Denied (18 page)

“She was a laser therapist, and like I said, she wasn’t able to do her job properly. I want a refund.”

Monster took a couple of strides to where Lily was hidden behind the steps. He grabbed her roughly by the arm and dragged her back out into the open. “Hide the gun,” he growled softly into her ear.

She hid the weapon behind her back, so it pressed between her body and his.

“What the hell is this?” Cigarette Hands demanded.

“I told you, I want a refund, and normally when someone asks for a refund, they bring the merchandise back, too.”

“I don’t do reimbursements, and even if I did, what the hell am I supposed to do with her? How did you even get her back into the country?”

“Same way you got her out, I’m guessing, via a private plane just like this one.”

He snorted. “Well, you’re not going to get a single cent out of me.”

Monster paused, and then said, “Fine, do me a deal instead. Swap her for the girl you’ve got there.”

His whole face screwed up in a mixture of confusion, disbelief, and disdain. “Why would I want to do that?”

“Because I’m a customer and the customer is always right. I don’t want to keep this one. She’s not compliant enough for my tastes. I want someone a little more submissive in the bedroom.”

“You should have just killed her if she isn’t what you’re after,” he snarled.

“And then I’d be out of pocket, and what would be the good in that? Now how about you and I step inside and discuss this like gentlemen?”

His eyebrows shot up his forehead. “Inside? Like inside the plane?”

“Or we can take a walk back down to the hangar, and see what my guys are doing with the body of whoever was shooting at us. Totally your choice.”

Cigarette Hands’ eyes darted between Monster and the hangar. He must have realized if they went to the hangar, there would be at least two against one. His cockiness never made him think for a moment that Lily might be a threat.

“Fine, but you leave the weapon outside.”

“What about yours?” Monster asked, jerking his chin toward the gun still jammed into the woman’s temple. “You can’t expect me to put mine down and you still remain armed.”

“Fine. We both leave the guns outside. Is that an agreement? But then we talk. I’m not promising anything. I’ve never needed to switch girls on anyone before.”

“Listen to me,” said Monster. “I’m a businessman. I only want to recoup my investment. We can do a straight swap, this woman for the one you’ve got there. She looks more to my liking. You know you’ll sell this one just as easily.”

His lips pursed as he looked Lily up and down, making her skin crawl. “She’s a bit older than I normally deal with, but I can probably make it work, after I’ve had a taste of her myself, of course.”

Monster nodded. “Good, then let’s talk. I’m putting my gun down now.”

Monster bent forward, placing the gun on the ground, while maintaining his hold of Lily. Her head spun at the sudden turn of events. She didn’t believe Monster was going to trade her for a second, but she wasn’t sure what his plan was either. Ending up in close confines with the man who had stolen her filled her with terror.

Following Monster’s lead, Cigarette Hands placed his own weapon down on the top step of the plane. “Don’t make me regret that,” he snarled.

Monster didn’t bother replying.

A shove from behind pushed Lily forward, and she stumbled slightly, but tightened her grip around the gun she still held behind her back. The way Monster seized her, as though he had her arms wrenched behind her, disguised the true reason for the position. Lily’s heart banged in her chest and she felt sick with fear. Her shins hit the first metal step, and she forced herself to lift her foot and take the first tread.

Her legs felt weak, her palms sweating, threatening to loosen her grip on the gun. Seeing Cigarette Hands again, and knowing she was about to be put into another confined space with him, sent adrenaline flooding through her body. She’d told Monster she intended to kill the trafficker, and at the time she’d meant it, but right now all she wanted to do was turn tail and run.

But she couldn’t do that. Monster had put down his gun, which meant his life was in her hands.

She needed to let go of her fear and find her anger again.

If only it was as easy to control her emotions.

Cigarette Hands disappeared with the girl into the body of the plane, and she was forced to follow, stepping into the aircraft, with Monster pushing her firmly from behind. A massive part of her wanted to shout, ‘stop, I’ve changed my mind,’ but she had to think about the girl. Whatever terror Lily was experiencing right now was nothing compared to what the poor woman was going through. At least Lily knew she had Monster at her back, someone who would help her. The girl Cigarette Hands was trying to traffic had no one, and had no idea of what lay in her future. Lily remembered how that had felt. It had been the most terrifying moment of her life, only second to the time when she’d finally understood her newborn daughter was going to die.

A flood of emotion poured over her and her eyes filled with fresh tears. Cigarette Hands noticed, his hateful eyes locking on hers for a fraction of a second, and the hint of a smirk touched his mouth.

He was enjoying this. Even though he was in a confined space with someone who had just ordered one of his people killed, he’d taken pleasure in seeing her tears.

