X left me in the library for hours. My stomach rumbled, telling me the dinner hour had come and gone. A glance at the closed door kept me in place. Not once did I venture out of the library. I didn’t want the temptation it would bring. If I did leave, there would be no stopping me from attempting escape. That long driveway teased me with the promise of freedom, but I understood one thing about X. He didn’t leave anything to chance. I might have a GPS strapped around my ankle, but I was certain it wasn’t my greatest barrier to fleeing this place. That didn’t stop me from examining the anklet, though. I was obsessed with it.
I’d had plenty of time to look at it. I hadn’t been idle during the time spent in my room. I never examined it in front of Bay, Chad, Ben, or Mel, but every shower brought another opportunity to figure out how to defeat it. Unlike the keypad at the door, this was one puzzle I wouldn’t be solving anytime soon. If I cut the strap, an alarm would sound. No doubt, a signal would be sent to whomever monitored the device. X and my guards would be on me in an instant. I also couldn’t run with it still attached. I had no illusions of a perimeter which monitored my whereabouts. Break the perimeter and the anklet would not only alarm but send my location, not to mention the punishment from X which would follow.
I couldn’t cut it.
I couldn’t run.
I had been neutralized.
Which left me looking for alternate escape. After combing the library, and the plentiful offering of books, I turned my attention to his laptop. I curled up in one of the chairs and cradled it in my lap.
The first thing I did was check the program to track my father’s activities. His computer wouldn’t ping until he connected to the internet, so I expected nothing. To my surprise, the code had been activated.
The backdoor I installed gave me access to everything on Z’s computer and more. I was a virtual ghost in his machine. I hadn’t mentioned that to X, keeping that gem to myself. One question burned at the forefront of my mind and I used my time to find answers. Over an hour later, all I had left were more questions.
Beneath the layers of shell companies and holdings, I uncovered a shadow organization which turned my stomach. The business of trading human flesh brought millions into my father’s accounts. He had his fingers involved in every aspect of illicit human trafficking. My stomach roiled with the depths of his depravation. From stealing orphans from foster homes in the United States, to sweeps of the homeless in Central America, my father filled the orders of those wealthy enough to purchase humans for any number of different reasons. One name kept reappearing and I wondered who John Snowden might be. He and my father seemed to have extensive business dealings.
Not all of the hapless victims became sex slaves and it was this which sent chills down my spine. An entire segment of his operation dealt in the trafficking of young boys meant specifically to live or die in illegal death matches organized across the globe. Thoughts of what those poor boys endured nearly had me emptying the contents of my stomach.
Each slave came with a bio stating where they’d been taken from, a list of their characteristics, and the potential roles they might fill. Prettier boys were slated for the sex trade. Those who were scrawny, and those who were filling out, went to the fight rings. They pitted the weak against the strong in an ugly contest of survival.
Never in my life would I have believed such brutality existed, although I didn’t know why I shouldn’t be surprised. Like cock fights and dog fighting, there were too many people who took sport in the misery of others. Why not boys fighting for their lives?
I slammed the lid down on the laptop and swiped at my cheeks. It seemed all I ever did since coming here was cry. The door to the library opened and I looked up. X entered, his discerning gaze looked to the laptop and then to my tear-streaked cheeks.
“Raven? Are you okay?”
I shoved the laptop away from me as X closed the door behind him. He approached me cautiously as anger surged inside of me. I’d almost given myself to this man. Hell, there was no almost about it. I’d willingly spread my legs for a monster.
X’s rules put me in an untenable position. His questions had to be answered, and if I spoke to him, I now had to call him Master or accept punishment. If I didn’t answer, my fate would be the same. With no good choice, I chose the direct approach.
“How long have you been trading slaves, Master?” I crossed my arms over my chest, trying for defiance, but coming far short of my goal. My entire body shivered and goosebumps prickled on my skin.
He glanced at the laptop and pulled a chair to the opposite side of the desk. I appreciated having something between us, but understood there was nothing which could keep X away from me if he decided he would have me.
“I’ll answer your questions, but first I have some of my own. Do you mind?”
“Do I have a choice?” I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, then added the formal address. “Master.”
“You always have a choice, but in this, I need a few questions answered first.”
“Of course, Master. We always do things your way. Why should this be any different?”
“You’re angry.” Astute in all things, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to read my mood.
“I’m disgusted…Master, and angry.” I was angry at myself, not him.
He reached across the desk and pulled the laptop to him. “Why are you disgusted?”
I pointed to the laptop. “Never leave me alone with a computer when I’m bored. I tend to dig stuff up.”
“I take it your anger has something to do with this?” He tapped the laptop case and continued, not waiting for me to answer. “I don’t think it’s too much of a leap to assume you did some digging.”
“I did…Master.” I injected venom into the word now, not caring about the consequences. Did it really matter? He could claim disrespect whenever he chose and punish me for it as he pleased.
His long fingers tapped the laptop and silence descended between us. I shifted in my seat and bit my lower lip.
“Raven,” he finally said, “let’s dispense with titles for a moment.”
“Fine by me.” I hated having to call him Master.
“Maintain a respectful tone. You won’t be warned again.”
“Does it matter?”
“You know the answer to that.”
Yes, I did. Nothing had changed between us. He was still the Master, and I the lowly slave. I ripped my attention from him and tried looking anywhere else, but I failed. His magnetism pulled me back and some of my anger crumbled with the overwhelming power pouring off him.
“Now,” he continued, “what did you find?”
“As if you don’t know.”
“I actually don’t. Despite what you think, I can’t read minds.”
“You said you’re not a monster and yet that’s exactly what you are.”
“You don’t know what I do.”
