Page 23 of Quiet Confessions: Part Two

“Well, it’s officially storming, so I’d love it if you’d share with the class,” I tell her, pulling out my phone to text Kian that we found something out. He tells me that he’s coming to meet us, and I check my morals at the door. I don’t care what I need to do.

Patience has to come home safely.

“Kian is on his way to help,” I grunt at them. “Will you let your bouncer know so he isn’t turned away, please?”

“The judgey stepbrother?” Shina scoffs. “He’s been trying to get her to quit working at my club for ages.”

I smirk despite the circumstances. Kian apparently has a reputation that precedes him.

“Yeah, he’s working on that,” I tell her. “Falling in love with your stepsister does that.”

Shina nods, but doesn’t say anything else. “Mr. Gray said that there are 300 lots being sold for this auction, so finding a place that will be able to hold that many people will be easier for us.”

I remember the package that Pay’s grandfather gave Ki, and remember that there were warehouse addresses inside of it. Pulling out my phone again, I open it to the pages I scanned.

“Maybe some of these addresses will match what they’ll need in size? Kian was given these as a lead on where Patience might be,” I tell her.

“Helpful,” Shina grunts as if surprised I’m not just ornamental. I hold in my grumble as she pulls out her laptop and information. By the time Kian comes in twenty minutes later, we’re deep into researching.

Hold on, baby. We’re coming.

Chapter Nine

Nate and Cal found a lead, and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve hit so many different walls the last few weeks. I don’t care that I couldn’t find the lead that is going to pan out for us, I just want to find Pay.

Even Cal looks to be in better spirits, because the man with Pay sounds like it could be Rooke. It’s nice to have solid plans, but it leads me to more questions.

“Guys, do you think that we should tell Richard?” I ask, looking up an address in relation to square footage on the property record websites.

It’s been incredibly helpful, and something people rarely think about. I am quickly figuring out which warehouses are too small and which ones may be able to hold the amount of people that we’re talking about for this auction. Then, I can look up floor plans that have been submitted to the city where the warehouse was built. Even if there were changes later to the interior structure, it may help us minimize our choices.

“No,” Cal mutters as he works. “I don’t completely believe that he’s on our side. If he thinks we’re getting closer to finding her, I’m worried that he’ll pull something.”

Shina had to go back into the club to help work the bar. It has been a madhouse out there. I also don’t think that woman likes me very much, and I wonder how much Patience has told her about her life.

I wish I had been more understanding about why Patience worked here, but I was an asshole instead. I didn’t want her to get caught, and her working at a BDSM club made me worry about her all of the time.

“Then Richard can go fuck himself,” I mutter.

I can’t live on broken dreams and wishes, so I keep looking for warehouses that will fit the auction’s needs. It makes my skin crawl knowing that Pay is being forced to perform for those assholes.

“Did that guy who saw her say anything else?” I ask. Cal and Nate told me about how this Mr. Gray called Shina to tell her that he had seen Patience. I’m glad that Pay left such an impression that he remembered her.

Patience is a force to be reckoned with, and kind of unforgettable. I’m locking her in my room for a week to show her how much she means to me after this.

“No,” Nate says, holding up his phone as he double checks if the warehouses that I found would be large enough against the list that Richard gave us. “I think he’s genuinely sorry that he couldn’t help more. He mentioned that they may have been drugged, though, so that they would perform better.”

“They?” I ask. “I thought he only saw Patience. Start from the beginning, Nate.”

“Huh?” he asks. He’s concentrating so hard that he can’t focus on anything else. I understand, but I think I need the twin that’s not hyper-fixating at the moment.

“I got it, bro,” Cal tells him. “Nate’s not entirely here right now. I’m barely better, but here are the cliff notes: Mr. Gray looked really uncomfortable when he came in because he was at the sex club for his job. He buys people at these auctions, and he was invited to this preview before the auction takes place to see this couple. Mr. Gray recognized Pay in the glass cage that she was in, which is what led him to call Shina.”

“Okay…”

“The company that runs the auctions, and possibly the sex club, is called X-treme Experiences and they specialize in fulfilling your every dream or depraved fantasy. When I asked what the man that Patience was with looked like, we realized that it was Rooke,” Cal says.

“Oh, thank fuck she’s with Rooke,” I mutter. “Not like that, but—”

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