Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Kyren
“Ifound Maeve,” I announce, my eyes never leaving the screen as I watch her leave Club Blue Light and get into a car with guards.
It’s obviously a play on the red lights district, but I can’t find it in me to be amused. Bad shit happens behind those doors, and I’m finding myself more than concerned.
Brows knitting, I use the video traffic cameras to follow her back to where she’s staying.
“Really?” Syrus asks softly, almost not wanting to talk as if that’ll make her magically disappear.
I’m not going to let that happen now that I’ve found her. Having the name of who originally bought her to start from was helpful. It’s where I first began my search to find his sister, but Heath doesn’t have much of a digital footprint.
All of his purchases are under a ghost umbrella organization. Gideon was an asshole, and put the transaction with Heath under his name as well as the ghost organization instead. I expect that it was also done this way for his own records, and also for blackmail purposes if it ever came to that.
Gideon Henderson’s very particular ways for doing business are a godsend in this instance, as he also listed Heath’s last known location as well. I hope wherever he is in the afterlife is very uncomfortable for him.
“Yeah,” I reply to Syrus. “I’ve been scouring cameras in New Mexico for days with her last known photo, but she’s changed a lot. Her hair is still dark, but it appears that she’s had some cosmetic surgery. The club she’s working at has a certain look it likes for their dancers.”
“Kyren,” Syrus says, and my name has a sudden weight it’s never had before.
“I know,” I say, my throat working around a lump.
Lock it down. It’s something I have to continually tell myself, because Maeve has lost so much of her life.
“From what I’m seeing, none of the dancers are at the club of their own free will.
They’re all owned by the men who own the club.
Heath is a silent investor under his umbrella company, and has been for about a year.
It appears that he gave Maeve to them. She could have pissed him off, or perhaps he got bored of her.
I’m also looking into any known records of how long she’s been working here, but there’s no real way to know since written documentation is scarce,” I admit.
“It could have been when he bought in or some time after. The cameras don’t keep recordings for long, which means that I can’t look back very far.
Based on the recording I have access to now, it appears that she dances for several hours, does other work for the club, and then is picked up by a car.
The encryption and access points to their security is terrible when they’re hiding so much.
I’m attempting to track the vehicle back to where she’s staying. ”
“There’s a lot you’re not saying,” Syrus murmurs.
Silva presses herself against Syrus, and I can see that’s the only thing keeping him from breaking things. Maeve doesn’t only dance at this club, but that could be our way in if we need it. Our girl still isn’t a hundred percent, and that’s my next concern.
“Now that I’ve found Maeve, I don’t want to wait long to extract her. The club is only a six hour drive. We can get together our supplies while I map out the areas we’ll be entering. However—”
“I can’t go with you,” Silva says quietly. “I’ll be someone you worry about and I won’t do that to you. I’ll be safer in Widows Peak and my ribs aren’t completely healed either.”
“Yes,” I sigh. “I’m sorry, Princess. I promise we’ll come back to you. Ah, I may have to do some sketchy shit to get into this club.”
“Whatever it takes to get Maeve back,” Silva says simply.
“God, why are you so amazing?” Syrus mumbles.
“Because you don’t judge me on my shit,” she shrugs. “I desperately need a nap before I go into work tonight. I’m also probably going to stress clean, make up a room for Maeve to stay in until she’s ready to figure out her next steps, and get the house ready. Will you keep me in the loop please?”
“Absolutely,” Harlan murmurs, watching as she stands.
Damn. She’s fucking amazing.
It took me a while to get into the security feeds, and the video is not current that I’m accessing. Maeve left the club at five in the morning, and it’s now two in the afternoon.
It’s lucky that I caught this at all, since the cameras erase after twenty-four hours, and New Mexico traffic camera storage is short term as well.
We’re meant to save Maeve. I just know it. Everything is finally falling into place.
Silva gives Syrus a forehead kiss before leaving the room and he closes his eyes for a moment before leaning forward with his corded forearms on his thighs. As he opens his eyes, gone is the sadness and worry that were in his gaze, and back is the hardass policeman that he is.
