I felt her hand enter my back pocket as she stepped back towards the woman who had answered the door. In case anything happened to me, I had made sure Maisy knew both Aero’s and Hurricane’s information. Even though she’d had her own phone for over a month, Maisy still felt more comfortable using mine—unless it was to take pictures of our daughter.
“There’s a message from Aloiki,” she said as she unlocked it. “Apparently Barnacle has gone A-W-O-L. What does that mean?”
“Missing,” I clarified without taking my eyes off her father. That seemed odd. Barnacle might only be a Prospect, but he was Mako’s cousin. His loyalty to the club was mixed in blood. “Does he say anything else?”
“Um, not about Barnacle. But there is a picture of his, um, privates. Apparently, he wants help deciding where to get Lu’s name tattooed, um, there.”
I shook my head, because of course he did. “Ignore him,” I instructed Maisy with exasperation. “Just call Aero, please. I’ll answer him later.” Did Aloiki really need to send a dick pic to get my help on that subject? “He’s such an asshole,” I informed her father with a purposefully dramatic eyeroll.
As I heard Maisy start speaking on the phone, I indicated with my gun for Carl to step back into the main room. I followed, tossing a pair of zip ties behind me and instructing the woman who’d answered the door to tie Lorna up.
I passed under the archway and entered a seating room of sorts. A grand staircase was immediately to my left. A variety of couches decorated the room, all with gold and white accents. In the center of them was not a coffee table—but a human table.
A Black woman with a fox tail buttplug was on her hands and knees in the center of the room. Her back was to me, but her hair was done up similarly to the woman’s who was in the foyer with Maisy. I saw a strap around the back of her head, hinting that she too was gagged. Unlike the other woman, she was entirely naked from what I could see.
And there was a silver serving tray sitting on her back, filled with a cup and saucer, sugar jar and milk boat, and a still-steaming kettle. No wonder she hadn’t moved so much as an inch since we entered the room.
Carl did not look ashamed as I turned my angered look onhim. Instead, his expression dared me to challenge him, like I was judging his culture or religious beliefs instead of a sick and twisted lifestyle that was entirely achoice.
“Aero says they’re on their way,” Maisy said as she came into the room behind me. “They were waiting in Dover for our c—” She stopped mid-word as she finally saw what I had already seen. “Oh my God.”
“Don’t you fucking move,” I warned her father as Maisy rushed forward to the other woman. She cleared the hazardous things off her back and then helped her to her feet. “Take off your shirt and jacket,” I ordered Carl. When he hesitated, I shot him in the knee with my silenced Desert Eagle. “I said, take it off!” I shouted over the man’s cries of pain.
Knowing what went on in these rich people’s homes, I had no doubt the place was well insulated and maybe even soundproofed. Still, it was generally a good idea to silence gunshots in public places. Good Samaritans were such pains in the ass.
Carl struggled to disrobe and hand me his clothing. I handed the jacket to Maisy to help the woman who had been used as a coffee table before calling over my shoulder to the other one.
“I apologize for shouting,” I said softer as she came towards me. “But I can’t risk taking my eyes off him.”
“Trust me. If you’re getting me out of this and back to my family, there’s no apologies necessary,” she said as she took the shirt. I noticed she’d also removed the sponges from her feet. They must have found the key to her collar on Lorna’s unconscious body, because that was also gone.
“There’s no ‘if’,” I told her sternly. “All of you are getting out of this and back to your families. Besides the two of you, are there any other…servants?” I asked, wincing at the lack of a better wording.
“Two more.” She buttoned up Carl’s massive shirt over her much smaller body. It was practically a dress on her. “Maribelle iskept upstairs in the bathroom and Andrea would be in the kitchen.”
“This is in addition to the six who are for sale?” I clarified.
She nodded. “They’re on the second floor, locked in the…” She made a face. “Locked in the dungeon.”
Maisy came forward with the other woman, who was now draped in Carl’s suit jacket. “Tangaloa, we don’t need my dad to show us around, and keeping him hostage will only slow us down.”
She was right. I glanced at my brave girl who had her arm around the second woman, who was trying to muffle her tears into Carl’s long sleeves.
Looking to the first woman, I asked, “Got anything you want to gag him with?”
Her dark eyes widened slightly, and I was pretty sure it took a moment for her to catch on to what I was truly asking. She rushed forward to where the tea tray was now on the floor. Beside it was the fox-tailed butt plug the second woman had been wearing. Maisy must have helped her remove it, which I thought was respectful of her. Even covered, no doubt the woman was traumatized enough to not continue walking around with that hanging out of her.
With his hands trying to keep himself from bleeding out—he wouldn’t any time soon, I was nowhere near an artery—Carl was down on the not-so-white carpet sobbing pitifully.
“Open wide,” I instructed him, “or my next bullet shoots your pathetic excuse for a dick off.”
He only hesitated for a second before opening his mouth. The woman shoved the butt plug, tail and all, into his mouth. Then undid his belt and looped the leather around his head to secure it.
“Tighter,” the second woman sneered around her tears as the first woman went to lock it. I really needed to learn theirnames.
The first woman complied and pulled the belt to the next hole, practically cutting the leather into Carl’s face. I approved.
“Nicely done,” I said as kindly as I could to them. Then I walked up to Carl and cracked him across the skull as I had done with his wife. Another pair of zip ties later, and Mr. and Mrs. Donovan were bound, gagged, and placed a little too close to the lit fireplace than what was generally comfortable.