someone is keeping the truth from us?”

  Licking my way up to her creamy pale throat, I pressed my cock inside her as my lips kissed and sucked at her skin. She exhaled softly as I filled her, pushing deep. I held myself inside her, her velvet walls a caress on the most sensitive skin of my dick.