Page 38 of Vice

16

Viper

“What are you doing?”

Dele turns to look at me from where she’s taken one of my shirts and belts and is making a makeshift outfit.

“Getting dressed,” she says slowly.

“You know that’s not what I mean. What are you doinghere?”

The question has been burning on my tongue since she walked into the room downstairs in that stupid maid’s outfit. Even more since I learned she was willing to let me fuck her in front the man who tormented her so many years ago. Whatever it was must be important and something that she won’t have another chance to get after this weekend.

Dele shrugs and says, “You know. Saw you’d be on the guest list and decided to come be a tease.”

I know that’s not the answer, though I’m not sure I would put it past her not to have done so. But that wouldn’t explain her willingness to subject herself to be humiliated downstairs.

“And why were you looking at the guest list in the first place?”

She sighs and then sits on the edge of the bed.

“Because I needed to know when Harp was going to decide to show up here. And he only does so with the most elite and exclusive clientele. Or at least, the most elite and exclusive clientele he’s had a hardon to have at his lovely establishment. The infamously reclusive and anti-social Adrian Blake was one of those people.”

“And what do you need Harp for?”

“Delilah’s been mapping out the logistics of Pray’s sex and labor trafficking empire so that when the time comes, we can bring it down to its knees. During her mapping, one of agents saw that Harp was the point man to sign off on two different shipments. One of the… normal sex and labor trafficking variety and the other was a shipment of young children. Harp signed off on them going to two different locations.”

“And you want the location the children were going to?” I ask.

She doesn’t answer. But I don’t need her to. I know Dele well enough to know that when I stopped her from saving those caged children that she wouldn’t give up so easily. That she would put her sister, who has a mind for logistics and communications on the case. I’m not even angry at her for doing it. I would have done the same thing.

What I am angry about is that she didn’t think to ask me about it first before she decided to come get the information herself.

“You couldn’t have passed it along to me and let me pass it to Wyan?” I ask.

“I could have.”

“And you didn’t because?”

She finally looks me dead in the face before saying, “Because I wasn’t sure that you’d do anything with it. Or did you not say that keeping those children locked away better served your plans.”

“Better servedthemto find out where Pray was taking them and why.”

“Same thing.”

“Dele.”

“Sorry, I’m just never going to agree with keeping children in cages for any reason.”

I don’t have time to argue with her about this. It would be pointless and unproductive because neither of us are going to budge in our stances. Right now, the situation at hand.

“Well, I’m not sure how you planned to pull that off without me figuring it out,” I say. “But since we’re here, we might as well get that information together.”

“But what about you?”

“What about me?” I ask.

She gives me a pointed look. “You’re obviously not here just to indulge in some kind of kinky sexual fantasy with a paid for play thing.”

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