The first spark of anger lit inside her.

The plane was laid out like an expensive lounge. Wide, comfortable seats facing each other like a first class train carriage. Just how much money was he selling women for to be able to even rent the use of a plane like this, never mind own one, if in fact the plane was his?

The spark ignited into a flame.

Cigarette Hands gestured to a seat. “Please, if we’re going to speak as businessmen, then we should sit down.”

The anger coiled in Lily’s stomach. He wasn’t a businessman. He was an abductor and a rapist.

“No, thank you,” said Monster, coolly. “I don’t need to sit. What I need is for you to agree to my terms.”

Cigarette Hands eyed him. “Just to switch the women?”

Monster gave a slow nod. “Just to switch the women,” he confirmed.

“This one is already sold. I don’t know how the buyer will feel about getting something different.”

He shrugged. “So make something up. Tell the buyer the girl got sick and you already had the transportation in place.”

“I’m not sure …”

Monster took a step forward, pushing Lily with him, closing the gap. Her heart rate thundered. What was he planning? Did he expect her to just whip out the gun and shoot the other man here and now? Or would Monster be the one to shoot him, even though she’d insisted the whole time that she should be allowed to be the one to do it? He’d given her too much credit, thinking when faced with the actual situation she’d be able to act like a woman out of an action movie.

She was a laser therapist, not a gangster, and right now she’d never felt more like a laser therapist in her life.

Monster (Present Day)

Monster hated that
he’d put Lily in yet another dangerous situation, with a man she despised, but it was the only way he’d been able to figure out how to get inside the airplane. She had her gun, and had told him she wanted to be the one who killed Cigarette Hands, but if the opportunity arose, he would whip the gun out of the hiding place in the waistband of her jeans and shoot the piece of shit himself.

The man was a creep, nothing gentlemanly about him whatsoever. Monster was furious with himself that he’d forced Lily to spend time in close confines with this guy all those weeks ago. Just knowing that he’d threatened her, and hit her, made him want to wrap his hands around the other man’s throat and strangle the life out of him. The irony that he’d been the one to bring Cigarette Hands into her life in the first place wasn’t lost on him.

Cigarette Hands gave the kidnapped girl a shove and sent her flying toward the back of the plane. Her hands were tied behind, her back and when she stumbled and fell, she did so head first, smacking her face against the side of one of the seats. She gave a muffled cry as she glanced off the chair and landed on the floor in a crumpled heap. Instead of staying where she was, she pushed with her feet and wriggled away until she was in the farthest possible corner of the plane.

Monster tried not to show any discomfort in the girl’s plight, but he had felt Lily wince in his arms when the girl cried out, and had heard her sharp intake of breath. He didn’t care about anyone else, but he cared about how Lily was feeling, and that the man’s treatment of the other woman upset her set his anger on a slow, rolling boil.

“Listen to me,” Monster said, tamping down on his anger in order to continue his façade of cool businessman. “I don’t know who you’re selling to, but please believe me when I say that whatever repercussions you think you might have from switching girls will be nothing compared to the total shit storm I’m prepared to land on your head. You’ve already seen that I’m willing to kill for what I want. Do not underestimate me.”

He couldn’t allow the trafficker to see he was emotionally involved in the whole situation. If he did that, he’d get the other man’s suspicions up right away. This was a business deal, no more, no less.

Cigarette Hands dropped down into one of the seats of the plane and crossed his legs. “Everyone I sell to is willing to kill for what he wants,” he said. “What makes you so different?”

“How about the fact I’m the one standing before you now? I don’t know where your other buyer is, but by the fact you need to use a plane to get the girl to him, I assume he’s a lot farther away than I am.”

The trafficker gave a low chuckle. “Yes, I’d say that’s probably true, but that doesn’t mean I should do as you ask.”

“Would knowing that I have armed men outside, and more on the way, help to sway your judgment?”

“Now, now, there’s no need to talk about violence just yet.” He gestured to the opposite chair. “Take a seat, and I’ll get us something to drink. Throw the girl over there with the other one. They can keep each other company.”

Monster didn’t plan on throwing Lily anywhere, especially as she still had hold of the gun. “I don’t want to sit, and I don’t want to drink. I just want you to agree to my proposal so I can get on with my day.”

Cigarette Hands sighed, as though exasperated. “Well, you’re no fun.” He languished in the seat, almost too relaxed, slouching to one side. Monster’s eyes narrowed in a twitch as the other man tried to surreptitiously reach beneath the seat.

With certainty, Monster suddenly knew he had another weapon hidden there.

“Flower!” he yelled in warning, releasing her so she could shoot the man.

