Chapter Twenty #4
“What do you want? Because if you’re here to threaten me, I think I’m about done with your threats. Any problems you have with the way things are being handled, take it up with Roscoe. He’s taking your money.”
“He’s dead. Every last one of those fuckers is dead. You want them, you’ll have to retrieve them yourself. I was going to lay them at your door, but I felt the less contact with them, dead or alive, the better.”
Dawn looked puzzled. Stark didn’t look in the least upset over the deaths of his men. That just added to the confusion. Keys glided a step closer. If Stark was going to try to kill Czar, he would be doing so in the next few minutes.
“I felt that way myself,” Stark said.
Czar nodded toward Savage. He handed Dawn a paper and moved back. He was close enough to put his body in front of Czar, and shove him backward off the rail when he did so, if Stark made a move for the gun.
Dawn did a quick scan of the paper. She went pale and her hand trembled as she handed the paper to her husband. Anger crossed Stark’s face, and then he was once more under tight control. That told Keys a lot about the man.
“You have the names of my children and grandchildren and where they live.” Stark made it a statement. “I presume this is another threat.”
“It’s an ultimatum. I’m only here talking to you because nothing added up when we looked at your history and what you’re doing now.
Human trafficking isn’t something I would ever have associated with your name, and yet you’re running the operation.
Had I thought otherwise, you’d be dead right now and so would your wife. ”
Dawn drew in her breath sharply and turned her head to look at her husband. “Sean. That isn’t true. That can’t be the truth. Human trafficking? You look me in the eyes and tell me they’re lying.”
Shame washed over Stark’s face. “I didn’t tell you what was going on because I didn’t want you to look at me just the way you’re looking at me now.”
Dawn pulled in a deep breath. “Why would you do this terrible, vile thing, Sean? You’ve always stood for everyone’s rights as human beings.”
Stark turned his face away from her and didn’t answer.
“They threatened to chop your wife and daughter into little pieces, didn’t they?” Czar said. “That’s their favorite threat.”
For a moment Sean’s faded blue eyes went liquid.
“Not just Dawn and Janelle. Every woman here in the compound. Their female children. They sent me a video of Jeanne Miller screaming. All cut to pieces. Gang-raped. I’d seen that kind of violence overseas, but it was a long time ago and I thought I’d come to terms with it.
But I hadn’t. I didn’t know who they were.
We didn’t have anyone here good enough to find out.
I reached out to some friends who have good computer skills and we still couldn’t find them. ”
“How did the men up in those caves, doing what they were doing to those women, find their way to your compound?” Czar asked.
Stark sighed and scrubbed his hand down his face. Dawn sat stiffly, silent tears tracking down her face. Her skin had seemed clear of wrinkles, but now she looked older.
“I don’t turn away men suffering from PTSD.
They served. They had proof they’d served.
We didn’t know them. But many of the men who came to me weren’t men I’d served with personally.
I should have sent them away when there were complaints from the business owners in town, but I thought I could help them learn to get along.
” He shook his head. “The arrogance. I was so certain, and women and children paid for my mistakes.”
He suddenly raised his head, his gaze sharp as it rested on Czar. “Several of those newcomers went into the hills and didn’t return. Things have been tense ever since.”
Czar didn’t take the bait.
A small sob escaped Dawn. She pressed her fingers to her lips and shook her head. “Sean, you should have…” She broke off.
“What? What should I have done?” He gestured toward Czar. “Were any of our alarms triggered? Did you see them? I keep up the training with all the men, yet I didn’t see or hear or know these men were coming. The ones who came with their threats are like these men.”
“Not like us,” Czar objected. “Far from it. We do have two things in common. We were born in Russia and forced into training schools as toddlers when our parents were murdered. Aside from that, we’re very different in our beliefs.
Unfortunately for the Ghosts, as they call themselves, our training was a little more intense than theirs.
We’ve managed to reduce their numbers. We don’t believe in human trafficking. We don’t tolerate it.”
Sean scrubbed his hand down his face a second time.
“I’m not a young man anymore. I lead these people as best I can, but when they showed me what they’d done to Jeanne Miller, I knew this was far beyond my capacity to stop.
I felt I could only protect my family and community.
We were watched every moment by the men they planted in my community.
Going to the police was out of the question.
I believed them to be in bed with the local club.
It was actually a shock to me that Sid, the president, condoned such a thing. It didn’t fit with his character.”
“His people were threatened as well,” Czar said.
“The bottom line here is this. We removed the women being held. They’re on their way to a medical facility, and they’ll not be able to reveal where their location was or who got them out.
If they have details of who was holding them prisoner, there is nothing I can do about that.
We have declared war on the Ghosts, and they know who we are now.
You have a choice. If you continue to work with them, you will be treated as an enemy, and we’ll come after everyone in your family and community. ”
“I just want peace for my people. That’s why we established this place.” Sean sounded weary. So tired. Keys was a little shocked at the compassion he felt for him. That trait was unlike him.
“If you want peace,” Czar said, “you might relocate your community and get as far from the Ghosts as possible. They have no reason to come at you now. Having said that, you could still have others in your community. Take a good look at any recent additions. Good luck, Stark. I hope you do the right thing.”
Czar glanced at his men, and Savage and Reaper closed in, putting their bodies directly in front of Sean and Dawn, cutting off their ability to see Czar.
He would fade away, and then the other three members of Torpedo Ink would do the same, melting into the terrain.
All the while the brothers and sister concealed around the property would be watching their backs.
It was the best they could do for Stark and his people. Hopefully, he moved his community to a better, safer location until Torpedo Ink had the chance to completely eradicate the Ghosts.