“It’s just this case. It’s worse than we expected.”
“Why don’t you tell us, Nate,” Gray said smoothly.
Stanson let out a loud sigh and ran his hand over the back of his head. “We managed to get one of the clients to talk in return for immunity. Those photos your sister took were really helpful in building up a list of clientele. She must have taken them over a series of months.”
“Closer to a year, we think,” Connor said. He pushed a document toward Stanson. “We tracked Worthington’s trips to Dallas. Over a period of two and a half years, he traveled to Dallas twenty-one times. Angie traveled with him during the eighteen months she worked for him.”
“Makes sense if she was his assistant. What did he need so many assistants for anyway? As well as Angie he had some other guy working for him.”
“Gerry Lyons,” Hunter said. “He was murdered by Worthington and his half-brother, Sanders. Worthington was obsessed with appearances, Angie took care of his hair, his appearance, his clothes. She traveled whenever he did.”
“Why didn’t she come to you about any of this?” Stanson asked.
“Don’t you think I’ve asked myself that a number of times? All I know is that she quit her job with him very suddenly and moved back to Dallas. I’m guessing she was still doing some investigating. Somehow he got wind of what she was doing and he murdered her.”
Stanson nodded. “Too bad the bastard is dead.”
“So what have you found out from the previous client?”
“They call the brothel The House and as we suspected it’s no ordinary whorehouse. Turns out, we were right.” Stanson grimaced. “This place caters to everything, and I mean everything. Every fetish you can imagine and a lot you might not. If they haven’t got it, they’ll create it for you. The membership fees are steep and the background investigation process is tight, you have to have a current member sponsor you.”
“Who interviewed your informant?”
“The manager. He goes by the name of Cris Laurenson. So far, we’ve come up with no background information on him.”
Hunter nodded at Connor who was busy taking notes. “We’ll do some looking. Obviously a fake name. Got a description?”
“We sat both our informant and the Serbian girl who escaped down with a sketch artist. This is what the guy looks like.” The man looked to be in his early forties, dark and handsome.
“He runs the whole thing?”
Stanson shook his head. “He’s the face of the operation. The girl believes there is someone else calling the shots, someone that this Laurenson answered to.”
“Either of them have any idea who else is behind this?”
Stanson shook his head.
“There are a number of guards inside the building. Probably there to keep the women in as much as to keep others out. There’s a state of the art security system, cameras everywhere, this place is tightly guarded.”
“Maybe.” Hunter sat back in his seat. “This is what we excel at, Stanson.”
He nodded. “That’s why I got permission from my Captain to bring you in on this. We’ve got a man who’s been granted a second interview. He goes in two nights from now. First interview was by Skype.”
“Your informant is acting as his sponsor?”
Stanson nodded.
“Risky. What if he double crosses us?”
“He won’t,” Stanson said. “Believe me. We need you guys to check out the security, see if there are any weaknesses. We’re sending our guy in without back-up and we need a way to get to him if possible.”
“Won’t they find out he’s a cop?” Cady asked.
“He’s not a cop.”
“Jesus, you’re using a civilian?” Hunter said.
“Ex-Special Forces and he volunteered. So, you in?”
“Hell yeah, we’re in.” Hunter nodded at Connor who turned his laptop around. “This is what we know about the security.”
They spent the next thirty minutes going over everything. Finally, Stanson stood.
“Thanks, this helps a lot. You’ll be there?”
“Yeah, Gray, Connor and I will be,” Hunter said. Cady sent him a look. Uh-uh, no way she was going to be involved. Surveillance was one thing, but if things went to shit then they’d need to go in quickly and he didn’t want her anywhere close.
Gray and Connor saw Stanson out.
Cady turned to Hunter. “I want to be there.”
“No.”
“Hunter—”
“It’s not negotiable, Cady. I can’t have you there. This could go south quickly.”
“It’s just surveillance.”
“No. We’re there to bypass security and get in fast if we need to. I can’t have you there. I’ll be too concerned about you to concentrate.”
“So I’ll wait outside.”
“There’s no need to for you to be there at all.”
“If those women are being held against their will I might be able to help.”
He sighed. “All right. You can be there. But you’re not going in. You will promise to do exactly what I tell you to do, got it?”
“Got it.”
***
Cady walked into her apartment, wrinkling her nose. The place needed to be aired out. She placed the mail she’d grabbed from her mailbox on the coffee table before walking around and opening the windows. It had been three weeks since she’d been back. Somehow, she’d ended up spending every night at Hunter’s place. Not that she was complaining. It surprised her how much she enjoyed being with him, how much she loved going to sleep in his arms.
Hunter was back on surveillance at The House tonight. This was the third time their inside guy would be going in undercover. Tonight, he was hoping to sneak into the manager’s office and find out something on who was running the place.
Cady wished she was going to be there, but Hunter had demanded she stay at home this time. He’d caught her falling asleep while cooking dinner last night. She’d just closed her eyes for a second before the smoke alarms were screaming and the kitchen was hazy with smoke. Hunter had gone all Alpha male, putting her to bed and insisting that she stay in bed today. He’d left an hour ago to meet up with Stanson and she’d taken the opportunity to come check on her apartment.
