Wicked Desires (Desires Trilogy #3)

Prologue

Kayden

It’s been three years of searching, destroying, killing, and saving.

My particular skill set has come in handy as Franklin and I work toward dismantling the sex trafficking rings in California.

We’ve rescued over thirty women so far and nearly a dozen kids.

It’s a sobering thought, and yet, there are so many still out there.

You see, I used to funnel the darkness inside of me by killing the men that society deems as monsters—the rapists and the abusers.

Now, well… I still do that, but ever since we took down the Romani empire and saved those women, it has been my mission—my purpose—to save as many women and children that I can.

As the owner of Club LAX, I host all sorts of people in my venue.

Most of those people have one too many drinks and their tongues start dropping all sorts of useful information.

I have eyes and ears all over the club, so when men decide to come here to talk “business,” well, let’s just say it becomes my business.

Lately, however, as each trafficking ring has been taken down, most of the other rings have experienced a ripple within their organizations, spooking them into hiding.

Even though this makes it a little harder finding them, it’s still easy enough when you have the greatest hacker on the west coast working for you.

Franklin is my eyes and ears into a lot of these organizations.

He hacks into cameras and security systems like it’s nothing.

I’ve never seen anything quite like it. He gets his marks from me, gathers the necessary intel, finds where the captives are being kept, and then I move in for the kill.

Even though Franklin is Jaxon’s best friend, we’ve become close in our shared mission, and I consider him one of my greatest friends and allies.

I have a designated team of men, mainly retired special ops that still have a lust for blood and a sense of duty, that accompany me on these missions.

They clear the way into these operations and then I get to have a little fun with the ring leaders.

Their screams don’t last long though; our mission is to get in and out with the women and children, secure them new lives, and then we move onto the next ring—rinse and repeat.

James, my brother, is well aware of my missions. But we decided early on not to get Jaxon or Melody involved. My little brother and sister-in-law have been attempting to get pregnant for the past two years, so we haven’t wanted to stress them out with these situations.

James knows I have a sense of purpose for all this, but he doesn’t know about the darkness that’s lurked under my skin my entire life.

This is simply an outlet for it. Don’t get me wrong, he helps where he can, but it’s mainly Franklin, myself, and my team of men that get these women and children out and into safety.

Most of them get new identities, though some are such high profile missing persons that we have no choice but to leave them in a safe place, fabricate a story that they provide to the authorities, and then tip off the police to their whereabouts.

But for the nobodies, the women without family and the children that fell through a corrupt system, they get new identities, new lives, new everything.

After every mission, a team of doctors and nurses is waiting to evaluate and treat all new rescues at our home base, Eden, located in a warehouse downtown.

Jackie, a therapist I keep on my payroll, provides free services to them long after their rescue.

It’s a valuable resource for most of the victims, and they have access to it for the rest of their lives.

In fact, Jackie is the same therapist that Melody started seeing after we rescued her from her kidnapper well over three years ago.

Jackie’s one-on-one sessions are helpful, but what we have seen to be most impactful are the group sessions.

There, the survivors don’t feel so alone in their trauma because they all have similar experiences, and it’s during these sessions that they form lifelong bonds.

On the nights I’m not working, sleep evades me.

I’ve spent the majority of thirty-four years as a night owl though, so it’s not a huge problem.

However, now when I do sleep, my dreams are plagued with beaten and abused women and children that I didn’t save in time.

I usually jump awake, my skin cold and clammy, and the back of my neck dripping with sweat.

Failure is not an option in this line of work. Failure means lives are beaten, abused, and eventually ended.

I like to think I’m creating a better world for these victims, while also satisfying a darkness within myself.

A darkness that has only grown since the Romanis.

My little spitfire came out of that house and I’ve kept my distance, but I find myself chomping at the bit, eager to make her mine.

I’ve stayed away, knowing my darkness will fluff out even the brightest light.

A light that I will do anything to protect.