Page 2 of Ravaged Soul

“This shit being?”

Scrubbing a hand over her pale face, she rubs beneath her shadow-marked eyes. “I’m too tired for this.”

“You haven’t checked in since last week. I was starting to worry.”

“Because I had to be smuggled onto a cargo ship, sail across the Atlantic Ocean, then pay off some sleazy freight handlers to get back into the country unseen!”

A dark chuckle spills from my lips through a cloud of smoke. “It’s good to have you back, Raye.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t bullshit me. You’re incapable of worrying about another human being.”

“And you are?” I cock a brow in challenge.

“Fucking dickhead. Missed you too.”

“Alright, enough of that.” My hand rotates in a hurrying motion. “Don’t hold me in suspense.”

Kicking a half-empty box of plastic pill baggies, Raye throws up her hands. “You sent me to Mexico to track down the Lawson girl.”

“And did you?”

She scoffs hatefully. “Next time, send Spyder!”

“Raye…”

“He’d fit right in with the exploitative?—”

“Raye,” I repeat, my patience splintering. “Did. You. Find. Her?”

She drops into the armchair opposite my desk. “Sort of.”

My spine lengthens, solidified by anticipation-laced concrete. I quickly stub out the remaining length of my joint to give Raye my full attention.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I didn’t find Lawson, but I heard rumours about some big fight. Decided to check it out.”

Huffing, I lean sideways to tug open the bottom drawer of my desk. Inside, I keep a bottle of single malt whiskey for emergencies. Raye nods when I fill two chipped tumblers then offer one to her.

“Explain.”

“I was poking around a few of the underground fight clubs.” She knocks back her measure of amber nectar. “Figured working girls may be targeting the circuit, so it was a good place to look.”

My internal muscles clench tight as I roll smooth, smoky whiskey over my tongue then swallow. I’m hardly one to discuss the morals of anyone’s illegal operations, but the skin trade turns my fucking stomach.

I’ll push pills and weapons until my dying day and reap the rewards, but I’d never touch the worldwide trafficking of innocent lives. Not a chance. That’s a market reserved for the worst of the worst.

In every single country on this rotating rock, an underground market of stolen flesh exists. Every continent is guilty of it. So many victims, trapped in a mechanism they’ll never escape.

They’re left with no choice but to obey the commands of their captors, including prostitution and far worse. I know exactly how degrading it is to be imprisoned by someone else’s greed, just the thought of it makes my blood boil.

Sure, I’ve never been forced to sell my body. But I’ve torn off bloodied chunks of my soul and sold them to the highest bidder just to earn my father’s mercy enough times.

“Wasn’t paying much attention to the fight until I heard it end.” Raye sets her empty glass down. “Imagine my surprise when I recognised the woman doing a goddamn victory lap.”

I feel myself recoil in shock.

“Are you saying what I think you are?”