Unbound (The Dominator #3)

Chapter 11

11

Kruna Day 3

The partner meeting started at noon. It was closed door, no slaves present, so I didn’t have Angel with me. She was in our room, and I’d asked her to stay there.

Before I went in, I snipped the piece of one of her bras out that had the bug and stuffed it in my inside pocket. If they thought to frisk me at this point, better me than her. If they had eyes on our room when I’d done it, in the bathroom, then I was doomed.

Expansions to the building, more assets, more members. Possible plans to start a small US-based satellite branch of the club. A program, too, where members who were adequately vetted could have access to have girls sent to them for short periods of time. Gan Chen described it like borrowing library books. I fought the urge to break his face.

Some of the expansion plans were a few years out but they wanted to move forward soon to expand their stable of slaves, start the satellite branch, and begin planning for this lending program, which concerned a few members, but got voted in.

I gave it a yes vote because I was trying to appear as on-side as possible without making it look like I was kissing ass. These people had to take me seriously. Not only was I new, I was also the youngest partner.

When asked my views on it I’d replied that the right security in place to keep assets in and non-members out, it’d work for a satellite branch. As far as sending girls out to member homes? I expressed concern about taking assets off site.

The shortlist was then explained to me, as if Angel hadn’t already told me about her being on that list. Only exceptional slaves were on that list and only those assets would be considered for any off-site servicing of members.

This meeting, though?

It was the sort of thing that would’ve been fine to dial into. Two people did dial in, and their voices were on speaker. Their first names were spoken. Edward and Sylvia.

Sylvia mysteriously dropped off the call half way through and the meeting carried on after an attempt to reconnect her.

All this?

It was an excuse to party, take part in excess hedonism, and exert our power as Kruna partners, trade stories over how powerful, wealthy, and autonomous we all were.

It wasn’t my scene, even with the sex slave stuff aside, if I’d been serious about remaining a partner with these guys in anything, I’d have sent Stan Smith in my place. I didn’t need to take part in this pissing contest. No wonder Pop hadn’t come around in years. I didn’t fuckin’ like these guys. At all.

You’d think Joseph Lucas had some redeeming qualities on the surface but his eyes lit up around the slaves like a junkie about to get a hit. He was evidently part of their crowd, not part of mine, despite how he seemed.

Delgado was a sick fucker, a game player. Outside of this world, he and I would’ve been enemies. Knowing it was his connections that got my wife’s sister sent to Romero? I wanted to make that sick fuck bleed.

And one thing was certain; the stuff that had been gotten via wire the last few days would be usable to that task force. The shit that’d been said around the wires? Gold to them.

I was hoping they’d do their thing with leaving our names out of it, my wife never having to see a witness stand. Somehow.

Maybe if it wasn’t lookin’ that way, we’d fuck off and change our names.

Tommy and I had talked about that possibility enough that we were prepared for it.

I left Angel in bed that morning, after we had breakfast together, watching cartoons. She laid on my belly and I played with her hair until I had to go.

“You wanna watch something else?” I asked.

“Why? Are you sick of this?” she asked.

“No, not at all. You like cartoons. I don’t mind.”

She’d nodded, “They remind me of a simpler time.” And then her face changed and she winced, like she shouldn’t have said that, in case someone heard. I kissed her nose and held her close. Until I had to go be with those fucking scumbags again.

The plan was that the next day, we’d go meet up with Zack and from there we’d hopefully go home with them having enough to take this place down. Without further involvement from us.

When the meeting was over, there was a lunch with more listening to these fuckers try to show how big their dicks were.

I fetched Angel to bring her to the dining room. Before we left the room, my phone buzzed with a text.

It was Zack, telling me I could leave any time. He and that taskforce shithead Randall wanted to meet with me ASAP. He asked if I’d come to Chon Buri City a day early or if I was staying until the following day.

The sooner I could get me and Angel out of this joint, the better. But if I left early, how would that look?

And more importantly, what had changed with the task force?

I didn’t say anything to Angel about it. She was quiet today so far, subdued. We hadn’t had a chance to talk about her father’s name on that plaque. I didn’t want to go back to the beach again. If we were there constantly, they might get suspicious and try to find a way to listen to us out there.

She was dressed in a pretty blue dress the color of her eyes, her hair straight and in a ponytail. She and I went to the dining room and had lunch with the other partners. A few had their slaves present, on the floor. I took my assigned place at a table with a bunch of partners I hadn’t spent much time with yet. More assholes. More bragging. More pissing contests.

Delgado, Lucas, Chen, and Shaw were all mysteriously absent. I didn’t like it and did my best to not show it.

Later, we were at one of the pools with other partners and a couple members had shown up for regular visits. Angel and I were in the pool, hanging out on a raft, when people who had just arrived started fucking poolside. I tried to ignore it but that was impossible, so we were getting ready to head back to our room when Joseph Lucas and Delgado strolled out, narrowly missing getting jizzed on. This fuckin’ place.

“Can we meet for a conversation?” Delgado asked, “Gan Chen’s office.”

“Yeah. I’ll just go get dressed.

Angel was in our room, I was in Gan Chen’s office with Chen, Joseph Lucas, and Delgado.

“We now have a confirmed membership spot opened up. Your brother? We want him to come talk about taking it,” Delgado said.

