“What’s so bad about this?” he asked, then pressed his mouth shut.
“Maya has been investigating a family here in New York, old money, oil people. According to this somewhat redacted information sheet, she’s uncovered evidence of dumping wastewater and it impacting small rural communities,” I said, watching him nod his head a little. “The family has also been—allegedly posting fake job advertisements abroad with the promise of high wages, then one they’re here, taking all their documents, and forcing them into work for a debt they never knew they had.”
“Trafficking,” he said with a gulp.
I didn’t want to say the word itself. I was protecting him from it.
***
At The Mark Hotel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Maya Chen was secured in a lavish penthouse sanctuary. It was ourfirst meeting with her. We wore custom suits with a nice, stretch type of fabric for ultimate run ability. Artemis looked fucking handsome, his hair all back except for a single strand which I swore he pushed forward, but with every drag of his hand through his hair, the little strand flopped forward. He had two guns on him, one on the concealed belt and another under his arm. I still hated him having those things—it was sometimes hard to remove him from the memory in my mind.
Two security guards were positioned outside the penthouse suite door.
She was waiting for us inside. I’d looked at the pictures Jinksy had sent through, and the floorplans. It was nicer than any of the fancy hotels I’d ever stayed at with Art before. I wondered if he thought about it too.
“Ah, oh my god,” Maya was short but raced towards us in her high heels and a mini skirt and cream blouse. “You guys look amazing. Are you ex-FBI? Oh, maybe ex-CIA?” she asked, her eyes twitching like she was watching our faces for any motion. “Well, anyway, please come in, take a seat, I want you both comfy. Especially since we’re going to get to know each other well.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Chen,” I said.
“Ms. Chen,” she said with a chuckle. “Let me show you around. This is just the foyer.”
The foyer was the size of a large apartment at Sanctum. Artemis’s mouth hadn’t properly closed from gawking since we walked inside. Everything had a marble veneer to it, like we were in some Greek baths. There were floor-to-ceiling windows with panoramic Central Park views.
She showed us around, the master suite with it’s king bed and even an attached dressing room larger than most apartments. There was an ensuite we skipped over, but I could definitely spot a large hot tub in there.
“I’ve seen that you’ve got a daily butler, around the clock security at your door, and the two of us, you’ve also got access to an armored vehicle in the garage,” I said as we walked back through the foyer. “We’ll always be with you, so there’s no sending us away. You understand that. Right?”
She laughed. “Of course, why else do you think we hired you?” she asked. “I need all the protection I can get.” We walked to the window and looked out. “Before you ask, the windows are bulletproof.”
“No need for us to ask,” I said. “We’ve already got eyes in the sky.”
“Yes you do,” Jinksy came through the comms.
“Of course you do,” she said, walked off to the other side of the suite, her heels like an echo, we could’ve followed her even if we were blindfolded. “I assume you’ll be working in shifts, so spare bedroom is yours,” she said. “It’s not much, but it’s where my files are, the safest place for it.”
The files in question were no fewer than fifty boxes, stacked around the room, and going off inside the dressing room. Artemis walked to the window, I knew he was looking out at the park, and not scanning for potential threats, but I had to give that to him. This place was incredible.
“Do you have any questions for me?” she asked, clapping her hands together. “And not about my benefactor, they like to remain anonymous.”
“The trafficking,” Artemis asked. “What do you plan to do with this?”
“Well, I’m working with law enforcement,” she said. “We’re building a case, but the real goal is to get Margaret Ashford.”
“The matriarch,” I said. “It’s going to be a difficult task. I’m sure she’s got plenty of people around her to take the fall. Doesn’t she?”
“I’m sure she does,” she said. “But I’m not going to let that happen. I don’t care if she is a billionaire, or that she’s in her sixties. People shouldn’t be able to get away with this and use their money or age to get out of it.”
Artemis’s face seemed to ease. They were kindred, it seemed. Except, Artemis was already mine, and not interested in women. “We are here to make sure you get to do that,” he said. “And they’re poisoning the water for rural communities.”
“Oh my gosh,” she said, tippy tapping on the floor with her heels all excited. “How about we go back through there, sit on a chaise and I’ll tell you all about it. I can trust you, right?” Her face became serious before she waved a hand playfully. “I know I can.”
“It’s all in the service,” I said.
We sat on the sofas as Maya and Artemis talked at length about the research. I found it interesting, of course, but this was a first for me. Protective detail meant seen and not heard, and I was sure the security outside the room were wondering why we were being so talkative.
“Do you trust the security outside?” I finally asked.
I pulled them right from their conversation—clearly startling her. “I mean, the owner of this hotel is a—a friend of my benefactor,theytrust them, so I don’t see why not.”
