Page 53 of Benedict’s Rejuvenation (Dark Patriots #5)

While Undertaker and Sloan stood guard, the others quickly went around securing the hands and feet of everyone.

Beau and I were shoved to the couch where the women were.

After we were seated, they pretended to secure our hands, but left enough room for them to slip off our wrists easily.

They left our feet free. Our untied legs were hidden behind the low table between us and the others.

To protect their identities, if we had fucked up and this wasn’t a bunch of trafficking bastards, our team wore gloves and clothing to hide all their identifying tats and faces. Since they knew us, we pretended to be victims to protect ourselves, if necessary.

“Can someone tell me what the meaning of this is? If you’re here to rob me, then take whatever you came for. Just leave us alone,” Wynne ordered.

“You don’t seem to understand something. You’re not in charge here, Wynne. We are. And you’ve been a bad boy,” Heath told him.

It had been agreed that Heath would take the lead unless Undertaker felt the need to speak.

The others would remain silent or offer only a few words in response.

They were to be the minions. The story we devised to help ferret out the truth as quickly as possible, without resorting to torture if it wasn’t warranted, was one suggested by Kensy.

“I have no idea what you mean by I’ve been a bad boy,” Wynne protested.

“Don’t play us for fools. You know what we’re here for, and so do these men. And look what you have here, more fresh meat.” Heath eyed Keeley and Kensy as he said the word meat. Even with a mask on, he made his leer obvious.

“Whatever you think we’ve done, I can assure you we haven’t. I’m a respected businessman. These men are clients of mine. We’re meeting about modeling work for these ladies. And these men are their fiancés,” Wynne argued.

“If you are legit and are truly offering them that, we’ll eat our guns. Why don’t you tell these women and their men what you really have them here for?” Heath egged on.

“We’re here to talk business,” Abram said.

“Oh, I believe that’s true, but it’s not modeling business.

Tell them how you like to find women and then present them to a group of buyers or clients, such as these men.

And if they agree with your assessment, they’ll open an auction.

When they get the highest bid they can for you, they’ll inform the buyers of their winning,” Heath nudged.

“Auction? What does that mean, Ben?” Kensy asked me softly.

“I don’t know, baby.”

“I’ll tell you what it means. These men aren’t here to get you modeling contracts. They’re here to auction you off to the highest bidder. You’re about to be sold as fresh prostitutes or a personal sex slave,” Undertaker told her gruffly.

Kensy shrank against me and hid her face in my chest. She shook as if she were crying. Or I hoped it was an act. Undertaker was too good at his job. I put the right degree of outrage in my tone.

“They’re what?” I snarled loudly.

“You heard me. They want your woman and the other, who can only be her sister, for sex work. They’re high-end pimps and traffickers. You walked right into their trap,” Heath joyfully told us.

Keeley was huddled close to Beau. He glared at Heath. “You have no clue what you’re talking about. Mr. Wynne is a well-respected businessman and community leader. He’s not involved in something like that. And if he were, how would someone like you know it?” Beau sneered.

“We represent a gentleman who is in the same business as Mr. Wynne. He’s tired of Wynne cutting in on his customers.

It used to be that our employer would sell more, but your procurement of new merchandise is faster than we can source it.

He couldn’t understand how. But if you’re feeding gullible women and girls bullshit lies about making them a model, no wonder.

“So let me guess, you’re introducing them to potential gurus in the modeling world in the hopes they can do what?

Arrange a photoshoot? Except when they arrive for the photoshoot, they’ll be kidnapped.

If their men come with them, they’ll be killed outright.

If not, you’ll lie and tell these fools that their women never arrived, or they left, and you have no idea what happened to them.

The police will look for a while but run into no leads.

In the end, they’ll become a cold case. And since you’ll take most, if not all, out of the country, there’s no risk that friends or family will know what happened to them,” Heath rattled out.

I glared at Wynne. “Is that true? You’re here to steal our women?” I barked.

“Ben, calm down. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Wynne assured me.

“I’m not so sure I believe you. And you, how do you know these men are the ones hornin’ in on your boss’s business?” I asked Heath.

“We have the names of some he’s done it to. I can tell you the name of one of the last he took. In this case, however, we’re told he kept her for himself. Hell, she’s probably hidden somewhere in this house. Her name is Aimée Ferrante,” Heath replied.

“I saw her picture. She could be a sister to your women,” Undertaker tossed in.

I was watching Wynne’s face as Aimée’s name was said. He flicked an eyelash, but he blinked more when Undertaker said she looked like Keeley and Kensy. Then Wynne’s hungry expression swept over them.

“Wait a minute. I saw that look. What’s up with that? You’re lusting after our women, aren’t you?” I accused Wynne.

He shook his head. “No, no, you’re wrong.”

“Listen, I can see you have unresolved business with these guys. We don’t want anything to do with it. And we haven’t seen your faces. Why don’t you let us go, and we’ll leave you to get to work?” Beau suggested.

