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“Wow, this feels too easy. Why speak so readily?” I crouch before him, feigning interest.
“Although I get hazard pay, no amount of money is worth my life. If offering you what I know will save my skin, I’ll tell you whatever you want. However, what I know won’t affect my employer.”
“Speaking of your employer, isn’t he the brown-haired man you were talking to before I crashed your party?”
“All my dealings were through a broker, but they left me with the impression that my employer takes their reputation seriously. And you disrupting business… they’ll take it verypersonally.” His derisive laugh fills the cabin. “What are you going to do when they find you, little girl?”
I shrug. “I guess I’ll have to find them first.”
He bowls over, his laugh becoming more incredulous the longer I allow him this reprieve.
“How much was your commission?” I ask once his humor dies to a chuckle.
“Five hundred Gs.”
“That’s a good start. Now, to make amends, you’ll donate your commission. Give me the banking details.”
“I give you my money and you’ll release me?”
“Sure, you had no hand in hurting the boy. Your friends, however, face another fate.”
He eyes me, weighing the truth behind my words before succumbing and giving me the information I want. Despite spilling the details, he doesn’t hide the rage behind every gritted number he provides. He’ll definitely come back to exact revenge, but I’m not concerned.
I walk away to gather my tools.
“Where are you going? I’ve told you everything I know. Now release me like you promised.” He twists and contorts his body, but the binds constricting him hold him steady. “You fucking bitch, let me go!”
The familiar excitement I get at hearing his demands swells inside me. Blood rushes to my head and I inhale the unique scent of his desperation. I haven’t fed the monster I live with for months. The last time was after I rescued Jinx.
Unlike Antari’s parents, Mo’Monet didn’t welcome her daughter home. Instead, she tried to sell her to me for her next fix. Because she was Jinx’s mother, I gave her one chance to redeem herself and sent her to a rehab clinic. But an addict who’s not willing to change won’t, and I refused to sentence Jinx to the horrors of living with a woman who didn’t want her.
In the end, Mo’Monet made the ultimate sacrifice to my beast. Now, I have a feast at my fingertips to quench the hunger always simmering in the back of my mind.
I return to the bodyguard. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep my word and release you.” I crouch to his level so he can see my seriousness as I raise a knife to his neck. “Before I do, I’ll make sure you breathe your last.”
“Bitc—”
I stab the knife in the side of his neck and watch the blood bubbling out of the wound and run freely down his face. “You must be wondering why since you didn’t hurt Antari. It’s enough you participated.”
He glares at me for my betrayal.
I scoff at his affront. I have no obligation to honor my word when it’s given to anyone taking part in the selling of children into sexual servitude. “Be happy you didn’t touch the boy, or else your last moments would be more painful. Now do yourself a favor and don’t fight the death coming for you.”
I breathe in his death rattle, knowing he’s the appetizer. My entrée is the brown-haired trafficker. I’ll have more fun with him, but the best I save for dessert. After I take care of the pedophile, I won’t need another meal for another month, unless Omari finds someone else requiring rescue.
By the time the bodyguard rattles his last breath, the other men begin to rouse.
Once brown hair becomes alert, he glares at me. “You don’t know how much you’ve fucked yourself, do you?”
I tap my lips and fake an innocently curious demeanor. “Why don’t you tell me?”
He spreads his mouth in an imitation of a smile meant to scare me. He doesn’t know how long I’ve been doing this. This is a lifelong family endeavor, starting from when my daddy grew strong enough to exact his vengeance on the pastor who usedhim as a reward to the elders in his congregation. He made it his life’s mission to hunt pedophiles the system never punished, hiding his pursuit from everyone including my mother. At least, he did until I turned thirteen.
Then I became the bait to catfish my daddy’s victims. I lived with danger, feeling a rush from knowing we fulfilled a higher purpose. Feeling unclean after was a byproduct I had to live with. We kept everything a secret. Even after the night my daddy died, I upheld his practice.
Daddy underestimated the man who broke loose and beat him to death. I froze in horror and fear as my daddy’s bones crumpled under the man’s vicious fists.
I’d never had to defend myself let alone kill. That was Daddy’s job. But when the man turned his rage against me and told me he wasn’t going to leave empty-handed, I did the only thing I could.
