Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
The door opened, and like a fucking slap in the face, I saw who opened it. Neo had shown me pictures of Maisy’s parents prior to us leaving, but this was neither.
It was a woman. I’d always thought myself good at judging ages until a few days ago when I discovered Maisy’s true age.
I placed this woman in her mid to late twenties.
She wore her black hair up in a bun with a white French maid hat on top of her head.
Nipple clamps were all that adorned her chest and a black mini skirt with white lace barely covered her waist. It took me a second to realize that sponges were taped to the bottom of her feet in place of shoes.
Additionally, a sponge gag was strapped into her mouth.
Mascara ran down her cheeks, still wet with tears, and red lines crisscrossed all over her body. At least two of her red-painted nails were broken.
“Don’t just stand there, you useless bitch,” came a feminine voice from inside the apartment. “Let them in.”
Maisy’s confidence faltered, and there was no doubt in my mind that that voice belonged to her mother, Lorna. I stepped up behind her. Since neither of us had anticipated others being in the apartment with her parents, I did not want to encourage Maisy inside and further traumatize her.
With a hand on the small of her back, I kissed her temple. “Why don’t you stay out here?” I offered softly.
“Bitch! I said, let them in!”
Maisy flinched again, but shook her head. “I don’t want to be alone.”
I nodded, because that was certainly understandable. “Then stay behind me and by the door.”
She immediately agreed, and I took the lead. Walking inside, I pulled out my pocket knife. As I heard the door close behind me, I cut the gag off the woman who had answered the door.
“Are you here of your own freewill?” I asked, ignoring the grandeur and everything else in the apartment until I had my answer. Since she was clearly an adult, she had a right to be here if she’d chosen to be so.
“No!” she shouted. “Please! You have to help me!” It was then that I noticed the shock collar around her neck too. A quick inspection showed a padlock at the back of her neck.
“We’re here to help,” I assured her. “Go stand with my wahine while I deal with this.” At her confused expression, I clarified, “Woman.”
Her eyes darted to Maisy at the door. “Are you a cop?”
I snorted. “Better. I’ll actually get justice for what was done to you.”
Sharp footsteps on marble flooring sounded as a woman in a power suit walked under a gold archway and into the foyer of the apartment. She was mid-fifties, I would guess, and it was only her ridiculously high heels that gave her a semblance of height.
“Bitch! What is taking so long? I—” She froze when she saw me, and I met her sea-green eyes that Maisy clearly inherited.
Lorna’s perfectly manicured face frowned when she saw not only me, but the now ungagged woman behind me.
I didn’t know if she could see Maisy or if she recognized her if she did. “Who are you?”
“Clearly not who you were expecting,” I said in lieu of an answer.
I saw her hand inch towards her pocket, where I assumed the remote control for the woman’s shock collar was.
I pulled my gun from the small of my back and pointed it directly at her forehead.
“I wouldn’t, if I were you. Now, where is your husband and who were you expecting? ”
“It’s a buy,” came from behind me. “Something happened a few months ago and now they have the girls come here to be trained before selling them. There’s six of them in the other room!”
Six? Just like Nishi and all those other women Jones had had in his basement hellhole over the years? Including the woman I loved beyond measure.
Without looking away from Maisy’s mother, I asked behind me, “And where is Donovan?”
“He was upstairs in his office the last time I saw him.”
Maisy’s mother kept her hands up to show she was unarmed. “I don’t know who you are or why you are here, but we can pay you whatever you want.”
Fucking bitch. “Good to know, but you should know that I’m not here for money. I’m here for blood.”
Her frown deepened. “Blood? What the hell have we ever done to you? I don’t even know you!”
“Really? You don’t recognize your future son-in-law?” I shot back at her, feigning offense. “I’m wounded.”
Lorna’s sea-green eyes widened as they shifted behind me, and I knew the moment she saw Maisy. Her mouth gaped open like a fish out of water as her cheeks pinkened just as her daughter’s did when she was flabbergasted.
Footfalls came closer to the foyer where we all still stood. “Is that you, Arnold? How have you been, old man?” came a jovial, masculine voice.
“Carl!” Lorna shouted, but that was all she got out before I rushed forward and pistol-whipped her across her forehead.
Generally, I would never condone hitting a woman, but in this case, I was very prepared to make an exception.
