by Hart, Eve R.
“Alright,” he said with a nod as his eyes slid over to meet hers. “I’m going to work. See you in a bit.”
She leaned in and kissed him until his scowl turned into a smile.
“What’s up?” she asked once he was gone.
“Sketch is looking for someone he knows but hasn’t seen in a while,” I started and launched into basically the same things he had told me. I left most of his background out, keeping the whole thing of him living on the streets as vague as possible.
She seemed to understand enough not to ask questions.
So then we turned our focus to this Claire chick and what I had found on her.
Bridget’s eyes scanned over everything, which wasn’t that much but she didn’t seem discouraged.
“Any work history?” she asked not even looking at me.
“Not much. I’m guessing that if she’s had any jobs, they were under the table types. I do have this one place that did a background check on her about seven months ago.” I shuffled around until I found the name of the business. It was some kind of cleaning company. “But that was as far as that went. Maybe she applied for a job but they decided not to go with her or something.”
The business was clean, I’d looked into it. A local company with about twenty employees that cleaned everything from houses to office buildings.
“I also have a cell phone bill, but the number has since been disconnected and the address attached to the bill was a rental house that has since been condemned. It’s been torn down.”
“Did you find the owners of the house?” she asked.
“Nope. There’s a warrant out for their arrest. Check fraud. I’m guessing they are in the wind.”
“Well, shit,” she mumbled as her brows furrowed together. “Alright, print me up what you’ve got and I’ll go from there.”
“You sure? Don’t feel like you have to.”
“Yeah,” she answered with a smile. “The paperwork is all straight at the garage and I could use something to do.”
I sent her on her way with a warning to leave the second anything felt sketchy. Oh, and to call me if that did happen.
Not long after that, my phone pinged with a message from Mason.
We found the little girl.
Something in that message caused a huge sigh of relief to push its way out of me.
When Sketch and Lake had first gone out looking for information, they’d heard of a girl that was out there looking for her sister that had gotten nabbed. We’d been searching for her ever since. We had been worried that she’d gotten snatched up too. And while we wanted to talk to her because we hoped she might have more information for us, we also wanted to make sure she was safe.
I didn’t know anything about living on the streets. About not having a roof over my head or food to put in my belly. And I couldn’t even begin to imagine what that would be like. It was heartbreaking to know that this girl had been out there roaming around alone.
I got dressed and got myself down to the main building as fast as possible.
It didn’t surprise me to find everyone in the kitchen. Laurel was there. I assumed to be the calm and soft amongst all the big, scary men.
The girl was too skinny to be healthy. And it didn’t surprise me the way she was shoveling mouthfuls of food into her mouth, alternating between bites of a sandwich and handfuls of the chips that filled up her plate. I thought the girl needed some veggies, or at least fruit, but I wasn’t about to say anything.
“We just want to help you,” Laurel said softly as she sat across the table from the girl. “Can you tell us about the man that took your sister?”
Though the situation was intense and Laurel was taking it seriously, I got the sense that she was a little overjoyed to be a part of the club business. She was headstrong. B-ry had his hands full with her, that was for sure. And she wasn’t one to back down when she wanted to know what was going on. Given how close she was to this situation, I could see why Iron let her in. She was holding it together fairly well but I wondered if she would start to break down a little once the girl started to talk.
Her name was Leighanna and she was fourteen. Too young to be tossed into the situation that she was currently in. Yeah, my fucking heart ached for the poor girl. Her sister had been taking care of her for three years. Three damn years they had been out there on the streets. Not fucking right when the street life is safer than what they had at home. Just made me so sick. And I felt utterly helpless. Her story wasn’t a unique one and that made it even worse.
“There were two men. One of them… he had an accent and drifted in and out of some other language. But I got the feeling like the other guy couldn’t understand what he was saying when he didn’t speak English.”
Her voice was so small and way too tired sounding for someone so young. Just like her face. A deep sadness had already etched itself into her expressions and I knew it was one she’d never be able to shed.
“I just,” she said and I could see the tears pool in her eyes. “I need my sister back.”
And fuck if that didn’t gut me right then and there.
I wanted to make promises to her that I knew I might never be able to keep. But more than that… I wanted to make sure I kept them. But life sucked sometimes. And you had to find another way to make things right again.
So that was what I was going to do.
I walked out of the room, figuring that there wasn’t much left to get out of her. I nearly ran into Seven, the silent, creepy fuck. His eyes betrayed his cool, stoic exterior.
“Hard to hear,” I said with a hint of sadness.
“Harder to live, I imagine,” he replied back, his voice choked up with emotion. “Need to make this right.”
“We fuckin’ will, brother,” I said and gave his shoulder a firm squeeze.
