Lei'd With Cupcakes (Cupcakes 3)
Jun shook his head. “It’s not good, brother.”
“Not a common name around the island, and as far as I’ve heard, there’s only one Yusuf who’s tied to the docks in any way, and he’s a bad hombre,” Chris added.
Ripper looked around, and when he was sure no one was close enough to hear, he said, “Dude’s connected, and he’s the point man on a very profitable business.”
“What business?” I asked, unable to stand the suspense.
“Selling young girls,” Jun stated, causing me to sit back with a gasp.
Cade’s face hardened and he bit out, “Prostitution?”
Jun shook his head.
“Not only. He hosts these parties for the rich and sick in the head. Some buy the girls for the night, others, on a more permanent basis. If the girls aren’t bought, they’re shipped out and sold on the black market.”
“What?” I asked, shocked and appalled by what these guys were saying. “You can’t be serious.”
“Deadly fuckin’ serious, Red,” Jun stated harshly, his scary back in full effect.
“Yusuf and his guys find girls, pretend to be into them, then fill their head with dreams and promises. Girls don’t know what hit ‘em. They think they’re running off with the man of their dreams, and the next thing they know, they’re waking up in cuffs on the block for sale. Yusuf keeps them doped up, then sells ‘em off. They probably don’t realize what the fuck happened until it’s way too late.”
My eyes flew to Cade as I choked out, “Hannah.”
“Who’s Hannah?” Chris asked.
“Alani’s friend. Ni Ni says she met Yusuf a while back, and now she’s different. She’s been trying to warn Hannah off the guy, and Lila saw Ni Ni confronting Yusuf,” Cade replied.
“Keep Alani way the fuck away from this guy,” Chris said, his tone conveying his concern.
“She’s worried about her friend,” I supplied, then snapped my mouth shut when Jun’s eyes flashed scarily.
“If her friends already in so deep she won’t listen to Alani, then there’s nothing Cade’s sister’s gonna be able to do, and she needs to stay far away from this Hannah, and Yusuf. She needs to get off this animal’s radar.”
Cade nodded, obviously agreeing that he wanted to keep his sister safe and away from Yusuf.
“We can’t just let him take Hannah,” I argued. “We have to help her.”
“We’ve got ears to the ground,” Jun replied. “Once we find out where and when his next party is going down, we’ll let Cade know.”
“Shouldn’t we tell the police?” I asked. “Maybe if they know what’s going on, they can stop Yusuf before he’s able to have another party.”
“It was someone on the PD that gave me the intel on Yusuf,” Chris replied, dashing my dreams of an easy fix. “They know what’s going on. Problem is, the Commissioner is one of Yusuf’s best customers.”
“Son of a bitch,” Cade growled, and I cou
ld tell by the look on his face that he was ready to blow.
“Maybe the dates and port stuff we found in those notebooks will lead us to the next party,” I suggested. “We could go back…”
“No, you need to stay out of it,” Jun ordered, and I suddenly wasn’t feeling so friendly toward him anymore. “We’ve got people in place looking.”
“He’s right, Lila, it’s too dangerous,” Cade agreed, and my back stiffened in my seat. “I took a picture of that page of the journal with my phone. I’ll share the intel with the guys from the local MC, and get them on it too.”
“This is what I do, Cade,” I began to argue, thinking there might be something at the office that we overlooked, but the look he gave me had my mouth slamming shut.
“Not here, not this time,” he bit out, and any excitement or cheer I’d felt that night flew out the window and into the sea below.
I folded my hands in my lap, turned my head to the ocean, and kept my mouth shut for the rest of our time there.