Page 32 of Mafia Beast

The evening was wonderful, borderline magical. After our deep conversations about our pasts, I almost feel guilty for crossing him now, going to the boathouse. Not bad enough to hang up my gumshoes, though. I rush up to my room, take a quick shower, then slip into sweats and my sneakers. I pull my hair back into a ponytail.

Wait, I’m wearing all white. Shouldn’t I be wearing black? Quickly, I change into black pants and hoodie. Now I’ll blend in with the dark night. Much better. This time when I sneak down the stairs, no one stops me.

I slip through the little black door and into the basement, jogging down the secret tunnel. The only sound is the soles of my sneakers as they slap against the ground. My heart is racing hard, pounding in my ears. I’m just waiting to get caught.

Finally, I make it to the exit that leads into the boathouse where we dined tonight. Seeing the boat where we ate together tears another pang of guilt through me. Then I remember the scream, the strange actions of the staff, and I press on. If something funny is going on here, Rockland needs to know. The family deserves to know.

The night air is arctic, the blast of frigid air making me want to crawl back into my four-poster bed, a fire roaring in my fireplace. Well, not my fireplace, per se. Depending on what I find tonight, this may be my last night here at the castle.

I creep down along the shore, staying as close to the tree line as possible. I pop my hood up over my head, hoping for further cover. “Gosh, it’s freezing!” I shove my hands in the pockets of my hoodie and jog toward the off-limits boathouse.

There it is!

My heart lurches into my throat as the building comes into view. It’s dark, not even an outside light on. I get as close as I can while still feeling like I’m hidden amongst the trees, and I just watch.

I’m turning into a Charlie popsicle when I hear the quiet hum of a motorboat. The boat comes into view, pulling quietly up to the dock by the shore. Holy cow. Something’s happening.

In the moonlight, I recognize the driver as the one that first brought me and Nikolaos over to the island, Aiden. He moves quickly, tying the boat to the dock. He jumps back on the boat, pulling a tarp up and over the back of the boat.

My heart stops beating, my breath frozen in my chest. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. What on earth is happening…

Aiden is helping people up from where they were hiding underneath the tarp. The shipment he brought over is human. A lineup of women, young, bedraggled women, beautiful and terrified, follows him over to the boathouse.

A light flickers on and the door opens. Nikolaos stands there, having changed out of the suit from earlier, now wearing a casual tee and jeans. My jaw drops as I watch him shut the door behind the string of women.

The cargo. Was. Women.

Is he running some kind of sex trafficking ring out here on Dark Island? I know for a fact the family would be vehemently opposed to something like that. Nikolaos is the newest brother, is there any chance Rockland didn’t do a thorough enough investigation before bringing him on board?

It’s happened once before… a man infiltrated the family… one who wasn’t who or what he said he was.

I will not let it happen again.

I have to get closer to see what’s really going on. I sneak over to a window, peeking over the sill. There’s a sliver of a crack in the opening of the curtains. I can see into the room, which is small. The girls are huddled together still, looking scared to death. One woman turns toward the window, as if she senses me.

Her eyes trail to the window and I get a good look at her face. Oh my gosh… Her eye is bruised purple underneath, her lip swollen an angry red. I think of the screams I’ve heard. What have they done to her?

My stomach sinks into the soles of my sneakers. What do I do? There’s no way I can just bust in there and help them. Besides, I don’t even really know what’s going on here.

Maybe… maybe Nikolaos is helping these women?

Then I hear another scream, the same sound I heard the other night. There’s no denying it now. It’s a woman’s scream, and she’s in pain. Terror slashes at my heart. I have no idea what to do, how to help. I’m scared and confused. I just need to get out of here. I take off toward the woods.

All my clues flicker through my mind. The secrecy. The boats. The cover of night. The dark island.

I think as I jog back to the other boathouse that houses the riverboat. It’s all making sense. He’s using this place to traffic vulnerable women. There’s no other possible explanation. I just heard a news report about how bad this is getting in the city, how there’s a big, powerful ring of men trafficking women, but they’ve had an impossible time tracking down the criminals, tracing their paths.

I go in the tunnel, running now, so ready to be back in the warmth and safety of my room. My mind whirls. He’s probably using the Bachmans’ technology to stay undercover, our connections to keep himself under the radar of law enforcement. He’s not a beast. He’s a monster. I hate myself for sleeping with him. I should have fought him off, turned him down. My God, if he is a monster, there’s a chance I’m pregnant by him.

What was I thinking?

I sneak through the castle, going to my room and locking the bedroom door behind me. I dive under the comforter. I can’t get the cold to leave my bones. I’m exhausted. Confused. I was drawn to the castle because I was so damn lonely at home. I hated being lonely as a kid, and now, I’ve gotten myself trapped on this island because I’m weak. I didn’t want to be alone again.

What am I going to do?

I don’t have my phone. There’s no access to a computer here, so no help from Google. I rack my brain trying to remember what I heard in that news story. I think there was mention of the team using a boat to transport the women…

I have to get help. Whatever he’s doing in that boathouse, there’s no way the family knows about it. He’s supposed to be a security guard, for goodness’ sake. But I don’t want to go to Rockland unless I have more information.

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