Page 77 of Baby Duke

"I went there myself, to the alley. There is nothing down there except for a few dumpsters and some empty parking spaces. I checked the dumpsters, just in case. Fuck, that was the worst feeling, man. Not knowing if I was going to find their bodies tossed in the trash."

I want to hurl. Images of the bloodied and pale bodies of my sister and Roe flashed through my mind, vacant eyes staring sightlessly at the sky.

"There weren't there, West," Trent says, his hand raised as if to place it on my shoulder in comfort before he shakes his head and lets it drop. "Before I went to check the alley, before I had to confirm that they weren't… dead… I had watched more of the footage. Five minutes after they go down the alley, a van comes out. Fully blacked-out, tinted windows, creepy as fuck pedophile van."

"Where did it go?" Brett asks.

Trent looks back at me.

"Here. The van came here."

Chapter Twenty-Five

West

My knees weaken, and I quickly place my hands on them to support myself.

Here.

Somehow, I know they were not taken to the hotel part ofhere. They were taken to The Den. My father is behind this. I am sure of it. I don't know what he has planned, but whatever it is, he is doing it to teach me a lesson.

We needed to get in there. Now.

"Let's go," I demand, leading the others back to Brute. "Open the door, Brute."

Brute nods, "As you command, Master M- Baby Duke." He corrects himself quickly, but he knows who I really am, knows thepowerI hold over him. My attitude has suddenly changed, and the smart fucker knows not to cross me. He will bend to my wishes because I am the son of his boss, set to inherit his fortunes; thishotel, this foreboding fuckingDen.

Without further ado, he opens the double doors.

The music that had been muted before suddenly thumps loud in my ears, my blood thrumming with the frantic energy. We step through, Brett, Law, Trent, and I. Brute remains on the other side as he pulls it closed behind us.

We stand in a huddle by the door, taking in the room. My already curdled stomach sours more and more as my eyes adjust to the dimmer lighting, and I process what I am seeing.

The Den is a sex club. No, sex club doesn't even come close to defining the debauchery we are witnessing.

The room is occupied mostly by naked and semi-naked men, a mask upon each of their faces; the majority sporting beer bellies, greying chest hairs, and flat, sagging ass cheeks, their little mushroom cocks sprouting as proudly as cocks of that size can. Some are seated with a naked and maskless man or woman bobbing between their legs as they watch others rutting like old boars into other maskless people. They fuck on beds, against walls, across tabletops, and more.

A large variety of sex toys, ranging from nipple clamps and vibrators to whips and floggers, line a portion of the wall to our left.

A stage stands front and center, young men and women, the girls vastly outnumbering the boys, stand naked in aline with chains around their throats bearing numbers. As I watch, a man gestures to one of them, and one of the staff, depictable by his full-faced mask, unleashes the girl and shoves her toward the man. He leads her towards a hallway of closed-off, sheer red curtains, obviously small rooms for those who are modest and prefer privacy over voyeurism.

But what sickens me most is the expressions worn by the unmasked girls and boys, because that's what they are. Teenagers, some barely past childhood; scared, sad, vacant, and lifeless.

"Are you seeing this?" Trent asks numbly, turning in a wide circle.

"I think I’m going to be sick," Law says, his hand hovering over his mouth as he continues to look around the room.

"My father is a sex trafficker," I say, acid burning in my chest.

Half in a state of disbelief, because this is the man that made and raised me, half in bitter understanding because there is no doubt in my mind that he is capable of this. I bet he revels over it, laughs as he forces some innocent girl to choke on his cock.

The group who had entered behind us was making their way to the stage. The woman quickly calls out 2 numbers,and a boy and girl younger than us are handed over to her. She promptly leads them to a couch, where she slumps, spreading her legs to reveal her lack of underwear. The girl drops to her knees, and the older woman pulls her head in close until she is grinding against the poor girl's face. The boy is pulled to stand on the couch where his flaccid cock is sucked into the woman's throat, the powerfully erotic maneuver nothing but curdled milk in my stomach as the guy cringes, squeezing his eyes closed.

My father's voice suddenly calls from behind us.

"Ah, my son! Welcome to your inheritance!"

I spin on my heel and spy the man as he struts, arms wide, a grin splitting his face in two, completely maskless. The sickness in my stomach dims as red-hot rage races through my veins. My mind blanks out as I storm towards him. His grin never falters as I bump my chest against his, our noses inches from kissing.

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