Lost Hart, page 16
She nodded. “Okay.”
“Richelle will be here in bit,” Liam added.
“Time to debrief what we found at The Glossy Gem,” Aaron said, adjusting his position on the chair.
The Hart brothers nodded, and the room went quiet.
“Talked to the motel manager. Shady guy. On something for sure. Only took fifty bucks for him to spill his guts though.”
“Guy hasn’t seen any kids, but he’s heard a lot of crying—kid crying,” Colton said, his tone laced with a hefty dose of not only anger but regret. “We didn’t really hear anything, though, and we wandered past every door. All the blinds were drawn. Same woman that stuck that needle in your neck is staying at the hotel. Room four. Nothing suspicious around her room when we checked it out. Even waited for her to leave and then we snuck in, but there wasn’t anything to lead us to believe she’s with the kids.”
Stacey’s hope deflated.
“We checked out the Satin Lounge, too,” Aaron went on. “Real shady shit going down there. Poked around the back. Found kid-size socks, a kid’s glove. Child-size shoe prints in the mud—a lot of them. They’re either in the club now or they were.”
“Impervious messaged me and wants to do the drop at Velour, some seedy speakeasy behind a strip club,” Chase said.
Colton and Aaron both made cringey faces, but it was Liam that spoke. “That strip joint is nasty. Wouldn’t be surprised if you could catch the clap from the door handle. Heard the speakeasy isn’t much better.”
A chill slid down Stacey’s spine, and she wrapped her arms around her body tight. And they were going to bring her child to this hellhole?
“Once we hear Chase’s plan, we’ll head to Velour and do some recon before we go there tonight,” Aaron said. “Will have to run home and have a shower in ethanol after going in there though.”
A few of the men snorted and laughed. Not Chase though. He was watching Stacey.
“You think he’s got the kids at Velour already?” Rex asked.
Aaron shrugged. “Maybe. Who the fuck knows? But we’ll snoop around a bit, ask some questions.”
Chase nodded, chewed more and swallowed before starting to speak. “So the plan as it stands right now is for Aaron, myself and Colton to go to Velour with Liam for the drop. We’re hoping he has Connor and the other kids there. Brock and Rob will go to the Satin Lounge, and Rex and Heath can go to the motel. If the motel is empty, run to the lounge and back them up there. If the lounge is empty, then jump in the Escalade and get over here. It will mean Impervious will have all of his men here, and we’ll need backup. Got it?”
Heath opened up a bottle of chocolate milk and took a long sip before asking, “When did Impervious say he wanted to meet?”
“Midnight. Said I had ten minutes before he took off.” Chase glanced at Stacey again. She wasn’t feeling so hot. All this talk about a sketchy motel, a seedy strip club and catching the clap from a door handle had her swaying where she sat. She had to grip the edge of the table like it was a cliff ledge to keep herself from falling over.
“Whoa!” Rex said, his arm shooting out and his long fingers wrapping around her bicep. “You okay?”
She shook her head and blinked. “All this talk about …” She swallowed hard. “I can’t …” Struggling to stand up and not keel over, she held on to the table, but Chase was around to her side of the table before she could take another breath, his hands on her arms as he guided her around.
“I got you,” he murmured, ushering her toward her bedroom. “I think you should lie down for a bit.”
“I’m not—”
“You barely slept,” he whispered into her ear as they entered her room. “I know you weren’t sleeping when I brought you back here from The Rage Room. Heard you crying. You need to rest. This is stressful and frightening. You could go into shock if you don’t rest.” He helped her climb onto her bed and pulled a blanket over her as she settled down into the pillows.
He was right. Damn him. She was tired. Worried. Scared. Angry.
The Rage Room had been helpful, but it was a Band-Aid, not a cure.
He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her head. “Close your eyes. You don’t need to hear what we’re talking about. I know you’re tough as nails, but he’s your child—so just be the mom here, okay?”