She felt a little guilty, since she’d promised him she would rest. But she’d been resting all day and she really did need to pick up her mail.
She sorted through everything, throwing out the junk mail. A large envelope with her name on it caught her eye.
Opening it up, she turned it upside down and slid the contents out, her breath seizing in her throat.
“What the fuck?” She flicked her way through all the photos that had spilled out onto the coffee table, arranging them so she could see them all. There had to be nearly thirty photos. All of them of her.
Someone had been following her, taking photos. Nausea bubbled and she swallowed it down. A number of the photos included Hunter. Only his face had been scratched out.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” She stood and paced up and down. What the hell was going on? Who would be following her? Stalking her?
Sean? But he lived in Austin. He didn’t know where she lived. What sort of crappy luck did she have to pick up a second stalker?
She needed to get out of here. She needed Hunter. But Hunter wasn’t at home. She could call him. She knew he would drop everything and come running.
Except he needed to be there, he needed to see this through.
No, she couldn’t tell Hunter. Not now, not when he needed all his concentration on what he was doing.
With shaking hands she gathered up all the photos, placing them in the envelope. She’d hide them until she was ready to tell him. Until then, she wasn’t coming back here alone.
***
Cady lowered her phone, fear filling her as the door to the apartment opened. It was four-thirty in the morning and Hunter still wasn’t home. She’d gotten a text around midnight saying he was going to be
She hadn’t slept a wink. Her mind had been whirling from those photos she’d been sent and if truth be told, she’d been too scared to close her eyes. She hated admitting to feeling fear, but she had no way of knowing if her stalker knew where she was staying. What if he was violent?
Cady stood there, holding her breath, her heart racing as adrenaline pumped through her. When Hunter stepped through the door, she almost collapsed in relief. She had to pull herself together. She couldn’t afford to become a nervous wreck; she had to figure out what was going on here, who was watching her.
What if he came after Hunter?
She needed to tell him. She was going to have a hard time hiding this from him anyway.
“Hey, babe, what are you still doing up?” he asked as he took off his boots and stretched.
“I couldn’t sleep so I got up. You look exhausted.”
He walked over and clasped her face with his hands, kissing her gently on the lips, a long, slow, sweet kiss.
“What was that for?” she asked as he pulled back.
“Because I’m so damned glad to see you.” He hugged her tight. “Christ, Cady, those poor women.”
Slightly alarmed by the stress she could hear in his voice, she tugged him over to the living room sofa.
“Can I get you something to eat? Drink?”
“A whiskey would be good. I can’t eat right now.”
She poured out two glasses of whiskey at his small bar, carrying them over to where he sat back on the sofa with his eyes closed.
“You need some sleep,” she said as she sat beside him.
He gazed over at her, running his thumb under her eye. “So do you. You were supposed to be resting.”
Cady shrugged. “Guess I sleep better when you’re here.” That was no lie.
He brushed his thumb down her cheek. “I love you.”
She smiled. “I love you, too.” Cady snuggled in next to him and took a sip from her glass. Hunter placed his arm around her shoulders.
“We had to go in tonight.”
“What? Why?”
“Stanson’s man got into trouble. He was doing some snooping around in the manager’s office when Laurenson came in with one of the girls. Our guy hid, but Laurenson, he, fuck, he started to beat the woman. With a whip. She was screaming, begging him to stop.”
“Oh God, and you could hear this?” Cady knew the inside guy was wearing a small wire. It looked just like a skin patch. When you put it on you couldn’t even see it.
“Yeah, fuck, it was all I could do to hold Gray back. Hell, to hold myself back. Then he started to rape her.”
“Oh my God.”
“Our guy was hidden in the same room. He couldn’t take it.”
“He blew his cover to save her,” she said with understanding.
“Can’t blame him. I’d have done the same. As soon as we realized what was going on, we went in. Fuck, Cady, that place…” He shook his head and took a sip of his whiskey. “All of those women. Some of them were just teenagers. Looks like they’re all illegals, they’re so scared that most of them won’t even talk. Connor’s still going through Laurenson’s office. Laurenson lawyered up immediately.”
Cady hugged him.
“I’m going back in tomorrow. It’s going to take a while to sort through everything.” He kissed her forehead. “First, though, I need some sleep. Come to bed with me.”
He stood and held out his hand. She followed him into the bedroom. She glanced at one of the drawers he’d cleaned out for her to put her clothes in. She’d stuffed the envelope of photos in there. She should tell him.
But not tonight.
***
Eight days later, Cady smiled at Hunter as he pulled out a chair for her. He took the one beside her as the others entered the conference room. She’d barely seen Hunter this last week since the raid on The House. He’d left early each morning, coming home late at night. He looked thinner, exhausted and she knew she didn’t look much better.
She’d spent this week constantly looking over her shoulder, jumping at things; she’d nearly taken Tiny’s head off when he’d walked up behind her. She couldn’t keep going this way, but she hadn’t found the opportunity to talk to Hunter.
