Page 37 of Matrix

“Thank you.” She gives him a soft smile before approaching the men. “Have you guys seen this girl before? It might have been last year.”

“Open your fucking eyes and look, motherfuckers!” Acid kicks one guy in the ribs before punching the other in the kidney. Both men scream in pain, but no one else in the barn gives a single shit about their agony.

“Her name’s Angela. She might go by Angie too.” Daisy sounds so young and vulnerable, completely unlike her FBI-agent self. She’s not an agent right now; she’s a civilian worried about her sister. All I want to do is protect her from scumbags like this, but I can’t. Daisy chose to become a member of law enforcement. She had to realize she might end up in a situation like this. Although, I doubt she thought her innocent sister would be the victim.

“Angie? Yeah,” the guy on the right mumbles.

“You saw her? Where?” Daisy asks.

“Grabbed her from a mall in Montana.”

“When?” She glances at me with so much hope and pain in her eyes that I can’t stay away. I walk up beside her and wrap an arm around her waist to offer my support.

“A year ago,” the other kidnapper says. “That little bitch fought like hell, but we got her anyway.”

“You bastard!” Daisy launches herself at him, throwing a solid right hook into the man’s jaw. When several teeth land on the dirt floor, I make a mental note not to piss her off. She’s stronger than she looks, that’s for sure.

“Damn.” Acid folds his arms over his chest and regards her as if seeing her for the first time. There’s admiration in his gaze. Too much for my liking, but I keep my mouth shut. Instead, I haul her back and tighten my arm around her again.

“Where did you take her?” Daisy asks.

“New Orleans.”

“I need details. Where did you go in the city?” When neither responds, she kicks one guy in the nuts. All the men in the room groan and turn away. “Tell me, or I’ll rip your fucking dicks off.”

“Daisy.” I release her and step between her and the men.

“Shut up! These motherfuckers know where my sister’s at. Tell me, or I’m going to fucking kill you!” She pushes past me and gets right in their faces.

“We go there all the time,” one guy finally says.

“Address,” she snaps.

He rattles off an easy to remember address.

“That’s in the Garden District,” Daisy says after consulting the map app on her phone.

“They keep the girls there until they can be moved out of the country.” The man slurs his words, but they’re still understandable.

“Shut up, Javier. Don’t give them any details,” the other man growls.

“They’re going to kill us no matter what. We’re fucked. There’s no way out of this. If they’re going to murder us, I want a quick death.” Javier lifts his head and addresses Daisy. “What else do you want to know?”

“Tell me about the house. How many rooms does it have? How many girls do they keep there at a time? How many guards do they have, and what’s their schedule?”

As the man confesses everything he knows, Acid pulls me aside, out of earshot of everyone else. “I know she’s a Fed, but she’s tough. You seem to like her a lot.”

“You see everything, don’t you?” I ask.

“Wouldn’t be president if I didn’t. What’s the plan once she finishes with these guys?”

“She wants to talk to the girls next.”

“Done.”

“If they want to go home and they live in Montana, then we’d like to take them back with us. With your permission, of course.”

“That would save my club a trip. We can make that happen.”

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