“How much are you willing to pay us?” Heath asked. He sounded like he was considering it.

“You can’t leave us here!” Wynne gasped.

“Like hell we can’t. We’ll pay you a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of Bitcoin if you allow us to walk out of here. I can have it transferred to your wallet within moments,” I stated.

I watched as Undertaker and Heath supposedly conferred before they turned back to us. “Show us your bank account. If the funds are there and you can make it go through, we’ll be willing to think about it,” Heath said.

“You can’t do that!” Wynne shouted at me.

“I can do anything I want. You don’t tell me what to do. If you’re smart, don’t sit there and lie to these men. They mean business.” Turning away from him, I focused on Heath. “If one of you will undo my hands and let me take out my phone, I can have it pulled up for you within a minute.”

“And if you do the same with me, I’ll add another one hundred thousand dollars’ worth of Bitcoin to your wallet to set myself and my woman free,” Beau offered.

As Wynne and his friends watched in outrage, Justin and Aryan came and cut our zip-tied wrists. Beau and I took out our phones, pretended to tap around, and then we handed them off to Heath.

“All you have to do is input which wallet you want that amount to go to, and it’ll be yours,” Beau stated.

Heath looked them over, tapped away, and supposedly put in his Bitcoin wallet information.

As he worked on Beau’s phone, Wynne and the others began to offer to pay them the same to let them go.

Heath finished and handed back Beau’s cell phone, then tapped away on mine.

Heath handed back my phone and told his men to cut the four of us loose.

As they did, the amount offered from the other seven continued to increase. As we stood, Heath nodded.

“It was good doing business with you. Now, get out before I change my mind. And don’t even think of calling the police. If you do, we’ll have our people pay you a visit, and those pretty little things with you will be swept away, and you two will be dead. Show them out,” he growled.

Aryan and Justin pushed us from behind to get us moving.

The ladies clung to us with their heads down.

We went out the salon’s door. Out of sight, we hung back and let them believe we had left the house.

As our captors gave us time to escape the house, we heard Heath finally reply to the others’ offers.

“You can’t pay us enough to let you go,” he told them.

“Why not? You let them go?” Luan whined.

“Yes, because in the scheme of things, we can afford that. Our boss didn’t know you had anyone here tonight.

Letting them go is money in our pockets that we’ll never mention to him.

Call it bonus pay. You, on the other hand, and all your little friends, we’re expected to kill.

If we don’t, no matter how much you pay us, we’ll be on the run and having to watch over our shoulders for the rest of our lives, which won’t be long,” Heath explained.

While he did, Justin and Aryan left us in the hallway and reentered the salon.

We’d stay hidden until the captives inside broke and either admitted their involvement or we found proof that we’d been wrong.

Technically, we hadn’t broken any laws by “paying” them off.

We could always claim we were too frightened to call the cops.

“Please, we’ll do anything. We have friends. They can protect you. If you let us go, we’ll help you to hide. And if you tell us who your boss is, we can have him and his organization wiped out,” Abram offered.

“How? You’re not that big. If you were, we’d think about it, but you claim to be ordinary businessmen. You don’t have the connections to keep us alive,” Heath insisted.

“Let’s get this over with. I’m tired of their voices,” Undertaker grunted.

“That’s not true! We are big enough if we combine our forces with all our allies and business partners.

You don’t seem to realize that while Wynne here helps to supply us with women from the US, we have others who do the same all over the world.

I doubt whoever your boss is, that he’s international, and even if he is, he’s not as large as we are combined,” Roman promised.

“I thought you weren’t traffickers?” Undertaker sneered. I could hear it in his voice.

“We said that because Ben, Beau, and their women were here. If there was a chance they got away, we couldn’t have them knowing about us.

Plus, we hoped we’d trick you into thinking you had it wrong.

Since you didn’t fall for it, let’s talk about real business.

Our six countries, plus Wynne, are a huge area to control.

We could offer you a position with us, which would remove you from your current boss’s oversight.

Or better yet, with your knowledge, we could take over his territory and kill him and his lieutenants, leaving the five of you the head of it,” Hendrix offered.

“What about those men we killed to get in here? You gonna hold that against us? Don’t tell me we killed a bunch of rent-a-guards,” Undertaker snapped.

“It’s unfortunate that we had to lose such good people, but we can get more.

They weren’t rented. Those men knew they had to keep my property and possessions protected, or their lives were in my hands.

They knew the risk. And they reaped the benefits when I gave them bonus time with some of the women before they were sold,” Wynne stated without a trace of remorse.

We’d heard enough. They’d confirmed not only their guilt but also that of the men outside who were knocked out.

None of them would be waking up. It would be a massive undertaking to clean up this mess when we were done, but we had people we could call on to help.

I noted the tears in Kensy’s eyes. I kissed her gently.

Beau was comforting Keeley for a moment.

When I lifted my head, I looked at the three with me and mouthed, Ready . They all nodded yes.