AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I get through most of my work before gran is wheeled back in and put into bed where she lies, exhausted. She immediately falls back to sleep, and I manage to get through the rest of my workload before closing my documents file. As I have some time to kill, I decide to bring up the local news to see what is happening around town. I am not a news junkie, in fact, I have been so busy with work and gran these past few weeks that I don’t even know what is making news lately.
Clicking through, I see the usual articles about crime and budget cuts, but I scroll farther down and see a beautiful photo of Scarlett and Shaun who I met a few days ago, positioned in the business section. I click on the article and start to read. An hour later, I managed to get out of the rabbit hole I went down, that is online articles on Stephen Sullivan.
The original article was one about Scarlett and Shaun at a fundraising benefit, the article going into detail about their recent wedding and rumors of her pregnancy. However, as with all good online articles, it had links to previous stories where I read all about Stephen. Articles talked about his previous family business and his father’s criminal activities from a few years ago. There were also a myriad of pictures of him looking devastatingly handsome with a bevy of extremely attractive females on his arms at different events and clubs. His life is so very different to mine and these pictures prove it. He has dated at least one Victoria Secret model, and when I see that image, I die a little inside.
I knew about his family history a little, you can’t have lived in Boston and not know about it. It was big news when it happened, everyone was talking about it. I just hadn’t put two and two together and hadn’t realized that Stephen was the Stephen Sullivan. After what he went through with his father, I now understand why he is so passionate about running a business legally and ethically, and why he was upfront with giving me the evidence on Jasmine from his club.
Knowing all this, I actually admire him even more. To be at the top of the business world one moment, before losing it all and nearly losing your life with it. To then be back up as one of Boston's most successful businessmen again with his clubs just goes to show how amazing he is. It is staggering what he has been through. In comparison, I am such a plain Jane.
I turn off my laptop, pack it away, and stand to stretch my legs. Now that gran is comfortable and sleeping, I need to go for a quick walk. I make my way outside to walk the block around the hospital for fresh air, trying to clear away the antiseptic from my nose and feel the cool air on my skin. I am not looking forward to another night sleeping in the chair next to gran and I wish we were both home instead.
***
11
STEPHEN
After spending the day at home yesterday, going over everything with Shaun, Scarlett, Marco and Jake, and thinking over my short conversation with Molly last night, I am even more determined to get to the bottom of this issue at my club.
I don’t want to be embroiled in another illegal business scandal; it is hard enough to come back after what my dad did. For another business I am involved with to have a link to criminal activities, then that will end me, both professionally and personally. I spend the first half of my day at the club in my office, which is situated off of my private bar. Jake and Marco are here, and we are meeting with Jake's contact from the Feds. Apparently, the call from Jake gave him some intel on a job he is working on right now and he wanted to talk further.
Federal Agent Jai Parsons sits across from me. He is as big as Jake, with blonde hair and blue eyes; I am sure the ladies swoon after him. I assume they were in the military together at some point because he is extremely professional, and he seems genuinely interested in the information we have on John.
“So, I have a full detailed report on our friend John here, it is interesting reading,” Jake says as he throws the file across the desk to me and gives a copy to Jai.
I look at Marco who has his eyebrow raised, clearly interested in what the contents hold.
I open the file and start scanning the report and corresponding paperwork. The reports we run hold the usual things, but our access to information goes deep. We use systems and processes that are not available to the average business owner, and our team of professional security personnel dig deep into the digital world. We uncover information such as website visits and online chat platforms and the like.
This is all Jake’s work, though. His cyber security skills and techniques are second to none, he can find anything from anyone, anywhere, and block everything and anyone wanting to do it in return. Some of the tech detail fries my brain, but Jake is not only street smart, but highly intelligent, too.
Jake has certainly delivered with this latest stack of information. It appears that John frequents teen girl sites, has photos and video of him and young women in a private digital storage vault, and a variety of other material that makes my stomach curl into itself. It is all I can do not to run to the bathroom to vomit my coffee up from this morning when I realize we are dealing with someone and something very serious.
Agent Jai clears his throat. “I am not going to ask how you got these details, Jake, but I can assure you that this makes for very interesting reading on my behalf. We have been tracking him for a few months now. A lot of this we already have, but I will give it to my team to review.”
“What do you mean tracking him for months?” I ask Jai, wondering just what we are dealing with here.
“Judge John is into some kinky illegal shit, and we have been watching him for a while. We are gathering evidence and have enough to put him away for a very long time. But we are after his buyers, his contacts, and anyone he deals with.”
“Fuck!” I push the file to Marco, who upon reading it, goes as white as a ghost and walks into the bathroom to splash water on his face. Marco is a brilliant businessman, and like me, has members of the opposite sex chasing him on the daily, but he is the warm, fuzzy person of our group. He is extremely empathetic and very much a people pleaser. It is no surprise that something like this would upset him.
“Tell me who we are dealing with here and what it means?” I grit out to Jai once Marco comes back and takes a seat.
“I can’t go into too much detail but the links in data that we have found indicate that John is into some shit with girls who are extremely young and vulnerable. Not only is his personal pleasure with them illegal, but he is grabbing girls and then selling them to the highest bidder,” Jai tells me.
“Human trafficking? You have got to be fucking kidding me,” I hiss, not wanting anyone outside of the room to hear our conversation.
“As I said, we have enough evidence on file to throw John in jail for life, but we are after the big guns, his clients. There are a lot of girls missing and we want to find them, or at least find out what happened to them.”
Jake pipes up, ”If I had to guess, John is working in tandem with an associate in the area, and together, they find young vulnerable girls, just like Jasmine. He drugs them and then takes them to sell. Buyers seem to be mainly from Eastern Europe or Asia, but we have nothing concrete yet - more so a hunch.”
“I need your support here, Stephen. I need you to keep this information to yourself. This is a Federal matter, and we are working hard to try and pull it all together, but I can’t have you going to the local police. They would tip John off given his powerful position and that would ruin everything.”
“But what does that mean for us?” Marco asks, still looking pasty and unwell but here with me just the same, and I appreciate it. I rub my eyes; this is so much worse than I thought. From reading through the material, it appears that my club is one of many places John and his associates like to conduct business.
“The good news for us is that now that we have caught him with Jasmine, he will be less willing to show his face around Nitro for some time. He will use other clubs for a few weeks to stay off our radar, not wanting to raise any suspicion.” Jake makes a valid point, but this is bigger than me and the club now, this is serious business.
“Do you think it was his team who jumped Stephen?” Marco’s question surprises me. I hadn’t thought of that angle, I just assumed it was a random thug after money.
