A/N: Sorry about the stupid horizontal lines, I only just found out that this site has decided not to work properly and isn't allowing "~*~" divisions. I hope that this has not caused problems following previous chapters.
Part Twelve
"What are you looking for?" Lex asked Chloe was she went through her bag.
"My phone", Chloe said, as she finally laid her hands on it.
"Nice to know that my efforts are so appreciated", Lex paid more attention to the tops of her calves and the backs of her knees.
Chloe couldn't help but moan that time, she blushed as she realised what sound had escaped her and that Lex was smiling knowingly at her. Deciding that she was already sunk Chloe tried to make light of it, "You know, we didn't have to go through all of that last night, we could just have offered them a foot rub to turn themselves in".
"So you are sure you know what we are doing?" Chloe checked with Lex as they got out of the helicopter.
"Yes, Chloe. I helped come up with the plan", Lex said as he walked her inside the LuthorCorp building, trying his best not to sound exasperated. They had been over this at least one hundred times since during the flight, they both knew what they were doing.
"I know. But I don't want you to forget, it was hard enough to get Dad to stay at home and research I don't want you to blow our cover either", Chloe stopped walking and put her hand on his arm. When she was sure that she had his undivided attention she beseeched him, "Whatever happens, you have to follow the plan".
Lex swallowed, he knew what she meant. She meant that if anything went wrong he was to say that he knew nothing about her and leave her to her fate, that saving the girls was far more important than she was. In the grand scheme of things Lex knew that she was right, but he just couldn't accept it.
He should just tell her what she wanted to hear, there was no point in getting into another fight now when they needed to be united. It would hardly be the first time that he lied but as he looked down at her, he knew that he couldn't do it; she deserved the truth.
"You know that I can't promise you that", he sighed. "Chloe, if I had my way I would have you taken away from here right now, it is taking every ounce of strength that I have not to have the security team take you back to Smallville and lock you up safe and sound". He saw that she was about to balk at that, so he placed a finger on her lips.
"And as much as I hate to say it, the reason why I am not doing that has nothing to do with respecting your decisions or your right to make them, it is not even because I know that you are the only one who can ID the people when we get in there. It is because I know that if I did that you would never trust me again and that that could get your hurt later down the line", he removed his finger, brushing against her lips as he did so.
"Lex", Chloe breathed.
"We have all of the security possible; we have armed guards and a couple of marines. I know that nothing should be able to go wrong, but if it does then you have to know that I won't stick to the plan. You are my priority", Lex said with conviction.
Chloe wanted to kiss him more than she had ever wanted anything else in her life, but she supressed the need. She could not be as brave as he had just been and lay her emotions out before him. She needed more time, something she prayed that that she would get.
"I am not worth all of those other girls lives", Chloe tried to make him see. She was so scared that he would get hurt because he was too busy looking out for her.
"You are to me", Lex ran his hand down her arm.
"We are ready Mr Luthor", one of the security men announced as he walked over to them.
"Are you ready for this?"
"Yes".
"Brilliant plan Chloe", she muttered to herself as she wandered about the club in her stilettoes. The first part of the plan had gone off well enough. Lex had got into the club with her on his arm without any problems and judging by the number of faces she recognised dotted around the place, most if not all of the security had too.
As they had planned he then sent her off – with a discreet escort - to look around the club in general, and below stairs for Laura or anything else suspicious. Lex's men had done their jobs, the man she had incapacitated before had disappeared and been pumped for all of the information he had, which unfortunately had not been much. He had merely confirmed what they had already known.
The club was being used as a front for human trafficking. The traffickers had come up from the south a little over a year ago and were using the club as a cover. Plenty of business executives could come to the club to blow off some steam after a hard day in the board room, there was nothing wrong with that. And it wasn't unheard of for pretty girls to go home with them afterwards, the difference was that in this establishment they were brought. There were a couple of girls who were kept around permanently (like Laura), but other than they got through about twenty-five girls per night.
Chloe's first thought when she had uncovered the club was to give the information directly to the police and write a story on it, but as Lex had pointed out, that wouldn't be enough. Even if the police force could be trusted there would be a delay and in that time the bosses would have left and set up somewhere else, they would only be left with the minions. They had to work out who was the brains of the operation.
They had been through everyone they knew was involved in some way but each time came to the same conclusion, it couldn't be one of them. They were all dirty, but each one had been absent at one of the big meetings that Chloe had found out about. Chloe had wondered if it could have been Lionel, but in one of the conversations she had heard – on the phones she had bugged – had referred to the man himself being in residence when she knew that Lionel was in prison. There was someone that they were missing.
