by Samantha Bee
We have worked too hard to build our empire while also building our anti-trafficking operations, keeping them separate and leaving no evidence that they are one and the same, to risk leaving a trail now. Not to mention, it’s far safer for Noah to never know what I am involved in. He didn't sign up for this life. He has no idea the type of people he’s rubbing elbows with. Just having fun together.
He smiles and I notice Kade smiling around the spoonful of peanut butter in his mouth as well. “It’s Romano,” he tells me.
I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face. Romano is one of the biggest players in sex trafficking. His operations account for more than forty percent of all trafficking out of America. He is smart and careful, meticulous in his businesses. We haven’t been able to really hit him hard because of how well he runs his enterprise.
He is also, unsurprisingly, one of the largest contenders for who my father and his associates were involved with. We don’t have any definitive proof, but it would make sense since he is such a vital player in this world. The locations of some of his bases also fall in line with what would work for them.
My revenge has been the driving force behind most of my decisions since that night. I became a criminal to find those fuckers and make sure they pay and along the way I save as many other people as I can. I never forget my purpose though. The hate that rushes through my blood, the violence that thunders alongside my every heartbeat. I will hunt down every man and woman involved in the sex crimes that I stumbled upon.
I was weak back then. Unable to fight back, unable to save anyone. I couldn’t save my sisters, I couldn’t save those girls in the pictures, I couldn’t even save myself. The girl I was died alongside the twins but I will get justice for them. The only justice is the death of all those involved. Throwing a punch against Romano is a big step in fighting back and it just may be the first step to my personal vendetta. One step closer to finding those that shattered my soul.
It almost seems too good to be true. My smile falters as I run through everything I know. Romano is too meticulous to make such a careless mistake. I cover my tracks well. We dismantle operations all over the state and even nearby states, not just locally. However, to have one location fail so many times, it's a red flag for any competent businessman.
We primarily created the surveillance there and exit routes for smaller, lesser-known traffickers. Those just starting out, not familiar with the area or the players. So why is someone as meticulous as Romano using a hotspot? It’s common to use a building that has been burned once before, but three, four times? Romano is too intelligent to not realize that there is something about this location that causes operations to fail. Is this a trap?
I look between the two men in front of and watch as their smiles fall as well. Kade swallows the peanut butter in his mouth, “You’re thinking it's a trap.” Not a question, a statement. He knows something isn’t adding up either. This opportunity is too good to be true.
Luca nods, “I considered that as well when I heard Romano’s name, but as I understand it,” he pauses sitting down across from me and grabbing my notes from my surveillance on the building, “Romano is overseas and it's his son calling the shots.”
Well, that does make more sense, his son is young from what I recall, maybe twenty? His father hasn’t really allowed him much control over any business decisions. He is exactly the type of person we planned to fall for the lure of this location. Still, it seems too good to be true.
“Is Romano aware of his son’s decisions?” Kade asks.
“From what I understand, he isn’t even aware of the raid yet,” Luca answers, still skimming my notes, “It seems his son is trying to clean up the mess before he tells his father.” He looks up from the notes to meet my eyes, “What is your impression of the security?”
I think back to all the body language I was reading of the three men stationed at the station, the conversations I heard between them and the quick, clipped phone conversations. “They seem stressed, rushed,” I hesitate. “They don’t seem prepared and don’t have the air of confidence that most of Romano’s men tend to have.”
Luca considers this, reading more of my notes, “That would make sense if the kid didn’t want his father to hear about it first. He wouldn’t bring his father’s most trustworthy men but the ones who are more loyal to the next generation.”
“Therefore, probably younger,” Kade concludes.
“Less experienced, less sure of themselves, especially in a situation like this one. So, are we just that lucky?” I question.
The three of us look back and forth between each other before Luca exhales slowly, “I think you guys will have to be prepared that it is a trap, but we have planned for that. There is no way they know about our escape routes.”
Kade’s eyes meet mine and our manic grins once again spread across our faces, “So proceed with caution it is,” I say.
Luca’s eyes snap back and forth between the two of us. He hates that he can’t come on these missions with us almost as much as he hates how much the two of us enjoy the more dangerous situations. “You’re taking a full fucking team,” he snaps.
“Boo,” Kade heckles him, “We can manage it just the two of us.”
“No fucking way,” Luca growls, “Not with the risk of it being a trap.”
We reluctantly agree knowing that he won’t budge on this. I already know he’s going to send Joe with us. He thinks Joe can keep us in line. He is a fatherly figure and does try to temper our recklessness, but no one can truly tame the wildness once Kade and I team up. Except maybe Luca. But even he has a hard time with the pair of us, we enjoy getting a rise out of him too much to really heed any warnings.
We spend the rest of the night going over the rest of my observations and any intel they’ve received. We strategize the best way to safely extract all the girls and relocate them into our different organizations.
We can only plan so far out after the extraction before actually meeting the girls though. The best we can do for them at this point is get them out of Romano’s clutches and have a safe house prepared for them until we can make further arrangements.