“When?”

“As soon as he can get here,” Joseph Lucas said.

“I’ll talk to him, arrange a meeting,” I replied. “What’s changed?”

Gan Chen piped up. “One of our senior partners has recently died.”

“You’re kidding. Which one? Happen here?”

They were all here other than the Hollywood guy and Sylvia Frost.

“It’s hitting the news around now,” Delgado said. “Sylvia is dead. Shame.” He wasn’t even trying to hide his dark glee.

I didn’t show them a reaction. They’d had her killed. I was as sure of it as I was of anything.

Gan Chen didn’t react to Delgado’s demeanor. Joseph snickered and rolled his eyes.

I gave them a quizzical look.

Delgado spoke. “Long story, Dario, lotta history, but Sylvia Frost’s departure was inevitable. This way, just makes it easier on us. Her shares would’ve gone to her heirs but as Jason Frost is no longer our problem, thanks to you, and no one else in that family is aware of our existence, the membership is either absorbed to equal dividends paid out to all current members or we vote someone in. This way works out well. For all of us.”

Partners were starting to leave. I’d seen several leave the building with luggage already that day, so I said, “I’ve got something to take care of so my wife and I are headin’ out. I’ll reach out to Tommy and see if he can get here and talk. Maybe let the front desk know I’ll hang onto our room a few more days? Find out about booking one for Tommy?”

“I’ll take care of that for you,” Gan Chen said and dialed on his phone, “Traveling alone?”

“Most likely.”

He nodded and put his phone to his ear.

I got up and did my blazer up. “All right, gentlemen. I’ll see you later this evening or first thing tomorrow and get you an update then.”

“How are you traveling?” Joseph asked.

“I was gonna get a cab to town and arrange to rent a car,” I replied.

“You want to borrow one? We have a dozen here for members. Want a driver or your own car?”

Fuck. Shit. I didn’t need a Kruna employee with me for this.

“Sure,” I said. “My own is good.”

Fuck.

They offered us buy-in for him of just $20million. They told me that it was a fraction of what they usually wanted, but they wanted a Ferrano in that other spot.

They’d heard about Tommy’s knack for getting things done and wanted him in. He and I as part of their inner circle? They were sure it’d mean big things for their personal interests as well as for Kruna. These men wanted to associate with likeminded people and they liked Tommy and my list of connections.

“With both of Tom Ferrano’s sons? We’ll be laughing,” Delgado had said, pouring glasses of top shelf bourbon, passing out $50 cigars.

I hated this fucking guy. I hated them all. I had a quick drink and told them I was heading out. They asked no further questions. Somehow, they thought I was just like them and seemed absolutely unsuspicious of me. I had to keep it that way until they were destroyed.

She had her purse with our passports in them, plus an overnight bag that had all her wired bras and bathing suits in them, just in case anyone nosed around in our room.

I dumped the car a few blocks away from the rendezvous point, in case there was a GPS. We hadn’t talked personal, at all, on the ride in case the car was bugged. Like a perfect angel, she didn’t ask me questions, just let me lead the way.

When we parked at a restaurant a few blocks from where we were to meet Zack, we took a walk along the beach, where I filled her in, and then slipped back into traffic on foot, texting Zack with our location.

It wasn’t long before Hal pulled in and we got into his car. He drove us to a strip plaza where we climbed the stairs beside a tea shop to find ourselves in a small second floor office filled with mostly white middle-aged suited guys. A couple of them were taping up boxes. This was their task force’s headquarters. What the fuck?

Zack approached and shook my hand and then gave Angel’s shoulder a squeeze.

“This way,” he said, and ushered us into a small board room.

Randall was sitting there with three other guys. They were all in wrinkled suits and looking like they hadn’t slept in three days.

“Fuckin’ great job, you two,” Randall greeted with an enthusiasm I hadn’t seen from him before.

“Uh, what’s up?” The vibe in the room was weird.

“Well… Sylvia Frost is dead.”

“I heard.”

“We know. We heard you hearing that. Though we already knew. We, uh… listen, things have changed. I just got orders. Your help was invaluable. All this information is being kept securely, you have no worries about that, but the task force is being dismantled and the investigation is being put on hold.”

“On hold?” Angel squeaked.

“Indefinitely,” Randall said and his face was red.

There was major shit going on here. He had a shitty poker face and I knew he wasn’t happy about this.

“What the fuck?” I asked.

“My boss, Barry Dresden, he sent the orders down about ten minutes after Frost’s death hit the news.” Randall slammed his laptop shut.

My eyes moved to Zack. Zack was standing there, his arms folded across his chest, his face like stone.

“What the fuck?" I snapped.

“These things happen sometimes. Priorities change. These guys are all being reassigned. That’s all I know,” Randall waved his hands and shrugged.

“What the fuck?” Angel shrieked. I was in agreement with my wife. And I’d never seen her so visibly pissed.

“I’m sorry, Dario. Your immunity agreement stands. I suggest you hang onto it in case this resumes.”

“Hang on a second. What the fuck happens now?” Angel demanded.

“Nothing. Nothing happens now,” Randall said, and aggressively threw his empty take-out coffee cup in a trash can. “All our work, how far we’ve come, it’s all…” He threw his hands up in the air.

“So, what happens to us?” I asked, glaring at the guy.

