Page 20 of Tequila & Lace
I stopped swirling my straw in my iced tea and watched as Seth slid into the seat across from me. There was no way I was going to tell him that I was thinking about twelve years ago. He still didn’t know why I’d run away. After we’d found out that my mother and brother left, we’d waited a few days, but they never returned. In fact, Seth’s grandma told us the trailer was cleaned out and rented to a new family. She never saw them again.Inever saw them again. I’d tried to search for them in our database but always came up short.
“Just a case.” I shrugged.
“You want to talk about it?” He smirked.
“Then I’d have to kill you.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want that.”
Seth still worked for the DCPD as a detective, so he knew I couldn’t talk about it. I eventually became a cop as well, but my heart was focused on special crimes and becoming a part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I wanted… no, Ineededto make a difference when it came to crimes against children. At first it was hard to stomach some of the cases I was assigned, but it fueled my fire.
“How was your date last night?” I asked, changing the subject.
“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
“Please. You’d miss me too much.” I smirked.
“This is true.”
“So?” I prompted.
“The better question is, when are you going to go on a date?”
All right so this subject needed to change.“Oh shit, look at the time. I have a meeting.”
He laughed and I fought back my own. “You’re so full of shit.”
The truth was I hadn’t dated much in the last twelve years. The bigger truth was that I hadn’t slept with any of my boyfriends. Those boyfriends never lasted; none of them ever wanted to stick around. I was twenty-nine now and none of them wanted to wait until it got serious. When it got hot and heavy and I pulled away, they would say they understood and then wouldn’t see me anymore. Seth and I remained best friends over the years. I needed him as a friend and couldn’t lose him, so I didn’t want to jeopardize our friendship by starting a relationship. Plus, he never once acted as though he wanted more and I never mentioned it either. I wasn’t even attracted to him anymore. I saw him as a brother now. He was my family.
“Bye, jerk face!” I punched him in the arm as I walked by.
“Big baby!” he whined as he rubbed his arm and I laughed.
We’d had plans for lunch, but I was always running from my seventeenth birthday, even when it came to my best friend.
Later that afternoon I really did have a meeting. I sat at the mahogany table with my black, leather portfolio in front of me. I stared at my phone, checking my emails as everyone started to file in.
“We have a new case,” my boss, Eric, informed us. I opened my notepad. “In the United States alone, there are over thirty-five hundred sex trafficking cases reported each year. Worldwide on average about twenty-two hundred girls are kidnapped every single day and forced into the sex trade. They are beaten, raped and almost always killed. On average, a single girl will be raped six thousand times and only have a life expectancy of seven years until she is killed by her ring leader. The odds of her being rescued is one out of a hundred. Word on the street is that women are being taken for sex trafficking in Las Vegas. We don’t have all the details, but we need to find out who’s behind this and where the women are being sold to. My cousin runs an escort business in Vegas, so that’s where we’ll start.”
“Is this a legit escort business?” Ella asked.
Eric nodded. “I’ve run some checks on his business and he knows who I work for. The Green family reunion would be awkward if it weren’t.” We chuckled.
“What’s the business called?” Brent asked.
“Saddles & Racks.” We all stifled our laughs. “I know what you’re all thinking, but they’re paid for companionship only.”
I sat quietly as I listened to everyone chatter. I’d never been to Vegas and had no idea what was involved in an escort business, but I knew if it was anything like Tony’s business, sex wasdefinitelyinvolved.
“I need either Ella or Joselyn to go undercover and see if you can find out what’s going on.”
My hand immediately shot up.
“Perfect. Joss, you leave next week. We’ll get you a new identity and a place to live. You’ll be undercover until you have something.”
I nodded. I’d never been undercover, but this was my chance to finally make a difference or at least try to make a difference when it came to prostitution. Being in the thick of things was going to light my fire more. Since that night I was sold, I’d felt it was my duty to save them all. And if I was able to get one girl off the streets, then that was one girl who would have a better life.
During the week, I tied up loose ends and told Seth what I could about my new assignment. It wasn’t much. He knew I was going undercover, but he didn’t know where. I gave him Ella’s cell number in case anything happened while I was away; that was the only way to get information to me. The bureau also had me take a few lessons in self-defense while wearing high heels. At first I’d thought it was crazy until I realized it was hard to fight off an attacker in those things.
