11. Chapter Eleven
Chapter Eleven
Joshua “Loki” Ledet
The horrific shit this girl had to endure and still be able to exist in this crazy fucking world was amazing to say the least. She had confirmed what we had already expected—Owen Decker, senator, and the pride of his political party was one of the country’s most prolific sex traffickers for the rich and famous.
She had been able to explain the horrifying conditions she endured in a room, locked in a cage with other women who suffered unimaginable shit every damn day. However, I believed the only reason she was spared from what the other women had to go through was due to her virginity.
Apparently, he would get paid a shit ton of money if he delivered to his clientele a virgin, we had found out from New York’s cousin. Rumblings were already circulating through the underworld about Lila according to the head of the Rizzo family and at this point she was a priceless commodity to Decker. A priceless commodity that had escaped.
The way to piss off an over entitled prick was to fuck with his money. I couldn’t wait to take this bastard down and shove him in the fucking furnace. Or maybe I’d throw him to the fucking gators while he was still alive so he could die a fucking horrible death for what he was doing to these women.
It had been a few days since God dropped Lila off at the clubhouse and she had clung to New York like he was her life raft. Why she chose him, I had no idea. Did it make him uncomfortable? Yes, very uncomfortable because she was young, a good fifteen years younger than him and she went through a traumatic experience. But he didn’t push her away no matter how uncomfortable her presence was to him. She trusted him and she needed that right now because she was alone in the world. Her parents were absent. That dynamic Monica had never explained to me, and I didn’t ask. She just said they weren’t around. Lila couldn’t even tell us how to get in touch with them. And now she was also dealing with the loss of her sister.
When I broke the news to her about Monica’s death, I hadn’t heard heart wrenching screams like that since the funerals of some of my fellow soldiers. It was like her very soul had been crushed. It took everything in me, not to drown the sound of her cries out with alcohol. But I had another issue that needed to be taken care of that couldn’t be ignored. And I needed to be sober to handle it.
Dominique Honoré.
Lila gave us all the information she could on where she had been held captive and by who. She was also able to give the names of certain individuals she recognized at a gathering Owen Decker had to show off the women he would auction off including Nikki.
When she mentioned Nikki, my heart clenched inside my chest. I still hadn’t confirmed if this person was my Nikki, but in my heart, I believed it was.
She had done everything she could to protect her when they were held captive. And Lila said she was also the one who helped her escape. She had been devastated they were forced to separate, and she hoped she made it out.
I asked some questions of the locals, and they were able to point to the place they were more than likely being held. I had Wires pull the property records, and while the property wasn’t in Decker’s name, it was in his wife’s.
Does she know what her husband is up to?
I sighed at the knock at the door.
“Come in!” I shouted, tossing my pen on top of the contracts I had to sign off on.
While we had been planning what to do about this shit, work for the club still had to be done. I was so fucking tired. I just wanted to go home and sleep.
Wires came in carrying his laptop with a huge smile covering his face.
“I hope that smile on your face means you found something,” I said as he placed his laptop on my desk.
“Fuck yeah, I found something,” he said, opening the top of his laptop. “I found video from the night she was taken.”
“So, are you confirming that it is Dominique Honoré?”
“Here is a photo of Domique Honoré that Brian Hamm’s wife sent over,” Wires said, handing it to me. “I printed it off the email.”
The picture captured a group of ladies, their colorful swimsuits contrasting against the crystal blue waters of the ocean. Each of them had a smile on their face as they proudly held up their martini glasses. There was no mistake it was my Nikki.
Fuck!
“It matches the lady on the video in my opinion, but I’m not opposed to a second opinion if you need one. This is a picture of her and of the guy. I pulled a still from the video but maybe someone will recognize them.”
I let out a deep breath. In the picture pulled from the video, Nikki appeared older than in the picture from the beach, but there was no doubt it was her.
“That’s the Dominique, I know. Fuck! Let me see the video.”
Wires sighed and hit play. “She was blindsided, but I think she might have known the guy.”
I nodded as I watched her turn around like he might have called her name. “Any audio?” I asked, even though I was sure he would have played it if he had it.
“No, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
We watched as the man jogged towards her. By her facial expression, she looked like she didn’t understand why he was there. Then he moved so quickly she didn’t have time to react, as he hit her over the head with something, knocking her out. He caught her before she hit the ground, picked her up bridal style, then carried her to a dark color sedan. He tossed her inside the trunk, then jumped inside his car, and pulled out of the parking lot.
“This was the only video I could find because of the storm.”
I released another deep sigh. “Could you send Lila in here so she can confirm if this is the woman that helped her escape?”
“Sure thing, Prez.”
Wires closed his laptop then walked towards the door.
