Finished (Auctioned Book 5), page 3
Man, she was really reaching if that was her strongest approach.
Her chest started heaving, and her gaze flickered between Gray and the gun pointing straight at her. “Just give me a chance to talk to AJ. Five minutes. We can work something out. You’ll let us go, and you’ll never hear from us again. You’ll be set for life, Gray. Think about your boys. College, their futures, travel, homes—I have the money, I swear.”
Gray hummed and slid the gun between her eyes. “That’s the problem, Alicia. I don’t want my sons to grow up in a world where you roam free.”
Panic exploded in her eyes as Gray’s finger brushed the trigger.
“Wait!”
“No.” He pulled the trigger, and the sound blasted through the small room. It felt like his eardrums shattered in the process.
Goddammit.
As he rubbed his ears, he remembered the damn earpiece in the left ear. The men upstairs probably hadn’t heard anything, unless they’d put on their headphones again, but he couldn’t be sure about the rest. Maybe Tariq, though. Oh, and Dante. Definitely Dante—he must’ve heard. He should be back soon with the truck.
Gray winced and took out the earpiece, then left the room without giving Alicia another glance. Reese would be pleased to see her brains splattered on the wall.
Good riddance.
Reese was standing outside the viewing window of Alfred and AJ’s room, but he offered his full attention to Gray as soon as he came out. The look on the man’s face, apprehension meeting grim concern, let Gray know that Reese still had his earpiece turned on.
“You okay, kiddo?”
Gray nodded once. “Yeah.” It wasn’t a lie—although, to be honest, he didn’t wanna poke too hard at that box right now. “Have AJ and Alfred talked?”
“A bit,” Reese replied with a nod. “Looks like Friedrich has given us the most, though. Niko and Dante took the truck to check out two addresses in Henderson. Willow disconnected from us to focus on helping them with surveillance.”
“Oh, wow. He must’ve started talking right away.” Or maybe Niko was just that good.
“Yeah, the little shit felt betrayed by AJ and sang like a canary. I put way too much effort into Alfred.” Reese folded his arms over his chest and eyed the men in the room. “I figured, since Riv was interrogating him when everyone dropped, I could pick up where they left off.”
Made sense.
Gray joined him in front of the window and glanced at Alfred and AJ. They hadn’t moved closer to each other, nor were they talking right now. They were just glaring.
“How many do you think heard me with Alicia?” Gray asked quietly.
“Probably just me,” Reese said. “The downside of always having the mic on, you get tired of hearing everything on the same line. Niko took his out earlier, and Dante switched to a new line once Willow got back.”
That was a relief. Not that Gray had said anything to Alicia that he wanted to keep secret, necessarily; it’d just been a moment when he hadn’t filtered himself.
Reese nodded at the window. “AJ got upset right after the gunshot. He demanded to know if Ally had been hurt.”
He and Alicia definitely seemed to have the strongest connection in the criminal bunch. “How loyal do you think they are to each other?”
“From what little I’ve gathered, I think they’re partners—maybe romantically too.” Reese weighed his next response. “I don’t have any two cents on their level of loyalty, but Ally hasn’t been completely honest.” He gestured at Alfred. “He said it suddenly made sense why AJ was so willing to take the money from tonight’s auction back to his place for safekeeping.” Reese tilted his head at Gray and cocked a brow. “That’s weird if you ask me, because Alicia has known for a while that Darius and Ryan’s cousins were breaking in to AJ’s house right around now. And if Alicia and AJ’s plan had been to escape with that money, it’d be stupid to store the cash in a place where she knows it could disappear in a planned robbery.”
That was weird. It was also a minor detail that Gray didn’t care about. He’d stopped giving a shit about why criminals acted the way they did. They were inexplicable degrees of selfish and cruel, and these motherfuckers weren’t gonna breathe for much longer. The crimes they’d committed were so heinous that theft and deceit were just things to shrug at.
Everything boiled down to human trafficking. No crime was worse.
It reminded him of something… He had to know. “Reese, do you know how many survivors we’re looking for? Be honest with me.”
