31. Chapter Thirty
CHAPTER THIRTY
ETHAN
E than stood with Matthias to his right, Jason to his left, and Ren behind him. They were all keeping their eyes peeled as he talked to the people delivering the girls. It was the same person with each shipment. Just how he liked it. The people he bought from knew he would not pick up from anybody else. They had been doing this for over seven years and had a system.
“Here they come,” Matthias declared.
Walking toward them were two men in suits.
“Montgomery.” Charles tipped his head. “Doing good?”
“Charles. Doing fine. You?” Ethan replied.
They did this every single time. They didn’t care how each other was doing. It was more of a formality. If Ethan had it his way, he would skip to the chase and get the girls. But he needed to play nice.
Charles was close to the top boss. If he made a mistake, it could be the end of what they were trying to do. He didn’t like it, but it was necessary. Sometimes, Charles pushed his luck by talking about things.
“What are you going to do with the girls this time?” Charles asked.
Ethan hated when he asked this question. It wasn’t all the time, but every now and then, he did.
“I’ll sell the ones I can’t break in and keep the rest. I’m thinking of opening a brothel. Need some girls for that,” Ethan replied. There was no emotion in his voice.
Charles licked his lips and grinned. “I love a good brothel. This shipment is about thirty girls. Some might need to be broken in if you get my drift.”
Ethan cringed inside but smiled. “The best girls.”
“Don’t you know it. The fight and scream they have. So real. So amazing. Turns me on just thinking about it.” Charles’s grin was sickening.
“I need you to tell your boss I’ll be looking for more soon. Want to rotate the girls in and out. And who knows, I may open a second location. Or even a third one. So, expect a lot of business from me in the coming months.”
Charles ran his hands together. “Perfect. My boss will be ecstatic to hear this. You know where to find us. We will be expecting your call.”
Ethan nodded.
“And, we may want to check this new brothel out whenever it opens,” Charles added.
“Of course. I’ll let you know when it does,” Ethan replied.
Ethan gave the girls several options. The first was always that they could live a normal life. They could live at the safe house and, after several months get a job. They all needed the first couple of months to relax and not have to worry about anything. To talk to therapists if they needed to and get a normal job.
Another option was to work at his strip club. They got paid handsomely, but also were still able to live at the safe house. They didn’t have to pay rent. The only thing was their food and any clothes they wanted.
Very few took the third option of going back home. If their families hadn’t sold them in the first place, they would go back home. Ethan and his men would relocate their families so the people who took the girls initially didn’t see her back in the area.
But not many girls picked that option. Most of them chose to stay at the safe house. A lot of them had contact with their family members but told them they couldn’t visit. It was hard on them, but Ethan gave them the support they needed.
“Good. Good. I know me and my boss will be looking forward to it. The address they are at is on the piece of paper attached to it.” Charles handed him a key. “We look forward to hearing from you again. You’re one of our best customers.”
Everything in Ethan wanted to kill him. But he knew if he did, his boss would come after him. Not that Ethan couldn’t take care of the boss and his men, but it would ruin any chance of them working with other people. He always had to remind himself that he needed to be civil.
“Glad to be doing business with you,” he replied.
Charles turned and started to walk away. “Quick question.” Charles faced Ethan again. “What happened to the girl who had those beautiful gray eyes? The one with jet-black hair?”
Ethan shrugged. “Pretty sure I killed her when she tried to run away.”
“Bummer. I was hoping you would still have her and would be putting her in the brothel. She was one of my favorites. Anyway, we’ll be expecting your phone call.”
He did know what happened to Clarissa. She currently lived in one of his safe houses. Her dad had sold her a couple of years after her mom died. She hadn’t been on the market long before Ethan found her. Just the look in her eyes made him want to help her be free.
Women who had different features, like Clarissa’s eyes, were the most popular. People wanted a taste of something that was different. She was nineteen when he bought her. Now, she was twenty-three. Ethan could still remember how scared she looked when she first arrived.
“He’s gone,” Matthias stated. “We’re going to go check on the girls?”
“Leave it to Jason and the men he picks. They’ll move and debrief the girls. Hopefully, we don’t have too many that try to escape. The other girls at the safe house should also be able to help.”
