Page 10 of Freeing Camila

“Pretty little thing,” Eggs, the lecher stated, and Jeeves had never wanted to punch out a fellow teammate more.

“Fuck, she must have been fodder to those men,” Voodoo stated, which made his stomach churn with bile. The thought of that innocent woman, with her trusting eyes and gentle smile, being violated was unthinkable.

“She doesn’t remember much of what happened to her after she’d been abducted. They’d beaten her. The severity was obvious after an extensive medical examination. But no sign of sexual abuse. Doesn’t mean she wasn’t abused in other ways.”

There were countless ways those fuckers could have messed her up. Yet, it was quite surprising that the woman, a virtual stranger Jeeves had encountered mere hours before, showed no signs of any undesirable effects. Only once did he see a hint of darker shadows in her eyes.

“What do we know about her father?” Flint asked, and another picture popped up on the screen. The man in the image looked like any normal American male, but Jeeves knew better than anyone that looks could be deceiving. Salt and pepper hair that was more salt than pepper. Straight nose, high brows, and eyes the same deep brown as his daughter. Jeeves hated that for her, the fact that she carried that similarity to her father with her.

“Wait . . . isn’t that Gio Piras?” Hoot asked.

“Who?”

“The guy that’s always at the top of the Forbes lists?”

“The billionaire?”

More information scrolled across the screen as Haley did a search. The man was a high roller in the tech industry. His company produced the majority of microchips for everything from cars to personal computers. He held numerous high-tech security contracts and gave to charity religiously.

“He’s practically royalty in the tech world,” Hoot proclaimed, and the begrudging respect Jeeves heard in his friend’s tone made him sick.

“There’s no mention of a daughter,” Haley said, her eyes never leaving her screen as her fingers flew across the keyboard.

“That’s because he never acknowledged her as his daughter,” Baker said. “Apparently, she’s the daughter of one of his many mistresses. She wouldn’t share much, but I got the impression her life with him hadn’t been easy.”

“Obviously, since hesoldher,” Voodoo spat.

“Shit. There’s a ton here to weed through. Daddy’s been a bad boy,” Haley muttered. “It’s going to take me a while to compile all his dirty deeds.”

“Do what you can,” Baker ordered. “I’ll keep working on the El Sombra situation.”

“Sure thing, Boss,” Haley replied, distracted, her mind already ten steps ahead as information flew across her screen. Flint made a sound and Haley apologized for her faux pas. Despite Baker’s incomparable reputation, he wasn’t her boss. “Sorry, boss man,” she said to Flint. “Won’t happen again.”

“I bet it will,” Sparks muttered, and Jeeves had to agree. The woman got distracted easily, losing herself in whatever information she could find with her computer.

“I’ll be in touch,” Baker said. “Keep her safe. As far as I know, Piras doesn’t know she’d where she is or what name she’s using. But with his tech connections, that could change.”

“We’ll keep you posted,” Flint assured before the screen went dark.

The room was silent for a hot minute as the team absorbed all that they had learned. The woman in the tree was a billionaire’s daughter. And if the preliminary information Haley was pulling up was accurate, the man was head to toe dirty. The depth of his depravity was shocking; and the world was completely unaware of his involvement in such a terrible crime—the selling of his own daughter into the world of human trafficking.

He couldn’t quite wrap his brain around that tidbit of information. She’d seemed so innocent. So young and . . . cheery. That was the best word to describe her personality. Cheery.

He never would have guessed that the sweet, innocent girl he’d met only hours ago had been raised by a man whose hands were stained with such filth. Jeeves thought about the enigmatic woman; her smile, a subtle grace, spoke of a serenity that felt worlds away from his own. How could she maintain that innocence if she’d been raised in the Piras household? Did she not know what her father was capable of before he’d sold her? She must be in her late twenties. How could she have reached that age and lived among them and not know?

A fierce wave of protectiveness washed over Jeeves.Fuck.Given his history, the profound emotional pressure he felt constricting his chest was simply more than he could cope with at that moment. A paralyzing fear, cold and heavy, gripped his chest, making it hard to breathe.

“Jeeves,” Flint called out to him pulling him back from his spiraling thoughts. He glanced around, the weight of the guy’s stares heavy on him, and realized he’d missed a chunk of the conversation.

“Sorry, what?”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost, man,” Voodoo said.

Everyone was staring at him, waiting for an answer. His eyes met his boss’s, and a sudden tension, a vise-like grip, tightened in his stomach.Shit.He couldn’t lie to his boss. Sharing his connection to her would bring repercussions for him, but he had no choice but to reveal that he knew her.

“I met her,” he mumbled.

“What’s that?” Eggs asked clearly having heard him if the smirk was any indication. Jeeves knew exactly where the man’s mind had gone. He was sure Eggs thought he’d had intimate knowledge of the woman.

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