Page 5 of Ravaged
“Where are the other two?” I asked.
“Wil is at Jimmy’s. And I imagine Axe is out hunting our next line of business.”
“Which is?”
He tilted his head. “Oliver Knox.” He handed me his phone and I glanced at the picture. Thin, scraggly hair on the top of his head. Green eyes. Slightly overweight. Sixties, maybe. I handed the device back.
“What’s his due?”
“He owes us money. A lot of it,” Derek said. He broadened his shoulder. “We can take his daughter as collateral until he pays up. From the Dahlia District.”
“The Dahlia District?”
“An entertainment club for rich men.”
Taking his daughter as payment? A ransom, then. I grit my teeth, but Mom had warned me about this. Human life as payment or leverage wasn’t something the Adlers had invented, but it was a source of power that they took advantage of frequently.
I had my rules. Taking someone as payment for a gambling debt seemed irrational. But it was part of my new life as a true Adler.
“Then let’s go,” I said.
Once Gerard was ready, the three of us headed to the Dahlia District. It was a fair distance to drive. Ivy stretched over the walls surrounding the on-ramp, and when we exited the freeway into Cresting Heights, all open spaces were covered in pine trees. Driving down a winding road, we came upon a parking lot with a few unmarked brick buildings. Orange flowers clung to an overhang. We knocked on the door to a small building off to the side.
A woman with short blond hair answered, her neck a veiny ball of twine.
“Gerard,” she said in a raspy voice, offering her hand.
“Dahlia. As gorgeous as ever,” he said.
They shook hands, while Derek and I stood behind him. “So nice of you to stop by. Please, come in.” We stepped inside. The building was completely white; white walls with white furniture, and paintings that were white with simple streaks of color. We sat at a table next to the kitchen. A box of scotch was resting on the counter, as if waiting for Gerard. Dahlia began opening the container.
“You look even more handsome each time I see you,” Dahlia said to Derek. She stared at me, tapping her chin. “And you must be…”
“Ethan,” I said. I leaned forward and gave her a firm handshake.
She gestured between Derek and me. “You two look as if you could be twins.” Neither of us said a word, and she shifted in her seat, uncomfortable in the silence. “I mean that in a good way. You both have your father’s looks. You must be a brother then?”
“Half-brother,” I said.
“Ah. Well.” She poured the drinks neat and placed the glasses in front of each of us. We clicked glasses and took a sip. “What can I do for you, gentlemen?”
“Oliver Knox’s daughter, Teagen,” Gerard said. He sat up in his chair. “He sold his daughter to you to pay a debt to us.”
“He signed Teagen into a lucrative contract to work at the entertainment club, yes,” Dahlia said. She shrugged her shoulders. “He didn’tliterallysell her.”
Derek adjusted his stance, as if he didn’t believe one word of it. Instincts told me that Dahlia was all bullshit. The Dahlia District wasn’t an entertainment club for billionaires; it was a sex trafficking ring.
“Oliver Knox owes us money,” Gerard said.
“Again?” Dahlia said.
“I’m afraid so,” Gerard said. He thumbed through his salt and pepper beard. “The man has an addiction.”
“Quite so,” Dahlia said.
“And as a holding until we get the payment, we’ve come to take his daughter.”
Dahlia’s eyes darted around, anticipating a demon jumping out from the shadows. “I can’t let you do that,” she said. “I made a promise to someone that I would never let harm come to these women ever again.”