When Luca and I first started down this road I don’t think either of us realized how big we would grow or how successful our operations would become. I started this journey as a hurting, naïve, little girl, lost, broken, confused but so angry. I had never struggled with a temper before the incident. I was mild mannered, calm, sweet, innocent. The epitome of what a senator’s daughter should be. The model for aspiring queen bees of the elite.
That was before my life crashed and burst into flames around me. It sucked all the warmth from me and left me cold but reckless, wild and restless. They say revenge is a dish best served cold and that’s me, cold, unfeeling, filled with pain and ready to be unleashed at a moment’s notice. My temper is now not something to be scoffed at, neither is our enterprise, or enterprises, as it were.
Is it obnoxious to say I’m impressed with Luca and myself? Well fuck it because I am. We started this shit as two fucked up teenagers with a thirst for revenge and a need to right some wrongs. It started slow, and it’s taken us eight years to get here, but even that isn’t very long considering how large we have grown. Not only is Luca a kingpin in the criminal underground, my best friend, Josie, is the face of our charity dedicated to stopping sex trafficking and rehabilitating victims. At least we use our criminal activity to do some good in the world, right?
I look over my notes and go over plans one more time with Kade and Luca before I decide to go to bed. They stay awake talking as I make my way to my bed, pulse racing at the thought of what we are going to accomplish tomorrow. I’ve been waiting eight years to make a hit as large as the one we plan on making tomorrow.
I wake up the next day to Kade playing with my hair, I groan, “Why the fuck are you already up?”
I roll over and stare at the ceiling, “Also what the fuck? Since when do you spend more time here than at your place
?”
He just laughs as he rolls on top of me and starts nuzzling my neck, “Your bed is just so much more enticing than mine,” he whispers in between kisses down my neck.
Why was I mad again?
I hum as his kisses move down my neck towards my chest. Okay forget what I said, he can stay the night whenever he wants. I moan as he finds my peaked nipple through my t-shirt and bites down. I trail my hands up his tanned arms to rest on his broad shoulders and add pressure as he continues to move down my body. My thighs clench in anticipation and I can feel the heat rising in my middle as my center grows damp.
Fuck. Mornings aren’t so bad when they start this way. Maybe Kade is onto something with all these sleepovers.
I spread my legs apart and let him settle more firmly against me as he peppers kisses across my waist and nuzzles into my belly button and pushes my sleep shirt up over my chest. He reaches up and tweaks one nipple hard and I can’t stop the moan that escapes my mouth as heat flares up even hotter within me.
I apply more pressure to his shoulders trying to get him to where I need him but he’s content to tease me with kisses across the top of my lace panties. This motherfucker. I wiggle against him, needing pressure against my clit.
He chuckles before placing an open mouth kissed over my panties and uses his nose to apply pressure to my clit. I push up into his face, begging for more. I’ve never had any shame in asking for what I want during sex. Kade shakes his head at me, still pressed against my center. I groan at his teasing as he pulls away again.
He moves back up towards my stomach and I groan his name, begging him to stop with the teasing. He looks up at me and gives a wicked grin before pressing his lips back against my belly and blowing a wet raspberry as he shakes his head back and forth, like you would do to a baby.
I scream his name, “Kade, what the actual fuck?” It’s filled with frustration and need and a hell of a lot of anger because who the fuck does that?
He just laughs before slapping my thigh and bouncing off the bed, “Sorry, Ladybug, we have places to be. People to see. Shit to get done,” he says as he starts pulling his jeans up.
“No way, you twisted asshole,” I exclaim, “get back here and finish what you started!” Fair is only fair. You don’t get to wake a girl up like that and leave her hanging. That’s just cruel.
An amused grin spreads across his face. Kade is many things, serious is never one of them. He’s one of the smartest fuckers I know but you would never guess that based on his childish behavior.
He pulls a shirt over his head and I already know that I won’t sway him back into bed with me at this point. He intended to leave me wet and wanting as we started today, “I take back you being allowed to spend the night,” I grumble as I start to get out of bed and find clothes.
“You never said I could,” he muses. The cheeky bastard.
“Well, I thought it but now I’m unthinking it!” I growl, not amused in the slightest with the way my morning has turned out.
“I don’t think that’s how it works, sweetheart. But hey, it’s not my fault you slept so late! We have to meet Luca.”
I throw my sleep shirt at his stupid, smug face, “You started it! Didn’t your momma ever teach you don’t start something you can’t finish?”
“Uhh, no,” he chuckles, “but maybe like a little league coach, or something? Not really a sentiment a mother would probably endorse. Also, we met in foster care. Remember? No mother?”
With anyone else I might think they were actually offended, but I can hear nothing but wry amusement in Kade’s voice. I know him well enough that I’d be able to pick up on any hurt feelings in his tone. Not sure that I’d currently care, but that’s beside the point.