She nodded, and a hot tear slid down onto the pillow. “Okay.”
“We’ll get him back, Stace, I promise.” He kissed her head once more, ran his hand over her hair and left.
She was asleep within seconds.
Chapter 17
They spent another half an hour going over the plan for that night.
Chase brought up maps of the area, satellite images and blueprints of the three locations. By the time they headed out, he expected every man to know the layout of all three buildings, the side streets and alleyways like the backs of their damn hands.
When Aaron and Colton left to go check out Velour and eventually go see their families for a bit, Brock and Rex decided to go do a bit of snooping of their own. They brought out their rattiest wife-beaters, their grossest jeans and their trucker hats, then they went into the strip club with fists full of dollar bills and toothpicks in their teeth.
Chase wasn’t sure what schtick they were going for, but they looked ridiculous enough, Heath took a few pictures of them before they left the hotel.
Heath decided he needed a nap after his big lunch, so he retired to his room. Stacey was asleep in her room, and Chase was once again alone.
Back into the hell pit of philistines he went.
By the time the dinner hour rolled around, he’d managed to get a last known address, a real name, Social Security number, criminal record and birthdate for Impervious, or should he say Dakota Creed, born December 4, 1981. He was wanted for human trafficking, drug trafficking, racketeering, embezzlement, fraud and a whole other laundry list of redeeming felonies that would make any parent proud. There was a warrant out for his arrest, but if Chase had anything to say in the matter, the cops wouldn’t be getting their hands on the man who traded children like cattle.
Dakota Creed didn’t deserve prison.
Dakota Creed didn’t deserve oxygen.
Dakota Creed didn’t deserve mercy.
Dakota Creed was going to wish his mother had kept her legs closed by the time Chase was finished with him.
When he finally lifted his head up from the screen to the sound of Stacey’s door opening, the clock on his computer said it was nine o’clock. His eyes hurt, his gut churned, and he had such a strong, consuming thirst for blood, a thirst he hadn’t felt in a long time, that it actually scared him a little.
Stacey’s hand slid across his back and rested on his shoulder just as he was closing all the windows on his laptop. He shut out the world of the depraved and disgusting. “This stuff doesn’t mess with your sleep?” she asked groggily.
Oh, it did.
But a fuck-ton of other things messed with his sleep, too, so this was just one more monster to add to the stack that forced him to keep one eye open while he struggled to get some REM.
She took a seat next to him and reached for his hands. He turned to face her, their knees touching. Even though she’d been asleep for a few hours, she still looked exhausted. Maybe she hadn’t slept. Maybe she’d been in her room crying all this time.
Now he felt like an ass for not going to check on her.
He tended to develop blinders when he was hunting. Nothing but the target, the prey, was on his mind, and he’d often forget to piss, eat or sleep until he found what—or in most cases who—he was looking for.
Her soft, petite thumb rubbed the back of his hand. “Hmm?”
He nodded. “Yeah, this stuff messes with my head, but it’s all part of the job.” He glanced up at her. “I’ll sleep better with you next to me.”
A sexy pink flushed her cheeks.
Heath’s door opened to reveal a big goof with bedhead and tired blue eyes. He yawned and reached up to touch the doorjamb around the same time there was a knock at the main door.
“I’ll get it,” Heath said with another yawn.
He opened the door for Brock and Rex, who had takeout bags with them.
“Grabbed dinner,” Rex said.
“Hold the door!” Heavy footsteps drew near in the hallway until Colton appeared, followed by Liam, Richelle, Aaron and Rob.
“Gang’s all here,” Heath said, using his fingers to comb his hair into a bit less of a mess. “Hope you brought enough food.”
“We came with more,” Richelle said, giving Stacey and Chase a welcoming smile and plopping a big insulated flexible cooler bag on the dining table.
“I’m starving,” Heath said, digging into the bag Rex hadn’t even completely put down on the table. “What’d you get?”
