Page 23 of Deliverance
I arched a brow. "The streets?"
He shrugged. "You know, picking up merchandise."
"Oh, gotcha." He meant kidnapping innocent women, and he'd shrugged as though it was no big deal. "Do you always work this early?" If I was the boss, I needed to know what I was working with. I also had a hidden agenda.
"It rotates."
"Do clients come this early?"
He cracked a smile. "Yeah, man. Some come in on their way to work."
I was hoping he would tell me that they didn't come in the morning because that would confirm he was guarding the girls from leaving. As though to prove that clients arrived at all hours of the day, the buzzer buzzed.
Bobby pressed a button, and the screen came on. "Membership number?"
The guy on the other end rattled off, "138248."
Bobby put it into a tablet. I stepped forward to see better, and Bobby held up the screen, revealing the guy's picture with his name and membership number. Bobby sent the elevator down.
"Are all clients on that thing?" I questioned.
"Yeah. Just like a gym membership." He chuckled. "But they don't have cards or anything. Just a number to get up."
"Cool." The elevator dinged, and as the doors opened, I said, "I'm going to take a look around. Get a lay of the land, so to speak."
"Sure thing," Bobby replied.
I left him to do whatever it was he did when a client arrived. I probably should have stayed so I would know, but I wanted to look around before Saffron woke up. I didn't know what she had planned for me, and I was curious about the cameras. How did David not know about the ones in the kitchen stairwell if he was security? Where was the stairwell? Where was the feed sent to? Was someone monitoring it—someone higher up than David?
I started looking around and noted three cameras that would get every angle of the large living room. There was a connecting formal dining room with a long table that could fit at least twelve. The floor to ceiling windows continued into the space, and there were two cameras in there.
When I walked back into the living room, the client was seated in one of the red eggshell chairs. I nodded to him as a woman I'd never seen before came from the hallway. She was dressed in a black silk robe.
"Simon," she greeted. "I thought you were headed out of town today?"
He stood. "Stopped here on my way to the airport."
"That makes me happy."
Happy?Was she doing this on her own? There was no way Frank and Saffron would mix kidnapped women with those wanting to do this to make money. It wouldn't work. Somehow word of the abducted women would get out, and things would go down in flames.
The woman grabbed Simon's hand and led him down the hall. I waited a few moments before going down the hall too. All the doors—fifteen of them—were closed. I, of course, didn't know what was on the other side, but it had to be a customized design. It was almost like an office building, and if I didn't know the building was residential, I would believe it was converted. I wondered how large of a space was on the other side of each door.
When I got to the farthest end of the hall, I noted cameras at both corners. I also saw the opening of the kitchen stairwell I was looking for, but just before I could find out where the stairs led to, a door opened. I turned and met the stare of Erin. She was dressed in a black silk robe too, but unlike the two times I'd seen her before, her brown hair was down and cascading around her shoulders. She blinked, and I moved to her.
"Are you okay?" I whispered.
She looked around, seeing we were the only ones in the hallway. "For now."
"When I told you that I would help you, I didn't realize there would be guards and an elevator you can only access with a keycard," I admitted.
Her brow furrowed. "How did you not know?"
"Because this is only my—" I hesitated for a moment. Was it my second or third day? Three days ago, I was a bouncer at the door. Now I was head of security.
"Your what?"
"I was dragged into this a few days ago."
