With a few clicks of the mouse, I started printing some of the emails detailing the plan.
As the pages started stacking up in the tray, I realized that my father really was a supervillain, like Anja had said. It was sickening how well he had planned all of this.
I kept searching through his emails, knowing that even the ones I’d printed might not be incontrovertible enough to prove that my father planned to start selling people as slaves.
Finally, I landed on some hard evidence. Something that the feds could use to get my father, once and for all. Because he had already booked flights for his new merchandise. Scores of future victims from impoverished countries, who had probably been told they were coming to the United States to work and be given life-changing opportunities. They had no idea what my father truly had in store for them. They wouldn’t just be prostitutes. They’d be slaves.
I printed it all, making sure the names of the individuals were on each confirmation page.
My father didn’t think I was ready to take over the business—and he was right.
I was ready to take it down.
Stefan
Chapter 26
The moment I walked in the door last night, I had told Tori everything.
“We have to stop him,” she’d said, flipping through the stack of printed emails with shaking hands, her jaw clenched.
“We will,” I had promised her.
Getting those documents to Gavin Chase’s brother at the DOD would go a long way toward making that happen. It was lucky I’d been able to get all the pertinent information before ducking out of my father’s office—names and flight numbers, dollar amounts and rendezvous points. Even with the coded language, it was clear that he was involved with illegal trafficking.
Within an hour of Tori leaving the condo for her morning classes today to pass off the information to Gavin at school, I got a call from the feds.
“This is everything we need to make an arrest,” Frank told me, sounding more confident than he ever had. “I’ve been waiting on the higher-ups for the green light, but this blows all that bureaucracy and red tape to shit. We’re gonna move fast. No more tiptoeing around.”
“Thank fucking god,” I said, relief washing over me like a tidal wave. The nightmare was almost over. “How soon?”
“You don’t have the security clearance to know the details,” he said, dropping his voice to a lower register, “but off the record, this might be the last night KZ spends outside a cell.”
When Tori came home, I gave her the good news.
“So you’re thinking tomorrow morning?” she asked.
“That’s what it sounds like,” I said. “I’ll head into work early just in case.”
Her jaw dropped. “Are you serious? You can’t go to the office tomorrow.”
“I have to,” I told her, pulling her into my lap. “I need to see this through.”
“Stay home with me,” she begged. “I don’t want you anywhere near your father when the shit hits the fan. Who’s to say he won’t do something drastic when he’s cornered?”
“Like what? Go out shooting?” I said. “He doesn’t keep a gun at work.”
“Maybe not, but those agents will be armed. What if he tries to take you down with him? You’re not bulletproof.”
Her chin started to tremble, and I cupped her cheek and kissed her long and slow.
Once she’d relaxed in my arms, I leaned back and said, “I understand that you’re worried—you have every right to be. My father is a dangerous man with a volatile temper. But I’ve waited years to see him brought to justice. I need this closure. I promise I’ll be safe.”
“You can’t promise that.” She was blinking back tears. “You’re making a mistake.”
“I’m sorry,” I said gently, “but it’s not fair for me to leave everyone at KZM to deal with a raid without me there. Plus, my father might think something is up if I don’t go in. I don’t want to give him any reason to suspect tomorrow is anything but another normal day at the office.”
She let out a sigh and wrapped her arms even tighter around me, resting her head against my chest. I held her close, stroking her hair.