Tonight would be business as normal, they had to find Laura, she was the only one who could tell them who the true boss was. Chloe had not even bothered to ask before, she had only actually had face to face contact with the woman once and then she had clearly been so terrified that Chloe had not wanted to scare her off completely. Besides, Chloe had figured that she would be able to find out who was behind without too much trouble.
It would be different now, she could explain that the place was surrounded and that they just needed to know who the boss was. It would be less than thirty seconds after finding out who they were looking for and it all being over. Chloe was confident that she would be able to get the information out of Laura, the only problem was that she couldn't find her.
She had been around the club four times already and had yet to see Laura, she had spoken to a few of the other girls Laura had described to her, they had seen Laura earlier but said that she had disappeared a few minutes before Lex had entered. The girls had been no more forthcoming than that, just shooting looks towards the men who were lurking near Chloe.
Chloe checked her watch, they had already been there two hours. It was so frustrating; she looked over at Lex chatting away with the men. One of the men there was responsible and she couldn't do anything about it. She was also starting to get scared that possibly something had happened to Laura.
"No, you can't think like that", Chloe told herself as she hovered by the bar.
"Talking to yourself, that is never a good sign", a familiar voice floated over to her.
"Jimmy", she smiled over at the barman.
"It's Timmy actually", he said with a laugh.
"Oh really? Sorry I must have misheard last time", Chloe apologised, while thinking, "Either that or the author forgot that she had already included Jimmy in the story before putting him in as my ex-boyfriend and wanted to get out of it very quickly by changing this one's name. :)"
"Tell me you at least brought a better fake ID this time", he gave her a winning smile.
She gave him a mock scowl for remembering before saying, "I don't need one anymore. I am here with Lex".
"Luthor, impressive. I have to admit that I didn't think that I nice girl like you would be able to keep his interest for long".
"What? You don't think that I can keep a man's attention?" She asked with a coy smile, it wouldn't be the first time she had flirted information out of someone.
"I am sure that you can, Lex just doesn't seem like your type", Timmy grinned back.
"Well, maybe I am tired of always being seen as the good girl, the best friend", she shrugged, "Maybe I like being with him".
"Just make sure you know what you are getting into", the bartender advised her.
"I do".
"Good, because men like him aren't faithful", he said nodding over to the group of men, a girl was now sitting on Lex's lap.
"Bastard", Chloe muttered.
Timmy got a glass out and filled it with lemonade, "Here, you look like you could use this".
"Thanks", Chloe took it and sipped it. An idea occurred to her. "Look you seem like a really nice guy and you are in the perfect position to see everything, I don't suppose that you could help me".
He looked at her oddly for a minute before saying, "If I can".
"I heard of this girl here, called … Lara, I think. Anyway, when I was in the bathroom earlier I heard some of the other girls talking. They said that she would be sure to take Luthor from the, and I quote, 'dumpy blonde girl'. Do you know which one she is?" Chloe asked, shaking the tree gently and waiting to see what would fly out.
Timmy stared at her intently for several seconds. "Is he really that important to you?"
"Yes", Chloe answered without thinking.
"You mean Laura, and she left earlier. If you like I can take you to her", he offered.
Chloe smiled at him sweetly, even as her stomach twisted itself into knots. How could she have been so blind? He was the one person that no one would ever pay attention to. She didn't know how she knew it, but she knew that he was the person behind it all. That was why when they had researched all of the other people, they had worked out that none of them could be the absolute boss.
She mentally reviewed all of the notes they had complied, it fit. He had been present at every meeting. He oversaw everything. He could move around the club without anyone batting an eyelid. Every time the girls went over to the bar, they got their orders from him.
"Sure, that would be great", she lied enthusiastically as she ferretted around in her bag as if she were trying to find her purse.
"It's on the house", he smiled at her.
Finally her fingers closed around her phone and before she could lose her nerve, took a photo of his face – she knew that she wouldn't be able to do so once security got their hands on him. Then she shouted, "Now, it's the barman".
Timmy stared at her in confusion and for a second she doubted, maybe they hadn't worked this out as well as they had thought. Then, it happened. The power went out in the VIP section, there was the sound of gun shots and smashing glass. When the power returned a few seconds later Chloe realised that the operation had been bigger than even she had realised.
Over half of the people in the club that night were security. There were two enormous men either side of her holding large weapons and Lex was running towards her, "Are you alright?" He demanded, inspecting every inch of her for some sign of damage.
