Daniel got out of the Lexus as Gung-Gung rolled up his window. I inclined my head toward the rear of the car where we could speak in relative privacy.
“What’s going on? Ma said they wanted to see me.”
He smiled. “I think they wanted to see you seeing me.”
“Seriously?”
He nodded.
“Wow.”
“Uh-huh.” His lips curved into a devilish smile.
“What’s on your mind, Mr. Kwok?”
“Would you like to make this worth their while?”
“Hmm…”
He leaned in as if to whisper but gazed at my lips instead. “I don’t want to take advantage.”
“No. That could be dangerous.”
“Then again, I’d hate to disappoint.”
I smiled. “My grandparents, or me?”
“Either.”
I cut him off with kiss—lightly at first, then longer and more deeply.
When our lips finally parted, I had forgotten what had prompted this action or why we were standing at the curb.
He collected my fingers in his and lowered his forehead against mine. “Are they spying on us?”
The heat from his face made me dizzy, but I didn’t want to break away. So, I rolled my forehead against his and glanced through the rear window to find both my grandparents gaping in their seats. “What do you think?”
“I think we should do that again.”
I rolled back the way I had come and found Daniel’s lips waiting for me, parted and inviting. But as I leaned in for another kiss, he pulled away with that mischievous smile. “Oh, no. If I give it all away now, you might not answer my calls.”
Heat flushed up my neck as I struggled not to smile. “You’re a brat.”
He walked over to the driver’s side of the car and looked back as he opened the door. “So, will you?”
“Will I what?”
“Answer my call.”
I shrugged and sauntered toward the restaurant.
“Will you?
I kept walking.
“Lily?”
I chuckled.
Through the reflection in our restaurant window, I watched Daniel get into the car and Gung-Gung and Po-Po descend on him with poking fingers and prying questions. I hoped they needled him all the way to LAX. And I hoped Daniel didn’t say a word. It would serve them all right for playing games.
I might not have Daniel’s experience or my grandparents’ caginess, but I had spent my life training in the ninja arts. And one way or another, a ninja always won.
THE END
Chapter Fifty-Four
Patrol cars crowded Manolo’s alley, lighting up the dismal scene in red, blue, and yellow. Cops kept the curious neighbors away so the paramedics could load Big D’s gurney into the first ambulance. The man had lost a great deal of blood from the artery I severed, but he’d live. My instructions to apply immediate pressure had saved his life. As far as I was concerned, that made us even.
Two detectives inspected the area around Manolo’s corpse, taking pictures and making notes while Payns’ task force searched the house for evidence of sex trafficking. Based on their enthusiastic comments and the volume of items they bagged, I assumed they were finding enough for the state to prosecute.
Big D’s ambulance left, and another arrived to take its place. A new set of paramedics entered the crowded house with gurneys and gear to attend to Ricky and Saint. Although the paramedics worked as carefully as they could, Ricky cried and cursed as they jostled his broken knees. My stomp kick to the coffee table wedged against his legs had done a thorough job. I grinned. Served him right.
Once the paramedics had secured Ricky, they attended to Saint. He was in bad shape. When Big D had yanked Saint away from me, he dislocated Saint’s joints and undoubtedly tore muscles and ligaments. Shoulder injuries took the longest to heal. Saint would be suffering the effects of this night well into his prison sentence.
I glanced in the bedroom at Ana Lucía, nestled against Cheeks on the bed, nibbling on the sesame candy I had brought from home. She’d already downed the water we’d given her, but for the moment, seemed content with caring human contact. She wore the nylon sweatsuit I had rolled up in my backpack. It wasn’t particularly cozy, but it covered her nakedness and offered a thin shield of armor for the difficult hours ahead.
Beside me, at the back of the house in clear view of the bedroom and living area, Payns questioned Dolla. “So you’re saying these men—Manuel Rodriguez, Big D, Ricky, and Saint—prostituted you, Ana Lucía, and Kristina Flynn?”