Reese side-eyed him and contemplated for a moment, then nodded once. “Casey and Boone found over sixty photos of victims the first time they searched AJ’s estate.”
Over sixty.
Gray averted his gaze and felt a chunk of lead drop into his stomach. Hatred simmered below the surface, as did grief. Sixty innocent lives—and there were more out there. Most of them weren’t as fortunate as Gray. Many wouldn’t make it at all, and everyone would carry an extra weight on their shoulders for as long as they lived.
“What was Darius’s reason for not telling me?” Gray asked quietly.
Reese blew out a breath. “I reckon he didn’t wanna lie outright, so he just omitted the information. He thought if you saw the pictures, it would be too much. You wouldn’t be able to keep your head in the game.”
Yeah, that sounded like something Darius would say. Or how he would justify that he always intended to put himself between Gray and danger.
It didn’t matter anymore. Gray glanced back at AJ and Alfred and found at least a sliver of pleasure in knowing that those two sons of bitches wouldn’t wreck another innocent person’s life.
“Your mother was right about you, AJ,” they heard Alfred mutter. Gray cocked his head. “We were too kind.”
AJ chuckled darkly. “You’re so detached from reality that I can’t take a word you say seriously. You refused to let me in—because of pride. You didn’t want to admit that I was right. The organization’s been a sinking ship for years. I could’ve revolutionized—”
“Lies!” Alfred thundered with murder in his eyes. “You’re a spoiled boy. If you’d spent half as much time shadowing me as you did following that little whore around, you could’ve been something.”
AJ snapped his mouth shut and shook his head.
Oh, screw this. What was the point? Gray was getting bored. He was ready to kill them both. He’d do it too, as soon as they heard from Niko and Dante.
“You don’t even care that your mother’s dead,” Alfred spat out.
“Why the fuck does it matter?” AJ laughed. “You think we’re walking out of here?”
At that, Alfred smiled a little. “Unlike you, I have something to bargain with.”
Gray and Reese exchanged a quick look.
Alfred’s gaze shifted to the viewing window. He couldn’t see through it, but he undoubtedly knew someone was watching.
“Hey!” he called. “You want to free more slaves? I’m ready to talk. I have hundreds of addresses.”
Gray swallowed. He had no way of knowing if Alfred spoke the truth, but he did know it was possible. If someone knew where slaves ended up after auctions, where they were held before being sold off, it was Alfred Lange. And Gray would never forget the dozens of places he’d been taken to before reaching Florida. It was a global network, with countless locations in the US alone.
Gray’s mind began spinning. He tried to think like Darius. There was an opening here somewhere, a card to play, and he’d risk losing the hand if he didn’t make the right move. Alfred couldn’t possibly believe they’d let him go. He wasn’t that stupid.
AJ was different, however. And he’d already sold out his father once…
Before he knew it, Gray opened the door to the room and positioned himself in the doorway. Both men looked his way.
“It’s gonna cost you a metric fuck-ton to get Alicia out of here,” Gray told AJ. “But if you give me everything you have on your pop, I’ll let you walk. Everything—addresses, contacts, warehouse locations, names, all of it.”
While AJ’s skepticism was immediate, Alfred took it seriously, and the rage and worry that AJ might actually do that gave him away. Gray read the signs right there on Alfred’s face. AJ had the option. If he hadn’t, Alfred would’ve had no reason to worry.
AJ narrowed his eyes. “Who was shot?”
“Huh? Oh. Your friend—Friedrich?” Gray shrugged. “He had nothing to offer me.”
AJ grew silent. He was in pain; that much was clear. His right eye was almost swollen shut, and he seemed to be as still as possible, as if someone had kicked him in the balls and the ribs. Alfred shifted every now and then, like people did when their leg fell asleep or a certain position became uncomfortable.
While Gray waited for a response, his earpiece gave away a crackling sound before Willow’s voice filtered through.
“Gray, are you there? Niko and Dante need backup—ASAP. No hostiles, but it’s more work than they can manage.”
Gray stepped out of the room again and looked to Reese, who’d heard her too.