"Fine", she said a little bewildered. The place was crawling with what looked like CO19 operatives pulling people out of the bar and holding others on the floor with guns to their heads. Not to mention the others who were in civilian clothes but also armed.
"How many people here work for you?" She wondered.
"Everyone except the traffickers, the girls and you", he answered honestly. "Did you find Laura? Who is the boss?" He had not been close enough to catch the end of her sentence earlier.
"It's him. It's Jimmy the barman", Chloe said looking over at the man who was already rather bloodied and being hauled off.
"Did you find Laura?" Lex asked, trying to resist the urge to hug her. He had been sick with nerves for the last two hours – although of course he had not shown it. This caring for people really made you weak, no wonder he had avoided it for so long.
"No, not yet. Some of the other girls said that she had been taken somewhere a few minutes before you arrived, Timmy said that he would take me to her when I shouted. Maybe I should have waited, maybe he would have …"
"No", Lex shook her by the shoulders gently, "you did the right thing".
"Don't worry ma'am", a man in uniform came over to them, "We will get the information out of him and all of the women already here will be looked after. As long as you are sure that we got the ring leader".
"I'm sure".
Chloe allowed herself to be escorted back to the limo with ill grace. She knew that things were being taken care of but she had given her word to Laura that she would protect her and didn't feel right leaving until she was sure that she was alright. Apparently everyone who worked at the club had been accounted for and Lex had assured her darkly that they would get the information they needed out of them, but Chloe needed to go for them to do that. There was a difference between her guessing the tactics that his men would be using and seeing them do it first-hand.
She knew that her skills would be better used on working on the article but it still didn't sit well with her. With one more backwards glance at the club she was about to slip into the limo when she saw Lex walking over to her.
"Have you found her?" She demanded.
"Sorry", he shook his head, "no, they haven't found her yet but my men are going to continue working on them through the night".
Chloe nodded, trying to hide her disappointment. This wasn't Lex's fault, he had done everything he could.
"Chloe, I promise you, we will find her".
She could hear the earnestness in his voice and tried to muster a small smile for him, as she said, "I know".
"I know that you don't want to leave, but there is nothing more that we can do here for the moment", he rubbed her arm. "I want to get you back now so you can start on your story, and I will feel better once I know you are safe back in Smallville". He planned on taking her home and then returning.
"If there is any new development I will let you know", he added.
"Okay", she said, knowing that arguing would get her nowhere. "I just feel so terrible; I think that someone must have taken her. If only I had worked out that it was Timmy before …"
"Don't do this to yourself", Lex ordered sharply. He gripped her shoulders and forced her to look him in the eye, "You couldn't have worked it out any more quickly. No one else would have worked it out at all. We will find her and because of what you did here tonight they are not going to hurt anyone else".
"Lex", she started, it was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that she loved him but then she felt uncomfortable. This was not the time, and it certainly wasn't the place so she asked the question she had been formulating ever since he had told her that she had to leave. "Could we stay in Metropolis for tonight? I want to be close by if they do find anything".
He smiled. They had certainly come a long way from that morning when she had not even known if she was welcome in his house and he had not in truth expected her to agree to going back to Smallville before they had found Laura, her being willing to let him move her off the site to his penthouse was a success as far as he was concerned.
"Sure. We can call your Dad from the car", he offered.
Chloe had actually already called her Dad to say that she was alright but she would again to say that they were staying a little longer in the city.
"Thank-you Lex", she said as he opened the car door for her, although they knew that it was for more than his gentlemanly upbringing.
Lex nodded to his security to say that one of them should get in the front with his chauffeur and the rest follow in the other car. That was probably a mistake.
He slipped into the car after Chloe and closed the door without thinking.
"Don't move", a voice growled at them.
"Damn it", Lex swore under his breath as he heard the doors lock automatically and realised that the security were all on the outside of the vehicle.
He looked over to the other side of the limo where he saw his chauffeur sat with a gun pointing straight at Chloe and a young woman who couldn't have been more than Chloe's age next to him. For a second it occurred to him that maybe she was in on it and had been all of the time, but when he looked more closely at her he could see that her look of calm was entirely feigned. She was terrified.
"Laura, are you alright?" Chloe asked the trembling girl, doing a remarkable job of sounding unconcerned by the situation in which they had found themselves.
"Yes, I'm fine", Laura replied quietly, afraid that any loud noise would make the man shoot.
"We have people looking for you, we hadn't given up", Chloe assured her. If they were going to die there, it wasn't going to be with that poor girl believing that no one cared.