Brock shot his youngest, biggest brother a dirty look. “Didn’t you just eat two feet of sandwich?”
Heath’s incredulous, hurt expression had Chase snorting with mirth. “That was like four hours ago. I’m a growing boy.”
Brock rolled his eyes. “We grabbed Indian from a place Aaron recommended.”
“And we picked up a bunch of Mediterranean chicken sandwiches from Paige’s Bistro,” Richelle said, pulling bundles of something that smelled delicious out of the bag. She glanced at Chase. “I was thinking …”
Chase’s brow lifted, and when he realized Richelle wanted to speak in private, he untangled his fingers from Stacey’s and stood up, but not before pecking her on the top of the head.
He followed the tiny force of nature with the blonde pixie cut and intense amber eyes over to the living room. “What’s going on?”
Richelle took a deep breath. “I’ve set up this program to help women who are in abusive relationships start over. Lawyers, counselors, moving companies, airlines, new identities and jobs if needed. The works.”
His brows pinched. What was she getting at? “These are just kids though.”
She nodded, her expression severe but also filled with genuine concern. “That’s right. They’re just kids. Innocent children. I think we need to set up a bit of a triage situation here at the hotel. Leave me here with Stacey. I’ve got a friend—Tessa—who is a child trauma therapist. She’s agreed to come by tonight. Paige is going to bring more food. I’ve also called Colton’s wife, who works for a massive clothing store, and she’s going to hook us up with clothes for the kids. Mark Herron, Emmett Strong, Riley McMillan and Will Colson are doctors, and they’ve all agreed to come and help with the children as well. Who knows, you guys might need some patching up, too.”
Holy shit. She’d organized everything. Right down to getting the children clothes and having a trauma therapist on site.
“You don’t think taking them to the hospital is the best course of action?” he asked, liking her plan better than just carting the children off to the hospital, where they’d be treated by an endless stream of different faces and undoubtedly left alone or assigned to an overworked and underpaid social worker.
“I do if their injuries are enough that the doctors say they need to go to the hospital. If they say we need to move the kids, then we move them. I’ve also got a cop on my speed dial. So we’ll call Isaac, too.”
Even though his sister-in-law was a cop, Chase still had issues with the po-po. Ever since Peru and the way the cops there had treated him, he held a bit of a grudge against those who claimed to serve and protect. The shit on the news about cops lately and the way they were treating certain people—shooting first and making excuses later—didn’t sit right with him, either.
Not all cops were bad, but the bad ones made you wary of the rest.
“You’ve thought of everything,” he said, unable to keep the corner of his mouth from lifting into a lopsided smile.
Richelle nodded and plopped her hands on her slim hips. “I have. Once we determine who the children are, we can start making calls to reconnect them with their families. I’ve spoken with Skyler McAllister—Rob’s wife—and she has agreed to fly the parents here and home with their children on her family’s airline for free.”
Chase’s eyes widened. “Jesus, is there anything you haven’t thought of?”
She struck him as the type of woman who came out of the womb telling the doctors what to do.
Richelle took a step closer and lowered her voice. “I’ve done some research into child trafficking, and the chances of these children having been violated already is low. They’ll be dirty, hungry and possibly sick, but rarely do the handlers touch the merchandise. The buyers are paying big money for …” Her throat moved on a swallow, and her complexion paled. “Innocence,” she finally said. “Once they’re shipped to where they’re going, they’ll be trained, but not beforehand. But we can’t rule that out. We may need a female doctor if some of the children are girls and get triggered by one of the male doctors touching them.”
Chase fought back his own shudder. “Impervious specializes in little boys, but you’re right. Do you know any female doctors?”
She shook her head. “No, but Mark’s going to call a colleague.”
He nodded curtly and placed his hand on Richelle’s shoulder for a brief moment. He normally wasn’t big on touching, but this seemed to warrant a physical reaction to all the amazing things Richelle had organized. “Thank you. You’ve done an incredible job in a short amount of time.”