He’d had his own demons to face.
The last to arrive was Stanson. He nodded at everyone before taking a seat.
“First, I just wanted to say thanks for all your help over the last week. We’re by no means finished processing through everything, but I wanted to update you all.”
“That means thanks for your help but you can fuck off now,” Jaron said. The others laughed.
Stanson just shook his head. “Look, I’m in much the same position as you. The Feds are now involved and we’ve basically been shoved aside. Since they discovered all these girls were illegals they’ve been all over this. And some of them really are young. The youngest is fourteen. She’s been there over a year.”
“Sick bastards,” Tiny spat out.
“Yeah,” Stanson agreed. “Laurenson still isn’t talking, but some of the girls told us there was definitely a big boss, someone Laurenson answered to. They called him Master M. A couple of them saw him, we have a description. Enough to I.D. him.” Stanson nodded at Connor who tapped something on his computer. A couple of photos appeared on the wide screen set up at the end of the room.
“Malcolm O’Keen. Head of the O’Keen family,” Gray said.
“You know him?” Stanson said with surprise.
“I know of him. He’s based in Chicago, though.”
“He’s got ties to Dallas,” Stanson said. “A cousin, Christopher O’Keen.”
“Let me guess, he goes by the name of Cris Laurenson now,” Curt said.
“Got it in one,” Stanson replied. “Laurenson is so arrogant that he made mistakes and he wasn’t always careful about who he talked in front of. Worthington was up to his neck in this. He helped the O’Keens find these women. He told the girls that if they didn’t do exactly what he wanted then he would alert the authorities and their families would be deported. Most of these girls are terrified of the authorities; they would have gone with him quietly.”
“What will happen to those women now?” Cady asked.
Stanson looked tired. “They’ll be reunited with their families. Beyond that, I don’t know.”
Cady couldn’t help but feel furious on their behalf. They’d gone through hell to enable their families to stay in this country and now it could all be for nothing.
“As you already know Connor found an old email between Laurenson and Worthington.” Stanson looked straight at Hunter. “In it they talk about the fact that Angie knew too much. Worthington said he would take care of it.”
Hunter nodded.
He hadn’t slept the night that Connor had found that email. She knew he still blamed himself, thinking that he should have known what was going on with Angie.
She’d tried to convince him otherwise, but she figured he had to work through his guilt, much like she’d had to with Rusty’s death.
“Like I said, Feds have taken this over now. They’ve got Malcolm O’Keen in custody.”
“Let’s hope they’ve got an airtight case, O’Keen is a slippery bastard,” Gray said.
Stanson ran his hand over his face, looking exhausted. They all sat talking for another twenty minutes before Stanson stood up to leave.
Cady cleared her throat as the others went to leave. “Before you all go, I need to talk to you about something.”
“I’ll see myself out,” Stanson said.
Everyone stared at her curiously.
“What’s going on?” Hunter asked her.
She reached around and grabbed the bag she’d brought in. She dragged out the envelope and spread the photos out of the desk where everyone could see them.
Hunter stiffened beside her. “What the fuck are these?” he asked.
“Nine days ago, I went to my apartment to grab the mail. This envelope was there and these photos were in it.”
“And I’m only just hearing about this now because…” Hunter said, glaring at her with cold eyes.
Cady swallowed heavily. “I was going to tell you right away, but it was the same day you stormed The House. Then, well, the moment never seemed to be right.”
Jaron whistled. “Someone’s stalking you.”
Gray cleared his throat, turning their attention to him. “Do you have any idea who might have taken these photos, Cady?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve been on high alert since I got this, watching everyone around me, I can’t spot him.”
“He knows you’ll be watching for him now,” Jaron said.
“Got any old boyfriends? Anyone you might have turned down?” Curt asked.
“No, no one, well…”
“Well what?” Hunter growled.
“One of the reasons I wanted to leave Austin is because of this guy, Sean. He volunteered at one of the shelters. He came on to me, wouldn’t take no for an answer. I had to get forceful with him. But he didn’t take the hint. I never went back to that shelter, but I’d still see him around, watching me. It creeped me out.”
Hunter swore. “You didn’t think to tell me this?”
“It was before I came here. I thought it was taken care of. It might not even be him, how would he know I was in Austin?”
“You haven’t kept a completely low profile,” Josh pointed out, looking concerned. “You were in the papers and on the news after you took on the Cowboy Adonis.”
“Oh shit.” She felt sick.
Hunter stood, pacing. “So either this guy or someone else has been stalking you, taking photos.”
“They’re not happy with you being with Hunter,” Gray said, looking over the photos. “Every photo with him in it has his face scratched out.”
“You don’t think Hunter could be in danger, do you?”
Hunter stopped pacing, turning to stare at her. “I’d worry less about me and more about your own butt.”
“The name of the place where he got these printed is on the back, I’ll go check this place out, see if anyone remembers anything,” Jaron said, taking the photo of Cady standing in the window of her apartment with just a towel round her.
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