“You? You’re on your own. Sorry to say that. I suggest you hang onto your NDA and immunity deal. In case things change. I don’t really know. If things resume, someone will likely be in touch.”

“If things resume?” Angel crossed her arms. “Unfuckingbelieveable.”

My eyes moved to her. My jaw ticked. I was gonna explode.

“Do you people have any concept of what you’ve put us through?” Angel demanded. “You’re hanging us out to dry, basically.”

“A minute?” Zack requested.

He walked out of the room we were in and I saw that people were packing up their desks. Some of them had faces like, I’d imagine, mine looked like.

But they didn’t have the personal stake in all this that I had.

Zack pulled us into the coffee room and shut the door. “Dresden’s main objective was to fuck over Sylvia Frost. Kruna killed her. Dresden ain’t so focused. This investigation was bleeding money. He’s an idiot who is being watched for his department’s spending.”

“We gave you a shit load of solid evidence…” I pointed out unnecessarily.

Zack nodded. “This shit happens sometimes.”

“So I’m supposed to go back to being a silent partner? They want to recruit Tommy and me even deeper with another fuckin’ voting membership.”

“I know. I’ve heard the audio.” Zack pinched the bridge of his nose.

“These fuckers can’t get away with this. I can’t be tied up in this shit much longer,” I clipped. “My actions on this trip, for this fuckin’ task force, it got us deeper. I did what I did, getting us deeper, for this fuckin’ cause. I’m here with my wife, sneaking around. Fucked if they’re looking at her tracker data or some shit. This shit, Zack?”

“What can I do to help?” Zack asked.

“You serious?”

“As a heart attack.”

He was. He was almost as pissed as I was. We had some nonverbal communication and I knew he would help. I just needed a plan. I was already beginning to work it out.

“Let’s go, my baby. We’re getting a hotel room here for the night. Zack, I’ll text you where to meet me.”

Zack gave a swift nod and he and Hal walked out.

I text messaged my brother.

Can you come to Chonburi?

He answered.

You ok?

Need you. All = fucked. FUBAR!! I’ll explain when you get here. Bring Nino and Tino. Get ready to call in favors.

Got it. I’ll get there asap. Call you from the flight.

Thx.

As we walked out, I saw Randall, sitting on the edge of a desk, on the phone, in a pose of defeat. His hand was on the back of his neck and he looked at me with what looked like apology. The guy had no power to do anything about this cluster fuck.

But, I did.

Zack was standing there, outside the car, eyes on me.

“I have resources,” he said. “They’re at your disposal.”

“Good,” I said, slapping his back.

“I’m making another call and suspect you’ll have even more resources,” Zack added. I nodded, not sure what he meant. He drove us back to near where our borrowed car was.

Angel and I were on the beach near our motel, alone. No wires. No wires ever fucking again. I leaned back on the sand and looked up at the beautiful blue sky.

“They’re all gonna pay,” I told her.

She was sitting beside me, her arms wrapped around her knees, holding her skirt carefully around her thighs, her chin on her knees.

"Which ones? Which of them touched you? Hurt you? Tell me and before this is over, I will fucking make them hurt.”

“All of them, Dare. Every single one of them.”

The look in his eyes, pain and anger, and sadness… it made my heart ache. I put my legs down and smoothed out my skirt.

He face-planted into my lap and wrapped his arms around my middle. I put my hands in his hair and stared out at the water, sifting through his hair, feeling him, feeling all of my feelings.

I don’t know how long we sat there, me feeling everything. And then I felt his thumbs on my cheeks, wiping tears that I didn’t know were falling away.

“Every one of them will hurt, my baby. I promise.”

“I don’t ache for revenge, Dare. I just want them stopped so that no one else has to go through it.”

“No, Angel. They will bleed, they will hurt. They will fucking burn in the lake of fiery hell I make for them.”

A breeze blew my flat ironed ponytail into my face. I pulled the elastic out and fluffed my hair out.

“What they said about your dad, baby?” Dare inquired.

I shook my head, “My father had never even been to Thailand. In fact, the man didn’t even have a passport. He was a farmer, Dare, who worked part-time at a factory to give me the extras, put money away for my education. He died in a machine accident working at that factory. He was a good man. He wasn’t a member.”

“I figured,” Dare said, “Zack researched a bit. I found out that the farm is still going. It’s profitable.”

“It is?”

“They’ve put money aside for you. Charles and Elizabeth.”

That was really nice news.

“I’d love to talk to them. Tell them I’m okay.”

“We’ll figure that out,” he promised.

“What next?”

“We go back to the motel, I make love to you, and then we figure out how to make these sick scumbags pay.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

That night, he made love to me slowly, ravishing every inch of my body with his mouth, his beautiful hands. We fell asleep in one another’s arms and then we woke at the crack of dawn, ready to get crackin’.

The Next Morning

I’d called Stan and got him to get me a number to get ahold of Gan Chen.

Chen was busy so Rafe Ruiz contacted me instead. Even better. Ten times better. That little brownnosing asshole would suck my ball sack if I snapped my fingers.

“I’ll be back tomorrow. Got sidetracked with my wife here in Chon Buri. But my brother’s on his way so yeah, he wants to meet with the senior leadership team. You got a room available for him?”

“Absolutely, Mr. Ferrano. They’ll be happy to hear that.”