“Who?”
“The girl you call Cheeks. Her real name is Kristina Flynn. She disappeared from a college recruiting fair in Phoenix two years ago. She was fifteen.”
Dolla waved her hand. “I don’t know nothing about that. The girl showed up last year. Manolo named her Cheeks because he liked her…” Dolla shook her head. “She never talked about before. At least, not to me.”
“Because you kept the girls in line? Recruited minors? Enforced the rules? After all, you were Manuel’s second in command, weren’t you?”
I stepped between them. “Don’t answer that.”
I glared at Payns. “We had a deal.”
He shrugged. “Manolo’s dead.”
“And who pulled the trigger? Because I don’t own a gun, and I guarantee you won’t find any firearm residue on me.”
“What about the other guys?”
“What about them? I fought off four men who wanted to rape me and I didn’t kill any of them—and I was fighting a damn long time. Weren’t you watching that video feed? Didn’t you see the trouble I was in?”
Payns shrugged again. “We got here as soon as we could.”
“Right. And then you shot Manolo.”
I crossed my arms and channeled three generations of North Dakota Norwegian stubbornness. If Payns thought he could work around me, he had another thing coming.
“We had a deal, Lieutenant. I kept my end of it, and I expect you to keep yours.” I pointed at Dolla. “This is Brianna Wilson. She’s eighteen. Manuel Rodriguez prostituted her since she was fifteen. Anything he coerced her to do is on him. Brianna has been victimized enough. She deserves our support and our respect.”
Payns pressed his lips together and nodded. “All right. Miss Wilson, why don’t you go sit with the others until social services arrive.”
I nodded reassuringly. “It’s okay, Brianna. I’m not going anywhere.”
She joined Ana Lucía and Kristina in the bedroom.
I turned back to Payns. “I called Forsaken Children: City of Angels and let them know what was going on.”
“Setting the watchdogs on us?”
“Do you need watching?”
“No.”
I smirked. “Then I guess they’ll just be here for support.”
The ambulance with Ricky and Saint left, and another took its place in the driveway.
“Is that one for Ana Lucía?”
Payns nodded. “The girl’s in tough shape. She’ll need a full battery of tests, rape kit, IV, antibiotics. Who knows what else?”
I glanced at Ana Lucía, Brianna, and Kristina sitting on the bed together like girls at a pajama party instead of the prostituted victims they’d been an hour ago. Would they return to the life when all this was said and done, haunted by demons and unworthiness? Or would they find their way to a brighter reality?
Payns read my mind. “Most of them go back to the life. You know that, right?”
I nodded. “At least we’re giving them a chance.” I glanced back at the girls. “Have you notified Ana Lucía’s parents?”
“One of my officers called it in. Her parents had filed a missing person’s report. The detective in charge has been notified.”
“What about Kristina’s parents? Will someone tell them she’s okay?”
Payns nodded. “When you focused the came
ra on her face for so long, I figured she might be the girl trafficked from Phoenix. We snapped a shot of her from the footage and sent it to PPD. When they found a match, I told them to wake up the detective in charge of her case. He’ll be arriving later this morning.”
Across the living area and through the open front door, I could see dawn’s light bathing the driveway in a soft morning glow. A new day had begun—one that would prove drastically different for Manolo, his crew, and his victims.
“Lieutenant?” the burly officer interrupted.
“What is it, Jones?”
“We found something in the master bedroom—photos, jewelry, and…what appears to be a woman’s bloodstained shirt folded into a neat little square. It’s disturbing. I think it might be a shrine.
I cursed under my breath. In all the excitement, I had forgotten the main reason I had infiltrated Manolo’s lair.
“Show me,” said Payns.
Officers had busted through the lock on Manolo’s door—apparently, his bedroom was off limits to all but an invited few. Officer Jones led us to the items displayed on the dresser.