As his wife dropped like a bag of bricks, a very rotund man with an honest-to-god 1970s pornstache walked through the doorway.
I made no move to catch her or prevent her from being harmed by her fall.
Instead, I steadied my gun on the man whose shirt buttons were the true heroes of the day.
“Who is Arnold?” I asked him. “And when is he due?” I assumed soon since they thought our knock was for him.
“What the fuck are you doing in my home?” Carl demanded, trying to stand taller than his five-eight height allowed. There was a possibility he had lifts in his shoes, too. “Do you have any idea who I am?”
Before I could answer, “Dad,” came from behind me. I saw her out of the corner of my eye, but did not turn my attention away from her father.
Carl’s nostrils flared as anger crossed his features. “Maisy! What the fuck is this? Why are you here? We heard Weatherby turned state’s evidence. We’ve had to sell our entire stock because of that weasel!”
I wondered where that rumor came from. It certainly wasn’t one we started. Aloiki certainly hadn’t cared what the fallout of Jones’ disappearance was. We’d left that up to the Yonkers Chapter to deal with.
I stopped Maisy from stepping forward any further, in case her mom woke up from her impromptu nap and decided to attack our feet.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Maisy glance up at me before she turned her attention back to her father.
“It won’t change anything,” Maisy said to the man, a slight quaver in her voice.
“But I have to know. I need to know. Why did you do it? I was a child! Your child! How could you sell me off to that… That…” Maisy shook her head as she struggled. “That skinless fucktard!”
Despite where we were, I chuckled at Jones’ new nickname. Might also be a notch against my character that I loved hearing her curse. Why that was such a turn on, I had no idea.
Maisy did not allow herself to be distracted by my amusement.
“Do you have any idea what he did to me? Oh, wait,” she waved behind herself.
“Of course, you do—because you’re doing exactly the same thing to this poor woman.
And what about the women you’re about to sell?
What gives you and Mom the right to treat any of us this way? ”
“You weren’t ours,” her father sneered. “Jones bought you the moment you were born.”
Keeping my gun trained on the man, I reached for Maisy. “As you said, it changes nothing. His fucked up ideologies won’t make you feel better, baby.”
Maisy turned her face away from me and her father, but not before I saw her chin start to tremble. “I knew I was nothing more than a pawn to them, but for some reason, I needed to hear it, too.”
I touched the small of her back, trailing my fingers along the delicate flesh above her khaki pants and sweater. “Take my phone out and call Aero. If others are on their way, we’re going to need assistance sooner than we intended.”
I felt her hand enter my back pocket as she stepped back towards the woman who had answered the door.
In case anything happened to me, I had made sure Maisy knew both Aero’s and Hurricane’s information.
Even though she’d had her own phone for over a month, Maisy still felt more comfortable using mine—unless it was to take pictures of our daughter.
“There’s a message from Aloiki,” she said as she unlocked it. “Apparently Barnacle has gone A-W-O-L. What does that mean?”
“Missing,” I clarified without taking my eyes off her father. That seemed odd. Barnacle might only be a Prospect, but he was Mako’s cousin. His loyalty to the club was mixed in blood. “Does he say anything else?”
“Um, not about Barnacle. But there is a picture of his, um, privates. Apparently, he wants help deciding where to get Lu’s name tattooed, um, there.”
I shook my head, because of course he did.
“Ignore him,” I instructed Maisy with exasperation.
“Just call Aero, please. I’ll answer him later.
” Did Aloiki really need to send a dick pic to get my help on that subject?
“He’s such an asshole,” I informed her father with a purposefully dramatic eyeroll.
As I heard Maisy start speaking on the phone, I indicated with my gun for Carl to step back into the main room. I followed, tossing a pair of zip ties behind me and instructing the woman who’d answered the door to tie Lorna up.
I passed under the archway and entered a seating room of sorts. A grand staircase was immediately to my left. A variety of couches decorated the room, all with gold and white accents. In the center of them was not a coffee table—but a human table.
A Black woman with a fox tail buttplug was on her hands and knees in the center of the room.
Her back was to me, but her hair was done up similarly to the woman’s who was in the foyer with Maisy.
I saw a strap around the back of her head, hinting that she too was gagged.
Unlike the other woman, she was entirely naked from what I could see.