Chapter Two
Mitch
I’d been late to Galahad’s meeting at Rose Cottage—the safe house we funded for sex workers to keep them off the streets and alive—which had raised a few eyebrows.
Which was odd. I wasn’t the most punctual person. Being a few minutes late wasn’t unusual. It had been a long time, though, since a woman had made me late.
Or that hard when I was wearing pants!
But Amy. Damn it. She was an enigma. I’d thought that from the first time I’d seen her.
A bundle of energy, chatter, and emotion all wrapped up in one sweet, Barbie-doll package.
And her eyes, they spoke for her. One minute nervous and apprehensive, and the next they were passionate and hungry.
It switched in a nanosecond. Oh, and she had liked me holding her hair like that, possessing her, dominating her, taking charge.
Yep, that had yanked her chain big time.
My experience with cults was limited, but from what I knew she must have had to fight like a demon against the brainwash, not least because she’d grown up with it.
Thank goodness she had fought. Thank goodness she’d made her escape and met Rebecca, a woman I admired for her strength, intelligence, dependability, and common sense.
“So what do I say to him?” Jamie said with a huff. “Can I order a woman? Blonde, big tits, please?” He leaned back in the chair, his Gucci t-shirt crinkling when he folded his arms.
“Yeah, I’d say so.” Phil cracked his knuckles and sneered. “Should do it.”
“No,” Andrew, the professor, said. “That would make them suspicious. There must be a code word or some kind of slang they use.”
I got my head back in the game. They were planning on calling one of the phone numbers they’d gotten hold of. Someone we suspected of supplying women and girls, taking orders and demanding large sums of cash for delivery. Poor fucking things, they were treated like meat.
We had to stop it!
Fast.
“Might be in a message somewhere on those eight numbers,” Dalton said. “Why don’t we run a track on them? See if we get anything useful.”
“I doubt a track will come up with anything, but yeah, let’s do that,” I said. “Send them over to me, Jamie, I’ll get to it. The police database digs deeper into encrypted stuff than these online tools.”
“Will do.”
Andrew looked at his phone and stood suddenly. He frowned. “And now I have to go. Chelsea is…fuck…Chelsea needs me to…” He headed out of the large front room we used as an office.
“Under the thumb much.” Phil chuckled.
“Or led by his cock.” Jamie grinned. “One or the other.”
“Got to keep her sweet,” Cillian added. “No one wants trouble with their woman. Way more hassle than it’s worth.”
“That’s that then.” Finn shrugged. “Guess we’ll have to wait and see if any of the messages give us a clue on how to order a woman.” His jaw tightened. “Sick fucks.”
“I agree. Fucking bastards, I hope they burn in Hell.” I stood and ran my hands through my hair. “I’ll let you know as soon as it’s done.” I paused. “I’ve got to go. You guys okay here?”
“Sure.” Phil also stood. “I’ll take a spot for a while, keep an eye on things. Just got some work admin to stay on top of, and I can do that in the kitchen.”
“And I’ll be back later,” Jamie said. “Got to have dinner with the fam, keep them sweet. Don’t want to get knocked out of that will.” He chuckled.
“Have fun.” I turned and left the room, walked along the corridor that smelled of cheap perfume, then through the kitchen. “See ya, Trixie, have a good evening, be safe.”
“You, too, honey.” She waved without taking her concentration from the sauce she was stirring.
I strided out into the sunshine and turned the corner toward the front of the house. Suddenly I came nose to chest with a giant of a man.
“What the?” I stepped back. “Razor?”
“Yeah, what’s up, man?”
“Didn’t know you were out?”
He scratched the skull tattoo on his neck. “Yesterday.”
“And you went hunting for a cop?” I laughed and took in his beefed-up biceps covered in ink. The guy had clearly spent his six months locked up working out.
“Galahad. I came looking for Galahad.” He gestured over my shoulder.
“They’ve gone for the day, mostly.”
He eyed me. “The professor?”
“He’s not here. Woman trouble.”
Razor laughed, a deep thunderous sound. “I would put up with a bit of woman trouble, I can fucking tell you, it’s been a while since I had a pussy wrapped around my cock.”
“Got a woman in mind?” I asked, hooking my fingers into my belt and raising my eyebrows.
“A willing one.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Rape isn’t my jam.”
“Good to hear.” He’d been in for carrying an offensive weapon. Chances were he had one on him again now. Some people never learned.