He nodded. “Go. I can take it from here. Bring someone who can actually drive a truck.”
It was too soon to laugh. But yeah, it was possible Niko and Gray had felt a bit paralyzed earlier when it was time to head to their waiting spot. They’d never freaking driven big trucks before; hell, Niko didn’t even have a license for a regular car.
“Stick to the same strategy,” Gray urged, speaking under his breath. “Pit them against each other. Record their answers—put them in different rooms and tell them to give up whatever they have. We have nothing to lose.”
Seconds later, he was running. Through the dark hall, while Willow gave him instructions and an address, he darted for the exit. He checked his watch too. Fucking hell. They didn’t have that much time left. The sun would start to rise within an hour or so.
He ran up the steps two at a time and was out of breath when he emerged mere feet away from Elliott, Ryan, Darius, and Tariq.
“Is he okay?” he asked Tariq. Darius was still on the floor, flat on his back, with a hoodie for a pillow. Eyes closed.
“He’s fine,” Tariq responded. “I got him to eat half an energy bar, which made it a lot easier to trick him into taking one of the pills the doc left him.”
Gray mustered a quick grin, relieved. “The only way that works. Thanks, man.” Next, he sought out Ryan, who was standing in the doorway smoking a cigarette. “You can drive a semi, right? Dante and Niko need our help.”
“Yeah, just bring me up to speed. I’ve recovered enough,” he replied.
Nobody had truly recovered enough, but they were out of options.
“We can talk on the way,” Gray said. “Keys are in the truck. I’ll take the pickup you drove on the way here.”
Three
They were pushing it. Gray drummed his fingers against the wheel incessantly and glanced at the horizon. Soon, Vegas would wake up to a new day. The remote location of the underground compound had spoiled them. They hadn’t been forced to be too careful, even with two semitrucks and AJ’s fancy car parked outside. According to Ryan and Tariq, they’d only heard two cars passing.
The industrial neighborhoods in Vegas and Henderson were another story. Warehouse workers started early.
“How are you feeling, Willow?” Gray asked and made a turn. He felt entirely too exposed here. Back in civilization, driving past residential areas, car dealerships, shops, and schools.
“We can save that question for later,” she replied tightly. “Okay, you’re two minutes out. The gate’s open, and the surveillance is down. Just drive through and follow Dante’s lead.”
Gray checked the rearview. Ryan was still there.
On the outskirts of town, they drove straight into an area that was mostly dark. Warehouses met garage bays, and most lots had barbed wire fences or big signs about high security. And at the end of the street, there were three self-storage companies, one after another, and Gray spotted Niko at the last one, waving them in. He was wearing his balaclava, so Gray followed suit and put his on.
It didn’t feel great. In fact, for the first time that night, Gray felt really fucking nervous. His stomach tightened as he drove into the large area. It was too open. There was too much space between the storage units. One row consisted of actual hangars, and he spotted a sign for a local pilot’s club. They had fucking planes here.
Niko ran ahead and pointed toward a unit farther up, and Gray nodded. He saw the spot. It was another big one, a garage bay type of unit. Their other truck was parked to the side of it, and it looked like Dante was…cleaning? He was wiping down the doors with something.
Gray rolled down his window.
Just as he pulled in next to the truck, he noticed another person. He blinked before it dawned on him. The young man’s threadbare clothes, his skinny frame, messy hair, and the expression of a deer getting caught in headlights.
Had Gray looked like that too?
He heard Niko call the guy Gavin.
“Okay, we’re ready,” Dante declared. “We gotta be quick as fuck about this. Everyone, help out opening the cages. And put on gloves!”
Cages.
Gray blanched, and a flashback threatened to pull him under. Flashing lights, wet wooden crates covered with a film of mildew and vomit, echoing cries, crippling despair—snap the fuck out of it. He swallowed hard and steeled himself. He jumped out of the truck and ran after Niko. In the large garage bay, rows upon rows of wooden cages were stacked on top of one another, and each row had a steel bar that kept the doors locked. Gray registered the soundproofing material along the outer walls as well as the heavy-duty cutter Niko picked up off the floor. Dante had one too.
