Chapter 22

It took an age to drive to the club. I suppose that Les was being careful that we weren't being followed but come on, who in their right mind would think that anyone in this car was important. As we turned into that enormous parking lot the scene ahead of me was reminiscent of when I'd been here with Kiera. A lot of cars, minibuses and taxis with people already queuing to get inside. I hoped that Les had planned for that because I really didn't fancy being out in the open having to wait to go in. Thank God that Les was holding a printout that would allow us inside immediately.

Taking on the appearance of a couple I linked my arm through Les's and kept my head down. I remembered the crazy number of cameras that were in the first large entrance room. Thankfully it was busy. There were couples and groups of men and women mingling, carrying out conversations.

"Where to?"

Came from Les as he eyed up the people around us, hopefully not eyeing up the ladies. I spied a group of women who were obviously here for a hen party. The woman who was going to be the bride was decked out with a crown on her head and a banner across her chest.

"I'm going to insert myself in with that group over there. Just stay close because as soon as one of them heads to the ladies room then that's who I'll be with"

You guessed. My idea was to use that door where the cubicles were and access the office from that store room. The problem might be getting Les inside with me. Pfft, I'd deal with that when the time came. Moving forward I tagged onto the two girls at the back of the group, making out that I was listening to them talking by looking at them and nodding my head. Once inside the main room the loud music made it easier to just follow them as they weaved their way toward an area that had several tables reserved. Not comfortable to actually sit down with them I stayed back and watched the heaving mass on the floor pleased when a couple of the women stood up and headed to the dance floor. Now that was where I excelled.

I was getting a little frustrated by the women swapping in and out on the dance floor so it was a relief when one of them announced that she needed to use the little girl's room. By now most of the women were well on their way to being drunk and just accepted me being with them. Hell, a couple of the women were so used to me being with them that one of them linked their arm through mine. This was going to be group visit to the ladies room, something that I could remember doing with Lula and Connie on our nights out. Now to get Les in there without scaring the shit out of any women. I was aware that Les was close by after seeing glances of him behind me, so was assured that he would know where I was heading to. The women used the toilets first but then seemed to be setting up camp by the sinks and counter tops. Makeup was reapplied, hair was fluffed up. Geez, when were they ever going to move? Maybe they needed a little incentive.

"Excuse me ladies. The bride to be, well she needs some help. Some dudes are harassing her"

After some shrieks and a lot of swearing the ladies with me made a very quick exit. Before we could be interrupted with anyone walking into the room, Les walked in and I pushed him through into the area where the cubicles were. Hearing a toilet flush Les took the initiative by using the first available cubicle and shutting the door. I went and stood at the end as though about to leave. As soon as a very big busted underdressed blonde exited, I was knocking on Les's door.

"Go do your magic on that door. I'll keep everyone out"

Standing by the opening with one eye on Les it wasn't long before a woman walked toward me.

"Sorry, they're all full so you'll have to get in the queue"

One of life's mysteries that I had never worked out was why there always seemed to be a queue to get to a toilet. It never happened with men, they were in and out before I'd ever reached the front of the queue. At least what I'd said didn't cause a riot as two more woman appeared and stood behind me. As soon as Les was through the door and into the store room I was walking forward and following him in. Yep, I could hear some mumbling coming from the woman behind me.

Les had turned on a penlight and had made his way over to the second door and was crouched down looking through the keyhole. I shook my head at the fact that every other door that I'd come across had been electronically controlled yet for some reason they'd totally overlooked this one.

"Looks empty"

Came from Les as he took out his picks and started to work on the lock. A few minutes later, no, he wasn't as fast as Ranger at unpicking a lock, he carefully turned the knob. I was still in the cupboard as he pushed it open and stuck his head around the door.

"All clear. Watch that other door while I take a look at the computer"

I nodded my head as I stepped into that office and walked over to the main door. It was slightly open which gave me the advantage of being able to look down the corridor. I wasn't sure how long it would take for Les to whatever he had to do at the computer for Hector to hack into the systems, but I was getting restless just stood watching. It seemed awfully quiet, so I opened the door a bit further to look the other way. No one in sight but there was a door open further down the hallway and if I wasn't mistaken, I could hear someone talking.

Being a naturally curious person, okay I'm nosey, I began to walk toward the open door hoping to hear more clearly what was being said. A woman, but only hearing her voice so I assumed that she was on the phone. I hated one sided conversations but wasn't going to miss out on this.

"Darling, you did right"

"I know. I never dreamt that he was the one who would betray us. I knew him through my baćka, so I trusted him"

I had an awful feeling that I was listening to Alina talking about Ranger. What I wanted to know, yes, where he was, but how she had found out who he was. Ranger was always so careful and would never take any chances.

