Focus: Exposure Series Book Two

by Jocoby, Annie

  Sophie raised an eyebrow. “Asher, you can believe what you want. I had nothing to do with Marina showing up there. I have told you that more than one time.”

  I shook my head. “Whatever. Please go on with your story.”

  Sophie sighed. “I still had Yuri trail her, even though I was almost positive that you and CJ weren’t together anymore. And he reported to me that CJ was living on the streets.”

  “She was. Scarlett told me that she was attempting to ingratiate herself with the homeless population, because she was doing a story for a new job with a major magazine.”

  “I didn’t know that. I actually thought that perhaps CJ had become homeless.” Then she drew a breath. “And I was concerned about her.”

  I shook my head. “Concerned about her? Concerned about her? Since when have you been concerned about anybody but yourself? And, occasionally, me. When?”

  “Asher. I don’t have ice in my veins. Yuri tossed CJ and the other homeless people sleeping bags at my request. It’s cold out there, Asher, and it’s getting colder. I don’t like CJ, but I certainly don’t want her to suffer. I might be a bitch, but I do have a heart.”

  I studied her, and I looked at Nikolai. He nodded to me, a sign that he thought that Sophie was telling the truth about her concern for CJ.

  I finally shook my head. “Go on.”

  “Well, one day, CJ was gone. Yuri talked to some of the people who she was staying with, and they all told him about the abduction. He figured out who has her, and he went to talk to them.”

  I bit my lip. “Talk to them?”

  “Yes, talk to them. And he ended up buying her from the group that took her.”

  “Buying her.”

  “Yes. Buying her. Yuri explained to me that was the only way to get CJ away from that group. The problem, of course, is that Yuri is out that money, and it was quite an investment, so he’s looking to make it back by selling her on the open market.”

  “Selling her on the open market? Why would he do that? He was only hired to tail her.”

  “Asher, he didn’t do that for charity. You know as well as I do that these things are just business. And he saw that CJ was abducted by a gang that is violent and would have drugged CJ and sold her to a low-life person, who would have beaten her and maybe killed her. Yuri figured that CJ was better off with him, as he treats his girls kindly until they leave his service, and he attempts to find much more suitable masters for the girls than does the Badha family.”

  My mind cleared, and I relaxed. I knew what I had to do. “Okay, then, I guess it’s just a matter of my buying her from Yuri.”

  “Yes, unless he’s already made a transaction for her. Then, it would become much more complicated.”

  “Then I need to leave immediately to find her. Tell me where Yuri keeps his girls.”

  Sophie chose that moment to try to shake me down for more. I wasn’t having it, of course. She already told me who had CJ. It would take me longer to find this asshole’s address if Sophie didn’t tell me, but I would find it.

  “Asher, I’m thinking that you need to sweeten the pot. If I give you this address, you have to guarantee me that you won’t see CJ ever again.”

  “Nothing doing. We made a deal. Now, tell me where to find CJ, or I’ll tell the wife of your lover that you’re carrying his child. I would imagine that you would end up dead after that revelation.”

  Sophie raised an eyebrow, obviously contemplating what to do. One of us was going to blink. Both of us had high stakes.

  Finally, she just said “Okay.” And then she gave me his address, which was a home on Southampton.

  “You mean he keeps these girls at his home?” I said to her. I didn’t really believe that.

  “Yes. He has an enormous mansion, and the girls are in a wing.”

  “Thank you.”

  And, at that , Nikolai and I got into the my car and sped to Southampton.

  I prayed that I wasn’t too late.

  Chapter 7

  CJ

  “Okay,” I said to the girl next to me. I still couldn’t remember her name, and I was embarrassed to ask her again. “Now please calm down. We need to think of a simple plan to get out of here.”

  “We won’t get out of here,” she said. “I’ve seen Criminal Minds. It’s only a matter of time before that man gets rid of us, either by killing us or…”

  “Selling us,” I finished her sentence. “Maybe there’s a way around that. I don’t know how that works, of course, but I think that sometimes girls in this position end up working in a brothel. We could run away from there.”

  “No,” she said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. We’ll probably end up with some Middle Eastern sheik, being part of a harem. That’s if we’re lucky.”

  I shuddered. I had no clue on how to get out of this. “Um,” I said to the girl. “I’m so sorry, I forgot your name.”

  “Marisa.”

  “Marisa. Are you blind folded?”

  “No.”

  “You’re not? Why aren’t you?”

  “I was, in the car on the way over here. But he took off the blindfold when he brought me in here.”

  “But I’m assuming that you’re bound to the bed, like I am.”

  “Yes,” she said. “Why?”

  “I was hoping that you could possibly take off my blindfold.”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” she said. “If that man comes back and finds out that I did that, he probably would hurt me.”

  “Good thinking.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I wish that I could help you.”

  “That’s okay. I just thought that it would help if I could see my surroundings. See what I’m up against.”

  “It’s dark in here, anyhow,” she said. “You can’t see much.”

  “It won’t be dark in the morning,” I said. “Can you see any light coming in through the windows?”

