35

Rylee ignored me as we drove home a few hours later and I returned it by ignoring her as well. I wasn’t going to defend myself when I did nothing wrong. Tessa was part of my lair and things between us had ended a long time ago except for a one night stand here and there.
“I’m going to bed,” I said as we climbed out of the car.
I headed upstairs first and I pulled sweat pants on and climbed into bed. Baz was restless and I groaned loudly as I turned on my back. I felt Rylee as she climbed into bed and turned her back on me. My eyes were half closed when she decided to say something.
“You smell like her,” she said and I sighed.
“Do you want me to go shower?” I asked her.
“No, by all means sleep next to me with her scent all over you,” she said.
“Jealousy doesn’t suit you Rylee,” I said as I turned towards her.
“And you’ll be fine if I sleep next to you smelling like another man?” she asked me. Baz roared loudly in my head and I had her pinned down beneath me before she could even react.
“If you ever smell like another man I’ll kill him,” I said in a whisper.
“Fuck you Lucas, get off me,” she said and pushed me away.
I got up from the bed and walked to the bathroom to wash Tessa’s scent off me. Rylee pretended to be asleep when I climbed back into bed and I turned my back on her once again. Tomorrow was going to be another long day.
As usual I woke up with Rylee half on top of me and our legs intertwined. I could hear her swearing lightly under her breath as she woke up and untangled herself from me. The bond makes you do crazy things but the one thing that could be a curse and a blessing was that once you were bonded like we were nobody else came close. You’d never find anyone else as attractive as your mate and even sex didn’t feel the same so cheating wasn’t really an option.
“Morning,” I said as I sat up straight in bed. She ignored me as she stood up and walked to the bathroom, closing the door behind her loudly.
“She’s still mad,” Baz said and chuckled.
“For no reason. I didn’t do anything wrong,” I said to him.
“She doesn’t know that. You didn’t say what Tessa wanted and you allowed her to touch you,” he said and I sighed.
I followed Rylee into the bathroom and took my clothes off. She was singing in the shower and she jumped with fright when I opened the shower door and glared at me as she covered herself with her hands.
“Please, I’ve seen you naked enough times,” I said as I turned on the taps on the other side of the double shower.
“I don’t care, I don’t want you to see me naked now,” she said and turned her back on me.
“I bet I can change your mind within a few seconds,” I said as I turned around and pressed myself against her, my arms encircling her and letting my hand slide down her body.
“Lucas, stop,” she said as she leaned back against me and I gently bit her in her neck.
“Do you really want me to stop?” I asked in a whisper as I leaned closer to her ear.
“Yes,” she whispered after a while her body shaking.
“Okay,” I said and let go of her. I knew the bond would make her body react even if she was still mad at me.
I showered and got out looking at her still flushed face and smiled at her. She just gave me a glare that had me laughing as I dried off and walked to the dressing room to get dressed. Today I would dress more casually since it was Saturday and I pulled jeans and a t-shirt on.
During breakfast Rylee ignored me again and Rev just gave me a look while smiling. Hannah was talking about the wine contract and how she planned to introduce them to all the hotels with an introduction party that we should all attend.
“Tessa’s here to see you,” Tom announced as he knocked on the dining room door.
“Thanks, you can show her to my office,” I said as I finished my coffee and had Rylee glaring at me again.
I excused myself and headed up to my office. Tessa was sitting on the couch and it was exactly nine am. She stood up and bowed her head slightly when I closed the door behind me, frowning slightly because she was alone.
“Where’s your friend?” I asked her.
“She’s afraid Lucas, but she sent me something to show you, after you’ve watched it I can take you to see her,” Tessa said and I nodded.
Tessa rifled in her bag and produced a USB stick and handed it to me. I inserted it into my laptop and clicked on the icon when it appeared in the file. It was a video and took a moment to load. I didn’t acknowledge the footsteps that went past my office as Tessa stood next to where I sat.
The video started playing loudly and it sounded like cheap porn but the images I was looking at was anything but consensual acts. I could feel Tessa stiffen next to me as we watched the video showing a masked man punishing a young girl with sex.
