Chapter Eleven
JACKSON
When I finished my call with Chase, I turned around and saw Roxanne sound asleep and tucked in under the covers. She looked so peaceful, more comfortable than I had seen her look before. Every urge in my body wanted to slide into bed and wake her up. But she didn’t look like she typically got a good night’s sleep and I didn’t want to be the one to take it away from her.
I had seen firsthand just how badly her sleep was on some nights. Her nightmares had been so intense after she was strangled. I couldn’t be the person who took away a peaceful night from her. Instead, I needed to think of her first and let her enjoy her dreams. We could always make love in the morning.
I slid into my briefs and then into the bed next to her. I was afraid to wake her, so I used all my willpower and stayed on my side of the bed. As I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, I had visions of Ana and what her night must be like with Stephano.
I knew Chase and Jordan were worried about us finding Ana, but I felt confident that we were getting close. We just had to figure out how to get into Stephano’s home. My thoughts drifted to trying to figure out if he knew who I was or even what I really looked like. The cameras in his club couldn’t have seen very much, the rooms were dark and the camera itself looked extremely old. Would it be possible to try and buy Ana directly from Stephano?
My gut didn’t like the plan very much and that meant it probably wasn’t a good plan. As much as I wanted to get Ana out of the house right away, if the plan didn’t work and Roxanne and I ended up dead, well, that wasn’t a very good plan at all then.
There was a certain finesse needed when rescuing someone. Although most of my work had been in investigations, I had been used to rescue people from situations in the past. My experience as a Navy Seal had prepared me, but I had no experience in dealing with a woman like Roxanne. I did feel like she was a benefit to our case, I just had to figure out how best to use her without putting her at risk.
My night was spent tossing and turning as I tried to think of all the different ways I could get into the house. When I closed my eyes, I continually saw Roxanne being strangled and felt the helplessness of not being able to save her. I had never worked so closely with a woman on a case and I wasn’t going to have this be the first time I did and something went wrong.
Fire, I could set a fire and make Stephano evacuate the house. Once he was out in the open, it would give me a view of who all was in the home and maybe even grab Ana from him. But I suspected he would have armed gunmen with him who wouldn’t take very kindly to a strange man trying to steal one of Stephano’s women.
The buyer, maybe I could figure out who the buyer was and bribe him. Offer him more money in exchange for going through with the purchase and then handing her over. Or even threaten him with prison time if he didn’t turn her over. But the buyer was probably extremely wealthy and my offer of money or threats of prison would mean nothing to him. Wealth certainly could keep a person out of prison, despite what the police said to the public. I had seen it many times: a wealthy person hires a team of expensive lawyers who finagle the law into their favor.
Get someone on the inside, Roxanne could go to Stephano and convince him she wants to be with him. Maybe even get to stay in his home. Then, she could find Ana and release her. No, that plan wouldn’t work, at all. Roxanne would have to sleep with the scumbag, and I wasn’t about to allow that to happen.
None of my plans felt very solid, and I hated it. My job as an investigator wasn’t actually to save the person. I just needed to confirm where she was and notify the proper authorities. But after hearing that Stephano was in Miami, I doubted the local police were going to risk getting on his bad side and raiding his house in the off chance there was a woman being held there. My gut told me we were going to have to take this case all the way and get Ana out of there ourselves.
Then, I thought about what was going on for poor Ana at that very moment. Was Stephano drugging her? Was he taking advantage of her? Probably. He seemed like the kind of man who took what he wanted and didn’t really care what others thought. He probably didn’t even care if the buyer wanted the girl untouched. When the buyer actually showed up, it was highly unlikely he would turn her down, no matter what condition she was in. The black market for young females was very competitive and those men would stop at nothing to get a sweet young woman for their own.
I felt sick to my stomach as my brain swirled with thoughts of Ana. She certainly hadn’t expected to be held captive for over a month when she came to America. She had simply wanted love, and Stephano had convinced her he was going to give that to her.
On our flight from Italy to Miami, Jordan had told me the whole story about Ana and how she had met her man online. Red flags went up for me right away as Jordan told the story. I couldn’t believe Ana and Jordan had been so willing to fly across the country to men they didn’t even know.
Jordan had been lucky. She had found Chase, who wasn’t a bad guy. But Jordan had flown across the world after knowing Chase for only a few days. If I ever had a daughter, I would kill her if she did something like that. Women had to be better at protecting themselves. There were men all over the world who only wanted to hurt them.
Women were so gullible when it came to love. They always thought that men wanted the same things as they did. Some men maybe, but most men just want companionship, not love. They are happy to have a naked woman in their bed at night and just go through the motions of keeping her happy so she continues to come to his bed naked every now and again.
There were stories on the internet every day about people pretending to be someone they aren’t. I couldn’t understand how two seemingly smart women would so willingly go to meet men they had come in contact with online. The only reasonable thought I had was that they were in some sort of lust for the guys. Perhaps, lust for the idea of being loved. But whatever the reasoning, both Jordan and Ana had not been very smart in coming to America.