CHAPTER FIVE
Claire
“There’s another one,” he barked at me, causing my body to twitch as my heart jumped into my throat. “You know what to do. Maybe if you’re a good girl, I’ll let you skip the party.”
Only he wouldn’t.
So there was no point in even getting my hopes up.
I held back a sarcastic huff and turned away from him.
I was on edge, coming down all too soon and it made me think that my body began to crave more than he was giving me. Which wasn’t good.
I knew what to do, though I despised it. My feet shuffled blindly, taking me to the room at the end of the hall. This was step one for the new girls. Next would come the cages. I should have felt lucky that I wasn’t in one of them, but I didn’t. I felt sick in the small freedom I’d been allowed. It wasn’t like I was really free. And I feared the day I would become too strung-out, too addicted, for him to keep around.
“What’s your name?” I asked and this would be the only time I’d talk. I couldn’t afford any more words.
Her eyes darted up to meet mine. They were tired and scared but I did my best not to let it get to me. Just like every other one.
I would have pegged her mid-teens, but maybe she simply had a small frame. There was something around the lines of her face that told me she was older. Something that made me pause for a good long second and really take her in.
Though I saw the hardness of the streets in her like all the others, I saw something more. This one would be hard to break and that thought alone made me smile on the inside.
She was me. Or I had been her, rather. At one time.
And there was no help for either one of us.
But I didn’t need to tell her that.
I hated him, my captor, almost as much as I hated myself.
She ran her dirty fingers over the skin on her arm. The movement caught my attention for a flicker of a second, enough for her to attempt to spring to her feet and nearly clip my jaw with her balled up fist.
I’d forgotten the rule. Or maybe I’d just stopped giving a fuck. None of them had given me any problems so far— not that it was something to be proud
of. And though I could clearly see it coming, I didn’t think she’d actually do it.
My toes met the other side of the red tape on the floor right as the chain halted her from coming any closer.
I didn’t smirk. I didn’t look smug. I simply closed my eyes and let out a deep breath, then repeated the same words I’d said before in a soft tone.
“What’s your name?”
“Destiny,” she said as she fell back on the floor and wrapped her arms around her legs.
Nina
Laney
Vivianna
Cate
Marcie
Adelle
Destiny
I repeated the names in my head two more times. I wouldn’t let myself forget. Not their names. Not their faces. Though I wasn’t sure why and I wouldn’t allow myself to figure it out.
One day.
One day, I would let it in.
But not today.
I walked around to the other side of the room and pulled out a towel. I tossed it in her direction then pointed to the tiled area in the corner where there was a shower head and a drain in the floor. Her tether would give her enough slack to make it there and take care of what she had to do.
There were no clothes to remove and none for her to put back on. I never thought about how she came to be that way. I couldn’t.
“You’re a piece of shit, just like them,” she spat at me but moved as I wanted her to.
I said nothing.
My face gave nothing away.
But I couldn’t deny that her words were right on point. I was no better than them— than him— and I knew it.
I watched as she washed herself and for a brief second, I saw her forget about everything and take pleasure in the hot water and soap. I got it. I sure did. Only, it wouldn’t last long, that feeling of having the nice things in life.
After she had shut off the water and dried herself, I pointed to the back wall. My eyes flickered to the towel on the floor and I hesitated. Not because I was afraid she’d come after me. For some reason, I wanted to give her a fighting chance even if it might get us both in trouble. I could see the fight there. And sure, it was only a towel, but a desperate enough person could find a use for anything. Could try to kill a man with something as simple as a towel. She could be the one that made it out of here. And I could be the one that helped her.
With a shake of my head, I moved as quickly as my tired body would let me and snatched up the towel. Then I left out the door without a look back.
I had barely made it back to my room before he came at me with heavy, angry steps.
“You hesitated.” His statement was all too knowing. I should have figured he’d be watching me. I couldn’t do a single thing without him knowing and he didn’t trust anyone. Well, except for his right-hand man but even then, I wondered if that had its limits.
Then he was on me, his massive body pinning me down to the bed and his hot breath on my face as he snarled at me.
“If I didn’t need you tonight I’d lock you up with the others. You are no better than them. Just for that, tonight you will see what happens when you test me.”
The loud crack of his hand hitting my cheek rang out. The ringing in my ear was so loud it forced my eyes to screw shut tightly.
The door slammed as he left me alone.
Tears filled my eyes and this time, I let them fall.
“I shouldn’t have left,” I said to Sketch as he wrapped his arm around me.
I said that every time I came crawling back.
The first time, my foster family had too many kids. They couldn’t control all of us let alone know what was going on when they weren’t looking. The boys stared a little too hard at my chest, but the girls were what did me in. The hair they cut. The burn marks they left on my skin. The slit on my neck that would heal in time but leave behind a horrible reminder of that night.
