“Wait, so those girls in the photographs were sold?” Iasked, pushing the door open until everyone’s attention was on me.
“Hello, Violet,”Aeris greeted, her voice crackling slightly through the line.“I haven’t found any direct records of sale. Which is unsurprising, given the nature of the business.”
“But they were moving these girls?” I asked.
“From what I can tell… it’s not just one operation.”Her tone darkened.“Young girls and boys go missing and then reappear at certain parties under new identities. Different names but the same faces.”
“How far have you been able to source this?” Roman asked.
“Through six different countries across Europe so far.”
“Blyat,”he muttered, glancing at Maxim with a grimace.
Ryder moved across the room to stand beside me, his nearness grounding me even as the air seemed to thin.
“Do you know who’s behind it?” I demanded.
It wasn’t until Ryder’s hands closed around mine that I realised they were shaking. I looked up at him, meeting that steady gaze of his, and it made something inside me burn hotter.
I wasn’t scared. I was furious.
Furious that it was sex trafficking.
Furious that he’d started this conversation without me, like I was something fragile that needed protecting instead of someone directly involved.
“It’s not that simple,”Aeris said.“But I’ve been asking around, specifically about the flowers, and I did find one name.”
“The Caretaker.”
The name froze the air, and I turned to find mum standing in the doorway, her frame swallowed by a blacksilk robe that made her look like death incarnate. Her hair was loose, her eyes distant, almost haunted.
“I remember now,” she whispered. “He called himself the Caretaker.”
“In all honesty, finding anything concrete on him has been difficult.But what I can gather is that he has a reputation and is a more… prominent figure in the extreme side of the sex industry. A world I’m not familiar with, nor do I want to be.”She sounded disgusted even just saying it.“There are rumours that if any of his products misbehave or run, then he’ll personally see to it that they’re… disciplined. Including termination.”
“How do we stop him?” Ryder asked, running a frustrated hand through his hair.
“I don’t want you to just stop him. I want you to destroy him,” mum snarled, her movements rigid as she stepped further into the room. “I want him dead.”
Aeris, still on the line, agreed.“I’m with you, but we have to be careful. There’s been whispers of an event at the end of this week. One of the parties I mentioned earlier.”
“Are you able to get us in?” I asked, feeling Ryder’s gaze sharpen against my cheek.
A pause, as if she was thinking.“Yes,”she said after a moment.“But it’ll be dangerous, and you won’t have friends there.”
Ryder cocked his head. “What do you expect us to find at this party?”
“I don’t know. But it may be your best chance to find people willing to talk about the Caretaker, including where to find him. I believe he never attends himself, but it’s a way into that world. But you will have to be careful. One wrong move and he may disappear, or retaliate.”
“We should go, gather intel,” I said, glancing at Ryder,half-expecting him to argue with me. “Otherwise, this will never end.”
Instead, he held my gaze with his brows pinched, as if trying to figure me out. After a moment, he gave the tiniest of nods. “Okay, get us in,” he said. “Send me the invoice.”
“Done,”Aeris said as she cut the call.
“No,” mum snapped, shaking her head so hard her hair whipped around her face. “You’re not going. It’s too dangerous.”
“What? You just said?—”