Personally, I had finished with the half-hearted relationships. I couldn’t be bothered to put energy into something like that since meeting Rose. She taught me what it was like to feel true love for someone. In the short time we knew each other, I felt less alone in the world and more ready to seize every single day. I wanted something as powerful as that again someday and I wasn’t interested in settling.
Roxanne was a great girl and maybe we would end up sleeping together during this job. I just wasn’t sure things were going to go very far when all the excitement and adrenaline of the job were over. But I was open to finding out. For the first time in a very long time, I felt open to seeing what might come of a relationship.
Finally, I felt my body drifting off to sleep. I needed the sleep and couldn’t wait to relish the four hours I would have before sun up. We had a lot to get done in the morning and four hours was necessary for me to be able to function.
The next thing I knew, the morning sun was shining into our room right through the curtains. I guess that was just one part of the discounted cost of staying in a low-level motel instead of a nice hotel. But I actually had slept very well.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” I heard Roxanne say as she stood wrapped in a towel and flipped the water on to the giant whirlpool tub located in the corner of the room.
“That is the weirdest spot for a bathtub.”
“I know. But it's supposed to be romantic,” she said with a laugh. “I’m sorry for falling asleep on you.”
“You were tired, no need to apologize. I’m sorry for making you think I abandoned you. So, I guess we are even now.”
I turned toward the door and put my feet on the ground, but paused when I heard Roxanne climb into the soaking tub. I silently cursed myself for not turning around fast enough to watch her beautiful curves as they descended into the water.
“Do you want to join me?” she asked.
“Yes.”
I hurried to rid myself of my clothes and climbed into the large tub with her. It was wide enough for two people with sitting stations on opposite sides of the tub. So, I sat down across from her and sunk into the deep massage jets.
“I’m starting to like this little rundown motel,” Roxanne said as the water jets pressed into her back.
“I couldn’t agree more. This is a fantastic tub.”
We both sat and enjoyed the water massage for a few minutes as we woke up. It felt like perfection to have the warm jets pulsing water onto all my sore muscles. I wanted to come back to that motel every time I was in Miami.
I laughed to myself at the thought of purposely choosing to stay in that motel again. But that was how life worked sometimes. You ran into a person or a place that you never expected and became hooked, unable to get them off your mind and unwilling to settle for anything else.
“So, what’s the plan?” Roxanne asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.
“I don’t know. It’s going to be impossible to get into Stephano’s house, assuming that’s even where Ana is. I thought of a few ideas last night, but nothing seemed like a sure shot and that makes me nervous.”
“Maybe we should call the local authorities and give them what we have?”
Roxanne didn’t strike me as the type of woman who would easily agree to contacting the local police department. It showed that she also understood the gravity of the situation for Ana and that we had to figure out something very soon or Ana wasn’t going to be around any longer to rescue.
“I thought about trying to buy Ana myself. Do you think Stephano would sell her to me?”
She thought about it for a while before answering. The look on her face seemed strained with anguish and it didn’t look like Roxanne thought my plan was a very good one. I understood her thinking. I didn’t think the plan was good, either. I just wanted to see what her thoughts were, but the look on her face reaffirmed my thought. It wasn’t a good plan.
“You could try it. But I think he’s got a relationship with some overseas buyers and I don’t think he’ll want to ruin that. Plus, if he tells them there is a higher bid, it’s likely that the international buyer will just continue to outbid you. These girls are worth a lot of money to them.”
“I think I could convince him to sell her to me. But the real issue is if he has seen my face or not. Obviously, if he knows I was the one over at your house or in that private room, then he’s not going to believe that I want to buy Ana.”
“We had you dressed up like a nerd in the club. Remember, you had that damn sweater vest on and glasses. I don’t know if he would really be able to tell it was you. But it’s probably not the best idea. You know he’ll kill you first and then ask questions later. He doesn’t need to know it was you. Stephano just needs to feel like something is off and he will shoot you.”
Roxanne’s lack of confidence in my idea did make me a little nervous. But I honestly believed that money talked and if I walked into Stephano’s with $250,000 and an offer to buy a girl that I described as Ana, perhaps he would consider it.
“How much do the girls go for?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe one hundred thousand dollars.”
“So, you don’t think if I offered $250,000 he would sell her to me?”
“Jackson, if you walked in and offered that kind of money, he would think you were trying to pull something over on him. He doesn’t know you and has never heard of you in that world before. He’s going to think you are with the police.”
I hated that Roxanne was right. There was no way my plan was going to work without some serious help. If I was going to try and buy Ana, I would need someone on the inside who could vouch for me and say that I was looking for a new supplier. Maybe make me out to be a guy who has purchased girls before from Stephano’s competition. Although, I had no idea who his competition was.
I moved over to her side of the tub and pushed her forward so I could slide behind her. Roxanne was starting to feel like home and as much as that scared me, I actually liked it a lot.