I pointed to the laptop. “You’re in business with my father, and my father is in business…” My voice cracked, but I refused to break down in tears. From somewhere deep inside of me, I found the strength to continue.
“What about your father?”
“He’s at the center of it all: sex slave trafficking and worse. Innocent boys are dying…”
X clenched his fist and sucked in a breath. “I know.”
“Of course you know.” I wanted to leap across the desk and strangle him. I wanted to stab him in the heart and watch his life bleed out on the floor. I wanted to scream and rage, and…I just wanted to curl into a ball and pretend none of this existed.
“You haven’t asked me the most important question.”
I really hadn’t asked any questions. At least, not the ones I wanted.
“I’m disappointed.” His eyes pinched and he leaned back, returning my anger with exquisite patience. “I thought you were a better judge of character. You haven’t asked why I had you access your father’s laptop.”
“To spy on him.” My face heated with indignation. “I presume it’s a power grab. You’re trying to take over his slave empire.”
“Be very careful of assumptions, Raven. They’re never what you think.”
I wanted to hate X. I needed to hate him because I’d fallen too far under his spell.
“How about we talk about what you saw.” He flipped open the laptop and turned it toward me.
I’d already closed out of everything. Nothing but a black screen faced me.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Yes, you do.” He pushed the laptop toward me. “Tell me, did you find his business associate?”
“You mean John Snowden?” That man gave me full body shudders. For that matter, my father did the same. The depth of their depravity wasn’t something my mind could process.
“You found Snowden?” X leaned forward, his entire body wound tight with tension. “Did you find anything that says where he might be?”
“What, so you can meet with him and conduct your business?” I sprung to my feet and pointed an accusing finger at X. “I’m not going to be a part of that.” I grabbed for the computer, intent on shutting down my little backdoor into my father’s illicit dealings, but X was faster than me. He was always faster, stronger, and more cunning than me.
“Give that back to me,” I screeched.
“Sit down, Raven, before I lose my patience and turn you over my knee.”
I laughed in his face. “Go ahead. Without the right protocols, you’ll trip the self-destruct code I placed.”
His expression darkened. “What did you do?”
“You didn’t think you could lead me to my father’s chambers, force me to write code on his laptop and not leave an insurance policy behind?”
X might be stronger and faster than me, but I had outsmarted him in this. He surprised me by not reacting. Instead, he pulled out a cellphone and dialed a number.
X paused, waiting for whomever was on the other end.
“Forest?”
Was forest some sort of code word? X didn’t try to hide his conversation and I couldn’t help but listen to every word he said. I strained to hear the other voice, but my efforts were in vain. I couldn’t make out anything.
“We have access, but Raven wrote in a self-destruct code.” Anger set X’s eyes ablaze, retribution would soon follow. In that, I had faith. I wouldn’t come out of this unscathed.
“Yes. I have it. Do you want me to—” X paused, listening. “Okay. I’ll leave it.”
I leaned forward, intent on hearing the other half of the conversation, but failed.
“No,” X said. “Don’t come. Her father is here. You need to be invisible in this, but Forest…” X glanced at me, a look of admiration in his expression. “She found Snowden. Just like we thought, Carson is working with him. What do you want me to do?”
A long pause followed. I strained to overhear, but all I heard was a deep bass rumble through the speaker. X listened. Every word brought tension coiling in his body. He glanced at me and gripped the phone.
“No. Raven isn’t leaving the island.”
Well, that answered one of my most pressing questions. If X’s estate was on an island, there really was no place for me to run. I’d have to find a boat to take me away. Certainly, there was no way I would be escaping in a plane.
“You know the answer to that. Whatever happens, Raven is mine.” X glanced at me again. “I can send it via courier.”
More time passed as the other man spoke.
“A day or two at most,” X answered. “My business with Carson should be concluded tonight and the slave transfer completed tomorrow. I expect he’ll leave no later than noon.”
More words I couldn’t hear.
“That’s cutting it close. If he sees you…If Snowden finds out we’re on to him…”
X placed the laptop on the desk. When I shifted my attention to it, X gave a sharp nod. “Don’t even think about it.” He motioned for me to sit in the wingback chair. I was beginning to hate that chair.
My fear for what X could do kept me from moving and I sat. He cupped the phone to his ear, talking to the stranger the whole time while he stepped behind me. For a brief millisecond, I contemplated rushing the desk, opening the laptop, and activating the RUN command which would unravel everything I’d done. But in the time it took me to think through that, X clicked something to my neck. I reached up and traced out the links of a chain. I’d been locked in.
I didn’t even fight when X attached a chain to my right wrist and then snapped a third to my left. With me immobilized, he returned to the desk, took his seat facing me, and opened the laptop. He swiped at the screen of his phone, pulled out a stand from a desk drawer, and placed his phone in the cradle. A few seconds later, he put earbuds in his ears, removing me from the conversation entirely. I had a fair idea what was going on, but there was no way X, or that stranger, would break my encryption.
They were royally fucked.
Their conversation continued for minutes. X listened, tapped at the keys, and cursed. I watched his expression turned from consternation to defeat. I didn’t know what he was up to, but felt confident he hadn’t broken through my security. I’d given him access to exactly what he’d asked, Z’s business accounts, but that hadn’t been what I had uncovered. I’d gone layers deeper. My intimate familiarity with how Z’s mind worked told me there would be much more buried beneath the surface. X could scan all of my father’s bank accounts, but none of what I’d seen would be visible to him. He looked up at me and darkness swirled in the depths of his eyes. I swallowed reflexively and guarded against what would come.
“Yes, that’ll be all. I’ll see you soon.”
With those words, X ended the call. He stood over me and bent down, placing his hands on the armrests of the chair.
“You have been a very bad girl.”