"That man of yours"

"I know darling, but you did what you had to do, and I will compensate you for it"

Which implied that she was talking to another woman. Could it be Kiera? So what had Kiera done that had blown Ranger's cover? God, I hoped that it had nothing to do with me.

"Yes, he's being dealt. First though I need to find out what he knew"

"With the raid on the manor house you'd be best staying low for a while"

Yeah, she was definitely talking to Kiera. So where would she go? That was for another day. All that I wanted to hear Alina say was where she was holding Ranger.

"Hey, you. What the hell are doing there?"

A shout that had me glancing behind me to see a man coming toward me and boy did he look annoyed. He was between me and the door where Les was working but in that instant that he shouted he had pulled shut the office door. The knob turned red which meant that Les was locked inside, which meant that I wasn't going to be getting any help from him. Run, that was what I was going to have to do, so I immediately set off at a run down the hallway.

"Piatro, what the hell is going on?"

Oh well, it seemed that Alina would soon be following me, so I upped my speed as I headed toward the end of the hallway. God, this had a feeling of déjà vu. The door on my left was open so I ran through it only to find myself in a darkened area. Fortunately, the door closed and locked behind me. I heard banging on the door behind me and despaired when I realized that I was at the top of a flight of stone steps. Shit, I had no idea that there was a basement here. Why would they need a basement?

Another door and I could hear music in the background but not the type that was playing on the dance floor, this was sultrier. I was too confused with where I had walked into to take any notice of that. As I slowly walked down a darkened hallway, I came across doors that had glass windows in them. Looking through the first window had my eyes go wide and my hand coming up to cover my mouth.

It was like watching a porn movie only the woman being ravaged really didn't look as though she was enjoying it. What the hell was going on here? A second window showed a woman on her front, totally naked with a large man pounding into her from behind. I was almost dreading looking through another window when a door started to open. Not knowing what else to do I opened the door into the room that I'd just looked into.

"I aint had my hour yet"

Came as a grunt from the man. He never looked at me, thank goodness, but the woman did. Her eyes were glazed with pupils as black as coal. She was looking at me but not seeing me, as though she was totally out of it, maybe on drugs. Not wanting to see any more I reopened the door relieved when there was no one there and continued down the hallway. Why were those women in those rooms? Was this place a brothel? Sheesh, how bad could this get?

A hell of a lot worse as another door opened. Only this time no one came out, which was probably a good thing because I had nowhere else to run to or hide. What was weird was that the door that opened was shining with a green light. I hadn't noticed lights on any of the other doors. Opening it slowly I was faced with the floor covered in mattresses with girls huddled together, as though afraid of who was coming in. They looked bedraggled with lank hair and dirty clothes. All of them had dark hair and brown eyes and all of them were staring at me with wide eyes. That was when it hit me. They were just young kids being held here as prisoners for sex. Just as we had been about to be sold into slavery for sex, these girls already had been. I remembered that Ranger had mentioned that women were being trafficked from South America, was this where they were brought?

"Les, Les. Get the police, FBI or even the army. There are young kids here. We have to get them out. Can you hear me?"

No response had my heart rate going up even higher. I had to get help. The girls never moved so I closed the door noting how the light stayed at green. Would they be safe behind that door? Would they try to make a run for it. To be honest I wasn't so sure, maybe they'd be safer staying where they were. I was close to panicking when I heard running behind me. Find an open door, there had to be an open door to get me out of here. It was like a maze of hallways with locked doors with someone close behind me. I was sure that I could hear Alina screaming behind me which gave me the impetus to run faster. One last door, please let it be open. It was a damn good job that it did open because I was running so fast, I probably would have knocked myself out. I was in a large room with several tables and chairs and a door at the other side, only this door wouldn't open. It seemed that I'd run out of places to run.

Turning around I watched as Alina walked into the room. Maybe she wasn't as pretty as I'd first imagined her to be and I was pretty sure that she spent a fortune in maintaining her hair, lips that looked too pouty and breasts that certainly seemed too big for her frame. I stepped forward and looked at her seeing the anger radiating from her. I suppose it was pointless hiding who I was from her, so I pulled off the wig. It was almost like saying "Fuck you" and had the same effect.

"You interfering bitch. You've turned up once too often and tried to interfere. No more"

I heard the door open behind me and glanced to my side hoping beyond hope that it was the cavalry. No such luck as I saw a man holding a gun out in front of him. Moving my arm down to the gun in the holster caught Alina's attention.

"No, you don't. Jerome, finish her off"

I wasn't about to turn around and face my executioner or give Alina the opportunity to see me beg for mercy. I was shit scared but as I stood there, I knew that it was the end of the line for me. I stood taller, almost in defiance, the shaking almost my undoing. Thoughts whizzed through my head. All of the times when I'd cheated death, all of the times when Ranger had saved me. I'd come here wanting to find him but had failed miserably. All I could hope for was that he would work his magic and escape. At least, well I hoped, that I'd put a stop to how Alina was treating the women and girls that were being held here.