Lily pulled out her gun, but she wasn’t quick enough and the trafficker whipped another handgun out from whatever fixings he must have had fastened to the bottom of the chair. Monster had a split second to decide what to do—go for Lily’s weapon, or take out the trafficker. He made the choice in a fraction of a second, knowing by the time he tried to take the gun from Lily, Cigarette Hands would already have shot her or him.

Monster lunged for the other man, focused on the hand holding the gun which now lifted toward him and Lily. Their bodies collided, and they spilled to the floor in a tumbling heap of grunts, and he grappled for the gun. Monster somehow ended up on top of the other man and he grabbed the wrist of the hand holding the gun and slammed it against metal casing of the airplane seat opposite. A loud crack resounded through the plane, accompanied by a howl of agony from Cigarette Hands. The gun went flying and skittered across the floor.

Something smacked him on the other side of his head, stars exploding behind his eyes, and he realized Cigarette Hands had used his uninjured side to punch him in the temple. The blow had weakened him enough to give the trafficker an advantage, even for the briefest of seconds.

“Flower!” he yelled.

He needed her.

Twenty-four

Lily stood over
Monster and Cigarette Hands, the gun shaking in her hand. “Don’t move, asshole,” she yelled. “Or I’ll blow your fucking brains out.”

The trafficker froze.

“Get up, Monster,” she said, trying to stop her voice from wobbling.

Monster got to his feet, and swayed. The bloom of a bruise was already spreading beside his eye and down to his cheekbone, but he didn’t let his injury stop him. He lifted his foot and stomped it down onto the trafficker’s other wrist, the fragile bones breaking with a crunch. The man let out a strangled scream and tried to curl his limbs into his torso.

The trafficker stared up at Lily, his eyes wide and almost rolling, his nostrils flaring, so he reminded her of a wild horse. With both hands now useless, Cigarette Hands must have finally realized he’d met his match.

“Finish him, Flower,” said Monster, moving to stand behind her.

She forced her finger to squeeze the trigger, wanting this moment to be over, but she just couldn’t make her hand work.

Monster was right. Killing someone, even a man as evil as this, would change her. She wanted to be hard and cold, but the truth was she still felt too deeply.

Monster must have understood exactly what she was going through, even though she hadn’t spoken a word.

“It’s okay,” he said from behind, softly in her ear. He reached out and covered her fingers—the ones holding the weapon—with his own. “Let me be your hand. Let me take this pain and burden from you. After everything I’ve put you through, it’s the least I can do.”

Her grip relaxed just a fraction, so close to letting him take over. But then she heard the muffled sobs of the girl Cigarette Hands had taken, and realized the young woman was still trying to be quiet and hide her misery, even though she was being rescued, and something hardened in her heart.

Perhaps she needed to change.

She pulled Monster’s hand from the gun. “No. This is my job.”

Lily looked Cigarette Hands directly in the eyes, and her heart turned to ice. “Many weeks ago, you sold me, and when you did, you laughed about how it didn’t matter if I saw your face because we girls never come back. Well, I came back, you son of a bitch. Are you happy that I saw your face now?”

He raised his broken hand, the fingers drooping uselessly, as though it could ward off a bullet. “No, no. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it!”

“You didn’t mean what? You didn’t mean to abduct and sell countless women? Or you didn’t mean to rape and torture them? Or are you just sorry that one of us came back?”

“All of it! I’m sorry for all of it!”

Lily gave her head a slow shake. “It’s too late to be sorry.”

And she squeezed the trigger.

The shot rang out in a deafening blast in the small space, and the gun bucked in her hands. The girl Cigarette Hands had taken gave a muffled shriek, and the man himself slumped backward, a dark hole in the middle of his forehead. He lay with his eyes wide open, blankly staring at the ceiling of the plane. Behind his head, blood began to pool on the airplane’s expensive carpeting, and slowly spread out like a drop of ink on a wet blotter. The distinctive scent of iron filled the air and she reared back as it hit her nostrils, the warm air suddenly growing ice-cold.

Lily’s hands shook and she dropped the weapon to the floor. It hit with a clatter, and she stared both at the gun and the hand that had fired the weapon as though she didn’t know where they’d come from.

I did it. I killed him. I did it. I killed him.

Monster bent to pick the gun back up. He wiped down the grip and held it in the sleeve of his jacket so he didn’t get any more prints on the weapon. “We can’t leave this here,” he said. “The police will look for a murder weapon. They’ll struggle to build a case on anyone if they can’t find it.”

Lily took a couple of deep breaths, pulling herself together.