This was perfect. This guy wasn’t a partner, but he was senior on their team and he was trying really hard to kiss my ass.

“It’s okay I have the car this length of time?”

“Absolutely fine,” Rafe said.

“I have a request,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“Well, it’s a little bit…unorthodox.”

“Try me,” he offered.

“Only bringing up this idea because we had this conversation at our meeting. Is it an option to send a girl here? I’d like to stay the night. We’re having a good time, but I’d like – you know, more company. Company that’s been vetted, company I know isn’t gonna make my dick ooze green and fall off, you know?’

“I do know,” Rafe laughed.

“If it’s too big an ask, if you don’t think you can accommodate me…”

“No, not too big of an ask. Let’s see here. There is a short list of assets that can leave the property. Would you like to tell me your preference? I can have someone bring more company for you.”

“Redhead,” I said, giving my wife a wink. She was on the bed beside me, on her belly, chin propped on her hand, listening, hair over one shoulder. She had a look in her eyes that was giving me a hard-on. She’d been giving me a hard-on non-stop the past 24 hours, really, with how sassy she’d been to Randall.

Zack was sitting on the other bed in the room, also listening.

“Okay,” I heard him typing. “We have a few redheads. Right now, there are two options, both unbooked, that could be brought to you. There’s Anastasia. She’s never been off the property before but she’s absolutely suitable and we can make it happen. There are girls that won’t ever be let off the resort, but a select few are excellent company and we have zero concerns about having them follow our rules off-site.”

“Anastasia. Have I met her?” I asked.

“I don’t know. There’s also Truly Garnet. She’s left the property twice, gone on excursions with Joseph. She’s exceptional. More submissive tendencies than Anastasia and you prefer submissive tendencies, if I recall.”

“You recall correctly. Truly. Have I met her?” I asked.

Angel’s face lit up.

“She was present at the get-together in the Townsend room the night you arrived.”

“Oh. I remember,” I said low. “She’d be…yeah. She’d be good.”

“I’ll arrange it. Where should we send her?”

“Let me get you a text. That okay? This number?”

“Of course, that’s okay and yes. She’ll have a guard with her who can remain with you or, if you like, you can send him back.”

“It’s probably better he stay.”

“You have no concerns with her. I assure you.”

“Good to know. But I’d feel better. I’m still a novice at this… you know, lifestyle.”

“I understand. And you won’t be for long, I’m sure.” There was humor in his voice.

“Text you soon. See you when I’m back tomorrow, tomorrow night.”

“Good. See you tomorrow then. Thank you for the update, Dario. Er…Mr. Ferrano.”

“Call me Dario, man. And thanks, buddy.”

I hung up. Little asshole was trying to get upgraded from Mr. Ferrano to Dario. He could have that. For today.

Truly apparently knew the place like the back of her hand. Lisa and I had been on the phone and she’d given me some information about layouts, exits, and other stuff she could remember from her last days there. The last few months before Pop bought her, she’d been doing a lot of training and working with subs so she had access to areas Angel wouldn’t have much knowledge of. Truly had been at Kruna for ten years. Her information added to the mix would be invaluable.

We’d strong-arm a few guards on their break and replace them with a couple of our guys who, once inside, can put the rest of the plan into action.

Zack had people on the way. We had Tommy, Nino, and Tino coming.

Zack was fiddling on his phone.

“Alessandro Romero is sharing some resources. Whatever we need. He has a few staff members in Thailand. He’s sending us a computer hacker who can help us with power, security systems, and camera feeds. All of it. Guy should be here in forty-five minutes. And he says he has a cache here. We have access to all the guns we want.”

“Why?” I asked.

“He wants to be an ally,” Zack said. “He has reasons.” Zack didn’t make eye contact with Angel when he said this. She looked a little bit baffled by the conversation. I changed the subject, not wanting to bring Holly into this.

“Why does he even know about this?” I demanded, but this was good. I’d just been thinking about how to get help from someone who was good with computers. I thought I’d have to call on a resource that would have to help me remotely. Here was better.

“I can’t tell you that.” Zack shrugged.

“I need this stuff,” I told him, handing him a piece of paper with a list of items. “Can you get me this stuff right now?”

“You making a bomb?” Zack asked, eyes on the list.

I smiled.

Angel’s eyes went wide.

“I can get you this stuff in an hour,” Zack said, folding the paper and stuffing it into his jeans pocket.

“This is why we pay you the big bucks,” I said.

Tommy and Tia arrived then, with Nino and Tino.

We put the girls in the adjoining bedroom and shut the door and sat and worked on the plan. But the girls kept finding excuses to come out so we didn’t send them back and before long, they were listening, adding their two cents.

Nino and Tino wanted to be part of the ground crew. They’d help get the slaves out, the partners and members segregated some place where we could make them hurt.

Two hours later, Angel and I met the security guard who brought Truly to us.

She got out of a car after her guard opened her door. He was a tall, Asian bodybuilder type. Two seconds after he shut her door, one of Zack’s employees stepped up behind him and stuck a syringe in his neck. The big guy went down like a tree falling, we put him in a van, and he was being taken to be interrogated.

Truly stood there, dumbfounded, her long, curly red hair tamed in a demure headband. She was dressed in a sundress similar to the dress I first saw my angel in. She looked shell shocked.

