“I’m going to ask you a question, and I hope you will be honest with me. Because honesty moving forward is the only thing you have going for you.”
“Okay.”
“The earpiece.”
She reached for her ear, even though she had already turned it in.
“It can be muffled live in the field.” Her eyes narrowed. I continued. “However, it still records everything, and we can clean up even the muffled audio to make it as clear as if we were in that bathroom stall with you.”
Kylie's mouth fell open.
“We also know about your posts on dark web group chats inquiring about purchasing Tinley.” It sounded so fucking ridiculous.
Kylie shrunk in front of me. She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
“We actually knew that information prior to hiring you.” I rubbed my chest, my hands needed a distraction. “I know what you’re thinking.”
Her nostrils flared as she cast a severe glance in my direction.
“Why would we hire you knowing that information?”
Her eyes grew wide. She sat up and, with all the indignation she could muster, said, “You were trying to trap me?”
Despite the agenda Kylie had walking in here, she’d just given herself away with that voice. I covered my mouth. It was the brattiest little girl thing I had ever heard.
“Maybe you don’t know what your bosses have been up to. I did nothing wrong, and I’d do it again,” she said. “There are women the Grant family hasrescuedwho miraculously disappear again, only for my research to show that they pop up working at Grant businesses and properties all over the world.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“It wasn’t a huge leap to see what was really happening in this organization. I willnotlet what happened to my sister happen to Tinley or Rayna.” Her indignation faded a bit at the end. She sat back down, flexing and unflexing her fingers.
The silence grew. She tilted her head and looked up at me through sorrowful eyes, as if she didn’t fully believe her own argument anymore. I couldn’t imagine believing it after spending a day in Rayna and Tinley’s world–let alone a month–and not understanding that those two are living their best life by choice with men who love them. “What are you going to do to me?” she asked.
“We’ll get to that, but lay it out for me.” I sat back on the couch. “Explain to me why you think Grant Enterprises is a criminal organization trafficking women.”
“Well, a lot of the raids the task force initiated happened in Quadrangle Hotels.” She wrung her hands together. “Spain, Costa Rica, Paris, where Tinley was found.”
“True.” I nodded.
“Tips on other raids came directly from sources you brought us.” She looked out the window.
I stayed silent.
“The raid at Hotel Rockwell. The one with Santorini’s crew.” Her cadence gained momentum. Grant Enterprises later bought it and tore it down.
“Santorini is currently in an Italian jail.” I smirked. “He won’t be needing it.”
“It’s not funny.” She screamed. “The women in those raids, the ones who didn’t have families missing them, disappear and reappear at various Quad hotels or Grant Enterprises offices.” She looked out the window across the desert. “How do you explain that? They are saved from one horrifying situation only to be put into another one, but this one comes with the guise of a debt they didn’t ask for.”
“Who are these women?” I leaned forward.
“Their names are different, but I recognized the faces.”
“Do you have proof of this? Have you spoken to them?”
“Well, no.”
She had already decided we were guilty and was trying to find evidence to support her belief. She was working on pure emotion; logic had no place in her plan. “I assure you every one of them is safe and fully accounted for.”
