Cristianstaredatthecomputer files they had recovered from Dmitri’s house. The sick motherfucker had kept files on every girl he sold. Each file had the young woman’s name, location she was taken, age, hair color, eye color, weight, and sexual orientation/status. So far, he had only located one girl. They had found her in Bolivia, sold to a dignitary in the country. But Cristian was feeling restless. He felt like they weren’t doing enough.
They were the most influential family in Chile, and they couldn’t find any additional information. It was infuriating.
Cristian scrolled through the pictures, taking in each woman’s face. They all had a similar look to them, dark hair, dark eyes, and twenty to twenty-five years in age. Cristian lifted the journal they took from Dmitri’s desk. Reading it made his gut churn with disgust. The information in it was all the same. Each female was listed in the journal as a number. They were cross-referenced in the computer with the same number. There were never nameslisted, but each number was associated with a buyer file. The notebook had stats for each girl. Based on the notes on each page, Dmitri got paid more for an untouched female.
Cristian thumbed through the paper, stopping on a random page. He read the stats on the woman.
#127
25-year-old female
5’7, 125lbs, Brown Hair, Blue Eyes.
Sexual Status—virgin.
Cristian continued to read about the woman who he assumed was the one hundred and twenty-seventh victim. He was curious why she was taken. She was the only woman in the entire dossier that had light-colored eyes. Making a few keystrokes on his keyboard, Cristian located her digital file.
Bastian stepped into the office. “Cris, are you still working on that shit?” They worked from Matias’ house unless they needed to go to the warehouse for something.
“Yeah.” He clicked on the folder and froze. The woman staring back at him was gorgeous. Her dark hair framed her face, highlighting the most stunning ice-blue eyes. She had been crying when the picture was taken, causing Cristian to feel protective.
“Woah. Is that one of the girls he’s got?”
“Yes,” Cristian mumbled as he stared at the photo.
“Does it say who she was sold to?”
“I don’t know.” Cristian minimized her photo and opened the log with sales. “It says she was bought by someone called Darby.”
“Darby? Doesn’t ring a bell to me. Is there any other information?”
“No.” Cristian clicked back to her picture and stared. He didn’t realize that he had reached up and ran his finger across the image.
“You alright, Brother?” Bastian cocked his head in question.
“What?” He dropped his hand and looked up at Bastian. “Yeah. There’s just something different about this one. I don’t know. It’s weird.”
“Uh oh.” Bastian sighed. “Don’t get attached to a photo, Cristian. You know we may never find her. We can’t save them all.”
“I know.” He leaned back in his desk chair. “How’s the vineyard?”
“Pffft.” Bastian blew out a big breath of air. “A mess. The workers are relieved he’s gone, but the financials are in disarray.”
“Hire someone to help with the books.”
“Yeah. I was going to ask Matias, but I couldn’t find him.”
“Um… yeah… he and Katya are upstairs.” Cristian raised his eyebrows. “Let’s not bother them. Just do it. You know Matias won’t care.”
“Okay. I’ll go make some phone calls. Don’t stay in here too long. You need to take a break from that shit, or it will make you go crazy.”
“Yeah, yeah. Get out of here.” He tossed a pen at his brother as he left the room.
Cristian turned back to his screen, drawn to the woman staring back at him.
“Where are you?” he whispered into the room. His stomach was filled with concern, but beneath that there was something more. Something that scared him more than death itself. He knew he couldn’t save them all… but this woman was different. He knew just by looking at his computer that he was going to find this woman.
Even if it was the last thing he did.