“Wires,” I called out, causing him to face me.
“Yeah, Prez?”
“Good job man. When all this shit’s over, and for what you did for Dragon, expect to be patched in.”
A wide smile crossed his face. “Thanks, Prez. I’m going to see if there’s anything else I can come up with.”
“Thanks.”
He nodded, then walked out of my office. I picked up my phone and dialed the number I had for Brian Hamm.
“Hamm,” he called out after he answered on the third ring.
“Loki here.”
“Any news?”
“Not anything good. I’m going to confirm with a young lady who escaped the sex trafficking ring with the help of Nikki, but I do believe it’s her.”
“Goddamn it.” He sighed. “My wife is going to lose her fucking mind.”
“The auction is tonight. We’re going in. We’ll get her out.”
“Do you need anything from me?” he asked.
“Not at this time.”
Hopefully we could get her out without any bloodshed. But no matter what happened or how bloody it got, Nikki was coming home.
“I know you probably have the money, but there’s no price limit to getting her back. If you need more, call me.”
“Will do.”
“Let me know when you have her.”
“I’ll be in touch.”
I ended the call, feeling a mix of frustration, exhaustion, and downright anger and let out an audible sigh. Shit was about to get real. I couldn’t believe Nikki was caught up in this shit.
I picked up the picture we had of the girls on the beach. I stared at how happy she looked. How carefree. And in that moment, I realized how much of a shit person I had been all these years for not keeping up with her like I promised. That shit was going to change.
A knock sounded at the door, and I wiped my hand down my face. I was so fucking tired. I couldn’t get any sleep. Couldn’t fuck to fall asleep and the one thing I knew could help me, would fuck my entire life up. I was so ready for all this shit to be over.
“Come in!” I shouted.
The door opened and in stepped, New York followed closely by Lila. Her eyes were planted on the floor and her steps timid. Yes, this was an unhealthy attachment Lila had to New York, and I knew I’d have to address it after we saved Nikki.
“Lila, I need you to look at a couple of pictures for me. Can you do that?”
The girl was as skittish as a mouse running from a predator. I didn’t blame her, but it didn’t make communicating with her easy. I tried to soften my voice as much as possible, but her body still shook whenever I tried to speak to her. That was her reaction to everyone except New York.
The only person she really responded to was New York, and it made him uneasy. He was so much older than her, he had no sisters, no old lady, and no girlfriend. He had absolutely no idea how to navigate a situation with a traumatic teenager.
Her large doe eyes flicked to New York’s, and he nodded.
“We need your help, if we’re going to get them all out,” he said.
New York’s voice was unusually calm and soft. I guess this was the only way she’d respond to anything he said.
I stuck the picture out to her, and she grabbed it. Her eyes filled with tears and fell down her cheeks. “She helped me. They have her, don’t they?”
I ran my hand through my hair. “I’m not sure, but I think so.”
She turned to New York and wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face into his body, and sobbing into his shirt. Awkwardly he held his arms away from her and focused on me with his eyes as big as saucers. He didn’t know how to comfort anyone, especially a teenager who had been through such horrific shit. If this wasn’t such a fucked up situation, I would laugh at how fucking terrified he looked.
“Lila, do you remember this man?” I asked.
She slowly pulled away from New York and he breathed a sigh of relief. I held out the picture, and she reluctantly grabbed it, stared at it for a moment, then shook her head before handing it back to me.
“They kept me in the cage except for when we had to get ready for that party. The only men I saw where the ones who took the women and brought them back. He wasn’t one of them.”
I let out another sigh. “Okay. I need to talk to New York, can you please excuse us?”
I saw the hesitation in her gaze to leave him. “Remember what I told you, Lila,” New York said. “You’re safe here with the Sinners. Nobody will touch you.”
She let out a slow breath before she nodded then walked out the office, closing the door behind her.
New York let out a breath of relief as he plopped down in the chair in front of my desk.
“You good?” I asked.
He shook his head. “She’s clingy and I understand that she thinks I’m safe for whatever reason but it’s so fucking uncomfortable. I haven’t even been able to get my dick wet with the club whores because she’s always by my side.” He ran his hand through his hair. “But once we get everyone out of this shit, I’m sure things will calm down with her. At least I fucking hope so.”
“I’m sure it will. She just needs somebody she can trust. Why she picked you, I have no fucking clue.”
“Me either, Prez.”
I handed him the picture of Nikki. He grabbed it and studied it. “This is who you’re purchasing tonight if we get to that point.”
“What’s my budget?”
“There’s no limit.”
This shit couldn’t be over fast enough. I just wanted to get those women out of there before anything else happened to them. Hopefully we could do it with no bloodshed but all that depended on Owen Decker.