But it wasn’t my problem if I didn’t see said weapon.
“So what do you want the professor for?” I asked.
“Got info.”
“So, tell me.”
Razor glanced around, checking out the row of shrubs and the empty gravel driveway.
“I’ll pass it on, you know I will.”
“Yeah, for a cop you’re okay, Mitch.” He folded his arms, and his nostrils flared.
“Thanks for the compliment.” I gave a tight laugh. “So? What you got?”
“When I was inside, my cellmate, he was a total twat, fucking scumbag asshole.”
“And?”
“And he was also one hell of a fucking showoff. Always going on about what he’d got away with and the women he’d had.”
“He was some kind of stud, huh?”
“Huh, he had no fucking teeth and wart on his nose big enough to land a plane on.”
“Nice.”
“This one time.” Razor lowered his head. “He got into one, started going on about these women he’d bought from Kosovo.”
“Go on.” My hearing seemed to intensify, and I resisted the urge to lean in.
“Got them from some English guy who had a warehouse full of women, apparently you could take your pick. Tall, short, big tits, blonde muff, black muff, shaved muff, whatever got your dick hard.”
“And you know who this guy is? With the warehouse?”
“No, how would I?”
“He didn’t tell you?”
“No, why would he? All he wanted to do was go on about these women he’d bought from him and then kept prisoner for six months.
Fucked them whenever he wanted. Had his mates round for ass-fucking parties and let them all have a go at these poor girls until they passed out and their asses were totally fucked up. ”
Anger gripped my belly, and a familiar need for vengeance burned in my soul. “Why did he go inside? This cellmate of yours.”
“Drink driving, nothing to do with the sick things he did to these women.”
“He still in?”
“No, he got out last month.” Razor grimaced. “I want him dead.”
Sounded like a plan to me.
“So why didn’t you take the opportunity when you were inside?” I asked.
“He wasn’t worth adding to my time for.”
“I take your point.” I nodded.
“So you can do it?” Razor snorted then spat on the ground.
“You think we’re hitmen to hire?”
“Aren’t you?”
“No, we balance the scales of justice. Someone gets away with murder, we kill them. An eye for an eye and all that. From what you’ve said, this perverted asshole hasn’t murdered anyone, so we can’t kill him, it’s against the code.”
“Fuck the code. He deserves to die. The things he went on about, twisted fuck, he videoed a lot of it and put it online, too. Go watch it, you’ll want to murder him then.”
“You’ve gotta know, we wouldn’t shed a tear if he dropped down dead, but we can’t kill him.”
“Fat lot of use you are.” He glared at me then turned. “Fucking useless.”
“But wait,” I said, following him. “Give us his information, we can find out who is supplying these girls, take out the wheels of the machine if we find they fit our criteria. Good chance they do if we scrape back through their history. These pricks are always trigger happy.”
“And then you’ll kill him? My cellmate.”
“If he’s murdered, yes, if the guy or guys he got these girls from have, yes, we’ll take them all out.” I paused. “We’ve done it before. You know we have. We’re solid for our word.”
“Yeah, I do know.” He retrieved a slip of paper from his faded jeans pocket. “Here’s his details. And when you do decide to waste him, just before you put a bullet in his brain, say hi to him from me.”
“I’ll be sure to.” I took the tatty piece of paper.
Leo Green, Northcourt, Abingdon.
“Not a lot to go on here, mate.”
“You’ll find him.”
“He go home when he was released?” I asked.
“Said he was.”
“Then, sure, we’ll find him.”
“Let me know, yeah, I’ll sleep better when I know he’s in Hell.”
“Sure, we’ll let you know.” I held up the paper. “Could be great intel this, might connect a few dots on something we’ve been working on.”
“Always glad to help.” He strode away, holding up his left arm in a half wave.
“Say hi to The Convicts for me,” I called. “Tell them to keep their noses clean.”
He didn’t reply.
I glanced at my watch. I had an hour before I was due at Amy’s, so I found a park, sat on a bench, and phoned Andrew and filled him in on the lead. He was excited, keen for the hunt now he had a scent, and said he’d be in touch soon. The sooner we paid Leo Green a visit the better.
I then called my kids, Nathan and Harry.
They’d had a fun weekend, been out with Sarah and him to some water park.