I heard as the bullet entered the chamber and couldn't help it. I jumped at how loud the noise was and I closed my eyes. The blast so close to me was deafening but it didn't hurt.

It didn't hurt. My eyes shot open, and I watched as Alina fell to the floor, her hands grasping at her chest where her blood was oozing out of. The look on her face was shock, as though she had no clue what had just happened and to be honest, I was feeling the same. I knew as soon as she hit the floor that she was dead. What the hell had just happened? Turning to Jerome he lowered his gun.

"Let's get those women and girls out of here. I need to find Heidi"

I was stood staring at Jerome totally confused with what he was saying.

"I don't understand. You helped me"

"Yeah. I knew that this place was evil and that the woman who was running things was responsible for Heidi going missing. Everything came back to here, so I got a job working security. I saw you the first time that you were here"

The locks on the doors. Was he responsible for opening and locking the doors for me? Then it dawned on me. Heidi, there was a girl called Heidi on the truck.

"Heidi, petite, auburn hair and hazel eyes?"

That had him looking at me strangely and with such a sad look in his eyes.

"Is she?"

I suppose if he'd been looking for her and learnt what Alina was doing to those women then he would have thought the worst. That was probably why he had killed Alina, out of despair and grief but also to avenge a woman. I felt so elated that I'd met Heidi and couldn't wait to tell him the good news.

"Alive and safe. Come on, some friends of mine should be here soon"

I was still shaking as we left through the door where Jerome had appeared from. His arm around me gave me both the physical and emotional support that I was desperate for. It was quiet, too quiet, so I was drawing my gun from the holster ever conscious that we might run into some more men. A black shadow at the end of the hallway had my heart going into overdrive. We were so close to getting out of here. Only it wasn't who I expected to see as they walked out of the shadows. I lowered my gun and then pushed Jerome's arm down so that there would be no mistaking why he was with me.

"Did you find him?"

I was so desperate to hear good news about Ranger. As Les wrapped his arms around me I just knew that they hadn't found him. I could feel the tears beginning to form and through a choked sob knew that I needed to make sure that Jerome wasn't arrested.

"Jerome, there. He's one of the good guys"

I allowed Les to guide me through the hallways, ever aware of the men who were checking out rooms and leading cuffed men away. Once outside it was like the scene that I'd viewed through Tank's camera, only this time I was slap in the middle of it. I felt a hoodie being pulled over my head so pushed my arms through the sleeves. The hood stayed up because I didn't want people to see the state that I was in. The cuffed men were led to the black trucks that were parked up while women and girls with blankets around them were being tended to by paramedics. I wasn't sure what would happen to them now, but it had to be better than the living hell that they'd been in.

Les led me to a black Cayenne that I assumed was one of the Rangeman fleet, helping me to get settled in the front passenger seat before he got in beside me. Scenes from being in that building kept going through my mind. Alina and the conversation that I'd heard, I assumed to a woman, kept going around in my head. How could she treat other women as she had, what kind of monster had she been? Those girls faces were something that I would find hard to forget but at least they were safe now. I was totally unaware of where Les was driving and assumed that we'd arrive back at the house where I'd been staying. Us suddenly dropping down a ramp into a large parking garage had my eyes scanning to see where we were. It reminded me of the parking garage at Rangeman in Trenton, but I knew that was impossible.

"Where are we?"

"Rangeman Boston. We have a lot of information that we need to search through"

Ranger, we still had to find him. Where the hell could he be?

"Were Kiera, Isaac or Nikita found?"

I asked, though in my heart I think that I already knew the answer to that. Trawling through any information that we had was probably a way to find any locations where those three might be hiding out.

"No. Rest tonight and then in the morning you can help"

If I didn't know Les so well, then I wouldn't have detected an undertone of frustration in his voice. It felt strange being led to the elevator and seeing Les use a fob to access it. It had been so long since I'd been inside the Rangeman building in Trenton and it seemed that this office had many similarities. Seeing the light for floor six had me wondering where Les was thinking that I'd sleep and as he used his fob once more on a door, I was slowly taking a pace back.

"This is Ranger's apartment here. Make yourself comfortable. I'll see you in the morning"

I watched as Les went to the stairwell door and disappeared, before looking at the opened door to Ranger's apartment. I couldn't bring myself to push the door open. He was missing and probably hurt, and it was probably all my fault. I was sure that I was responsible for his cover being blown. Find me, Stephanie Plum, aka, Bombshell Bounty Hunter, and you were sure to catch glimpses or snatches of conversation that included Ranger. I sank down onto the floor in the corner, the tears now uncontrollable. I couldn't use his apartment now. He'd probably hate me. Laid there I knew that I was hyperventilating but I didn't care. Those little black dots swimming in front of my eyes were a welcome sight as I sunk into oblivion.