“You’re okay,” I told her. “We’re here to help.” I passed her my cell phone. Lisa was on the other end.

She held the phone to her ear, looking shaky.

“Hello?”

After intently listening for a minute, a big smile spread across her face.

She passed me my phone and threw her arms around Angel, a huge smile on her face, tears in her eyes. Then she stopped, pressed her hands down in a self-calming gesture. “I can process all these feelings I’m having later. Let’s fucking do this first!”

It was astounding to me how differently people could react in the identical situation. Angel said this girl had spent ten years in that joint and she looked 100% whole instead of broken. She was immediately ready to roll with helping us take them down.

She went back to the motel with us and we sat and mapped out the rest of our plan together, Truly giving us very usable information and drawing out a rough but helpful map of every single nook and cranny of the place. Zack’s people stayed in touch with Kruna through the guard’s cell phone once or twice to make sure he wasn’t missed and that nothing was amiss.

The hacker Alessandro had sent over carefully worked to temporarily block Angel and Truly’s trackers but in a way that wouldn’t trigger an alert to the Kruna tracking server.

Truly had been into computers, so she talked to him about the system. She also talked to Nino and Tino more about the Kruna layout with some helpful information about camera angles, a peg board with keys and how they might access it, as well as details about the location of the main circuit boards. The hacker, a younger Irish guy named Jonas, was going to put a block over the area to prevent phone and Wi-Fi signals. We’d have handheld radios for communication.

The plan: a small explosion gets everyone outside and we take out as many security guys as possible. Slaves are in one section, members, partners, and staff in another.

Our security strongarms their partners and members and staff into those basement shower stalls in the area used to break new slaves.

We get the slaves out and to a secure location.

And then I blow the fucking place up remotely.

“You gonna go there first and tell them what you think of them?” Tia asked when we’d gone over the plan with everyone involved in the room.

“Nope,” I said. “Know why?”

“Why?” Tia looked surprised.

“I don’t need to get near there and create any chance in the world that things will go wrong, that I won’t get back to my wife. I won’t risk that. I will do one thing, though.”

Everyone was listening.

“Our security team is gonna plant one screen before they go and a recorded message is going to be broadcast. They’re gonna know, before they die, that they do not fuck with the Ferranos. Right, Mrs. Ferrano?” I looked at my wife.

“Right,” both she and the other Mrs. Ferrano, Tia, said in unison.

Several Hours Later

“Hello, Kruna partners and members. You knew my father. My father should not have bequeathed me and my brother a piece of this sick fucking hellhole. No wait, I’m glad he did. Because I got my angel and now I get to destroy it. You wanna push the button, Angelbaby?”

“Oh, yes, Master,” Angel said in the background and then she leaned in to get in the view of the camera and she flipped the double bird. “Fuck you. All of you. I hope that when you burn in hell, your dicks fall off, you spend eternity getting fucked dry up the ass, and that the gnashing of teeth never, ever stops.”

“Good girl, Angel.” I winked. “Oh. One second, Angelbaby. They should also know that they’re gonna die painfully, burning alive, and that we’ve found a computer hacker who’s already drained their bank accounts. We’ve gotten the slaves out and they’re all gonna live off your money. Though there’s not enough money in the world to make up for what you sick fucks have done. We might not have gotten all of you fuckers, but most of you are gonna burn. Starting now. Chen, Lucas, Delgado. Ruiz. The rest of you sick scumbag members. Hit that button, my baby.”

The camera panned to Angel, pushing a button on a laptop.

“This is symbolic, really,” I added. “Since this button doesn’t actually do anything but it helps her feel better. Ciao motherfuckers.”

We were parked far enough to be safe, close enough to watch the place go up in flames. And it did. The slaves were safe. Many of the bad guys were burning. It went off without a hitch. The plan was quickly, carefully, and perfectly executed. Tommy, Zack, and whoever else helped? They took that place down. That place that had crushed me into dust? Now it was dust.

As we left, pulling away, I gave him a big smile and said,

“I got one thing to say.”

“What’s that?” His eyes were flooded with concern.

I smiled. “Bye Felicia.”

His eyes lit with amusement and then his lips were on mine.

“Good riddance,” he whispered.

We had no casualties on our side and the mission had been accomplished.

We were on our way home, taking a commercial flight from Bangkok. Not every partner was there. All the senior team, except for Bart Shaw were, but if he decided to dig, he’d see that we were off site, caught unaware, and that we flew home last minute, without checked luggage.

Dare and Tommy were quite a team, together. The way the whole thing happened was very impressive. I was in awe of the skills my husband had. I think Tia was, too. We kept catching one another staring at our handsome husbands and fighting our smiles. They let us see the whole plan get mapped out and it… was… awesome!

I shouldn’t be celebrating the death of so many. But so many bad guys!

The day it blew up, Tommy and Tia flew to St. Louis and stayed there a couple days due to a funeral of Tommy’s friend’s wife. Tia told me what happened in Las Vegas. Poor Tess. Poor Tia. I felt terrible for Tommy’s friend John and those poor kids who lost their mom.

Tino and Nino stayed behind a few days and were going to fly back home from another city. I saw Dare and Tommy in a huddle with them and everyone stopped talking when I’d approached so I left them to their conversation.