“Where did you grow up?” I asked as I wrapped my arms around her.
“Oh, we are talking personal now?” She laughed.
I could tell the question instantly made her nervous, and I regretted asking it while we were in such an exposed environment. But I did want to know more about her. I knew almost nothing about her, while she knew a lot about me.
“You mean where was I before I became a stripper?” she said with a touch of sarcasm in her voice.
“No, I just wondered if you grew up around here or if you came to Miami?”
“I came to Miami when I turned eighteen. Stephano gave me a job in his club right away and a place to stay. Back then, he had an apartment where we girls could stay. He didn’t even make us pay him rent. I thought I had found the best new life in the world.”
“Something changed?”
“Sure, I didn’t understand just how hard a life dancing was. I was exhausted all the time. I lived with five other women and there were constant fights. I felt like Stephano was watching all the time. It was hard to set boundaries back then. But last year, I moved to my own place. I felt a little better, but still had the watchful eye of him all the time. It made me think about my future, though, and I started planning to leave.”
I heard the sadness in Roxanne’s voice and I wanted to change the subject, but I also really liked hearing about her life. We all have pasts. There was no reason for her to be ashamed by hers. I had killed dozens of people while in the military and not all of them were bad guys. There were things I was ashamed about in my past. We all had those things.
“I’m glad our paths crossed,” I said as I kissed her on the back of the neck and climbed out of the tub.
I felt her eyes on my ass as I stood and dried off. Then, I turned around and wrapped the towel around me as I looked at her beautiful body in the water. She was such a gorgeous woman, both inside and out. It was sad that her life had led her to Stephano. I was positive she had the brains to do absolutely anything she wanted to.
“So, what did you decide for the plan?” Roxanne asked as she climbed out of the tub.
To be a gentleman, I turned around and handed her a towel. I wasn’t exactly sure what had come over me. I had already kissed almost every inch of her body. But I had a deep feeling that Roxanne was used to being taken advantage of and I didn’t want to be just another guy who did those same things to her. She deserved more than that.
“I’m going to try and set up a meeting with a friend who knows this industry. Maybe I can get an inside track to be a buyer.”
Roxanne didn’t seem pleased by my idea, but she didn’t object, either. I could tell there was something else on her mind. I knew it wasn’t the best plan, but it was the only one we had at that point and we needed to move forward. Ana was going to be sold soon and if we didn’t get her before then, we would never find her.
Once the girls were sold overseas, they were often kept in their man’s home. It would be impossible to find out who had purchased her or even which country she went to. No. We needed to move forward with any plan we had.
“I’m going to get dressed and then we can eat and discuss it more. How does that sound?” she asked.
“Perfect.”
While Roxanne went to the bathroom to get dressed, I called my friend PJ Robb. The CIA had a unit that specialized in human trafficking and Ana was the perfect case of what was going on throughout the world. I knew that PJ would be able to give me a heads up on what to do and say if I was going to convince Stephano to let me buy Ana.
“PJ, it’s Jackson Foster. How the hell are you?”
“Jackson, what do you need?”
“Do I have to need something to call you?” I joked.
“Yes.”
“I’m in Miami looking for a trafficked girl. She’s twenty-two years old, blonde, thin, model frame. I think Stephano Copal has her.”
“Then you’re probably not getting her back. He sells to high rollers in the Middle East. She’s probably not even in Miami anymore.”
“I think she is, and I want to buy her first. Any chance I could make that deal happen?”
“No. If she is still in Miami, it’s not likely you can do it. I’m in Orlando, where are you at? I’ll come down and we can discuss this some more. I sure would love to get Stephano Copal under my belt.”
“Sure thing! I’d love to have you join forces with us. I need all the help I can get. We could meet you anywhere you’d like. Just call me when you get to town.”
“We?”
“Yes, I have a local Stephano insider who I’m working with.”
“Be careful, Jackson. Those girls cannot be trusted.”
Just then, Roxanne came out of the bathroom and I knew I couldn’t talk freely anymore. I did think I could trust her, though. She had risked her life with Stephano to come and help us. Even if she was doing it for the money. It was still an awful lot to risk.
“We are good here. Just head on down and we can talk about it. I’m going to put some feelers out. Is there someone local I could get my name in with?”
“Yes, Victor. He works out of the port authority office. You’ll need to go down there, alone, and ask for him. Tell him what you’re looking for and give him your burner phone number. He’ll get in touch. Tell him you’re willing to pay top dollar.”
“Thanks, PJ, I’ll see you soon.”
“Remember, Jackson, be careful of Stephano’s people. They know how to switch sides quickly.”
“Will do.”
As I hung up the phone, I felt a new uneasiness around Roxanne. Certainly, she was trustworthy. I had watched her be strangled by Stephano’s man. But PJ had managed to instill a small bit of doubt in Roxanne’s ability to be trusted.