I struggled to keep my voice bright and inject interest in their day when inside I was being eaten alive by the fact I wasn’t with them, wasn’t watching them grow, bantering, play fighting, making memories at damn water parks.
And not one iota of it was my fucking fault. I hadn’t had the affair. I hadn’t sneaked around, lied, deceived, fucked another person. That was all on Sarah, and yet she got my damn house and my kids, and the second our divorce came through she moved him in.
Wanker.
I ended the call with promises to see them on my next weekend off and take them somewhere even better than the water park. They were in a hurry for dinner, starving, they said, and so disappeared quickly from my phone.
I sighed and rubbed my temples. Tried to push out the hate I felt for the man who’d quite literally stolen my life.
For so long I’d brooded on what I could arrest him for, how I could set him up, frame him, get his ass thrown in jail for so long he’d be a wizened old git by the time he got out.
But Andrew had talked me down from that plan, said it would be bad karma, would feel great at the time but would undo the work we’d done on balancing the scales of justice.
So I’d agreed not to do it…for now. Things could change. Minds could change. So could freedom.
The new deep darkness that had bloomed in me from the very moment I’d learned of Sarah’s deception should have scared me, should have sickened me, but it didn’t.
The hellish black hole in my soul was there to stay, rent-free.
It was as though my heart lay dead in my chest, unfeeling, but to date that had been preferable to the bitterness of betrayal and shattered love and I’d put up with it.
A dog barked to my left, and I stood and headed in the opposite direction.
Amy.
Soon I was on her tree-lined avenue, the scent of tarmac and pollen hanging in the air. I was stomping with heavy footfalls, my expression one that told people to cross the street to avoid me.
A few did.
I couldn’t help it.
I buzzed her apartment door and waited. Willed the oppressive, brooding weight to lift from my shoulders.
“Hey, you.”
Her sweet voice brought the tiniest smile to my lips. “Gonna let me in?”
“Sure. I’m glad you’re here, come on in.”
My heart did a strange flip, a missed beat then one to catch up. Making me aware of its presence.
Perhaps Amy would be a balm to my fractious nerves and vengeful thoughts.
A defibrillator for my heart.
I could only fucking hope.
The apartment block door clicked open, and I walked into the cool, lemon-scented lobby. Was I on a journey from Hell to hope? Was there light for me through this brackish darkness?
I took two steps and then heard footsteps above me.
There she was, at the top of the flight of stairs and staring straight at me through long, dark lashes. Her brilliant-blue eyes locked on mine.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Her image imprinted on my brain like a branding iron. Never to be forgotten.
I went from soft to a semi in one second flat. The woman had seriously done what I’d instructed. She wanted to play…oh hell yeah, she really wanted to play.
Best news I’d had all fucking day.
Halting, I gripped the handrail and swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry and filled with the sweet, greedy taste of lust.
“Did I get the outfit right, Daddy?”
Fuck, and her calling me that! An instant ready-to-fuck mode hit me.
“Yeah.” I let my gaze trail down her body. “You got it right, baby girl.”
Her hair was in pigtails, high, and hung down past her collarbones, the ends decorated with pink bows that matched her lipstick.
Damn those lips, so fucking kissable.
I licked mine, remembering taking possession of her mouth earlier.
Her white t-shirt was so tight there wasn’t much left to my imagination.
Those tits were perfect handfuls, topped with stiff nipples poking at the material.
I longed to suck on them. Some kind of pink bear smiled from the center of her t-shirt, a rainbow underneath it.
Her pleated black skirt was scandalously short, showing off delicious long legs.
And white socks…fuck I went to full hardness…
knee-high socks were obviously my thing, who knew? Not me. Now I did.
“I wasn’t sure about the shoes,” she said, looking down at her patent black pumps and tapping the heels together. “For dinner, you know.”
They were perfect.
“Get down here.” It came out gruffer than I’d planned.
“But I—?”
“You don’t need anything, I’m taking care of you, remember, so get down here now.”
She frowned. “Are you sure…?”
“Do it.”
She took a step. “Why?”
“Because if I come up there, we won’t be going out.” I shoved my hand down my pants and adjusted an uncomfortable erection.
“We won’t?”
“No, we’ll be fucking, and it’s been a while, so it’ll be rougher than my little girl is expecting.”
“Oh…I…” Her cheeks flared red as she hurried down the stairs. “Okay. Thanks for the warning.”