The second time, the man hated kids but his wife kept taking them in. There was no bed, which I should have been used to, but it was the night when I woke to find him standing in the doorway that forced me to go back to living in abandoned buildings and sleeping on dirty floors.
And this time, I’d been forced to drink out of the toilet while the other kids watched. I’d been denied food and even clothing. They left me locked in a closet for days.
So maybe the streets weren’t much better but with Sketch, I didn’t have to look over my shoulder as much. I knew he’d protect me and we all looked out for one another.
“You’re here now. Come on,” Sketch said softly.
That was all he needed to say for me to feel safe and loved again.
Things back then might not have been simple. Out there, it was as real as it could have gotten. Life on the streets was hard and unforgiving. But I had them and they were as close to family as I would ever have again.
And I walked away from them time and time again.
Then I reminded myself that he was the one that had left. Sketch had pulled himself up and out of the slums of the streets. He’d succeeded too, from what I’d heard.
And he’d left us all behind.
He said he’d always be there for me.
But that was just another lie I could add to the pile of false hopes that I’d latched onto my entire life. He was just like everyone else.
CHAPTER SIX
Cable
“You okay?” I asked immediately as I answered my phone after seeing Bridget’s name pop up on my screen.
“Yeah, don’t panic. I just wasn’t sure what to do…”
“Um, okay. Why?” I asked as I got to my feet and started to pace.
“So… I somehow ended up at the Gilded Rose.”
I stopped short wondering how the hell that had happened.
“What?” I asked because I needed to hear it again.
My mind scrambled to make a connection from Claire to the Gilded Rose.
“Well, I called the cleaning place and posed as someone from the unemployment office. You know, saying I needed to verify that Claire had been filling out the applications she said she was. That sort of thing. So they said yes and when I asked for the address they had on file so I could really make sure that they had looked, I got one that you didn’t have.”
She paused and I could tell she was trying to catch her breath so she could spill the rest of her story.
I had to give her credit, that was a pretty smart idea. I wouldn’t have thought of something like that. Then again, we had very different ways of going about things. It seems that it had been the right call to pull her into this. As long as it stayed on the safe side, that was.
From what I’d dug up, Petra Novak, the owner of the Gilded Rose wasn’t dangerous. Just a badass, cold businesswoman. And yeah, her business had to do with sex and an upscale form of prostitution, but it seemed that all of her girls were there willingly. Oh, and she took care of them, that was for sure. So, it couldn’t have been all that bad.
“I went to the address they gave me and sat there for a bit. Eventually, this guy walked out of the house and I thought it would be a good idea to follow him. Which led me here. I watched as he paced in front of the building. That lasted about five minutes before some of Petra’s bodyguards came out and took the guy around the corner. He came stumbling out a little rougher than he went down there.”
“How does this tie her to the Gilded Rose?” I asked.
“I’m not sure.”
“It could have been a false address she put down.”
I wouldn’t have put it past this Claire person. She seemed like the kind of girl that went through great lengths to keep herself under the radar. Whether it was intentional or not, I hadn’t figured that out yet.
“I thought about that too, but I feel like this guy was here looking for someone. Maybe it’s all coincidence, but I didn’t want to go in without seeing what you wanted to do.”
“Good call,” I said scratching my head. “Let me talk to Iron. Sit tight.”
I wasn’t looking forward to going to Iron with this. Not that it was really a big deal, but I’d sort of kept this whole thing from him. I was trying to be there for my brother and I had a feeling that Sketch didn’t want me spilling his shit to everyone. Not like I had much of a choice now and I was pretty damn sure that he’d understand. There was no time to track him down now and check.
“Got a minute?” I asked as I stepped into his office.
“No,” he answered half-jokingly.
I huffed out a laugh. I didn’t envy him and his position. I wouldn’t want it, that was for sure. I had a lot on my shoulders, I could only imagine multiplying that by a thousand. No fucking thank you!
I didn’t beat around the fucking bush. I sat and started launching into it even before my ass hit the chair. I explained how I’d been looking into this Claire girl for Sketch in my spare time— not like I really had that. But he seemed to understand and wasn’t pissed. He knew I couldn’t sit around when my leads went dry and that I had to stay busy in some way. That was what kept my mind going because even if I was doing one thing, my wheels were always spinning with angles I could dig into on something else.
This was the part that made me cringe.
I explained how I’d pulled Bridget into it because I not only needed help, but knew I couldn’t split my time that much.
I expected him to get a little unhappy. But to my surprise, his face remained blank and his posture an odd combination of stoic and relaxed.
“Her search led her to the Gilded Rose and she’s waiting to see what you want to do before going in and asking questions,” I finished up. Sure, she hadn’t said that specifically, but I knew her well enough to know that was the plan she was going with.
He sat there for a long moment, his fingers slowly and lightly moving over the hair of his beard just under his lip.
