Dare
Angel threw her arms around me, joyfully. I was glad she couldn’t see my face. At least she’d feel that joy for a heartbeat, before knowing the rest of it.
“Where is she?”
“Mexico.”
“Huh, really? Why?”
“Things aren’t exactly cut and dried with Holly but I’ll explain that tomorrow, if that’s okay with you? I’m absolutely wiped.”
“Was she…was she sold to someone down there?” Her eyes were wide.
I nodded, “Yeah. She’s with the guy who saved Tessa. He saved Tessa from a fate that’d would’ve been similar to yours and Lisa’s.”
Her mouth opened and her eyes went wide. And then she looked sort of relieved. I didn’t have the heart to burst the bubble, the idea that Holly was with some sort of white knight.
“More tomorrow, okay?”
She nodded and kissed me, “Thank you, Dare. Thank you for saving me and for helping me find my baby sister. I love you so much.”
“It’ll take some time, my baby, but my next goal is to arrange for you to see her.”
Somehow. I didn’t know how yet, but my wife would see her sister.
***
Kruna. Problem two. Solved. Before the place blew, five big school buses pulled out of Kruna and after those buses pulled away, all the slaves got to see the building explode into a ball of fire, debris, and black ash.
Those buses were filled with Kruna slaves who would be de-briefed and given help, set-up with fresh starts, using money that Jonas had moved around from Kruna and Kruna owner accounts. The slaves didn’t know who saved them; we were careful about that. We’d also be careful about the anonymous donation that would go wherever it needed to go to help.
The official report would list an anonymous vigilante group had informed about the place through knowledge gleaned from Jason Frost, months before. That information would link Jason Frost, dead Donavan Frost, and the dead Sylvia Frost to the sex slave resort. No other Frosts would be in politics for the foreseeable future.
The bus drivers would only tell authorities they were paid in cash to drive to Kruna and load the buses with the people that were led in by four men in balaclavas. The buses were driven to Chon Buri, to the office run by Barry Dresden’s task force. They were to ask for Randall. The office hadn’t closed and Randall hadn’t left it yet. He could deal with them for starters, send them all to that retreat. Help them get on with their lives.
And before we left Thailand, I’d called Lisa and got some other very helpful information. Tino and Nino were staying behind to take care of another problem for me. A problem that needed to be dealt with.
***
A 27-year-old man would be found dead in a Chiang Mai motel room after we left the country.
No one knew that it was Jason Frost, though. I couldn’t risk his name coming out in case someone out there who was left over from Kruna who’d been told I’d had Jason taken out months earlier.
There was also the fact that the motherfucker had hurt my Angel, had been responsible for her going to Kruna in the first place. I’d have done it myself, I wanted to, but I was more focused on getting home and getting on with my life. So, Nino and Tino had taken care of that for me.
Lisa told me all about seeing him at the retreat. The retreat was also the place they’d been holding him. We greased a few palms and got enough info and we’d gotten him out of there before that task force had been dismantled to the point that Frost was released.
I handled this part of things quietly; Angel didn’t need to know. Unless she wanted to know.
It didn’t take long for her to bring him up.
“I wonder what’ll happen to Jason,” Angel mused, back at home. I’d just finished having the place swept for bugs by Hal, Zack’s guy, in case someone had gotten in while we were gone. And then I had it done again in case Hal was not on the up and up. It was clean.
“What do you mean?” I asked, innocently, locking the door and setting the alarm.
“He’s being held for his testimony. Lisa saw him. Now that things have changed, what’ll they do to him? Do you think they’ll just release him? Oh shit, do you think he’ll come after us?”
“No. Jason won’t be a concern.”
“How do you know.”
“I know.”
“Dare?”
“Jason Frost was found dead in a motel room’s bathtub. But no one knows it was him. John Doe. I don’t think they’ll recognize him from his dental records, considering I’m pretty sure he died after his teeth being pulled out one by one. His organs were harvested. Someone might as well get use out of that guy.”
She went wide-eyed.
“You did that him? Or you ordered it be done to him?
“I made some calls.”
“Nino and Tino. That huddle. Do I want to know any more details?”
“You’ll have to decide that for yourself, Angelbaby.”
Angel
“You’d tell me?”
“I would. Careful, though. Make sure you really wanna know.”
“I don’t.”
“Good answer.”
I blinked at him, lost for words.
“I made you a promise. He was lumped in there from the start,” he shrugged.
“We don’t have to talk about this.”
“Your call, Angel.”
“What’ll happen to Cleo, I wonder. She was on one of those buses, wasn’t she?”
“Cleo’s dead, too, baby.”
“Huh? Did you lump her in with the members and partners?”
“She was still suppsed to be but she was still in their infirmary so she was loaded on one of the slave buses. That was the only part of the plan that went awry. But the bus she was on? The driver tried to break up a fight and a couple girls held him down while a bunch of other girls took turns beating her to death. Fifty or more people to one, Cleo didn’t stand a chance.
“Um, yikes.”
“Karma.”
“Double yikes.”
“Karma’s a fickle bitch. Some of us, it gets in our face. Others, it passes us by. Thankfully,” he said.
I put my head on his shoulder and blew out a long breath, “No. You’re a good guy. Karma isn’t looking to hurt you.”
Dare snickered.
Cleo, gone. Jason, gone. Gan Chen, Joseph Lucas, Rafe Ruiz, Delgado, gone.
Felicia Sapphire? Gone.
Thank God.
Oh, and Truly Garnet? Her name is actually Julie. She’s in Thailand somewhere. She and cutie pie Irish hacker Jonas kind of hit it off. They started off talking computer security hacks and by the end of things, they were off in a corner looking very very cozy.
She has my number, if she needs anything. Dare is going to send her money and help her set herself up.
My tracker software still directs to my tracker, in case anything exists anywhere Jonas couldn’t remove. He accessed online cloud storage and did a bunch of tweaks but said we couldn’t be too careful. He redirected Julie/Truly’s tracker software to make it look like she died on the Kruna resort property.
I don’t know what happened to that security guard who brought her to us. I had a feeling he was no longer. But I didn’t need to know.
Dare carried me to bed.
God, I loved it when he did that.
He slowly undressed me. He kissed from my mouth to my navel, and then back up to my breasts, which he teased with his tongue.
I reached into his pants, for his beautiful hard cock.
“Hands over your head. Be my good girl,” he said, his mouth going down to my pelvic bone. My jeans were shimmied off and then he spread my legs wide and twirled his tongue over my clit.
“Can I touch you?”
“Not yet.”
“Please, Master?” I begged, “I want to touch you so much.”
“Mmm, okay Angelbaby, touch me.”
I sat up as he got onto his knees in front of me. I pulled his zipper down, took out his cock, and wrapped my lips around it. He threw his head back and moaned deep and huskily.
I loved to make him make that noise.
We had sex three times that night. It was beautiful. It felt as good as every other time but even better, because Kruna was no more.