“He was, and a real geek too. Seemed obsessed with her. Anyway, I’m not sure when she’ll be back. She called in sick for the rest of the week. I think she’s recovering–the guy was a little rough, if you know what I mean.” He nudged my shoulder.
Rage poured from my body at the thought of that slimy snake touching her. Hurting her. Making her cry.
Pete continued, “I’ll get her back here, though. I have an in with her mama. Dirty old whore ain’t good for much but if I can get her daughter back in here, we’ll be rolling in cash.”
Over my dead body.
“I’ll come back next week then. I look forward to a little challenge.”
“Hey, uh, this is private information but,” Pete inched closer to me before continuing. “I have a skin auction of sorts that I run at my place over in Castle Grove. You might be interested in that.”
“Skin auction, huh?”
“If you have the money, that is. We’ve got some high bidders over there, but the women are perfect. Let me tell you. There’s someone for everyone, as I like to say,” he laughed before sucking on his cigar again. The guy had a lot of nerve admitting he ran a sex trafficking auction to someone he just met. Men with the biggest egos were always the dumbest.
“Here’s my card if you’re interested. Hey, even if you can’t afford any of the merchandise, it doesn’t hurt to come check it out.” He smiled again and handed me his business card.
I squeezed it and forced a smile. “Thank you, sir. You’ve been very helpful.”
“I’ve got plenty of other girls available if you want to go back now.”
“I’d rather wait.”
“Suit yourself,” he shrugged and went back behind the curtain.
I turned and made my way to Bronx and Cade, nodding toward the door to get them moving. They watched the exchange, and I knew I had to leave soon before I lost my cool and ruined everything. I stormed to the door with them following closely behind me, not stopping until I got to my car.
“Was it him?” Bronx asked as I threw the car in gear and took off.
“Yeah.” I clenched the steering wheel so tight my knuckles turned white.
“Fuck,” muttered Cade as he slouched in the backseat.
“Now what?”
I exhaled deeply, trying not to put the pedal to the metal and get a speeding ticket or crash. “Now we talk to Axel and see what he’s found on the bastard. It’s going to be hard, but we can’t let Reynolds find out we know what he did. Not yet. We need to plan this shit out.”
“Agreed, we need to hit him when he’s least expecting it.”
“From the sound of it, Ash has her own plans for retribution, but I won’t be satisfied until that fucker is begging for his life,” I said.
“Let’s fucking do it. Whatever it is, I’m in,” Bronx said.
“Hell yeah!” Cade cheered.
I pushed down on the gas harder, trying not to let my mind imagine what Ash went through with Reynolds.
Fuck, it was tearing me up inside.
I needed to see her. I needed her to know I was there for her and would help her with whatever she needed. I needed her to know that motherfucker would pay for hurting her. And I would never let another person lay a finger on her ever again.
42
Ashtyn
Itfeltsogoodto sleep.
Axel was in the middle of telling me his process for obtaining personal information on just about anyone in the world when I passed out on the couch. IT wasn’t the most interesting subject to me, and I spent the night before not sleeping, so I was overdue for a nap.