“So are Frank and Elizabeth working with you as well?” I thought back to the conversation I’d overheard earlier.
“What? No?” He frowned. “Why would you think that?”
“No reason.” I walked over to the desk and started picking up files. My brain was racing a million miles a minute. There was no way that David was working with Frank and Elizabeth, which meant that they were up to something else – maybe something even more sinister, if that was possible. “What about Brandon Hastings?” I looked back at him. “What role does he have in this?”
“We think he’s on the outside, getting the Johns lined up for the girls.” David looked at me in anger. “We think he’s the one that corrupts the girls.”
“Oh no.”
“He’s this rich piece of shit that preys on younger girls.” David’s voice was emotional and I could see his hands were clenched. “I can’t wait until he goes away for a long time.”
“Goes away?”
“To jail.” His words were harsh but when his eyes looked at me his expression was oddly empty. “I’m not going to stop until he and Greyson are imprisoned.”
“Oh.” A feeling of fear surrounded me then and I looked down at the files in my hand with heavy eyes. All of the information he’d given me was giving me a headache and a burdened heart. “Well, I’ll do what I can do help.” I nodded at him. “You should leave now, just in case Greyson comes in the room.” I turned away from him quickly, my mouth feeling dry as I said Greyson’s name. How could he be that person? Was he pure evil? He had to be, if what David said was true. He was basically trafficking women. I felt sick to my stomach. I had made out with a human trafficker. I’d let him touch me and grope me, and I’d been about to let him f**k me. My body still ached for his touch. How could I still feel this way about him, knowing what I now knew?
“I’ll come to your room tonight, so we can talk.” David interrupted my thoughts and I wished he would just leave.
“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “I have a roommate.” And I don’t want you to think you can touch me, I thought to myself.
“Nancy’s your roommate, right?” He asked casually and I nodded. “She’s fine. We can even enlist her for help.”
“Really? You trust her as well?”
“Yeah, she seems like she is trustworthy.” He walked to the door. “But I better go. Remember to keep your eyes alert and your ears peeled. We’ll talk tonight.”
“Okay.” I watched him leave the room and I felt my body relax. I stared at the door for a few moments trying to take in what had just happened. I couldn’t believe that David was an undercover cop. Or, really, part of me didn’t want to believe. Not because I cared about him or even knew him. I didn’t want him to be an undercover cop because then what he told me wouldn’t seem so real. I didn’t want to think that this private club was really a disguise to sell women into prostitution. I didn’t know Greyson very well, but my heart didn’t want to believe he could be capable of such a thing.
“Don’t be an idiot, Meg.” I muttered to myself. “You don’t even know him.” I continued filing the folders and waited for Greyson to come and join me in the room. But he never showed. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. I wanted to see him, to look into his eyes, and see if he was a monster.
The session seemed to take forever and it was extremely boring. I didn’t even bother looking in folders for more clues. What was the point? I already knew what was going on here. I most probably already knew what had happened to Nancy’s sister. She was most probably in some Arabic country servicing some sheikh, or maybe she was in Asia somewhere as a concubine. For all I knew she was on a ranch somewhere in Texas, servicing some rancher on a cattle farm. Or maybe she was in a basement somewhere in Manhattan, locked away from sight, being visited every night by her ‘master’, while his wife slept. Who knew where she was? I’d taken some human trafficking classes in law school. I knew enough to know that you never really knew who was involved in the trade. I took a deep breath as I felt a tear roll down my cheek. I wanted to cry. I wanted to break down on the floor and cry until I couldn’t cry anymore. It was all too much. I hadn’t counted on this. I could have dealt with a strip club; in fact, I’d been expecting a strip club, but this news, this new reality was too much for me. I didn’t want to be here trying to solve this problem. This was too heavy for me.
“Task completed.” A voice spoke into the room and alerted me that I was done with task three. I walked to the door slowly, not even bothering to wipe my eyes. I was done here. I couldn’t deal with this. At the end of the day, I was still me and I couldn’t deal with this. I was going to leave and then call Katie and tell her everything. I opened the door and stepped into the corridor quickly and jumped when I saw Greyson standing outside the door.
“Hey.” He smiled at me, his mouth curling up slightly as he looked at me.
“Hi.” I spoke back to him curtly, unable to make myself smile. My heart skipped a beat as we made eye contact, but I refused to allow myself to be happy at his presence.
“What’s wrong?” He walked over to me with a concerned look on his face.
“Nothing?” I shook my head and looked away from him.
“It’s not nothing.” His finger reached up and rubbed my wet cheeks. “You’ve been crying.”
“No.” I looked down.
“Yes.” His voice was angry. “Don’t lie to me. Why were you crying?”
“I wasn’t crying,” I lied, and looked up at him. He was staring at me and my breath caught as I saw the concern in his eyes.
“Meg, what’s wrong?” His tone was softer now. “It wasn’t the test, was it? You only had filing to do. That shouldn’t make you cry.”
“How do you know I had filing?” I looked at him suspiciously.
“Because I put you in that room and I made sure your next task was filing.” He smiled at me gently and grabbed a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped my eyes.
“Oh.”
“I thought I’d surprise you after the test.”
“You didn’t come in.”
“I told you that I wouldn’t be able to stop myself if I came into the next room with you.”