  “No,” she said. “The window is blacked out. I don’t know if it’s day or night right now.”

  It was difficult to even think with that blindfold on my eyes. It was so disorienting to not be able to see. It felt like all my senses were dulled because of this. Which was strange – I would have figured that my other senses would have been heightened if I ever lost my sight. But this wasn’t the case.

  I realized that I probably wasn’t entirely sober. I still felt, for all intents and purposes, like I was in a dream. I wondered if the morphine I was given at the last place was still dulling things for me. That would actually make sense.

  “You can’t see anything at all?” I asked Marisa.

  “No. Nothing at all.”

  I took a deep breath.

  Then the man came back into the room.

  “Hello there, little one,” he said to me. “I’ve brought you something to eat.”

  “I can’t eat,” I said. “I can’t see anything. How can I eat?”

  “I’ll feed you.” At that, he asked me to open my mouth, which I did. I was starving, which is the only reason why I didn’t try to protest. I tasted salty chicken noodle soup, which, at that point, was delicious. Anything would have been delicious, though, because I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten anything.

  “Um,” I said, after the man fed me. “When am I going to get out of here?”

  “Soon,” he said.

  “How soon?”

  “Soon. Don’t ask so many questions, little one,” he said. “You know that I cannot answer them.”

  “What about Marisa?” I asked him. I heard her start to cry again. “When will she get out of here?”

  “That might be a little longer than you. She’s a little bit more difficult.”

  “More difficult? What do you mean?” I prayed that he didn’t mean what I thought he meant, which was that Marisa was somehow more difficult to find a buyer for than me. That could only mean that this man already found somebody for me, and I soon would be shipped off to a permanent home. Like a dog.


  “Little one,” he said. “Stop asking questions. I beg you. If you keep asking questions that I cannot answer then, I’m sorry, I’m going to have to silence you some way.”

  I wondered how he would silence me. Maybe with a gag, maybe with a drug. Maybe….I didn’t want to know.

  “Okay,” I said. “I won’t ask anymore questions.”

  “Thank you.”

  I heard Marisa still crying, and the man turned to her. “I have some food for you, too, Misha.”

  Misha? Who was Misha? Was that just his nickname for Marisa, much like his nickname for me was “little one?”

  “I don’t want that food. I want to go home.”

  “I’m very sorry, but that cannot happen.”

  “Why can’t it?” she demanded.

  “I’ve invested too much money in you and little one here. I’m very sorry. It’s only business.”

  “Only business? These are our lives, here. How can you do this to us?”

  I wondered if this man would make the same threat to Marisa as he did to me. That she would either shut up or he would shut her up. But he didn’t.

  “There is often suffering in commodities. It’s not just you. Think about all the animals around the world who suffer because of our consumption. You have a life, and so do they. Their life is really as valuable as yours. Think of it that way.”

  This man wasn’t making any sense. Of course our lives were more valuable than that of an animal. Not that I wasn’t sympathetic to animals, because I was. I just didn’t think that it was an appropriate comparison.

  “Please, please, let us go,” she said. “I don’t know where you are. I couldn’t identify you. I won’t send the police over. Just please, please, please let us go.”

  “I can’t. Now be quiet.”

  She cried more, and I heard him smack her hard. I suddenly heard a different tone of voice from him. “Stop,” he said. “Just stop. Nobody can hear you. I’m trying to find a suitable man for you, but it’s been difficult. I cannot find somebody who is willing to take somebody as defiant as you.”

  But Marisa cried even louder. At this point, she sounded like she was hysterical, and I silently prayed that she would stop. I didn’t want to her to get into trouble, even more than she was.

  Finally, her wailing settled down to a whimper.

  “Thank you,” he said to her. “Thank you for quieting down. Now, I must leave you girls. It seems that I have a visitor.”

  A visitor. I wondered who that was.

  I prayed that this visitor wasn’t a man who was going to try to buy me.

  Chapter 8

  Asher

  “Slow down, Alexei,” Nikolai was saying to me. I was in my Audi, going maximum speed down the street. I had to get to my helipad, so that I could take the helicopter to this home that Sophie told me about.

  “I can’t. Every second counts. That bastard might sell CJ, and then there’s going to be a huge problem. If I can get there on time, I can just pay that man the money he wants for her, and everything is going to go smoothly.”

  “Alexei, if a cop pulls you over, you’re going to be even more delayed.”

  I had to smile at his logic. Here was a guy who had killed in cold blood, and he was worried about my getting a speeding ticket. Yet, he had a point. I didn’t care about getting a ticket, of course, but I didn’t want to be further delayed.

  “Okay. I’ll slow down.” We were about a mile away from my helipad.

  We finally got there, and I went to the roof, where my helicopter was parked. We climbed in, and took off.

  “When did you learn how to fly this thing?” Nikolai asked me as we lifted off the ground.

  “Years ago. I don’t typically fly this helicopter myself, but I know how. This is an emergency situation, so there’s no time to get my pilot out of bed to come and fly this for us.”