"I know, I heard", she gave a weak smile.
"How sweet", the chauffeur cackled.
"Benson", Lex said calmly, holding up his hands, "I don't know what you are getting out of this, but whatever it is it isn't worth killing innocent people".
"You are innocent are you?" He cackled.
"No, but they are", Lex continued. "Whatever my father is paying you, I will double it, just let them go".
"Innocent? They are whores, and she", he pointed the gun at Chloe's head, "helped put Lionel in jail".
"Don't speak about her like that", Lex's voice grew dangerous, fear for Chloe's life wrestling with his desire to try to beat the man in front of him to a pulp.
"I'll speak about her as fucking well please", he hit Lex across the face with the butt of the gun. He had had enough of the Luthor scion ordering him around on a daily basis, he was not going to allow it to happen when he was the one with the gun in his hand.
"Lex", Chloe shouted as she saw him lurch to the side.
"I'm fine", he said, sitting back up and wiping the blood from his lip. "I'm so sorry Chloe", he turned to her and cupped her face, "I didn't think that it would end like this".
"Well, if this is how it ends, I am not going out with any regrets", Chloe announced and before she could over think it, she kissed Lex Luthor hard on the mouth. She heard him grunt in surprise but was gratified by the way that his arms wrapped around her and he responded to her kiss. Their hands held each other as tightly as possible as their tongues explored each other's mouths determined to put everything into that one kiss, if that was all that they were to have.
Bang!
Chloe and Lex pulled apart and stared at the direction of the disturbance, each turning pale. The moment had come; they both knew that the bang hadn't been because of the fireworks they had just witnessed.
Lex steeled himself, expecting to see Laura's lifeless body oozing blood; he was rather surprised to see her laying across Benson whose aim had been thrown off, shooting just passed Lex's shoulder. Clearly he had been distracted enough by the performance Chloe and Lex had put on to knock his hand away at just the right moment.
"Open the doors", Lex ordered as he saw Benson trying to right himself and get hold of his gun, "And then get out of here". With that, he threw himself at his enemy just as Laura got out of the way.
He could hear the sounds of the girls getting the doors open and his security team finally gaining access.
"Mr Luthor, we are you safe?" One of them asked him as they opened the door nearest to him.
"Fine, take the gun", he indicated with his head to the pistol on the car floor, inches from the hand that Lex was restraining.
Once the gun was gone and he was at liberty, Lex proceeded to beat the man senseless. He would probably have killed him had not felt Chloe's hands clawing at his back, trying to pull him off.
Lex allowed himself to be pulled off and wiped the blood from his hands but found that there was too much of it. He hadn't realised when he had been hitting the man just how much damage he had done.
He turned to Chloe, ready to yell at her and tell her to get out and stay with the security like he had told her to but couldn't when he saw the tears trickling down her cheeks.
"Don't cry", he tried to brush the tears away but only succeeded in smearing her face with blood, he felt sick.
"Don't kill him, please", Chloe's voice broke.
"I won't", he promised pulling her into his arms, hating the way that his hands stained her but needing to comfort her. She had been through a lot that day and he was fairly certain that she had never born witness to such brutality before either.
"It is alright now, it is all over now", he repeated the words trying to comfort her but knowing that he could never manage it. He wished that he could sooth her the way she did him, just by letting him hold her.
"I know", she managed a watery smile. "And see, I told you that we would need these", she held up the pink fuzzy handcuffs that Jimmy had given her.
"Last night was certainly action packed, I will remember your suggestion for bribery for next time though", Lex said, as Chloe stared at her phone. She looked beautiful. Before heading back to Smallville Lex had taken her back to the Penthouse to get cleaned up, he could hardly take her home smeared with bloody – and had used the time that she was in the bathroom to call Gabe just to reaffirm that Chloe was safe and would be home the next morning.
He had also had one of his employees run out to Prada – demanding that the shop open immediately - and grab a selection of dresses that looked like they might be Chloe's size so that she would have something to change into. He doubted that she would ever be able to get her own dress clean again, so he owed her a new one.
The maid went and placed the new collection on the bed in his room and removed the one which she had taken off so she did not have much of a choice in the matter.
Chloe had merely given him a word of thanks when she had come out dressed in one of her new ones and although she had seemed a little put off by the fact that he had brought her something so expensive, she obviously not to want to start a fight right then. In truth, she had been a little distant since they had left the club, not that Lex could really blame her. He didn't feel quite up to facing that evening yet either.
"Either that or we could just have Laura deal with them. Who would have thought that she would have it in her?" Chloe joked.
