Chapter 5

SPADE

I learned the hard way to make it to where I am today. I even hated attending events. I didn’t want to be the focal point of mainstream and social media. It terrified me. 

I hated dressing to impress, but being the president and CEO came at a price. I had to follow certain dress codes and maintain professionalism. I had to look nice in front of the cameras. I had to get used to the luxury, even if I was fine sleeping in a dirty motel room. 

As the black sedan drove through the city’s night lights to attend an auction, I couldn’t help but feel sick in my stomach. The people who organized this event were crooks, but some greedy assholes took pleasure in satisfying their hunger for their dark, sickening fantasies at the expense of their victims. 

“We’re here, sir,” Haddon Wave, my black American bodyguard, notified me. 

I arrived at the venue. Despite wearing masks and disguises, I still noticed and recognized a couple of politicians, billionaires, and even some heads of the mafia. The auction gala was just a facade of a more disturbing event about to happen below this building. 

I didn’t know how Lex got involved in this. I wouldn’t even too quick to judge, knowing how he saved me and had saved and changed many lives through his non-profit foundation. I had no doubts that he was a good person. Maybe if he couldn’t stop terrible things from happening in this world, this was one of his ways to help someone helpless. 

The gala had started, followed by the regular auction of paintings of famous artists, antiquities, and personal memorabilia of dead personalities. Then the VIP guests were called one by one and went through several thorough inspections of weapons and mobile phones. 

I gestured at Wave since bodyguards and plus ones couldn’t come behind this closed door. There were at least twenty seats around tables with drinks according to our preference. We were then allowed to take off our masks, now that we were in the most secure place in the building. 

I expected displays, but I understood why the items were not present before us. 

“What the fuck are you doing here, Kolby?” 

Fuck. My back froze to the familiar voice. I noticed him earlier mingling with the other guests. 

“Terzo.” I grabbed the scotch on the table and sipped it. 

Terzo Siciliano, the Italian mafia don, took over the family business from his father. He ran the organized crime in Italy and controlled some territories in the US. 

If what I heard was true, most of his businesses were legit under a company called Silver Star Capital. In fact, his wife owned a five-star hotel in Sicily. 

But when you still carried that kind of family name that he had, you couldn’t get away easily under public scrutiny, and people still looked at you the same way as the notorious, ruthless mafia. 

“Done throwing yourself off the plane? Now you start buying some chicks?”

 I looked him in the eye. “I could ask you the same thing. Done dealing with drug dealers and smuggling weapons, now you shift to a sex trafficking ring?”

“I guess my disguise is awful.” He smirked.

I didn’t know how the Braddsons and Gabe Linden got entangled with someone like Terzo Siciliano, and he seemed to have so many connections with wealthy people.

The room went dark. The mic echoed. The screen flashed. The seats were fully occupied with sick, hungry, and disgusting sexually deviant motherfuckers.

The first item in the auction did not look younger than eighteen, even if her face was covered with a masquerade mask like we used earlier, and her lips were thick with lipstick; she was not even twenty-one based on the profile announced by the auctioneer. 

I swallowed down the scotch, knowing we could only purchase one item for tonight. 

“Son of bitches,” Terzo muttered. 

When the auction reached one hundred grand, I raised my number. Terzo followed. The old, hungry, fat, rich men around me bid even higher.

“What the fuck?” I called the staff to bring me another shot. 

“Bring a bottle,” Terzo said. “Who sent you? Kross?” 

I turned to him, ignoring the bid. “What made you say that?” 

“I’m here for a job.”

“What job?”

“Exposing these sons of bitches. One of my wife’s hotel employees, a twenty-two-year-old Italian-American, was kidnapped, and it led me here.” 

I stared at him, confused. “I don’t know why I am here. Lex gave me an invitation, but I’ve never been here before. So you came here personally to find this woman?”

The first item was sold. 

“Shit.” Terzo groaned beside me as the image of a woman in olive skin, lying in bed in a skimpy dress, appeared through the live monitor. 

The bid started at two hundred grand. We were surrounded by monsters, and the bid quickly rose to five hundred grand. 

“Six.” I raised my card.

“Thanks,” Terzo told me. “That’s the girl. Six fifty!”

A Middle Eastern-looking man to my right raised it to seven. 

“Eight!” 

“Nine!” Terzo ended the bid. 

“Sold!” The auctioneer struck his gavel. 

I braced myself for the new horror. “How long is it gonna take?”

“Until everyone has their item,” Terzo said.

“What twisted, sick fuckers,” I muttered under my breath. 

“Our next item. Item number three. She’s a twenty-three-year-old, stands five seven—”

“What the actual fuck?” My eyes widened in shock as I stared at the screen in utter horror. 

I swallowed hard as the bile rushed up. The woman’s familiar body in a white nightdress flashed through the screen. She was lying in bed, seemingly unconscious. There was no point in denying it wasn’t her. I saw that woman every damn day, five days a week. 

My whole body froze in terror as my mind was invaded with some awful thoughts these monsters could do to her.

My stomach heaved with sudden violence. I quickly grabbed the glass and downed it, burning down my throat.  

“The bid starts at four hundred grand,” the asshole announced. 

“You know her.” Terzo quickly picked up my discomfort. 

“Yes.” I raised my card with my blood boiling in my veins. “Let me know who orchestrated this. I will make them pay. Do whatever it takes, I’ll take the fall.” 

“Why?” 

“That’s my assistant,” I gritted out, trying to keep a leash on my anger. 

“Son of a bitch.” 

“One million!” said the old fat man behind us. 

“One point five!” I quickly blocked him. 

It quickly reached two million.

“Two point one.” The roar of my pulse quivered my muscles in both dread and fury. 

As the bid got higher and higher to two million and five hundred grand, my throat clenched. Sweat formed on my forehead as if I was brought back to that dark place with a horrible smell. 

I could feel my back stinging and my skin breaking. I could hear the strike of the thick metal buckle heating my bare back, splitting the skin open.

“Three million dollars!” I rose to my feet. 

The room went silent. 

As the gavel hit to signal the bid ended, I sat down, screaming silently in triumph. 

I couldn’t stay any longer. I instantly felt claustrophobic. The room started to feel smaller and narrower, as if the walls were moving closer to me. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead, and my skin was clammy.

I left right away, without saying a word to Terzo. Once I made it to the car, I took deep breaths and dialed Lex. My hands were still shaking as I waited for him to answer. When he finally did, I pressed the phone against my ear.

“How did it go?”

I took another deep breath, trying to calm my racing heartbeat. “Do you know she’d be auctioned tonight?”

“Who?” 

“You know how much I owe you and how much I respect you, but I want you to be honest with me, Lex. Do you know she’d be there and sold to those monsters?” 

“Who are you talking about, son?” 

“Robyn. Robyn Sharpe, Lex. Why was she there? How did she get in there?” 

“Jesus Christ. Your assistant?” He sounded surprised. “I don’t know. I swear to you, son. I have no idea.” 

“I believe you, Lex. Thank you for the invites. She must be— God knows what they could do to her if I wasn’t there.” I hung up the call and harshly threw my phone on the seat. 

My entire body was shaking. My hands were cold and clammy. I struggled hard to breathe, terrified for her. The way she looked at me yesterday, so scared to get fired, made my stomach twist in guilt.

They must have drugged her. She might be so frightened. I had a lot of terrifying thoughts that made my head spin.

Wave went behind the wheel. “It’s settled, sir. The payment went through. I got the address.”

“Take me there.”