Page 41 of Defending Van

Allowing himself to fall for her if she wasn't going to fall for him in return seemed like suicide, and he was nowhere near ready to take that kind of risk.

But he could ensure he got her back home safe and sound.

“There was no address,” he told his boss as they walked through Falcon’s house toward his office. Because they worked undercover, they rarely went into the main office building in the city because it was too risky. Usually, they met at some local park or café, but occasionally he’d come here.

“For him? The man who bought her?”

“There’s always an address. The information required by Azure always includes an address. So why isn’t there one this time?”

It had been bothering him since he learned that she’d been sold. Since he was the one who uploaded all the profiles, he always logged all the intel he could gather about the men buying the trafficked women. Information he then sent on to Prey for them to go through and figure out the best way to extract the women without alerting Azure to the fact that someone was targeting their clientele.

Only this profile, which had bought Makayla, hadn't provided an address. Yet he was still allowed to proceed through the system.

There was only one reason he could think of that it might have been permitted by Griffin and whoever he was working for.

“I can think of one reason,” Falcon answered, even though the question had mostly been rhetorical.

“Are you thinking the same thing I am?” Van asked because he needed to know he wasn't crazy here. This could be everything they’d been working toward from the beginning. This could be what they needed to destroy Azure for good.

And Makayla was right in the middle of it.

“I'm thinking that it’s him, the man we’ve been looking for,” Falcon said what Van had been wanting to hear.

“One of the partners,” he said slowly. It was almost unbelievable. Of course, it was what they’d wanted all along. But knowing that the owner of Azure might have been the one to purchase Makayla made that icy knot in his stomach tighten. “It makes sense,” he continued. “She was bought before she was uploaded onto any platforms, so only someone inside the ring could have known about her existence. No way Griffin is selling any of his product to the men who work for him. We saw how that turned out with Mateo and Ally. But one of the heads of the ring would be able to do whatever he wanted.”

“If it is who we think it is, then we might have to tread carefully,” Falcon said, and there was a gentleness to the big, gruff man’s voice that Van didn't like in the least.

“Tread carefully?”

“I know you know what I'm saying, Van. This is what we’ve been working toward for months. Intel that will bring Azure crumbling from the top down. If Asahi Watanabe is one of the two heads of Azure, then we have important choices to make.”

Choices.

Ones that would require him to think logically and without emotion. To forget that it was Makayla’s life hanging in the balance, and do what needed to be done to complete the job he’d taken on.

Even if that meant hanging her out to dry and sacrificing her for the greater good.

Chapter

Fifteen

August 31st

6:26 A.M.

Waiting was the worst.

Makayla was so tense, so poised ready to spring into action, so strained from trying to look like she wasn't about to pounce, that her entire body ached.

Exhaustion and the drugs had gotten the best of her the day before, and after she’d done as thorough an examination of her cage as she could, the bed had been irresistible. Unable to stay away from it, she’d given in to the lure of a soft mattress, feather pillows, and a thick quilt, and had slipped beneath the covers and promptly fallen asleep.

When someone had come to her with a tray of food, there had been no light streaming through the window in the main bedroom, so she knew she’d slept for hours. Her head had still been stuffy, and she hadn't been in any position to make a move of any sort, so she’d watched with bleary eyes as a middle-aged woman dressed in a maid’s outfit had unlocked her cell, carried the tray in, and placed it on the small table by the rocking chair.

Too good to resist, Makayla had hurried over to the food and all but inhaled it. It was good, too, though she’d never really been a fan of Japanese food. Maybe all she’d ever needed to enjoy it was to be hungry enough that anything would have tasted good. Still utterly exhausted with the drugs likely lingering in her system, she’d crawled back into the bed.

Although it had seemed like a waste of time that should be better spent gathering information that might help her escape, she knew that what she really needed was rest. Only with a clear head would she be able to not just come up with an escape plan but actually enact it.

While she’d slept, the man who bought her had been in here.