Chapter 8 Roderick #2
I walk her all the way to the table and pull out her chair. Without a word, she plops down in it, and I flag the waiter over for her.
It only takes a moment for her attention to be back on the girls, and I sigh, relieved. Who knew the thing I was worried she would be upset about would end up being our saving grace here?
Jade isn’t anything like I thought she would be.
I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing yet. Though, if I’m being honest, it’s probably a little of both.
I head back toward the guys who are waiting where I left them so we can head to Kratos together.
I only make it a few steps before I hear her mutter “party pooper” under her breath.
I ignore her, acting as if I didn’t hear her.
I keep going, even though I can feel my lips twitching, the urge to smile right there at the surface.
Yeah, definitely both.
When we reach Kratos, I make sure to take a seat that allows me to keep an eye on Jade. Kratos tracks my eyes as I look from Jade back to him. If he has an issue, he would let me know, but seeing as he says nothing, I assume we're good.
“Girl from the last trafficking?” he asks, not looking at anyone in particular. He just wants answers, and he doesn’t care who gives them.
“Yeah, Rick’s mom and dad gave her a place to stay at their house,” Zander pipes up. He’s always quick to try to get to the bottom of everything so he can be out of Kratos's line of sight.
“I heard that one of the girls was taken back to your parent's home, Rick. According to her file, nobody knows much about her, including herself.” If he didn’t have our attention before, he sure as fuck does now.
“Jade is the only name she has listed, no last name. If she knows it, she’s never given it.
She has no known family or listed date of birth, and as far as we know, she is unaware of it herself.
She couldn’t be placed with a foster family because it’s believed she is over eighteen, though nobody can know for sure.
” He lists everything off as if it’s just simple facts, and while I guess it is, it's also disturbing as fuck.
How can someone not know their birthday or how old they are?
I look at Zander and then Spencer and see they are on the same train of thought as I am based on the gobsmacked looks on their faces. About a million questions are on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t seem to get my thoughts in order enough to actually form words.
“Regardless of all that, this actually makes your guys’ job easier. Froggie wants her looked after, and this job seems to have decided who gets that honor all by itself.” That seems to loosen my tongue.
“Do you think she’s in danger?”
“Not exactly,” he says as he takes a step towards the table we sit at. For the first time since sitting down, I realize he has a file in his hand.
He tosses it onto the table and gives a nod.
Spencer snatches it up and starts shuffling through the papers inside.
He lays out different things, and Zander and I look on as he goes through everything.
Spencer has always been the brains in our group, so it only seems fitting to let him get the information.
He can just fill us in instead of us all trying to get our hands on it.
After a few minutes, he slams some of the papers back on the table and looks up at Kratos, anger apparent on his face. I have to bite my tongue to keep from demanding to know what he’s learned, but I know he will fill us in, eventually.
“Are you sure this is all correct?” Whatever he found has him clearly upset. Which means it has to be pretty fucked up. He’s usually pretty good at keeping his cool.
“In the last year, Froggie has broken up five of the six major sex trafficking rings in the city, something that he wants handled ASAP,” Spencer says, and we know this already.
Froggie hates the skin trade. Whether personal or just because it’s bad for business, we have been helping him go after them since the beginning.
Though this is as close as we’ve come to the actual takedown, the others were all in parts of the city we don’t handle.
“Of those five, Jade is listed as having ties to all of them.”
“What!” Zander exclaims loudly before he seems to remember where he is. We all take a moment to look around and ensure we haven’t drawn the room's attention. Nobody seems to have noticed. The dancers still do their routines, and the audience is still thoroughly entranced by them.
My eyes go to Jade. She appears to be watching the show, but something about her posture makes me think she could be listening. Considering we are talking about her, I let it go. It’s not like we're saying anything she doesn’t already know.
“What now? How is it possible she has ties to all of them?” Zander asks Spencer in a lower voice, but with no less urgency behind it.
“According to this information, it looks like she's been in that lifestyle since she was a child. Based on the description given, I would say she was five or six when one of the rings got its hands on her, though it doesn’t say how she was picked up,” Spencer tells us through clenched teeth.
I watch as the color drains from Zander's face and know my own can’t be much better.
We thought it was bad for her when we found her in that hole, but this has been her whole life.
“No wonder she doesn’t have basic life skills.” The words come out low. I didn’t even mean to say them, but it makes sense. I know the guys hear me as they nod along.
“Since then, she’s changed hands as payment, or just because, over and over through the years. The guy we saved her from has only had her for maybe the last year.”
“Jade isn’t just used for sex, though,” Kratos says.
“No,” Spencer agrees. “She appears to be available for purchase for more than just that. She has a history of being an escort. It looks like many high rollers have used her for service at galas, business dinners, and things of that nature. In addition, she has worked jobs smuggling drugs and weapons. She even has a job listing where she was purchased as a nanny for a time, but every contract has a start and end date, and when it’s over, she’s returned.
” Spencer shakes his head as he looks over the papers and gives us the facts.
“She’s much more than just a skin trade from the looks of it, though.
