Page 84 of Trick or Treat

It took only two short years for Kurtis to become his number one recruiter. He mentally laughed at his job title. He was the face and body that lured unsuspecting women into their tangled web. He was the one who fulfilled the orders, decided when it was time to move on and where to go next.

Now that Kurtis had gathered up enough women to meet the buyers’ needs, he would ship them on to Marie. She would then clean the women up, get them physicals and prep them with new clothes, new looks and new identities before delivering them to the buyers.

“I thought the woman of your dreams was from around there. She still married to that piece of shit?”

Jacob’s question brought Kurtis’s attention back to their conversation. “No. She’s been divorced from him for a while now.” He swiveled his chair, his gaze now directed toward the mostly empty cages in the warehouse.

“You ask her out?”

He was quiet for just a beat too long.

“She shot you down again?” His boss’s laughter was grating. Kurtis really liked the man and respected him a lot. The man had been more of a role model/father figure to him than his own absentee father. Because Jacob had seen how Kurtis had started out, gangly, awkward, shy and poor, he knew all of his weaknesses and trigger points. The trick was to not let him know when he’d hit his mark.

“We got together and talked about old times.” It wasn’t a complete lie. They had talked about all her mistakes in picking men and how she continually refused to see Kurtis for who he really was.

“Did you now?”

“Yes and she’s coming to see what a great catch I am. As a matter of fact I’ll be seeing her again tonight.” It was Kurtis’s turn to laugh at his own joke. He watched Lindsey sitting in her cage, with her back against the bars, her knees pulled up to her chest, her arms around her legs. Her beautiful fall of auburn hair swirled around her like a curtain, hiding her face from his sight.

“Well, that’s good news. I’m glad you got the girl of your dreams and I hope she’s everything you ever imagined.” Over the years and over bottles of tequila, Kurtis had tried to get Jacob to understand that Lindsey was the exception to the keeping kind and one-night kind of woman rule his boss often talked about.

“Thank you.”

“Will I be meeting this woman who has had you bedazzled for years?”

“I’m not sure.” Kurtis felt Jacob was just waiting for him to get too attached to Lindsey, marry her and then end up having her fuck him over only so he could say ‘I told you so.’ “Will you be heading to California anytime soon?”

“Not right away. I have to go to France for a bit. My supplier there is getting sloppy. He somehow managed to gain the interest of a local group of thugs. They claim he’s cutting in on their market.”

“Well, take care and I hope you get it sorted out.”

“Oh, it’ll get sorted all right.” The ominous touch in his voice wasn’t for show. Jacob was ruthless in his business dealings. “I’ll see you in a couple of months.” The line went dead at the other end, their conversation over.

Kurtis checked the time and found it was going on three o’clock in the morning. He hadn’t gotten any sleep yet, but then again, he rarely did when it came time to close up shop and move on. He exited his glassed-in office and met up with one of his men as they loaded the last woman for this shipment.

“That the last one?”

“Yes, sir. Bobby and Hal are going to head out now. Joe and Amos will follow behind. As soon as this truck pulls out, we’ll back the semi in here and start loading the cages and the rest of it. Should be ready to go in a couple of hours.”

“Good job, Mike.” He patted him on the shoulder.

“Hey, boss? What are you going to do with that one?” He tipped his head toward Lindsey.

“I’m going to take care of that one personally.” Kurtis smirked and walked off in the direction of the woman he dreamt of possessing since he was in high school. He hadn’t been lying earlier. If she kept him happy sucking his dick and proving to be a good fuck, he’d keep her around for a while. Maybe he’d let her start trying to convince him tonight. They had a couple of hours to kill, so why not?

He came to a stop in front of her cage. He waited for her to acknowledge him, but she continued to keep her head down on her knees. Was she asleep? How could she sleep in this cold? He dropped to his haunches and grabbed onto a bar with one hand. “Lindsey.”

She didn’t answer him right away. She didn’t so much as twitch. Was she purposely ignoring him? Not a great way to win his approval. “Lindsey!” he yelled.

She slowly raised her head to meet his eyes. Her eyes were drooping and she looked exhausted.

“You ready to leave this town? Hit the road and go somewhere warmer?”

“No.” Her response was slow and the usual fire was missing from her eyes.

“If you plan on winning my favor, you’re going to have to lose that word from your vocabulary.” He chuckled and tried to ease her fears with one of his smiles that had been known to gain the attention of most women.

“Not going,” she spoke slowly, with a slight slur, “with you.”

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