Bonus Content! #2
“Girl from the last trafficking?” I ask, curious to see how they feel about her and what they might know or think they know.
“Yeah, Rick’s mom and dad gave her a place to stay at their house,” Zander says in a rush, and I can’t tell if he’s just trying to get this over with to get away from me or so he can get back to her.
Interesting.
“I heard that one of the girls was taken back to your parents’ home. According to her file, nobody knows much about her, including herself.”
All three gazes snap toward me, and I see the confusion there.
“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, no 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’s over eighteen, though nobody can know for sure,” I explain the details of Jade’s case as they read from the paperwork I got from the station this morning.
It’s not all true exactly, but it’s not far off.
The guys look a little shocked, but I expected that.
It would be weird if they weren’t, but Rick is rarely speechless.
Jade’s case isn’t the norm, even in our line of work.
Most girls know enough to get them back to loved ones, are young enough to go into the system, or at the very least know something about themselves.
Most of the girls we helped save had a life prior to ending up in the rings. Jade didn’t, at least not as far as we can tell or she can remember.
“Regardless of all that, this actually makes your guy’s job easier. Froggie wants her looked after, and this job seems to have decided who gets that honor all by itself.”
That seems to get Rick’s attention.
“Do you think she’s in danger?”
Huh, that’s not what I expected. When I ran through how this would go earlier, I thought he would take issue with being used as a babysitter.
I’m unsure if his easy acceptance is a sign of his loyalty to Froggie and Vengeance or something else. It’s hard to tell with him.
“Not exactly.”
I step up to the table, tossing the file on it with a nod.
Time to see, I suppose.
Not surprisingly, Spencer reaches out for the papers, and the other two let him, making no move to look through them for themselves.
It’s part of why they work together so well.
They all have their strengths, and none of them is worried about trying to do it all.
They rely on each other. Together, the three of them work like one well-oiled machine.
Unless, of course, they are in close counters for an extended amount of time.
Then they fight like siblings, and it’s a miracle they don’t kill one another.
“Are you sure this is all correct?” Spencer asks, slamming the papers back on the table.
Well, this is new.
I meet Spencer’s angry gaze across the table and keep my face carefully blank despite my shock.
Spencer isn’t usually one to get riled up.
I know he has emotions, but fuck if he ever really shows them.
Most of the time, he has the emotional range of a teaspoon, not caring one way or the other about anything outside of the two who sit with him right now.
“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,” he doesn’t look away, and I don’t budge. I know he’s testing me, trying to see if this is all a bunch of shit or not.
Oh, how I wish it were.
“Of those five, Jade is listed as having ties to all of them.”
“What!”
Zander shouts before he seems to remember where he is. Thankfully, nobody seems to notice his outburst. Well, everyone aside from Jade, but she’s been watching us since the moment the guys turned their backs on her.
They might not realize it, but she can’t hide from me; I know her too well for that now.
My lip twitches as I watch her for just a moment too long. I know I need to look away and return to business, but I need another second.
Who am I kidding? No amount of time will ever be enough. Not to mention I need to keep myself from showing the effect she has on me, no matter how hard that might be, and damn if I’m not hard watching her.
The others look around, and Zander turns back to Spencer. The shock is still apparent on his face, but he keeps his voice down, at least.
“What now? How is it possible she has ties to all of them?”
It’s a good question. One I have the answer to, but they don’t need to know that, not yet, at least.
“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 hand on her, though it doesn’t say how she was picked up.”
I watch the color drain from Zander and Rick’s faces as Spencer spits the words through clenched teeth.
I can’t say I blame them for their reaction. I already knew this, and yet I can relate to how they feel. The anger, horror, and shock of it aren’t things that just disappear. No matter how long I’ve known this to be true, it hurts to hear it every single time, just like it’s the first time.
To know someone would do that to a child, a little girl all alone in the world, is bad enough. But I know Jade. I know what she’s been through. She didn’t deserve this life. Nobody does. She’s been through so fucking much this doesn’t even scratch the surface.
“No wonder she doesn’t have basic life skills.”
The guys nod at Rick’s words, but I keep my mouth closed.
I’ve seen firsthand her lack of real-world skills over the years, and while I have no idea what they're talking about specifically, it doesn’t matter.
If only they knew she more than makes up for anything she might lack in life skills, in other aspects.
“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,” Spencer tells them as he shuffles the papers around a bit, looking over the information again.
“Jade isn’t just used for sex, though,” I say, drawing his attention back to where I want it. He won’t get more answers about why she was moved so much from the papers, but I know them well enough by now to know they're probably already running through possibilities.
“No,” Spencer says, pulling another paper off the table.
“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 services at galas, business dinners, and things of that nature.” He spits the words, not even trying to hide his disgust with the information.
“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. When it’s over, she’s returned.”
I can almost hear his brain working, trying to figure this out.
Good luck with that.
“She’s much more than just a skin trade from the looks of it.
She appears to have some kind of value that makes her different from the other girls.
The question here 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 long enough and never seen anything like this. ”
He’s asking all the right questions, as usual. The problem is I don’t really have the answers. Only Jade does.
I’m not sure how she kept herself there for so long.
I rub at my temples in an attempt to ward off the headache I can feel creeping in.
It's time to change the subject. “She also has a rap sheet a mile long.”
Spencer quickly turns back to the papers, and I watch his brows pull down as he looks it over.
“About seven years ago, people started coming up dead,” he tells the others as his eyes dart over page after page of information. He lets them fall back to the table before his gaze snaps to mine across the table.
With a nod, I urge him to share with the other two.
“Twenty-two people, no two deaths have been the same.”
I catch a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye and find Zander flipping around his knife. It’s something he does when he feels any kind of emotion and isn’t able to do anything about it, almost like a nervous tick.
“Some causes of death include dismembering, strangulation, poisoning, drowning, incineration, death by high fall, being buried alive…” He trails off, and neither of the others seems to know what to say to that.
“As you can see, the range of death is quite vast. Beyond that, they were done with skill and precision, mostly. 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. ”
Rick nods along as I speak. His father is the chief of police. I’m sure he’s heard about some of these cases over the last few years.
“The farther we dig into these, the more we find they all have a hand in the skin trade. Most have even purchased girls. There is never anyone around to witness the murders, not even the girls who should have been their property at the time.”
Walking around the table, I stop beside Spencer, searching through the papers.
It’s not hard to find a simple list that covers both sides, but it’s no less important.
Hell, it might be the most crucial piece of information on this table.
“What’s that?” Zander asks, speaking up for the first time since his earlier outrage.