“Alright. Thanks for the pep talk.”
“If you can’t change the situation, change how you feel about it.”
I laughed again, this time harder. “Yeah…that’s not gonna happen.”My secretary spoke through the phone. “Damien, you have a drop-in who wants to see you. His name is Vox. Claims it’s important.”
The second I heard that name, I got chills.
The last time we spoke, we almost killed Heath together.
I’d promised I wouldn’t move against Heath, so I couldn’t collude with Vox again. But I didn’t want to decline the meeting either. “Send him in.”
A moment later, his large frame passed through my open doorway. Over six feet with bulky muscle, he had a crazed look in his eye, like he was always ready for a confrontation, wanted conflict to happen. There was a scar along his left eye, like someone sliced him with a thick knife and barely missed the eyeball. He came to my desk and gave me a slight grunt in greeting.
“Sit.” I nodded to the chair.
He moved into the chair, slouching with knees wide apart, sitting like a street gangster instead of a respectable criminal. That was one difference between Heath and him. Heath at least had the majesty of a king.
“How can I help you, Vox?” I was surprised he was still alive after our plan failed. He didn’t look like he’d just recovered from several broken bones either. He’d somehow survived Heath’s wrath.
“Why isn’t Heath collecting payment from you?” He cocked his head slightly, his eyes narrowed in fury.
I wouldn’t tell any of his men that he was screwing my sister. I was certain Heath would protect her identity from his men, behave like she didn’t exist at all, because that was the best way to keep her safe. “Why are you asking?”
“Because I’ve noticed he stopped collecting. Told the rest of the men. We aren’t happy about it.”
“So, you come here to threaten me?” I asked incredulously. “That’s not going to go over well.”
He smiled, dimples in both cheeks, and it was an inappropriate reaction. “No. I just want to know why.” He reached into his jeans and pulled out his phone. “Because I’m putting Heath in the ground once and for all.” He stared at the screen as he flipped through whatever he was looking at. “I’ve been following him, because I thought his ban on trafficking was suspicious. I followed him to a bar and found him with this woman.” He slid the phone toward me.
Shit. I knew who I was about to see. I grabbed the phone anyway, looked at the picture of Heath and Catalina close together, gave no reaction, and slid the phone back.
“I went back to Petrov and asked him what he knew about the whole thing. He said that Heath went down there to collect payment, noticed a woman in one of the cages, lost his temper, and demanded for her to be released. That was when everything began, when they got shot down, followed by everyone else. And you know what?” He grabbed the phone and held it up. “Petrov confirmed this is the woman from the cage.”
Now my heart dropped into my stomach like a stone. I couldn’t even breathe when I heard what he said. My lungs were stuck in place, unable to expand or contract, unable to pull any oxygen into my blood.
“And now he’s not collecting payment from you. Whether you pay him or not, I don’t give a damn. But I’m going to use that against him—and bring him down. Because he’s making a lot of terrible business decisions—and it’s time for him to resign. We’re the Skull Kings, not the Charity Queens.”
I didn’t hear a word he said. “The woman in the cage… What are you assuming?”
“I’m assuming that he completely changed our policy for one woman.”
“So…she was trafficked?” My fucking little sister had been trafficked?
“Petrov said she caused problems with one of his men in the bathroom of a bar. Pissed them off because he got taken by the cops. Broke in to her apartment and took her. Threw her in the cage. Beat the shit out of her—”
Keeping a straight face was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do.
“And when Heath saw her in there, he lost his shit. The woman asked him to save all the other women too, so he did. And then he started this anti-trafficking crusade immediately afterward.”
My eyes remained open and my jaw slack, but my hands were in tight fists under the desk. “When did this happen? With the girl?”
He shrugged. “I think beginning of summer.”
So, this was a long time ago, when Heath and Catalina hardly knew each other. She told me she’d rejected his advances after he let her go. Why would she want him after he’d put her in a cage? But he must have rescued her when he saw her in that basement…and that changed her mind.