She seemed young even to me, perhaps sixteen or so and she was tied to a bed, drugged out of her mind saying everything that the man told her to say. The video faltered a bit as if someone was almost caught videotaping it and then it straightened and I heard a voice whispering menacingly.
“You see Nadia, this is what happens to girls who don’t comply,” he said.
“I’ll never tell anyone, I swear,” she said and the fear in her voice was evident.
“You better not, you’re not even supposed to be down here,” the man said.
“I’ll do whatever you say,” the woman said as the man came into view and his arm shot out to her throat.
“Of course you will, lift your dress and bend over that sofa,” he said roughly and then he pushed her down on it.
She was crying and begging him to stop as the camera showed his face as he grunted and pushed down on her from above. I stopped the video, not wanting to see any more of it and looked at Tessa. She had tears in her eyes and her hands were shaking slightly.
“That was JD’s voice,” I said and she nodded.
“I also thought it was his voice,” she said to me.
Neither of us knew the man in the video that spoke to Nadia afterwards or even why she would try to film this and I saw Tessa rubbing her arms up and down, visibly shaken by what we had watched. I made a copy of the file and took the USB stick out.
“Hey, it’s okay,” I said as I turned towards her and pulled her closer.
“I didn’t know who else to give this to,” she said softly as I held her tightly.
“You did the right thing,” I said to her.
“You should really speak to Nadia,” she said after a while.
“I think you should go home and talk to her first, tell her that you showed me everything and then text me to come over, so that she knows I’m coming and doesn’t freak out,” I said to her.
“Okay,” she said and I let go of her.
Tessa wiped her eyes, grabbed her bag and followed me out of the office. I showed her to the front door and closed my eyes briefly as I thought about how to manage this. I needed to speak to Nadia urgently, she’d be able to give me the location where she recorded this but I also knew that I couldn’t just barge in there. I had seen plenty of guards with guns during that video.
“Halfling,” Baz said in my head.
“What?” I asked him.
“Have you forgotten about the website that JD showed you,” he mused.
“Shit,” I said and hurried back to my office.
I opened a new tab on the laptop browser and followed the instructions that JD had written down for me. It connected to a series of new webpages, redirecting me about five times before the auction page finally opened and I entered the login details.
A new page opened and I saw that the countdown timer had been activated. A new auction would start in seven days and the girls profiles would be accessible in five days. The bidding would start at noon. Another chill went down my spine as I looked at pictures of the previous auction.
“Rev!” I yelled as I stuck my head out of my office door.
Rev and Hannah had moved into Jax and Chris’s room the same day they had moved out and Rev was now actively my second in command. I heard his footsteps and then he appeared in the doorway. I motioned for him to come in and he closed the door behind him.
“We’ve got a big fucking problem,” I said to him as he neared my desk.
I turned the laptop, lowered the sound, and replayed the video clip I had gotten from Tessa. He watched it silently but I could see his fists clenching and unclenching. When the video ended I opened the web page for him and he looked at me.
“They hold auctions every month and the next one is in seven days. These girls right here are the ones that were sold on the previous auction. I remember this one’s face, she went missing from New York. I’ve got a file of all the missing girls for the last five years and I’m sure once we start we can match some of them to this site,” I said.
“How the fuck do you even know about all this?” Rev asked me and I could hear the anger in his voice.
“JD told me about the auction site, trading his freedom for it and Tessa showed me this video clip this morning,” I said to him.
“You’ve known about this site for weeks!” Rev said angrily.
“Excuse me for being preoccupied with my sister and best friend’s death,” I said to him.
“That’s not what I meant,” he said and looked back at the screen.
“There’s nothing to be done until their pictures go onto the site, besides, I can’t buy them all,” I said to him surprised at his anger towards me.
“There are other ways Lucas,” he said.
“I know there are other ways. The problem is we don’t know how far this spreads, who’s involved and who we can trust with this whole operation,” I said.
My phone pinged and I looked at Tessa’s text. It’s been only an hour and I thought it would take her longer to convince Nadia to talk to me. I grabbed my jacket where it hung over my chair and took my car keys from my desk.
“Come on,” I said to Rev.
“Where are we going?” he asked me.
“To get the girl that recorded that video to a safe place, she’s got a lot more information to share,” I said to him.
“She’s going to need protection,” he said and I nodded.