“Tell it all to me, please,” he says.
“This is a sex club,” I say, pursing my lips.
“So all of the girls there are engaged in that activity?” Isidro asks.
“There are also men,” I admit.
“Hmm. What is your plan for getting inside the club?” he asks.
“Bait and infiltrate,” I explain. “This club isn’t member only, and most people don’t know that the omegas are there against their will. If you stopped all of your medication, and did a detox, it would allow you to ask about getting hired on.”
“You think not everyone knows how they operate?” Harlan asks. “This isn’t some kind of crime syndicate business?”
“Not at all,” I say. “While I’m sure some know this is all illegal, there are people perfectly willing to pay for sex with an omega.”
“I already hate this,” Syrus grumbles.
“I haven’t taken my medication for the last couple of days,” Izzy confesses. “If we’re not going on missions, and we’re considering going into the private sector in a more managerial way, I figured there’s no reason for it.”
“You’re not wrong. Okay, so this helps,” I muse.
“In the meantime, while you’re chatting up the bouncer, I plan to go in with Harlan.
He and I will ask for private time with Maeve.
I’m unsure if she has a club name, so we’ll play that by ear.
It’s possible that we may need to sit for a few dances, have a drink, and ask some questions. ”
“We’re obviously not going to do anything with your sister,” Harlan says hurriedly to Syrus.
He waves his hand to erase his words as he shakes his head.
“I know how these go,” Syrus says. “I didn’t think for a second that you’d be inappropriate with her.
The question is, what are you going to tell Maeve to get her to believe you are who you say you are?
I’m a little too cop-like for undercover work. It’s in the way I move and talk.”
Well, he’s not wrong there.
“What’s something only you and she know?” Izzy asks.
My eyes go back to tracking Maeve, sighing as the car turns into a private residential community.
Pounding the keys on my laptop gains me access to the cameras at the gate, but I know my trail is going to end there.
Without more elbow grease, I won’t be able to gain access to the security cameras to the houses beyond the gate without possibly getting caught.
I got lucky with Gideon because there were holes in his security. Whoever ran it for him was shit at closing the gaps left behind for opportunistic hackers like Lark and myself.
I don’t think I’ll get that lucky again. Just looking up the community, I can see that the people who live here are in the information technology industry, pharmaceuticals, and others are criminals like Heath and have their houses listed under a business.
Shady, red flag type of shit.
“Fuck,” I sigh. “Our best bet is definitely the club, guys. The housing community the vehicle Maeve’s in went into is going to be difficult to gain access to without at least a couple of weeks of intensive intel. We can’t fuck this up.”
“Alright,” Syrus says. “Let me think.”
Syrus is silent for a few minutes, while I keep working on digging up information now that I have a direction to run in, and Izzy goes to the kitchen. He comes back with a large pitcher of water with cut up oranges, and Harlan’s eyes widen.
“You’re going to make yourself piss like a racehorse.”
“That’s the plan,” Izzy says, pouring water into a cup and drinking deeply. “I need this shit out of my system as soon as possible. I may get crazy and give myself an enema too to really clean myself out.”
“I know,” Syrus says, interrupting Isidro’s plan to piss and shit his way back to being a functioning omega.
“Maeve was scared of Pomeranians when she was younger. I’m talking ages six to twelve.
There were some scary little shits that lived around the corner from us.
I’m sixteen years older than her, but I remember it clear as day.
They’d chase her while on her bike, trying to bite the wheels.
She was terrified that she’d fall and they’d bite her.
“She was biking home one day after school, and I followed her in my car. She had no idea, but I was worried because these damn dogs kept getting more and more aggressive. They ran free and refused to stay in their yard. Maeve was about nine, and she fell down. I slammed on my brakes, hit the horn, and bailed out to get in there and toss the damn dogs away. She was fine, I got bitten, and I loaded her up into my car to take her home. We didn’t even tell my mom about that. ”
“Damn. You’re some kind of super hero shit,” Izzy says under his breath.
“I wish,” he says, shaking his head. “I should have answered her call that night. I need to be part of getting her out of there.”