“No he hasn’t.”
“We can debate that later. Spill.” Sam shoved an unruly lock of red, curly hair behind her ear and grinned like a child.
There was no walking away from what these women wanted. Eliza sucked in her bottom lip and let her body warm with the memories. “Unparalleled. He was amazing. Warm, sensual and he took his ever-loving time. I loved that…hated it too.” She sighed. “It was worth the wait.”
Gwen started asking detailed questions starting with when and where…did they play in the plane or on the beach?
It was impossible not to get caught up in the recall. With these women, she knew nothing would go farther than these walls.
****
“What are you grinning about?” Carter asked Neil when he walked into the room. The larger man resembled a sixteen year old who just found his father’s stash of scotch.
Neil leveled his gaze on Carter and suppressed a laugh.
“Did Sam arrive okay?”
“She did,” Neil said.
Carter moved from one man to another. “Samantha is with Eliza and Gwen packing, right?”
“Right.”
“So you were listening to them? Watching them?”
Neil had access to the surveillance equipment at the Tarzana house, but Carter never thought of him as a spy.
“Long enough to know that Sam arrived and they’re starting to pack.” The grin on Neil’s face faded. “So…where are we?”
“We’re about to call Cash and see what he found out.”
Carter dialed in the video call and Blake put Cash’s image on the big screen.
“Hey, Dad.”
His father sat at a desk and waved at the screen. “Will you look at that. This would have made my life a hell of a lot easier when I was on the force. Is this how all of you kids talk now? No phones?”
“We text, email, and talk on phones. How was your flight home?” Carter asked.
“Fine, fine. You look rested. How’s Eliza?”
“She’s great. Packing.”
“We like her.”
Carter glanced at Neil and then Blake. “I’m glad. So, Dad, what did you find out?”
Cash’s easy going smile dropped. “Before I tell you what I learned, first you need to tell me your connection to this scumbag Sanchez.”
That didn’t sound good. Already there was fight in his father’s voice.
“It’s not me as much as it is Eliza. Her parents…”
Cash swallowed hard and dropped back in his seat. “Eliza’s last name wasn’t Havens, was it?”
“No.”
“I was afraid of that.”
“What is it Dad?” Carter sat forward, rubbed his hands together. From the gray look on his father’s face, he knew it wasn’t good. Even for a seasoned veteran of the force.
Cash pushed a few papers around on his desk and perched a pair of reading glasses on the end of his nose. “Ricardo Sanchez is doing two life sentences at San Quentin. He doesn’t care who he pisses off in prison, spends plenty of time in solitary. Though of late he’s backed off. The guards say it’s normal for a man in his forties to lay low.”
“Why is he there?” Carter knew Eliza’s parents were murdered, but did Ricardo personally end their lives? Or did he call in the hit?
“Sanchez ran a well organized sex trade operation. Anytime sex is involved, you’ll find drugs. And he had a hand in that as well. His reach covered a dozen states and three countries. Some of the testimony that I found indicated that he was a modern day mob boss. He had a family, kids, even a dog. If you can call a vicious pit bull trained to eat small children a dog. Still, he was respected and feared. He evaded arrest, and notice for that matter, for years because of the legit business he used to cover up his criminal activities. That’s where Kenneth Ashe comes in. Name means anything to you?”
It should. Something told Carter he should know that name. He shook his head.
“Mr. Ashe drove a shipping truck at night for Sanchez’s models.” Cash air quoted the word models. “You see, Sanchez disguised his sex slaves as runway models for second class fashion shows. Sanchez didn’t keep the same legit men on the jobs for more than few weeks before swapping them out. He had oblivious drivers drop off and set up runways. Later he’d have his boys come with the mostly underage girls to entertain an exclusive group of men. The men at the front of the caravan never knew what was happening on the other end. According to the testimony, Ashe was on his second week as a driver and had lost something at work. Unfortunately, he returned later that night for it.”
“Ashe slipped into the backroom of the “fashion show” and found Sanchez in the act of raping and beating a minor. Ashe was a family man. Had a kid of his own…a daughter. He hid but was trapped, unable to leave until after Sanchez was done.”
“He didn’t try and stop him?” Neil asked.
“The room was filled with women, girls, and several of Sanchez men. All armed. If Ashe had tried, he would have died.”
Carter swallowed a mouthful of bile. Ashe must have been Eliza’s father.
“Sanchez killed the girl, as an example of what would happen if the others didn’t cooperate. He boasted that every time a new batch of girls came in he personally sacrificed one.”
“Jesus.”
“No, I don’t think Jesus was invited to this party. When Ashe managed to get away, he went to the authorities. An investigation was launched and Sanchez was taken into custody. Within a week, every girl had been murdered and found in the most horrendous of places, all violated, thrown away like garbage.”
“What happened to Ashe?”
Cash removed his glasses and looked at Carter through the video camera. “He, his wife, and their young daughter were taken into protective custody. After the trial Sanchez was sentenced and the Ashe family disappeared into the witness protection program.”
Carter dropped his head into his palms. Blake placed a hand on his back.
“Do you want to hear the rest?”
Carter nodded, but he didn’t look at his father.
“Kenneth and his wife Mary attempted to live life within the system. But like I said, Sanchez had a reach. A year or so later, the authorities found Mary much like the girls from the sex ring, dead, violated and her husband bound so he could watch. His throat slit. A note was pinned to the skin of his forehead letting whoever found them know that their daughter was next. Luckily, the girl had been in school that day.”