Page 32 of Broken Innocence
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
EDEN
The bare back of a woman appears on the screen, and my eyes feel heavier as I watch the rhythmic motions of a massage therapist working on their patient.
Soft candlelight flickers across them to create a cocoon of serenity. The dim lighting isn’t as harsh on my eyes as some of the bright fluorescents other creators use in their videos, and it all works together to make me sleepier.
Luca likes to tease me about these ASMR videos, especially since I don’t even have the volume turned up to listen, but it’s not the sound that soothes. It’s the repetitive movements.
“Watching on mute again?” Luca murmurs from behind me. His arm is a muscled bracket around my stomach as he nuzzles into the crook between my neck and shoulder. I’m still getting used to sleeping with someone else in my bed, but it’s not an unpleasant sensation. My husband is warm and snuggles around me like a weighted blanket.
Pressing a finger to the button on the side of my phone, sound plays on the next video. “Happy now?” Typical spa music fills the air—chimes mixed with low bass notes—as a young womanwearing a cropped tank rubs another woman’s shoulders. Her arms rest on the massage chair, and a glimmer of green on her wrist catches my eye.
Luca feels me stiffen and asks, “What’s wrong?”
“I… I don’t know.” A hazy memory wisps to life in elusive threads I try to follow back in time. My kidnapping. The smell of eucalyptus. Someone wearing a jade bracelet with a Q charm.
Just like the girl in this video.
I sit up with a gasp and throw my phone on the comforter as if it burned me.
“That bracelet. I recognize it, or something similar.” Suddenly, the discomfiting feelings I’ve had watching previous videos form a jagged puzzle. Like my subconscious has been warning me of something all this time. “It triggered a memory from my kidnapping. There was another victim in the van with me, and she wore the exact same bracelet that woman is wearing. I’m not the only woman Fabian’s ever held hostage. I think… This is going to sound crazy, but I think he might be forcing women to make videos.”
“For ASMR?” Doubt tinges the edges of Luca’s tone.
“I’m not sure. I just… Never mind.” I force myself to lay back down and face the wall. I sound ridiculous. First, I forgot about that poor girl in the van with me, and now I think I’m seeing her in a random internet video. Assuming she’s in trouble because the entire spa setup gives me bad vibes.
Clearly, I need to lay off the true crime docs if my paranoia leads me to imagining sketchy things from a thirty-second massage clip.
“No, don’t shut me out.” Luca uses his hand on my belly to roll me over. His concerned face hovers over mine in the pale moonlight. “It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Fabian is involved in trafficking or a prostitution ring. Criminals use innocuous things all the time as cover for their illegal dealings.We just have to figure out how, or if, these videos fit into things. I’ll have one of the guys check it out.”
My brows wing into my hairline. “Really? It’s a longshot that any of this means something. It’s probably a coincidence that this woman has the same bracelet. And just because I got a bad feeling doesn’t mean—”
A rough-tipped finger lands on my lips. “Stop. Stop doubting yourself. We’ll check it out. Even if the only thing to come of it will be your peace of mind.”
“Thank you,” I whisper, confused and flattered by his vote of confidence.
Luca drops a kiss to my temple then returns to his previous position of cuddling close to my side. “You don’t need to thank me. I trust your instincts, and there’s not much I won’t do to ensure your happiness and safety. Looking into a couple of ASMR videos is nothing.”
It’s not nothing to me.
If I brought such a flimsy concern to my family, they’d brush it off as a silly bout of paranoia. My parents love me, but they also consider me sheltered and naive, which to be fair, isn’t far off, since they’re the ones who kept me close to home. They don’t see me as a competent adult. I’ll always be their quiet little girl.
But Luca sees me.
Hetrustsme.
It’s a frightening and exhilarating realization.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
JONAH ANDERSON
“Are you ready for this?” I ask Hugo. He agreed to accompany me on this recon trip to the warehouse Rafe found deep in Fabian’s books. The building sits on the edge of the city, buried between a dozen other structures and shipping containers. Salt and oil mix in the air as the clanking of metal-on-metal echoes from the moored ships further down the waterline.
Hugo gives a small nod, never one to waste a breath on sentences if it can be helped, and we creep forward.
Fabian’s security is shit—two men relaxing in front of the metal entrance. Surely, if Luca’s half-brother kept anything of importance here, like trafficked women, he’d invest in better protection, right?