Like Tommy and Tia, they’d gotten here under the radar with some fake passports on a charter flight.

I didn’t know what Zack’s plans were, but he and his team took off shortly after everything. He’d shaken my husband’s hand and kissed my hand and told us he’d be in touch back home.

We were going up in the elevator and I thought back to the elevator trip after our last trip back from Thailand. Me and him, riding the elevator, the anticipation I’d felt about being alone with my Master in his home for the first time.

“Thank you. For everything,” I said.

He squeezed my hand.

“You’re gonna pay me back. In forever. Forever with a big family.”

“I am.” I kissed him.

The elevator dinged and we emerged from it and walked together toward our apartment.

“I kept another promise, Angel.”

“Yeah?”

“Holly.”

“Holly?” I was wide-eyed.

“Found her, my baby. She’s alive.”

Angel threw her arms around me, joyfully. I was glad she couldn’t see my face. At least she’d feel that joy for a heartbeat, before knowing the rest of it.

“Where is she?”

“Mexico.”

“Huh, really? Why?”

“Things aren’t exactly cut and dried with Holly.”

“Was she…was she sold to someone down there?” Her eyes were wide.

I nodded. “Yeah. She’s with the guy who saved Tessa. He saved Tessa from a fate that would’ve been similar to yours and Lisa’s.”

Her mouth opened and her eyes went wide. And then she looked sort of relieved. I didn’t have the heart to burst the bubble, the idea that Holly was with some sort of white knight.

“More tomorrow, okay? I’m wiped. It’s complicated, but I’m gonna work on it.”

She nodded and kissed me. “Thank you, Dare. Thank you for saving me and for helping me find my baby sister. I love you so much.”

“It’ll take some time, my baby, but my next goal is to arrange for you to see her.”

Somehow. I didn’t know how yet, but my wife would see her sister.

Kruna. Problem two. Solved. Before the place blew, five big school buses pulled out of Kruna and after those buses pulled away, all the slaves got to see the building explode into a ball of fire, debris, and black ash.

Those buses were filled with Kruna slaves who would be de-briefed and given help, set-up with fresh starts, using money that Jonas had moved around from Kruna and Kruna owner accounts. The slaves didn’t know who saved them; we were careful about that. We’d also be careful about the anonymous donation that would go wherever it needed to go to help.

The official report would list an anonymous vigilante group had informed about the place through knowledge gleaned from Jason Frost, months before. That information would link Jason Frost, dead Donavan Frost, and the dead Sylvia Frost to the sex slave resort. No other Frosts would be in politics for the foreseeable future.

The bus drivers would only tell authorities they were paid in cash to drive to Kruna and load the buses with the people that were led in by four men in balaclavas. The buses were driven to Chon Buri, to the office run by Barry Dresden’s task force. They were to ask for Randall. The office hadn’t closed and Randall hadn’t left it yet. He could deal with them for starters, send them all to that retreat. Help them get on with their lives.

And before we left Thailand, I’d called Lisa and got some other very helpful information. Tino and Nino were staying behind to take care of another problem for me. A problem that needed to be dealt with.

A 27-year-old man would be found dead in a Chiang Mai motel room after we left the country.

No one knew that it was Jason Frost, though. I couldn’t risk his name coming out in case someone out there who was left over from Kruna who’d been told I’d had Jason taken out months earlier.

There was also the fact that the motherfucker had hurt my Angel, had been responsible for her going to Kruna in the first place. I’d have done it myself, I wanted to, but I was more focused on getting home and getting on with my life. So, Nino and Tino had taken care of that for me.

Lisa told me all about seeing him at the retreat. The retreat was also the place they’d been holding him. We greased a few palms and got enough info and we’d gotten him out of there before that task force had been dismantled to the point that Frost was released.

That’s what I suspected would happen – they’d let him go. And I couldn’t fucking have that.

I handled this part of things quietly; Angel didn’t need to know. Unless she wanted to know.

It didn’t take long for her to bring him up.

“I wonder what’ll happen to Jason,” Angel mused, back at home. I’d just finished having the place swept for bugs by Hal, Zack’s guy, in case someone had gotten in while we were gone. And then I had JC, our cleanup guy, come in and do it again in case Hal was not on the up and up. It was clean.

“What do you mean?” I asked, innocently, locking the door and setting the alarm.

“He’s being held for his testimony. Lisa saw him. Now that things have changed, what’ll they do to him? Do you think they’ll just release him? Oh shit, do you think he’ll come after us?”

“No. Jason won’t be a concern.”

“How do you know.”

“I know.”

“Dare?”

“Jason Frost was found dead in a motel room’s bathtub. But no one knows it was him. John Doe. I don’t think they’ll recognize him from his dental records, considering I’m pretty sure he died after his teeth being pulled out one by one. His organs were harvested. Someone might as well get use out of that guy.”

She went wide-eyed.

“You did that to him? Or you ordered it be done to him?

“I made some calls.”

“Nino and Tino. That huddle. Do I want to know any more details?”

“You’ll have to decide that for yourself, Angelbaby.”

You’d tell me?”

“I would. Careful, though. Make sure you really wanna know.”

“I don’t.”

“Good answer.”

I blinked at him, lost for words.

“I made you a promise. He was lumped in there from the start.” He shrugged.

“We don’t have to talk about this.”