“Give it to me,” she said, not wanting to be without the weapon while they were still in this situation. In fact, even if she got out of this situation, she couldn’t imagine ever wanting to go unprotected again. “It’s my gun. I’ll get rid of it.”

He hesitated and then handed the gun back to her, though, following his lead, she used the sleeve of her shirt to take hold of the grip, and pushed it back into the waistband of her jeans. She never thought she’d be one of those people who would feel safer with a weapon, but she was.

Monster approached the body. He pushed Cigarette Hands’ head to one side, revealing the exit wound, ragged with bloody edges, exposing globs of flesh and the white flash of skull. Lily clamped her hand over her mouth as her body fought to gag, her mouth filling with saliva.

Monster probed around in the blood and flesh until he found what he was looking for. He lifted it up between his thumb and forefinger.

The bullet.

“Better to be safe than sorry,” he said. “I wouldn’t want anything to get linked back to you.”

He dropped the bullet in his pocket and then wiped his hand on the seat of his pants. “What are you going to do with the gun?”

Lily gave a shrug. “Throw it in the ocean, somewhere no one will find it.”

Monster nodded. “Good, and we need to do it soon. Even though you’ve ridded society of a scumbag, his death is still a crime in the eyes of the law.”

She suddenly remembered the poor girl who still cowered in the corner. “Oh, my God.”

Forgetting about the dead man, she rushed over and crouched down beside the woman. She cowered back as Lily approached, and cautiously Lily put her hand out to her, as though coaxing in a nervous dog. “It’s okay. You don’t need to be frightened now. We’re the good guys. The trafficker is dead and you can go home to your family.”

She stared at Lily with her big blue eyes wide and frantic, her skin pale. Her blonde, bobbed hair hung down either side of her face in dirty tangles.

“I’m really sorry,” Lily said, taking hold of the edge of the tape covering her mouth. “This is probably going to hurt.” Gritting her teeth, she yanked the tape, peeling it from the woman’s lips. Tears flooded the girl’s eyes and she winced, but didn’t cry out.

“Are you all right?”

The young woman nodded. “I will be,” she said, her voice hoarse. “Thank you.”

“Let’s get you out of here.”

She worked on the knots of the rope, releasing the girl’s hands as well. Freed, she rubbed at her wrists and fingers with the opposite hands to bring back the blood flow. Lily remembered doing the same thing.

“What’s your name?” Lily asked.

“Jess Rhinestone.”

“We’re going to make sure you get home to your family now, Jess. I bet they’re going to be worried about you.”

She nodded and sniffed, her eyes swimming. “I can’t even imagine what my mom and dad have gone through.”

“Probably no worse than you. I’ve been in your situation. That man took me, too, but he’s never going to hurt anyone else again.”

“Thank you,” she said again.

Lily helped Jess to her feet, but Monster stood in their way, blocking the exit.

He locked his eyes with hers. “She’s a witness, Lily.”

She realized how stupid she’d been, killing a man in front of a witness. “So? She’s not going to say anything.”

Monster focused his dark eyes on the other woman. “Is that right? You’re not going to say anything about us being here.”

Jess shook her head. “I won’t, I promise. You helped me. I wouldn’t get you into any trouble.”

“We can’t have even been here, do you understand?” he continued. “In fact, when the police do ask, I expect you’ll say it was someone completely different who was here today. Isn’t that right? Perhaps a couple of men—Hispanic, maybe?”

She nodded frantically. “Yes, yes, that’s exactly what I saw. Two Hispanic men burst in here and started shouting with the guy who took me. There was a fight and shots were fired. When they were all distracted, I ran away?”

Lily heard the hope in the girl’s voice and she looked toward Monster. “I think that would be a good enough story, don’t you, Monster?”

He nodded. “Okay, but I don’t need to tell you that if we get wind the police know a different story, we will be tracking you down again.”

Tears streaked lines in the dirt down her face. “I won’t say anything else, I promise. But there are more women,” Jess cried. “In a container down at an old port …”

“They’re safe,” said Lily. “We found them before we found you and they’ve been taken to the hospital. You don’t need to worry about them.”

Jess broke down, threw her arms around Lily’s neck and sobbed. Lily did her best to comfort her, pushing away her own awkwardness about being in such close physical contact with anyone who wasn’t Monster.

“Thank you,” she said between her tears. “I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”

“You don’t have to. People and their lives should never need to be paid for.”

Lily untangled herself from the young woman, and they started to make their way out of the plane. Monster paused to pick his gun back up from where he’d left it, but he left Cigarette Hands’ gun where it was. She guessed they had no use for it now.

Morning had broken since they’d been on the aircraft, and the hazy morning light made her feel like everything she’d just done had been no more than a terrible nightmare.