She appears to have some kind of value that makes her different from the other girls.
The question is, why? Why not just sell her off?
Why keep her in the rings? Why does every contract have an expiration date?
I’ve been in the business a long time and never seen anything like that.
” Kratos raises a hand to rub at his temples as if these questions give him a headache, and yeah, agreed.
“She also has a mile-long rap sheet,” Kratos points out.
Spencer flips a few pages, and I see his eyebrows pull down in confusion as he reads over the information.
What else? How can there still be more on her? We’ve been in this business for a while now, and I feel like our stories are nothing to hers.
“About seven years ago, people started turning up dead.” His eyes dart over page after page of information before he drops the papers and looks up to meet Kratos's gaze.
Kratos gives a nod.
Spencer takes a deep breath, as if to settle himself before continuing.
“Twenty-two people have died in the last seven years. All of them can be traced back to illegal deals in the skin trade.” He picks up the paper again, his eyes scanning over the words as he speaks.
I feel like I’m sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting to hear what I know will be potentially life-changing information.
“Of those twenty-two people, no two deaths have been the same.” I watch as Zander fidgets, pulling his knife out and flipping it around.
I’ve never understood his constant need to move until this very moment. It’s taking everything in me not to stand up and pace back and forth.
“Some causes of death include dismemberment, strangulation, poisoning, drowning, incineration, death by high fall, being buried alive…..” Spencer’s words trail off, and I can’t make myself ask if that’s all.
Somehow, I doubt it.
“As you can see, the range of death is quite vast. Beyond that, they were mostly done with skill and precision. Some of these men were trained fighters. It wasn’t a lack of skill that got them killed.
They were simply outmatched or outsmarted.
The cops haven’t been able to find any of their killers, and it’s my understanding that they haven’t even entertained the idea that they were all related.
Most of these men have absolutely no connection.
The only reason we know anything is because of the paperwork we gathered after shutting the other rings down.
” I nod because it makes sense. Usually, people have a pattern or a calling card when they set out to kill more than one person. Something that links them together.
“The farther we dig into these, the more we find that they all have a hand in the skin trade; most have even purchased girls. There’s never anyone around to witness the murders, not even the girls who were property at the time.
” He walks up to the table and starts going through the papers, clearly looking for something specific.
After a moment, he hands Spencer a sheet. From what I can see, it appears to be a list.
“What’s that?” Zander asks before I can.
Kratos doesn’t answer. He just continues to look at the paper as if it has somehow wronged him. The look on his face is so intense that it causes the hairs on my neck to stand up.
Whatever it is, it’s not good.
“It’s a list of all the girls who have been in my care.” Jade’s voice comes from just behind Spencer’s shoulder. We all turn to look at her. Well, everyone but Kratos, who still just looks down at the paper.
“Jade,” I say her name, hoping she hears the warning there. She shouldn’t be over here.
She just waves me off with a flick of her hand, as if this is no big deal.
But she doesn’t know Kratos, doesn’t know what we do, and despite her past and my guard that says not to trust her too quickly, all I want to do is protect her.
Nobody deserves the shit she’s been through.
I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, and considering our line of work, that's saying something.
“Do you want answers or not?” she asks, moving around the table to stand toe-to-toe with Kratos.
Finally, he pulls his eyes from the paper, although it appears to take great effort. He looks down at her, and seeing how small she is beside him only makes me want to push her away more.
She shouldn’t be a part of this.
She meets Kratos' stare and doesn’t back down, the same way she did with us, with me just last night. I’m stuck once again between being in awe of her and being concerned for her fucking mental health. She either has balls of steel, or she’s really fucking dumb.
But the longer they stare each other down, the more I see it. She’s already a part of this world. Hell, she’s probably been a part of it longer than we have.
Understanding dawns on me like a slap to the face.
She won’t back down because she can’t. This is who she is because this is who she has to be.
This is how she survived.
None of us say a thing as they stand there for what feels like a lifetime.
My brain runs through scenario after scenario of what could happen.
Anything from Kratos snapping at her to her snapping at him, but I can’t for the life of me match up these murders to her.
I can’t picture her hurting anyone, least of all Kratos, no matter what that file says.
Just when I start to feel like I can’t handle this for a moment longer, the craziest thing happens.
Kratos’s stern glare softens, and he smiles at her. It’s barely more than a quirk of his lips, but there's no other word to describe it.
The shocked gasp from Zander lets me know I’m not just imagining it. We’ve known Kratos for a few years now, and as I sit here and wrack my brain, I can’t remember a time when he hasn’t looked ready to kill someone.
Even outside of work, I have never seen him relax out of his ready-to-kill, second-in-command role, let alone smile. Before this moment, I would have bet money he didn’t even know how to.
He turns away from her to face us once again.
“She can stay.”
That’s all he says, but the victorious smile on Jade’s face is hard to miss as she turns towards the table and pulls the paper right out of Spencer's hand. He stares at her with a mixture of shock and awe but remains quiet.
Of all the ways this meeting could have gone, this is not what I expected. Shit, none of us could have anticipated Jade, and once again, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.