“Your call, Angel.”

“What’ll happen to Cleo, I wonder. She was on one of those buses, wasn’t she?”

“Cleo’s dead, too, baby.”

“Huh? Did you lump her in with the members and partners?”

“She was supposed to be but she was still in their infirmary so she was loaded on one of the slave buses. That was the only part of the plan that went awry. But the bus she was on? The driver tried to break up a fight and a couple girls held him down while a bunch of other girls took turns beating her to death. Fifty or more people to one, Cleo didn’t stand a chance.”

“Um, yikes.”

“Karma.”

“Double yikes.”

“Karma’s a fickle bitch. Some of us, it gets in our face. Others, it passes us by. Thankfully,” he said.

I put my head on his shoulder and blew out a long breath. “No. You’re a good guy. Karma isn’t looking to hurt you.”

Dare snickered.

Cleo, gone. Jason, gone. Gan Chen, Joseph Lucas, Rafe Ruiz, Delgado, gone.

Felicia Sapphire? Gone.

Thank God.

Oh, and Truly Garnet? Her name is actually Julie. She’s in Thailand somewhere. She and cutie pie Irish hacker Jonas kind of hit it off. They started off talking computer security hacks and by the end of things, they were off in a corner looking very, very cozy.

She has my number, if she needs anything. Dare is going to send her money and help her set herself up.

My tracker software still directs to my tracker, in case anything exists anywhere Jonas couldn’t remove. He accessed online cloud storage and did a bunch of tweaks but said we couldn’t be too careful. He redirected Julie/Truly’s tracker software to make it look like she died on the Kruna resort property.

I don’t know what happened to that security guard who brought her to us. I had a feeling he was no longer. But I didn’t need to know.

Dare carried me to bed.

God, I loved it when he did that.

He slowly undressed me. He kissed from my mouth to my navel, and then back up to my breasts, which he teased with his tongue.

I reached into his pants, for his beautiful hard cock.

“Hands over your head. Be my good girl,” he said, his mouth going down to my pelvic bone. My jeans were shimmied off and then he spread my legs wide and twirled his tongue over my clit.

“Can I touch you?”

“Not yet.”

“Please, Master?” I begged. “I want to touch you so much.”

“Mm, okay Angelbaby, touch me.”

I sat up as he got onto his knees in front of me. I pulled his zipper down, took out his cock, and wrapped my lips around it. He threw his head back and moaned deep and huskily. I loved to make him make that noise.

We had sex three times that night. It was beautiful. It felt as good as every other time but even better, because Kruna was no more.

When we left Thailand, we went to St. Louis for Kate Lewis’s funeral. It was a horrible, horrible day. So much sadness.

Tommy was glued to me throughout the trip. I figured he was thinking of us as John and Kate because it could’ve been me that was killed.

And I could see how sorrowful he was for his friend, John. John was a shell of a man, surrounded by six gorgeous children that all looked like perfect combinations of John and Kate. The kids were in shock. Their world had been turned upside down. It was a day I would never ever forget.

From St. Louis, we flew to our house in Costa Rica to get that closed up. And take a little break from reality. We figured we’d come again a few months after our baby was born and bring the whole family for a little holiday.

We had a nice few days there with lots of relaxing, a little bit of packing, and a lot of vanilla sex.

We had an argument on day three, though. I’d bought him a silver cross necklace in an open-air market. It was a beautiful piece of jewelry and it looked an awful lot like the necklace he’d had when we met. That necklace was what his mother told him would help him remember he was a good boy and when it fell down a sewer when Tommy’s dad beat up my father and Tommy intervened, I had seen the pain on his face, felt it in my soul.

I presented it to him after I bought it, he’d been standing off to the side while I shopped, making a work phone call.

He rolled his eyes when I gave it to him.

“You think this’ll protect you from me? Really?” He threw it in a trash bin.

I was taken aback. I physically moved back at the aggression coming off him.

“Let’s go.”

I reached into the trash bin and pulled out the necklace box and put it in my pocket, showing him with my expression that he was hurting my feelings.

“Let’s go back to the house.” He grabbed my hand and impatiently walked, back to our car (we’d bought one when we were here a few months back) and opened my door for me.

I looked at him, a little stupefied.

He scowled and slammed the door after I was inside.

When we got back to the house, I gave him his space and busied myself. But then I heard a car outside.

I looked out the window and saw a red car pull in the long driveway. We were outside of the village, on the water, and it was rare for someone to just show up.

A young and handsome guy in a suit got out of the passenger seat and his eyes went right to the window where I was standing. My scalp prickled. The driver was an older guy. They were both well-dressed, in suits. They approached the door casually.

Tommy, a moment later, came into the bedroom, where I was packing my clothes.

“Stay up here. Yeah?” He was tweaked.

“What’s wr–”

“Stay here.” He pulled a gun from under the bed and put it on the nightstand, “Anyone comes in here but me, shoot to kill.”

He put his cell phone on the table beside the phone.

“Shoot to kill and call Dare.”

“Tommy, you’re scaring me.”

“Just stay here. I’ll be back. But if I don’t come back…”

“What the fuck?” I started to shake.

“Love you. Sit tight.”

He kissed me hard and quick, his hand briefly touching my belly, then he left the room closing the door behind him. He had another gun stuffed in the back of his pants.