Payns pointed to the photographs. “Is that her?”
I nodded.
A framed selfie of Emma and Manuel occupied the center of the shrine. They looked happy—her laughing and him nuzzling her ear—like a couple in love. Other photos showed a different story. In these, Emma appeared older, tougher, sexier. She stared at us in defiance, as if she’d known that, one day, people would see these photos and judge her life.
The Emma I had met would have cringed to see them displayed.
The Emma I had met had been wearing the same blood-stained shirt.
“She’s dead, isn’t she?”
Payns held my gaze, as if searching for something positive to say, then sighed. “We’ll know more after we investigate.”
I shook my head. “None of the girls had seen her for weeks, not since she ran away. I don’t think Manolo ever brought her back. I think he killed Emma right after he abducted her outside her parent’s home. No wonder I couldn’t find her. I’ve been chasing a dead girl.”
Energy drained from my body as the tension of the last seven days hit me all at once. I sank onto the edge of the bed. “It’s all been for nothing.”
“Nothing? What about those girls in the other room? Are they nothing?”
“Of course not. I meant—”
“I know what you meant. You think I don’t go through this every day of my career? That I don’t work for months or years just to watch it all fall apart? But that’s not what happened here. You helped us stop a sex trafficking organization we’ve been after for a very long time. Without the footage you provided and leading us here to this treasure trove of evidence, Manolo and his crew would be gang raping that little girl and branding her with an iron. This is how it works, Lily. The girl you were searching for died, but the fifty you will never meet—the girls Manolo would have bought, kidnapped, or coerced—were saved.”
Payns shook his head with disgust. “I don’t know how many girls they ran, but I’m guessing there were at least twenty.”
“Kristina said there could be as many as thirty.”
“Shit. Well, after I finish interrogating those pricks, I’ll send someone to reach out to them—give all those girls a chance to turn their lives around. Hell, I’ll even connect them with Forsaken Children: City of Angels.”
“That would be great.”
“See? We’re not so bad. You should cut us some slack. We’re on the same side.”
Payns had no idea what he was asking. I had lost confidence in law enforcement when the detectives failed to find my sister’s killer. After I delivered my own kind of justice, I had another reason to stay clear of the cops.
I had trolled the bars for my sister’s killer and been conned by the same manipulations he had likely used on her. He charmed me, drugged me, and trapped me in a car, pinned me in a seat, and had been about to do to me what he had done to her. I had been helpless to stop him. Then the drug wore off, and I was able to reach my silver dagger pendant and stabbed him in the neck, face, throat. I’d unleashed my rage and fought like a demon, punishing him not only for what he had tried to do to me but for what he had already done to Rose. I fought and stabbed until his life bled out, then left him for dead in his car. Although the incident was never reported in the news, I was fairly certain the man had died. Either way, I wasn’t sure the cops would have believed me that I had stabbed him in self defense.
I couldn’t think of a single interaction I’d had with law enforcement, since my sister’s murder or while working for Aleisha’s Refuge that made me feel as if we were on the same side. Until now.
“You won’t charge Brianna?”
“No.”
“And you won’t turn Ana Lucía’s parents over to ICE? They might be scared to come in.”
“I won’t.”
I stood up and shook his hand. “You’re a good man, Francis.”
He laughed. “Call me that again, and I’ll arrest you.”
“I thought we were on the same side?”
“Not if you call me Francis.”
“Fair enough.”
I checked in on Ana Lucía as the paramedics loaded her onto the gurney. Although she had made it to the bed with Kristina and Brianna, she was too weak and dehydrated to walk all the way to the ambulance. I understood the necessity, but I also knew how terrified she must feel to be tied down.
I hurried to her side. “I’m right here. And I’m not leaving.” I looked up at the paramedics, daring them to argue. “I’m riding with you to the hospital.”
They looked to Payns for verification.
He held up his hands. “Don’t look at me. I haven’t won an argument with her yet.”