“Already had the connections, just needed to make the calls.”
“I appreciate you coming to stay with Stacey. She’ll need someone to keep her calm and company, and since you’ve been through this, I’m glad it’s you.”
Richelle’s lips pinned together, and her hawk-like eyes turned extra fierce. “Neither of us should have to have gone through this.” She brought her voice down again. “Do me a favor.” Her brows lifted. So did Chase’s in interest. “Mercy is for those who deserve it. And these fuckers don’t. Got it?”
God help any person who rubbed Richelle LaRue the wrong way. Yeesh.
But he understood where she was coming from and wholeheartedly agreed.
He nodded again and cleared his throat. “Prisons are too crowded as it is.”
Her sly smile and a finger tap to the side of her nose were all that he got before she walked away to go sit beside Stacey.
Stacey smiled when Richelle sat next to her, the two women chatting animatedly as they picked at the buffet spread of food.
Heath was chowing down on a gluttonously stacked plate while everyone else had either found a place to sit or was standing with the plate in their hand and chatting.
It was kind of crazy when you thought about it all.
Here they all were, minus Liam, Richelle and Stacey, all men preparing to go into battle—in essence. Getting ready to take down the bad guys and save the children. Right now, they were all just ordinary dudes eating dinner, when in a few short hours, they’d be armed to the teeth and raiding a child trafficking ring.
This kind of shit never got easier.
Chase became better at it the more he did it, but mentally—emotionally—it never got easier. As hard as he tried to prepare himself for what he was about to see, there was no way to truly do it.
He’d rather see a thousand dead corpses of grown-ass men than one hurt and abused child. He’d go down fighting, to the death, to save a kid—and it didn’t matter if it was Connor or someone else’s child. He’d give up his life—and knew any of the men in that room would, too—to save any one of those kids.
And the more he thought about it, the more he’d dug into Impervious’s reign of terror, the more he realized they weren’t dealing with some two-bit hack out to make a couple of bucks. They were dealing with a man who had power, money and backing. Impervious would be guarded. The children would be guarded, and people would most likely get hurt.
He might get hurt.
Taking a deep breath, he strolled up behind Stacey and squeezed her shoulders with both hands. She broke off her heads-together, hush-hush conversation with Richelle and glanced up at him, worry streaking across her features. “Everything okay? Did you get new information about Connor?”
He shook his head. “No. Plan is still the same as before.” He reached for her hand, and she stood up, allowing him to lead her to her bedroom. He shut the door, but not before catching Rex’s eye. His brother quickly glanced away, but he’d seen enough to know that although they said things were okay between them, it would still take some time.
“What’s going on?” Stacey asked, stepping over to the bedside table and turning on the lamp so there was more light in the room.
Everything was most definitely not all right. Her son was missing, and he and six other men were preparing to go into battle. He still needed to figure out a way to keep Liam from getting stuck in the crossfire.
She reached for his hand and stepped into his space, bringing the scent of her shampoo and her own fresh, feminine scent. “You’re scaring me, Chase.”
He shook his head and squeezed her hand. “It’s going to be dangerous tonight.”
Her eyes widened. “Like how dangerous?”
“Impervious is well equipped. He’s been running this operation for a while. He’s got means. He’s going to be protected, and those men will be armed.”
Stacey’s chest began to move up and down quicker, and he could see the cogs spinning in her mind. “You think they could threaten to harm the children? To harm Connor?”
That was definitely a possibility—sacrifice one to get away with the rest—but that wasn’t where he was going.
“I just need you to try to prepare yourself for what is to come next. Granted, Connor hasn’t been gone that long, but still. He could be in rough shape if he struggled or tried to fight them.”
Her gasp was like a thousand wasp stings to his heart. She covered her mouth with her hand, and her eyes became damp.
Fuck, maybe he shouldn’t have said anything.
But then, he wanted her to be prepared. He wanted to be honest with her.