About fifteen minutes later, that felt like fifteen hours, the two men left in the red car and he was back.

“Who was that?”

“That was the guy who’s got Angel’s sister.”

“Oh my God.”

“He’s dangerous. He caught me off guard.”

“I’d say!”

“It’s okay. It’s all okay. Come here.” He pulled me tight against him and caressed my back.

He seemed relieved.

“What did he want?”

“To make sure we know his position on Holly. And to make efforts to keep us from becoming enemies.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I gotta talk to Dare about things. Don’t you worry about it.”

He pulled me toward the bed and we cuddled together.

“I’m sorry about the necklace,” he said.

I reached under his t-shirt and rubbed his chest.

I shrugged. “I’m sorry if that upset you. It was stupid. I know it’d never replace the one your mom gave you. I just saw it and it was similar and–”

“I don’t need it. I don’t need it to remind me to try to be worthy. Every day is a battle, baby girl, but not a day goes by where I don’t tell myself how fuckin’ lucky I am that you love me back.”

I kissed him.

He tucked my hair behind my ear. “Never will I forget how much you mean to me. I’ll never hurt you on purpose again. Won’t use my temper or demons as an excuse to hurt you. If you wanna play, we play. If you want me to spank this cute little ass, just say so, but I will never lay my hand on you in anger again. I don’t need the necklace. It’s just like you said baby girl; you’re the necklace.”

We were in Costa Rica for two more days before going home and they were blissful days. The day before we left, we took a long and scenic carefree drive to a little village and Tommy took me to a very fancy spa.

He told me he’d be back in three or four hours, for me to enjoy a facial, massage, mud wrap, and so on. He made sure it was a female masseuse, who he tipped ridiculously well, and then he left.

I didn’t look the gift horse in the mouth; I just enjoyed myself.

He picked me up and we drove back to the beach house for our last night there.

“What’d you do all afternoon?” I asked, feeling loose and relaxed.

“Wouldn’t you like to know…” he teased.

“Secrets aren’t good for a marriage,” I told him.

He smiled and wiggled his eyebrows.

“Wanna take a swim?” he suggested, when we were back at the house. “No wait. Can’t really,” he said, with a strange look on his face.

“Why? You got your period or something? Out of Tampax?” I giggled.

He laughed. “Not exactly.”

He unbuttoned his shirt and revealed a fresh tattoo. A crucifix in the center of his chest, to the right of my name and owl, and right where his old silver cross used to sit.

“I don’t need a necklace, like I said, but I want you to know how serious I am. This? I can’t ever take it off. Can’t forget what my ma told me because it’s on me forever, and won’t forget to try harder to be the man you deserve, the man our child deserves. It’s inked for good, like your name on my heart.”

I burst into tears.

And then I gave him the best blowjob of his life.

“I have to tell you something,” Tommy said to me.

He’d popped by and was sitting on a stool at the island with me. We were having a beer. Angel was having a bubble bath.

“What?”

“I met with Alessandro Romero in Costa Rica.”

Tommy and Tia had spent five days there; they’d just gotten back that day.

“You what?”

“He showed up. Fuck, thought that was it for me. Guess if my wife’s high school friend could find us there, it’s not so far-fetched that Romero could do the same.”

My eyes widened.

Tommy shuddered in memory.

“He wanted to talk about your situation. He agreed to Angel being allowed to see Holly.”

“What?”

“He’s willing to take steps to make it all look good.”

He didn’t have to elaborate. I knew what that meant. Alessandro Romero was not giving her up. And he was willing to marry Holly to keep us from pushing our suit regarding her, meaning it’d connect our families so that no one would look sideways at us for allowing it. It was an old-school way of thinking; truces were done via marriage as far back as time went.

He’d gone to my brother knowing that my brother would be the likeliest to be able to reason with me and probably also did it knowing that my brother had a similar reputation to his. Maybe that was why he figured he could talk to Tommy.

I wasn’t happy. But, it did solve some problems. Or it would, if we could see that she was willing. Was she? Or was she a broken little doll? This guy was going to great lengths to try to not be our enemy for some reason.

I stopped by Tessa’s house. It was good she was home. She seemed better when I sat down to talk to her.

“You wanna talk?”

“About what happened to me? No. I’m glad it’s over.”

“Can you at least tell me about Holly?”

“She’s young. Sweet. You can’t not like her. She radiates with beauty.”

“You saw them interact”

“Her and Alessandro? Yeah, briefly.”

“What’s he like with her?” I took a sip of the coffee she’d made me.

“He watches her, tracks her every move. He didn’t touch her, barely spoke to her, but the way he looks at her? He looks at her the way Tommy looks at Tia.”

I winced. I was afraid of that.

The girls had talked at length, back when Tommy and Tia started out, about how his eyes tracked her every movement, how he was evidently completely obsessed with her.

“What did you think of him?”

“He’s very handsome. He was polite, reserved. He made sure I was comfortable. I didn’t see much of him or his huge place. He had me escorted to a private room. A doctor took care of me.” She shrugged. “Before Zack came, I had lunch with Holly and he came in and escorted me to Zack. Some guards escorted us to the airport. I didn’t see much. But Dare, I think he’s dangerous. I think he’s powerful. I don’t know what the story is down there but please be careful.”