"You", Lex said then, seeing her look up at him in confusion, he elaborated, "you believed in her".
"Yeah, well she still went through an extra day of hell because I didn't get wise to Timmy quickly enough", Chloe tried to shrug off Lex's comment. Before he could tell her once again that that had not been her fault, - that was what he had been telling her as they got out of the helicopter and she had been so distracted that she had slipped - she asked, "What will happen to them all?"
"We will help the girls however we can. We will find out who they really are and get them back home to their families and hope that with time and counselling they can build some sort of lives for themselves again. The people involved will be put into maximum security prisons for the rest of their lives, if they don't get the death sentence. Timmy, will go to trial very soon, there is no way that they will get bail although they still don't know who he was really", Lex explained, leaving out the part involving torture and threats.
"At least I got a photo of him that I can actually use", Chloe said, as she flicked through the photos on her phone, letting Lex know that she knew what he was leaving out.
"Can you send me a copy?" Lex asked, thinking that it might be useful at some point, the scars inflicted by now would never fully heal. He thought that Chloe probably hadn't really wrapped her head around just how nefarious some of the people he worked with really were.
"Sure", Chloe hit send.
Lex took out his own phone and looked at the photo. It was a good picture considering how poor the lighting had been and would help them work out who he was, you could even make out the number on the card sticking out of his top pocket. Fuck! Only certain people had those card ending in that number, no wonder they had been having so many problems find out the truth about this man.
That photo would not just put him away for life but help put away many other criminals, but it was far too dangerous for Chloe to have a copy of. It wasn't that he thought that anyone would come after her, he knew that that couldn't happen but she would work it out. She would get herself into more compromising situations. He couldn't let that happen. He would have to get her photo off her and delete it. He closed his eyes, she was going to hate him forever.
Last night, when she had kissed him he had felt the flames of hope being fanned inside him. He had been willing to take things slowly, not to broach the subject until later but now he knew that there was no hope for them. He had to act fast, destroy the photo and with it any chance for him to win Chloe.
He wondered how he was going to go about doing it when the door swung open without warning, breakfast didn't normally come in so informally.
"Clark", Chloe gasped, trying to look nonchalant. "What are you going here?" She was suddenly very aware of what she was wearing and just how close she was sitting to Lex, she shifted a little further away from him.
"I went over to your house and your father said that he thought that you were here, working on a story", Clark explained, "I was worried". He thought of adding "Because you have been acting strangely the last few days", but decided against it. If Lex wanted to think that it was because he didn't trust him, then that was just fine with him.
"Well there was no need to be", Chloe assured him.
Clark did not look convinced, instead he studied Chloe intently. It was not just strange that she was at the mansion at all, let alone at that time of day, she was also extremely elegant. She was dressed in what even Clark could tell was an extremely expensive black tailored dress which only reached her mid thighs. The top half of the dress looked formal but there was a band of sliver which clinched the dress in at the waist which indicated that it was meant to be worn at night more often than in the board room. Where had Chloe got the money for a dress like that? Also since when did Chloe wear sparkly, high healed stilettos to visit Lex?
Her face was always so expressive, maybe there he would find the answer to his questions. Clark felt his eyes grow hot as he stared at her sweet face, and had to look away for a moment to regain control of himself. Had she always been this beautiful?
Lex noticed Clark's reaction to Chloe and was torn between the desire to hit him and wondering what Chloe thought of the obvious attention. Judging by the cannery-who-had-got-the-cream smile she was wearing, she had too had noticed the attention and was enjoying it. And why shouldn't she? He tried to reason, she was young and attractive and tired of being ignored … that didn't stop him feeling jealous though.
"We were just about to start our interview", Lex announced. That would get rid of Clark and get Chloe's attention back on him, it would also give him the opportunity he needed to get the photo off her. He could have groaned as he realised that that would mean that she would be in Clark's arms before lunchtime, but it couldn't be helped. He had to protect her.
"I will stay and help".
It was on the tip of Lex's tongue to tell him to get out but then he thought of Chloe, there was a chance that she would leave now if he sent Clark away then he would never get the picture. Besides, if Clark was there then she would have to stay to do the interview even after the photo was gone. Anything that prolonged their last meeting would be worth it.
He noticed that she had taken out her phone ready to record.
"May I?" He asked and took it off her before she could protest. Had she not been distracted by Clark then she might have seen it coming, but she didn't.
Clark looked at him quizzically, "Got to check for a clean recording", Lex explained as he found and deleted the file.
He handed it back to Chloe with a look of triumph.