Page 104 of Direct Action

“I’ve never been to Utah,” Poppy shared.

“It’s a beautiful state,” Sterling returned.

It wasn’t a jet, or maybe it was, just not a big one. This plane only had four seats.

One for me. One for Poppy. One for Sterling. One empty.

No Beckett.

For two days, when Poppy and I hadn’t been working, we’d been going over maps with Aiden. Sterling had six properties. Some of the homes were larger than others, but they were all big houses—huge, giant mansions with a lot of acreage around them.

Sterling didn’t own property in Utah.

Yeah, something was wrong.

“Would you like something to drink, Chloe?” Sterling asked.

I tore my gaze from the landscape rushing by below and forced myself to smile at Sterling. “No thank you.”

“You’re very quiet, darling. Everything all right?”

Darling.

Barf.

“I’ve never flown private before,” I told him. “Just taking it all in.”

“When we get back to San Diego, we’ll take a trip up to Santa Barbara for lunch. The flight up the coast is beautiful.”

I was sure it was.

But that was never happening.

“That sounds amazing.”

Sterling looked pleased with my answer.

I glanced at Poppy, who was doing her part at playing happy.

I hoped I could pull this off and keep my shit together.

Two hours later, I found I couldn’t when we arrived at the largest, most beautiful house I’d ever seen. The massive stone house looked straight out of a Lord of the Rings movie, with huge circular windows and a curved archway over the front door. The inside was straight out of a magazine, with white marble floors, sunken living room, raised dining area, and enormous fireplace.

All around us people bustled. Florist, caterers, cleaning staff, women dressed in black slacks and black blouses, men in suits that looked like security.

And outside there were tables set up. Two women were dressing the round tops with crisp white cloths.

According to Sterling, the party didn’t start until nine and we didn’t need to be ready and report until seven. He’d also explained that our uniforms would be waiting for us in the staff quarters. It was only just after five. There would be plenty of time to get ready, but I wanted to get away from Sterling and have some time with just me and Poppy before we had to report.

I also needed time to prepare for what we might see. Which was something else that Pete, Jack, Cat, Calli, and Mason had gone over with us. As gently as they could, they explained what could and oftentimes did happen at these parties. But it was Catarina who privately told us that there was a very real possibility we could see young girls. She also warned us that we could witness forced sex acts. Those were the two things that had me reconsidering if I was strong enough to go through with this. I didn’t miss the depth of her despair when she warned us we couldn’t intervene. If we did, more than likely we’d take the place of the women being raped before we were possibly killed.

There would never be another sweet dream for me if I had to walk away from someone getting raped. There would be nothing Ryan could do to wash away that memory.

So, yeah, I needed a few hours.

Sterling waved over a very pretty blonde around my age, wearing a black dress that was modest yet still managed to be sexy. Or maybe it wasn’t the dress—maybe it was her sky-high heels that made the outfit sexy. “Laura, will you please show Chloe and Poppy to the staff quarters?”

“My pleasure, Mr. Blackwell.”