Page 61 of Kings of Desire
‘I’ve never done this, so I have no idea what I need to tell you.’ Where could I even start? Before I came here, I was sure that I was a hundred percent ready, but it seems that I had no idea what I needed to say or do.
‘Just tell us who we need to get out for now,’ the man accompanying the driver gave me a hand before I would manage to dissipate the last of Brax’s patience.
‘My siblings. I have a sister and a brother. My sister’s name is Natalie, and she is thirteen. Brownish hair, green eyes, kinda looks like me. Now for my brother, his name is Sebastian and he’s six. Dark hair, also green eyes, but there’s a thing that you should know about him. He’s on dialysis- kidney insufficiency, so you have to be really careful while taking him out of there, shocks or sudden movements can trigger a seizure.’
‘We need an ambulance to get him here safely,’ my kingpin thought out loud. ‘Now for the people around your father. Tell us about them,’ he continued.
‘My father was a nobody, just a frustrated man that used to beat up his kids so that they could go on the streets and beg for money to satisfy his greedy needs. That’s before he made friends with some lowlifes, probably bigger screwups than him. They managed to set up a small human trafficking network. Get others to beg for them.’ I had to stop for a second as the memory of his fists throwing me in the ground was making hot crystal tears roll off my face and onto Brax’s shirt.
Before I got to regather my strengths and resume my thoughts, I felt the arm around me tighten as I realized the body beneath me was tensed at its limits ‘Did he beat you?’
‘Yes.’ The answer brought a deep frown on his face, although it had nothing to do with some newly discovered feelings for me, and everything to do with the fact that I was his property now. Plus, his men were carefully watching, and he couldn’t let something like that slip as if nothing had happened.
‘Give me the address, and tell us about the location... Rooms, entries, windows,’ Brax spoke between gritted teeth.
‘It’s on Fourth Str., the first building as you turn left. It looks unoccupied, abandoned, but our family used to live in apartment 1B. The apartment itself has two rooms, both windows facing south. Although I don’t think there’s where he keeps them...at least not Natalie. She said something about being guarded and the apartment could barely fit in the good days our family of five- almost impossible to set up a prison there. I suspect she’s on minus one floor. That’s where my father set up his newbusiness.’
‘Are there apartments on that floor?’ Thedriverasked.
‘Not exactly. It’s more like a large basement with a few rooms for storage where the newworkersused to sleep in.’
The tall man was writing everything down in a notebook ‘How many people on the premises do you reckon there to be?’
‘When I left a month ago, it was just my father and four or five of his so-called friends. I’m saying four or five because one of them is usually so drugged that he doesn’t even count as being there.’ I paused again to look at Brax who downed the two fingers of whiskey that was in his glass. He was infuriated. I could tell even from the way he was breathing, and I can’t deny that lowkey I wished someone would act like this just in the need to protect me. Yet it was far from being the case. I was the only one who could ever protect myself, and at the same time, I was the one that was selling out my body.
‘I received a call from my sister a few days ago, telling me she was guarded. I’m not sure what that meant because she couldn’t talk for long, but I bet if it was someone familiar to me, she would have called them by name. So I suspect that they hired new people, maybe recruited from the beggars...I don’t know...’
‘Entry points for the underground?’ Thedriverasked.
‘Only the main entrance of the building. There used to be a back entrance, but they had it blocked a while ago because of the robbers. They have several dressers sitting in front of it. You can’t get in through there, at least not without making a noise..’
‘Fucking perfect,’ Brax muttered while pouring himself another glass of whiskey from the crystal bottle sitting on the table.
‘I’m afraid it gets worse when it comes to the underground floor. It only has a few ventilation windows, but they’re only big enough for a cat to sneak through there. I know because Nataly got caught between one when she was just a baby and we could barely get her out.’
‘That means more men for a frontal assault,’ the tall man spoke, transcending another of his ideas on paper.
‘Any moregoodnews for me, Princess?’ Brax’s nostrils flared with irritation, probably cursing himself for getting involved in this.
‘I hope not... That’s if the gentlemen don’t have any additional questions.’
‘This should do it. Just let us know if you think we should be aware of any other aspects,’ the driver spoke while looking at his boss.
‘What’s the damage?’ Brax asked, taking a drag out of his cigar.
The tall man looked at him them scribbled some more numbers in his notebook, trying to do the math ‘Three mercenaries of 10k each, plus 2k I would say for the ambulance and five of our men so we don’t run into any surprises.
We need two teams so we can go in at the same time. One for the apartment and one for the underground.’
‘32 grand plus expenses,’ Brax rolled his eyes then turned to look at me as if I was the one who did something wrong. ‘Ok, go for it. Just make sure we have enough men. Failure is not an option on this one.’
‘It won’t be. I’m taking a man with me, and we’ll go there in the morning to keep an eye out on things,’ thedriverspoke, getting up from his chair.
‘Ok, how long do you think before we can intervene?’ Brax was probably counting the days left until he got to unwrap his gift.
‘I’m not sure. I would say three to a week. We need to study a routine, patterns in their behavior, maybe even see if they take shifts in guarding. Only then we can decide on the best moment to act,’ the tall man spoke,also standing up from his chair, heading towards the door.
‘We’ll let you know as soon as we have something.’
