Page 22 of Quiet Confessions: Part Two

“Are you Shina?” I ask as I lean across the bar.

A snarl appears on her lips until she sees Cal and I. “Yeah. Sorry, it’s insane tonight and we’re short staffed. Yo, Ruby, come take over,” she yells at a girl who walks quickly over. “Come with me. It’s too damn loud out here.”

Following her to the office, my palms start to sweat. We may actually be getting a break, and I’m almost dizzy with anticipation.

“Close the door.” She sighs as she sits on the edge of her desk with her arms braced behind her. “I got a call from one of Patience’s old clients the other day. He was a little panicked, but he said that he saw her somewhere that girl has no business being. What do you have my girl mixed up in?”

“Nothing,” I sputter. “She disappeared and we’ve been desperately trying to find her. I know she wouldn’t leave us on her own.”

“I suppose not.” Shina sighs. “I really want to beat the shit out of someone. Patience is a good kid and she deserves the world.”

The phone next to her rings, and she picks it up. “Hey, Mr. Gray. I’m in my office now with the men you asked me to call. I think they’ll be very interested in what you saw.”

Looking over at us, Shina hangs up. “Mr. Gray is a very important client of ours. You will listen to what he has to say, but you will not interrogate him. Is that clear? I don’t want him to feel unsafe for what he saw. He didn’t need to call me, but to be honest, Patience has always had a really special connection to him.”

I know her clients are important to Pay, and even with her missing I would never want to fuck that up for her.

“I agree,” I tell her with a nod. Cal has been a lot more calm after he beat the shit out of his opponent, so I’m not too worried about him right now. The next time that he gets wound up, I’ll set him for his next fight.

It’s a fucked up form of therapy, but it works.

A knock makes me turn, and Shina rasps out a yell for him to come in. He’s older, with salt and pepper hair, but he has kind gray eyes and looks like a normal business man in his suit. His eyes clue me in that this probably isn’t his real name, and that he’s protecting his identity.

As he closes the door and leans against it, I realize why.

“Hello,” he murmurs. “I know Lucky because she’s my go-to girl when I come here. She’s tough as nails, but has a soft side. This isn’t the only club I have where I have a membership, however, part of that reason is because I’m in the business of acquisitions.”

“Human acquisitions,” Shina says distastefully. Her tone is still respectful, but Mr. Gray flinches.

“Yes. I buy men and women for my employers. You can judge me all you want, but the other part of my job is saving children. I find all of the auctions as they happen, and then save them so I can help them be reunited with their families or disappear entirely. There are parents out there who will sell their own children,” he explains.

Cal’s eyes go wide, but not because he’s surprised by this. My stomach lurches, having a feeling this is going in a direction that will make me lose the small amount of food I managed to consume earlier.

“The sex club that I was at was offering a live preview of the people that were going to be auctioned off. On a raised platform there was a couple fucking in a glass cage. The man was really rough, and the girl looked into it. But now… I’m wondering if they were both fucked up on some kind of drug. It’s not unusual for the sex clubs that house auctions to drug their people so they’ll perform better. I was shocked when I realized that the girl was Lucky with another man—”

“What did the man look like?” Cal whispers. Oh fuck, could that be Rooke?

Mr. Gray frowns as he thinks. “I believe the man had dirty blond hair, and he was a big guy. I remember thinking that he could have been a football player in another life. The people in the crowd were making comments about how big his cock was and how much fun he’d be to break,” he says, rubbing his neck uncomfortably.

“Rooke…” Cal rasps with so much emotion it makes me blink my eyes quickly. I’ve been trying to protect myself from my twin’s pain, not because I don’t care, but because I have to be able to function. The weight of his pain is soul crushing.

“Shit,” I mutter. “Where are they? We need to get them the fuck out of there.”

Mr. Gray’s eyes are filled with sadness as he thinks about his next words. “As I said, Lucky and the man she was with were involved in a preview to increase interest for the auction that will be taking place in a week’s time. The two of them received so much attention that a fight broke out.”

“What does that mean? Are they being auctioned off in a week?” Cal asks urgently. I feel like I’m in an alternate universe still, and close my eyes for a moment to ground myself. I need to keep it together for Pay. We need to find her and Rooke.

“Your girl's going to be in the auction with X-treme Experiences. They’re a company that promises to fulfill your every fantasy, no matter how depraved. I'm not some sadistic man; I try to save the little ones and rehome them with loving parents. As I said, that’s why I troll these places. I've been doing it for a few years now. Wish I could do more to help, but my hands are tied. Lucky is being auctioned off in a week and there’s interest in selling them together."

Fuck. Cal moves closer to the man, and I worry that he’s going to punch him. I even open my mouth to warn him back. Instead, my twin manages to surprise me.

“Thank you for the information. We’d still be chasing our tails without this. I really appreciate this,” Cal says, shaking Mr. Gray’s hand.

“Your girl is special,” he says. I can tell he has a special bond to Patience, and he’s broken up that he can’t do more. “I hope you find her.”

He leaves quickly after that and I bite my lip. We need to work out a plan soon.

“I can’t do much, but I have some ideas on warehouses that may be used for an auction,” Shina says. “We get a lot of shady people who come in and out of this place, and I’ve managed to get some interesting confessions out of them. I’ve been holding onto all of that for a rainy day.”

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