It was overwhelming. The smell, so fucking familiar, was here too. Bile crawled up Gray’s throat as he put on his gloves, but he managed to push it all aside and help out. Niko and Dante broke the locks at the end of each row, and by the time Gray was pulling the first bar out of the metal brackets, Ryan was at his side to assist.
That was when the sounds reached Gray’s ears. The sounds of traumatized and confused people wondering what was happening.
“Are we going to die?”
“Who are you?”
“Please don’t kill us.”
“My neck hurts.”
“I want my mom.”
Gray worked on autopilot, through the fog of horror, in the darkness, releasing the victims one by one.
“Get in the truck,” he repeated over and over, along with, “You’re safe now. You’re getting out of here. Get in the truck.”
Their faces turned into a loop of images in his head. Broken boys and girls, many younger than him, some the same age.
“I know it’s gonna be crowded, everyone,” Dante said, his voice echoing in the bay. “I promise it’s only for a little while. Gavin here is going to take you straight to the hospital in Barstow.”
A young girl stumbled out of her cage, and Gray lurched forward to steady her. But in his doing so, she cried out in sheer fear and begged him not to hurt her.
“I’m not gonna hurt you.” He rushed out the words as revulsion caught his chest in a vise. He couldn’t handle being thought of as the enemy here. “I’m not going to hurt you, I swear. You’re safe.”
She was shaking like a leaf but let Gray help her out of the bay and toward the truck. Christ, she couldn’t be more than fifteen.
“I wanna go home,” she sobbed.
“You’ll be home soon,” Gray promised. “The doctors and the police will help you—all of you—as soon as you get to Barstow.”
This had to be the remaining forty-something survivors from the photos. Gray couldn’t keep up with the head count, but the back of the truck filled up rapidly. No one ran away, something that would’ve seemed perfectly logical to most people. Even to Gray. But he also knew the other side of what it was like to be a captive. Sometimes, you didn’t need physical bonds to be restrained. He still remembered how useless and weak he’d felt. Crossing a simple threshold could be too much. Add malnourishment, sleep deprivation, and torture to that, and you had a deadly imprisonment.
Someone broke down somewhere inside the truck, and it made Gavin, the guy who was gonna drive, run over to them.
“Lucy!” he called. “Come out here. Lance, you too. You can ride with me up front.”
Gray felt sick to his stomach. The two who emerged reminded him too much of Milo. Only, they were even younger. Twelve? Thirteen? Two scrawny kids who had to be related. Maybe even twins.
Gavin flicked Gray an uncertain glance. “It’s okay, right? They panic in small spaces.”
Gray had to swallow his nausea. “Of course.” He nodded.
Dante took over next. He repeated the instructions to Gavin and handed him a burner.
“There’s only one number, and it goes straight to me.” Dante held up another burner. “If you freak out or get scared or need reassurance, just call me on here.”
Gavin nodded and accepted the phone. “I’ve been to Barstow before. I can do it.”
He was the Cole of the group, Gray thought. Or a Gray, or a Niko, or a Jonas.
Gray took a couple steps back, joining Ryan and Niko in the background, and they watched as Gavin climbed up into the truck. Dante gave the kids a few last words, reminding them that they’d get out in a little over two hours. They were driving directly to a hospital, no one was going to hurt them, they were free.
They were free.
One hour later, they repeated the entire process at another location. Dante and Ryan wiped down any surface of their second truck that could have any fingerprints, and Gray and Niko released nine young women from a small storage unit north of Vegas. It was too close to Nellis Air Force Base for their comfort, even more so with the sun touching the horizon, but it had to be done.
None of the girls could drive a truck, but one of them said her dad was a long-haul trucker, and she’d “seen him drive a lot.” So they found a compromise. Putting some distance between them and any stray Lange associates—not to mention the rescue operation—was important in order to delay investigative work, and Dante claimed they had time. He volunteered to drive them out of town, and once it was all open roads, the girl, Mira, would take over and drive to the nearest truck stop, where she could call the authorities.