“What about us?” Brianna asked, glancing nervously at Payns. “I don’t want to be left alone with the cops.”
Kristina joined her. “Me, neither.” Now that Brianna was no longer Manolo’s bottom, Kristina clung to her like a sister.
I cocked my head at Payns. “That brand could be infected, and who knows what kind of STDs or malnutrition these girls could be suffering from.”
We locked eyes: me pushing and him deciding how much to bend.
He turned to the paramedic. “You have room on the bench, right? Take them all.” He touched my arm before I could walk away. “I’ll follow shortly. Make sure you’re still at the hospital when I get there.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
Payns found me in the waiting area moments before Ms. Ruiz arrived. Accompanying her was a statuesque woman with a no-nonsense demeanor. The two of them, one short and the other tall, both dressed in black pantsuits and white shirts, reminded me of Men in Black.
Ms. Ruiz greeted me with an outstretched hand. “Hello, Lily. I got here as soon as I could. This is our attorney, Sally Cappelletti. She looks out for our girls.”
Both women had a strong grip and a tight smile. I would too, if I’d been summoned to work at four in the morning. Instead, I’d been through the wringer and gave their hands an easy shake.
“Thanks for coming. This is Lieutenant Payns.”
“Oh, I know the lieutenant,” Ms. Ruiz said, shaking his hand and exchanging greetings as I mentally kicked myself in the butt. Of course she knew him. I must have been wearier than I thought to have forgotten she was the one who gave me his name and number.
The attorney greeted Payns and reintroduced herself. “Sally Cappelletti, legal counsel representing Forgotten Children: City of Angels. I hear there were three girls rescued from a commercial sex trafficker named Manuel Rodriguez?”
Payns nodded. “Two minors, one adult.”
Cappelletti fixed him with an impatient look. “Really? You want to get into that now?”
He snorted and glanced at me as if Sally and I were ganging up on him. “No. You want to see them?”
“Yes, please.”
; “Any particular order?”
“All together, if that’s possible.”
He smirked. “Sure. Why not?”
Payns led us into Ana Lucía’s hospital room, where Cheeks—or rather Kristina—sat on the edge of the bed, holding Ana Lucía’s hand, while Brianna dozed in a chair.
Payns gestured to the girls. “We haven’t been able to separate them without the youngest girl getting hysterical.”
“That would be Ana Lucía?”
“It would.”
“And the girl dozing in the chair?”
“That’s Dolla. She’s the adult.”
“Her name’s Brianna Wilson,” I corrected. “And she’s been trafficked since she was fifteen.”
Payns shrugged. “Just stating the facts.”
Ms. Cappelletti nodded. “Well, some facts are grayer than others.”
Brianna woke with alarm and jumped to her feet. “What’s going on? Who are you? What do you want?”
I held out a hand to calm her down. “Easy, Brianna.” I gestured toward the shorter woman with the somber face and swept-up hair. “This is Ms. Ruiz. I told you about her, remember? And this is her lawyer, Sally Cappelletti. They’re here to help.”
“I don’t want their help. I want them out of here.”
Ms. Cappelletti came forward and greeted Brianna with a genuinely warm smile. “I know this is scary. It’s scary for all of you. That’s why I’m here, to make sure everyone respects the ordeal you’ve endured and the incredible risks you’ve taken to help the police—especially you, Brianna. It’s my understanding that without you, Lily could never have infiltrated Manuel Rodriguez’ operation. And if Lily hadn’t done that, Manuel and his crew would still be trafficking minors and committing all manner of atrocities.” She offered a sad smile to Kristina and Ana Lucía. “If not for Brianna and Lily, you girls would have been lost for good. Wouldn’t you agree, Lieutenant?”
Payns frowned, trapped between simple fact and a clever presentation, designed to remind him and the girls to deal fairly with Brianna and me. The lawyer was laying her foundation. Her case had already begun.
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