I just scoff and roll my eyes at him as I finish getting dressed. My style is almost always more based for comfort than style but looking good is still important to me. I’m wearing a loose white tank top over black cut off shorts. They are absolutely destroyed but I love them. A strappy red lace bralette is visible underneath my tank top but the lace stretches down my ribs to just about an inch above my belly button. It’s really more of a crop top than a bralette. I finish the look with my favorite old pair of worn-out black converse.
I love these damn shoes. After having them for so long they are surprisingly comfortable and pretty easy to run in without drawing attention to them. I pull my long dark hair up into a high ponytail and throw on an old pair of black sunglasses. I skip any jewelry that can draw attention.
I look towards Kade and realize he’s ready and just watching me with his smug as fuck grin plastered over his ugly face. Okay, fine, he’s not ugly but I’m still bitter.
“What are you thinking about so hard over there, Letty?” he teases. He doesn’t call me Letty very often. Just like Luca, they try to use it only around each other or when it's just us. The nickname is a small string to my path but a string none the less and we try to avoid those as much as possible. They both can't completely let go of the nickname either though, and I’m a bit glad for that. It feels just a little bit like home when I hear it. The pricks know it too, and I know for a fact that Kade is intentionally using it right now to try and soften me up.
“I’m thinking you’re damn ugly,” I respond, letting him know I’m not letting go of my anger over this. It’s early and I’m horny and I want coffee and everything bad in the world is his fault. No, I don't feel like I’m being dramatic at all.
Kade starts fucking cackling. Literally lets loose a god damned cackle. He throws his head back and laughs like he never in a million years would have expected for me to call him ugly. Arrogant son of a bitch.
“We both know you don’t think I’m ugly,” he croons.
“Your personality is,” I grumble, which just sets his damn cackling off once more.
He stares at me as he wipes his eyes, “You’re pouting,” he smiles.
“First of all, I don’t fucking pout. Second, you would be pouting if I licked your dick and then just walked away,” I retort and if I’m being honest, I might be pouting just a little bit. But it’s a well-deserved pout. That was some grade-a bullshit.
He launches himself across the room towards me and wraps his arms around my waist from behind as he bends over to whisper in my ear, “You’re adorable when you pout.”
I ram my elbow back into his stomach, nothing but sick satisfaction fills me at the gasp that leaves his smug mouth, “I don’t fucking pout.”
He chuckles, still far too amused for my liking, “Let’s go fill your bitter ass with coffee before you actually do some permanent damage.”
I roll my eyes as I stalk out of the room.
Chapter Eight
I’m aware that I’ve pissed her off, but I really can’t help how adorable she is when she is pouting. And make no mistake, my girl is fucking pouting. She can deny it all she wants but she loves waking up with me in her bed, especially when she wakes up with orgasms and she’s disappointed I put an end to our shenanigans. It’s just coming out as pissed. She doesn’t know how to just be disappointed.
That’s okay, though. I like her pouting. I mean, I like her in all of the ways, and I have seen a hell of a lot of different sides to Scar in the last eight months, but when she pouts? Fuck if she doesn’t remind me more of the old Letty when she’s pouting. Seeing her pout, I can’t help but remember the first time Luca and I met our little hellion, even back then she was full of fire.
I kick an old can out of my way as I walk past the playground towards the sandbox. I sit on the side and drag my feet through the sand as I think about my mom. Dad swears she’s going to come back, but I saw her face when she got into that cab. There was guilt as she met my eyes but there was a lot more relief. I get why she left. Dad is mean. I just don’t know why she didn’t take me with her.
I haven’t told Luca yet. It’s been four days, but I don’t want to tell my best friend. What if he thinks I’m not good enough to be friends with anymore? My mom didn’t think I wa
s. I don’t know what I did wrong.
I don’t realize I’m crying until a small hand starts to wipe the tears away. I look up and meet the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen. I don’t think I’ve ever looked at another person’s eyes before. A little girl is staring at me, concern written all over her little face as she presses her hand into my cheek. She has light brown hair pulled back into pigtails that have little pink bows on them.
Why do girls like pink and bows so much? I bet they fall out of her hair a lot. Or she can’t really play without messing them up. I wouldn’t like that.
“What’s wrong?” she asks just as Luca plops down beside me. I quickly pull away from her touch even though it felt really nice. I rush to wipe the tears off of my face before my best friend can notice them.
“What’s wrong?” he echoes her. I guess he noticed them. I don’t want to tell them. It’s embarrassing. My mom doesn’t love me.
The little girl taps her foot, “My momma says that if you don’t let the bad stuff out, you get eaten by the bad guy.”
I share a small smile with Luca before he turns to look at the girl, “I don’t think that’s what your mom says.”
“No,” she argues, “she says it all the time! She says that’s why she sees her doctor. So, she won’t get eaten.”
“I don’t think that’s what your momma meant. It doesn’t make any sense,” I try to say gently. I don’t want to hurt her feelings but she’s talking nonsense.
“Fine then,” she pouts, sticking out her bottom lip, “You go ahead and get eaten up and then I can say I told you so.”
“I’m sorry, don’t pout,” I say, “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
