Code had managed to find Billows’ illegal accounts, powering through the layers of companies and diversions to find what they needed. He’d drained those accounts, making Torpedo Ink much wealthier. It was standard when they went after criminals to take their money. That enabled them to divert attention, so they had more of a cover when theyphysically went after their targets. It also ensured they had whatever funds they needed in their fight to stop human trafficking and pedophiles.
“Look at that guard,” Ice pointed out. “He can’t read her at all. She’s all smiles and politeness, but that’s the last place she wants to be.”
Maestro agreed. “She’s guarding what she says.”
The audio was astonishingly good. Azelie spoke in a low tone, but they could hear her clearly. They heard the guard warning her that her boss was in a lousy mood.
“Notice how carefully she chooses her words when she answers him. She doesn’t trust that man,” Lana said.
“Her brother-in-law got her involved when she was sixteen,” Maestro added.
“Once in, she isn’t getting out unless they kill her,” Master said. “Not with what she knows.”
“It’s clear she’s very aware she’s walking a tightrope,” Alena added. “She must be living under so much stress every single day.”
“He’s got eyes on her,” Storm reported. “Not all the time, but one of his men sits outside her apartment and follows her to the park occasionally.”
“Man by the name of Andrew McGrady,” Code chimed in. “He’s a real peach. Domestic violence charges with nearly every girlfriend. Bar fights. Breaking and entering. He’s got a rap sheet the size of Texas.”
Maestro had clocked the man the first day he began following Azelie, but Billows’ investigator was lousy at his job. Most of the time he was looking at his phone, not paying attention to his surroundings. Maestro hadn’t once been seen by him. He’d even walked next to the parked car. Maestro was a man people noticed, yet the investigator had been playing a video game on his phone and hadn’t even looked up.
“I could have killed him multiple times,” Maestro pointed out.
“Same here,” Storm agreed. “He doesn’t bother following her most of the time. I think he’s bored out of his mind.”
“Good for us, bad for him,” Mechanic said. “Although it’s a pain in the ass having to keep a lookout for him.”
“When we move, he’ll be the first to go,” Storm said.
Maestro shook his head. “The goal is to keep Azelie safe while we’re getting those women out and getting information from Billows. We can’t risk tipping him off.” He looked directly at Czar. “Maybe coming clean with her and asking her outright for her key and a map of the underground is the way to go. We could move her to a safe house until it’s over.”
“That’s not your head talking, Maestro,” Czar said. “If Billows doesn’t have women down there, but you find evidence he trains them there, we missed a shipment. There is bound to be another coming immediately. We don’t want those women to be shipped somewhere else without our knowledge. We need to see this through.”
Alena and Lana exchanged a long look. “What if she isn’t safe now, Czar? Can we risk that? Look at her. She’s holding herself in check but just barely. Mechanic programmed heart rate monitoring into that camera as well as audio. You can see she’s terrified.”
“She’s been living that way for a long time,” Czar said. “I know it’s rough, but she’s under our surveillance. We’re not going to let anything happen to her.”
“I just would like to point out that she’s alone in that hallway with that guard and scared out of her mind,” Destroyer said.
Czar sighed. “We put a lot of effort into this before we got any kind of a lead. Years of work. This is it, all we’ve got. We can put it to a vote to abort the mission and pull her out of there, which is fair. She doesn’t deserve to live the way she’s living. And she’s Maestro’s. That makes her ours. Before you vote, weigh the consequences to the other women lost to trafficking that we know we’ll never get back against the fact that leaving her would be like leaving Blythe or Soleil or Anya. Seychelle or Zyah. Any of our women.”
There was a long silence. Maestro broke it with a sigh of resignation. “I want her out of there. I’m not going to lie, Iwant her out more than I want my next breath, but I want her out for myself. For my peace of mind. I know damn well I’m never going to find another woman like her. No one else is going to do it for me. Do I want to protect that? Fuck yes.”
Savage nodded. “I would feel the same way if it was Seychelle hanging out in the danger zone.”
Reaper, Ice and Player murmured agreements, as did Master.
Maestro shook his head and then ran both hands through the sides of his hair. He had to do the right thing even though it went against everything his mind screamed at him to do. “But it wouldn’t be what Azelie would want. She would put those women first every time. She’d be pissed beyond hell if she found out we’d sacrificed other women to get her out. She would tell me she’s worked there a long time and knows how to handle Billows and she could work there for several years more if that’s what it took. She may be soft inside like Alena, but just like Alena, she’s got a core of absolute steel.”
Azelie looked small and fragile to him and to the others. But he knew her now. “She would never agree to be put somewhere safe if that meant jeopardizing other women’s freedom. And she wouldn’t forgive me for taking that decision out of her hands.” He knew that to be true, and it was the most difficult thing for a man like him to tell his brethren and sisters.
For years he had advocated that women obey their men when it came to matters of safety. He’d said it shouldn’t matter what the woman said or did. She should be punished for not trusting her man to make the right decision. She should always follow his lead. He’d not only advocated for that shit, but he’d also believed it. To some extent, he still believed it. He needed his woman to allow him to lead. He needed control. But after watching Azelie with others and seeing the way she was with him, he also knew their relationship had to be about trust.
Like Maestro, Azelie had known betrayal—the ultimatebetrayal by a family member. Someone she loved. She’d lost everything she valued. To be her partner, he had to always give her reason to trust him. That meant he had to know her. Read her smallest cues. It was important to provide what she needed for her happiness if he was going to keep her.
Maestro was a man who looked at himself closely. Kept himself in check. Knew what he had to work on about himself and what he needed in his life to keep those around him safe. He was dangerous, and when he was dangerous, that meant lethal. Azelie made him even more lethal. He had never expected a miracle. A gift such as she was. Every instinct in him was to wrap her up in Bubble Wrap, keep her in a safe room, never let her leave his side, but that wasn’t going to make her happy.
He struggled to find a balance between his intense personality and needs and her gentle independence. She wanted to stand on her own two feet, when he wanted her to depend on him. Needs versus wants. He absolutely knew Azelie would never forgive him if she thought other women suffered because he took her out of play.
