“Are we back to faking your death?” Kala asked with a hint of glee. “Because I have thoughts.”
“She does,” Lou agreed. “She has a notebook and everything. It’s both inventive and disturbing.”
Her dad sighed. “No. And while I know they aren’t consulted on the clients, from what I can tell they’re housed in the same places the other less targeted trained girls are.”
“So they were kept in a brothel.” Ben’s hand came out, and he covered hers. “I would be interested in a client list. From what I’ve heard, this would be for men with money and power.”
“I am not going to fuck this up,” a quiet voice said.
Sosa stood in the doorway, Gabby behind her. “We saw the laptop and folders, and we are not foolish, Mr. Ian. We are not going to look at them and tell the people who hurt us. Was that what this was about? Did you lie when you said you would help? It’s okay if you did, but we would like to know so we can choose our own way.”
“I will not shoot you again, sir,” Gabby promised. “I don’t actually like shooting people. The only fun thing was being able to climb the tree, but then the Bratz doll pulled me out of it and now I have an ache in my backside. Oh, no, Sosa, there are two of them.”
Sosa nodded. “I tell you. One of them is goth version.”
Kala grinned. “Damn straight. Welcome, weirdoes.”
It took everything she had to not roll her eyes. She turned and tried to remember that she was the lucky one with great parents and friends and a wonderful life where she wasn’t forced to be an assassin. She’d chosen that all on her own. “Sosa, we had to test you.”
She nodded. “I understand, and I know you will continue to. I know it will be hard to be trusting, but it is hard for me, too. I wouldn’t trust at all if it weren’t for Miss Charlotte. She understand. If she cannot help, then there is no help in all the world.”
“She’s going to help,” her father said in a far more careful tone than he usually used. “The only reason she isn’t here now is she needs to get our boys ready to travel. She’ll join us. She wouldn’t miss it. She wouldn’t miss the chance to help out girls who were hurt like she was.”
It was so shitty. Why couldn’t she have her love story without a bunch of sad-sack, traumatized young adults hanging around? Kala hadn’t had to deal with mini-moms. Lou hadn’t been forced to handle sarcastic newbies. Still. She had to be who she was. Kind. Patient. Open. “I will help you as well. As soon as we finish the mission we’re on, I’ll help take down everyone who hurt you.”
“Yeah, it’ll be fun,” Kala vowed.
“Then we will help you, too.” Gabby stepped inside and smiledshyly Eve’s way. “It was good to talk to you, Miss Eve. Even if you think we are crazy.”
Eve’s head shook. “Traumatized. Not crazy. There’s nothing crazy about coping mechanisms, even when they’re extreme. Can you tell us anything about who hired you? Where does the boss find clients?”
Sosa selected a seat across from Ben and sat down, Gabby in the one next to her. “Our house is run by woman, but her boss is man. What you should understand is the house does many tasks. Some girls are used sexually, and they bring in money that way. Others work on the Dark Web. They are good at scams.”
“They get to eat the pizza.” Gabby had a sullen look on her face. “I tried to tell them I should be hacker, but they don’t believe me.”
“Because you are terrible with them.” Sosa looked to Kenzie’s father. “She cannot remember how to reset password. Also, despite the fact that she works with scammers, she is easy to scam. Sometimes they let us use the computers to study, but she clicks on everything and gets all the viruses.”
“I wanted to see the puppy videos,” Gabby argued.
“You were telling us how they select clients,” Ian encouraged.
“Yes. I watch when they don’t think I do. I can make myself small,” Sosa explained. “I’ve learned more since they trust me to be in the world. They think I am good girl. Probably because I always have been. I wait for right time. But until then I learn.”
“And she teaches,” Gabby said. “There are four of us. Milena and Claire are still there. Though Milena is often out on jobs since she’s had specialized training. We have figured some things out. We hoped to eventually have enough we could go to police, but then we realized…”
Kenzie could guess. “The police are in on it. At least some of them, and that could make things difficult. So you need a higher power. Despite his sarcasm, my father has deep ties to European intelligence.”
“And enough suspicion that I wouldn’t go straight to them until we figure out the tangle,” her father added. “Until then we’ll document and investigate and try to get your friends out. Is there any way one of them could get a client list?”
“The whole network is involved with a group.” Sosa seemed to think about how to describe them. “It is thing that seems fine on the outside. Like they seem to do good in the world. Charity. That is word.”
She felt Ben stiffen beside her. Kenzie leaned forward. “Are youtalking about a group known as Disrupt?”
Both Sosa and Gabby nodded.
Kala pulled out her tablet and turned it toward the young women. “Do you know this man?”
She had pulled up a picture of Emmanuel Huisman.
