The Suspect

chapter 22

In my years of working in the FBI, cases have come and gone. Most of them don't have an effect on me. The very ones that do, are sexual assault and murders that are somehow connected on a more personal level; ergo my brother and Tyler.

I look at the scene in front of me. Women being degraded to the level of objects; getting objectified and sold like fucking property. I tear my eyes away from each woman walking to the winner and drop my head with a sigh.

I have two options here. Go for our guy, question him, and get information on Tyler's and possibly Brandon's case. Second, bust this little so-called auction; but both, I can't do.

I shift my gaze to Tatum and watch him staring at me with intense eyes.

"What's the plan?" he asks me straight up.

The truth is: I don't know. I don't know where to go from here. Something simple has now become very, very complicated.

I turn towards the women again, watching them descend the stage with big grins and wide eyes, putting on a show for everyone in the audience when they're surely shaking with fear inside. I can't let them go through this. I just can't.

I pull Tatum and walk into a little space where I'm sure no one will see us.

"We need to bust this. We can't have these women being sold, just like that. It's trafficking. Of course, very against the law, and I...we just can't let them go through it," I blabber, the pace of my breath quickening.

I still when I feel Tatum's hands on my shoulder, slowly kneading my tense muscles.

"Willow, do me a favor and breathe...there you go. In and out," he instructs and I follow him. I feel my nerves slowly going away.

"You good?"

"Yeah, thanks," I shrug his hands off my shoulders, and they drop with a thump against his side.

Get your head together. It's what you do, you got this.

I repeat this mantra in my head over and over until my nerves seem to calm down even more.

Taking a deep breath I turn back to Tatum, "Okay here's the plan. The two of us together can't take them down, we need to call for backup. Next, we try and get all the winners into one confined room, as to not hurt others. Got that?"

"Yeah, but how are we gonna do that?"

How would we do that? Well...

"I may have an idea..." I begin, my voice going up a few octaves, "The winners technically submit to these women don't they?"

Tatum's eyes narrow, his gaze fixed on me, "Yeah, so?"

"So..." I linger, contemplating the idea in my head for the hundredth time. Okay, it's definitely a bad idea, but it's not the worst.

I stay silent, hoping he'll get it when it clicks and his eyes widen with new anger burning through them.

"Fuck no," he shakes his head, "Absolutely not."

"Um, yes. I'm doing it whether or not you like it," I pause reflecting on what I just said, "Wait, why do I care what you think? It's my damn job."

I give him a nod and push past him when he yanks me back into his chest. My back; correction, my still very injured back hits the metal of his belt, again. Fuck, that hurt.

I feel his breath on my bare shoulder, the warm yet chilling gust of air making the hair at the back of my neck rise.

"You are not using yourself as bait for those hungry, disgusting men," he breathes out, his chest heaving and in sync with mine.

I turn my head slightly and look up at him, "I don't hear any other ideas coming from you. Are you saying you have a better one?"

His hand leaves my shoulder and moves to my waist, wrapping around the dip in the middle and squeezing once.

"You could get hurt, not to mention the fact you already got hurt by one of those sexual predators," he bites out.

His eyes hold a warning and behind all that, care. I realize how close we are and involuntarily, my eyes—due to gravity of course—drop down to his lips for a second. I look back up, and to my demise he caught me slipping. A playful smirk stretches across his mouth.

I take his hand off my waist and drag it down towards my slit, all while still holding his eyes. I move it to the strap underneath my dress and rest it on top of the knife.

"I don't have a blade strapped to my thigh for nothing. And besides, if they try to pull it out and try something with me, I won't be afraid to cut their dicks off and feed to their filthy mouths. Sound good?" I push his hand away, give him a little innocent smile and walk out of the space back into the room.

I'm about to enter the main room when something across catches my eye. A man walks through a door—the same door guarded by that man—and engages in conversation with the guard. Something feels oddly familiar about him, but I can't quite put my finger on what.

My questions are soon answered when he proceeds to take off his mask. As soon as I get a glimpse of his face, I stop breathing. Is that...? Fuck it is him. Just as he turns to turns towards the room, I reel back and into the little nook again; bumping right into Tatum. His hands come up to steady me and his expression hardens at the look on my face.

"Woah, what's wrong?"

This doesn't make sense. Why would he be here, right now, when he said he would be in Vegas. And why the fuck isn't he doing anything to stop what's happening? Unless he's...no, no that's completely hysterical and absurd. He's an agent. A very federal, senior supervisory agent. He would work against this, not for it. Right?

Tatum shakes my shoulders and I snap out of my thoughts.

"Uh okay," I pull Tatum towards th edge of the wall and peek towards the side, "See that man there," I point towards him and Tatum nods his head.

"Well, that's SSA Miller."

"SSA as in?"

"Senior Supervisory Agent Jake Miller, who is very much supposed to be in Vegas right now, not at an illegal trafficking auction."

His eyes widen in realization. Yeah, me too. He drops his head with a heavy sigh.

"Fuck. This is fucked up. Is he working with them?" He questions and I really don't want to say yes.

"If he weren't he wouldn't let this auction just fucking go on." I think back to every single encounter I've had with him and I'm now rethinking and second-guessing everything.

"What are we doing now? About the plan?" he asks as if I have the solution to every damn thing in the world.

The plan. Mhmm.

"The plan's fucked."

~~

I feel like this chapter kinda sucked lol. It was more of a filler chapter but I had to reveal that, hehe. Thoughts/Opinions??