  I pulled on the throttle, and the city disappeared beneath us.

  About a half hour later, we landed on the lawn of the home.

  “Okay, now, Nikolai, we’re going to do as we talked about. I’m going to go in there and negotiate with Yuri. I pray that I’m not too late. You stay out here. I have this button that I’ll push in my pocket if there’s a problem, and then you can come in there and back me up.”

  “I know,” he said. “Good luck.”

  I nodded my head and rang the doorbell. A tall man answered the door. “May I help you?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I need to see Yuri Kazakov.”

  “Who may I say is calling?”

  “My name is Asher Sloane. I need to negotiate with him about a girl he has.”

  The man looked like he didn’t quite know what to think about me coming there so late at night. “I will tell Mr. Kazakov,” he said, “that you’re here.”

  The next thing I knew, I was being frisked by a much larger man. “Who sent you?” the man demanded.

  “Sophie Jameson,” I said. “She also goes by Sofia Ivanov,” I said, giving this man Sophie’s birth name.

  “I see,” the man said. It was obvious that he felt less hostility and suspicion towards me. I was quite sure they were afraid that I was a cop. “I’ll tell Mr. Kazakov to call Sofia to make sure that you are who you say you are.” Then he brought out a gun. “In the meantime, please have a seat in the den.”

  I went into the enormous den, and sat down on the leather couch. I knew that Sophie would vouch for me. She had to. She had too much at stake in this situation. If she slipped up, then the deal would be off, and she would have to face her married lover, as well as her married lover’s wife, on her own.

  I heard some talking, and then the man came into the den. “Okay. It appears that you are who you say you are. Let me lead the way.”

  I followed him through the maze of the house, into an office that was a typical office. There was a cherrywood desk, several couches, a floor-to-ceiling lamp, and a grand piano in the corner. The grand piano was the only thing that seemed out of place in an office, however.

  Behind the desk was the man in question. I would guess that this man was Yuri. He stood up, and he was as tall as me, with blonde hair, scars on his face, and crooked teeth. “Mr. Sloane,” he said. “Come, come, sit down.”

  I sat down, and faced him. “What can I do for you?” he asked me.

  “You have a girl. Her name is CJ Parker. I would like to purchase her.”

  He shook his head. “I’m so sorry. She has already been sold.”

  Chapter 9

  “Okay,” I said, trying to stay calm. “You sold her. Please tell me to whom you sold her.”

  “I cannot divulge that information. I do have a lovely girl upstairs. She is the same age as….”

  “I don’t want this other woman. I want CJ.” I felt inside my pocket for the button. If I pressed it, then Nikolai would come in with guns blazing. As much as I wanted that to happen, I knew that would have to be the very last resort. The last thing that I wanted to do would be to start a war, which would certainly happen if I iced this guy. He wasn’t as powerful as my father, but that didn’t matter. He was certainly in a powerful position, judging by the size of his home, and he could even be in the number two position in his group.

  I promised my father that I wouldn’t start any kind of a war with rival families and groups once I got over here in America. That was important. These kinds of things never ended well. In fact, they usually ended with many people dead.

  “I’m very sorry. She’s not available anymore. I have a contractual obligation…”

  “You don’t have a contractual obligation,” I said. “At least not one that the law would recognize.” Even as I said this, though, I knew that this was not a good way of persuading this man. He didn’t care about the law, anymore than my group did in Russia. These contracts were forged in blood, and they were enforced the same way. I knew that if this man, this Yuri, reneged on this contract, there might be blood spilled. Yuri’s blood, to be exact.

  “You’re going to
have to take it up with her new master,” he said. “At the moment, my hands are tied.”

  “Is this new master going to be here this evening?” I asked.

  “Yes. He is on his way right now to claim her. She was extremely easy to sell, and very profitable for me. She’s a beautiful girl, full of intelligence and spirit. Yet she’s also very easy to break. She barely put up a fight. But the morphine she was given by the Bardha clan is probably the reason for her docility.” He shuddered. “I don’t like to give drugs to my girls. I prefer that they obey without having their minds altered like that.”

  I shook my head. “You’re such an ethical businessman.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Are you impugning me?”

  “Yes. I am. Now, let’s get down to brass tacks, shall we? I will tell you that, whatever this man is paying you for CJ, I will give you double that.”

  “I understand. But you have to understand that it’s out of my hands. You can offer me 10 times as much, and I would have to turn it down. It’s like a car. If you sell a car, and the owner is about to pick it up, you can’t just sell it to somebody else. Surely you understand this.”

  I drew a deep breath. “My girlfriend is not the same as a car. She’s not property.” But, even as I said it, I thought about my group back home. The more repugnant part of our business was human trafficking. I would never be involved with that, though. I refused. Yet I knew that my father made a lot of money off of that. And, of course, my father, and everybody else who was involved in the trafficking, thought the same way that this Yuri did about the humans we trafficked. They were property. The same thing as a cow or a car. They were bought, sold and traded exactly as if they were property, and not humans.