“We’re going to need a new safe house,” Jason commented. “That one is getting pretty full.”
“We’ll move them to another location while we have construction work done on that one. I’ll double the size, so it’ll last us a while.”
Ethan handed the keys to Jason. “We’ll drop you off, and you can grab some people and head to where they’re being held. Be alert. Just in case they’re watching us. Make sure you lose them if they are watching. And check the girls for tracking devices.”
Jason waved his hands. “I know what I’m doing. I’ve done this several times before. We’re not going to get caught. And if any of the girls start to scream, we’ll gag them, or we’ll tranquilize them. We won’t get caught.”
“He’s just reminding you. It’s always good to have a reminder, even if we’ve done it over so many times,” Ren said.
Ethan didn’t take any offense to what Jason said. He knew this was a stressful time for his man.
“Fuck. Sorry. You just know?—”
“No worries,” Ethan stopped him.
Jason sighed, and they made their way toward the car. He couldn’t wait to get back to Margery. He knew he was going to have to explain things, but at this point, he didn’t really mind. If he wanted this to work; he needed to tell her everything. She was the curious type and knew she would be bugging him for answers.
Bang. Bang.
Everyone drew their guns as bullets whizzed by them. Ethan started to shoot in the direction the noise had come from.
“Who the fuck is it?” Ren yelled as they took cover behind their car.
“You go left, I’ll go right, and the two of you cover us,” Ethan shouted as he pointed to Matthias. “It’s coming over by the bushes. ”
“On it,” Ren confirmed.
Ethan crouched down next to the front tire and looked over at Matthias. He gave him a nod before turning around and taking a deep breath in.
“On the count of two. One. Two.”
All of them stood. Gunshot after gunshot rang through the space. Most of them missed him as he made his way toward the bushes. He trusted Jason and Ren to cover their asses. They wouldn’t be able to do everything, but they could do some.
Ethan crouched beside the dumpster and made eye contact with Matthias. There was a small car that he barely fit beside. It was one of those cube cars that wouldn’t do much if they started to shoot at him. Thankfully, their attention was on Ethan and not Matthias.
He held his hand up, showing three fingers. Time to kill them. Ethan took a deep breath and nodded, but before they could do anything, a searing hot pain went through his arm.
“Shit.” He clenched his jaw.
Ethan moved his body further behind the dumpster. He hadn’t even realized the shooter had moved positions.
“Boss, you good?” Jason yelled.
He groaned and nodded. Blood was running down his arm, soaking his shirt. Ethan turned to find Matthias standing up and shooting. A man screamed in pain and hit the ground.
“All clear,” Matthias confirmed.
Ethan stood and staggered over toward Matthias and the guy, clutching his arm. He didn’t know whether the bullet had gone all the way through or if it was just a graze .
“Do you need me to look at that?” Ren asked. “Or call Dahmere?”
“Do not call Dahmere. Not until we know how bad it is. I don’t need him saying something to Margery,” Ethan barked out.
Dahmere was one of their medical guys. He didn’t know as much as Brad, but he was still pretty dang good. Brad was currently at a medical conference to learn about who knew what, but it was important. They were always finding themselves hurt. Brad also needed to hold up his image. He was a well-known doctor in New York City with his own clinic. But what a lot of people didn’t know was he worked for Ethan. He had since the beginning.
Brad needed money to pay off his school debts, and Ethan helped him with it. In return, he was their doctor whenever they needed it. Sometimes, they went to his clinic when he was working, but most of the time, he came to the estate. It was easier that way; people didn’t ask as many questions.
“Got one still alive,” Matthias called out. “Unarmed.”
Ethan walked to them and loomed over the guy lying on the ground.
“Who sent you?” he asked.
The man coughed up blood but didn’t say anything.
“Who the fuck sent you?” Ethan yelled as he knelt next to him.
He grabbed his shirt and lifted him a little bit. Blood was running down the guy’s chin and landing on his chest.
“Fucking answer me!”
But the guy continued to choke on his own blood .
“If you weren’t already this close to dying, I would torture you for hours. Make you suffer.”
The man opened his mouth and whispered a word. Ethan brought his ear closer to the guy.
“He’s going after Margery next.”