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Chapter Twelve
The next afternoon, Alex reluctantly pulled herself away from Lily and left her at the marina to sunbathe with Sara on the yacht while she went to Sam’s to place a planned initial cold call to Travis, the suspected trafficker.
The call itself took under three minutes, and as soon as she hung up the phone, Sam clicked off the recorders and leaned back in her chair, raking both hands through her hair.
“Dude, I’m not sure what I just witnessed there, but that was pure gold. I know FBI agents that aren’t that smooth undercover. How did you even know how to talk to him like that?”
“Are you kidding?” Alex said, pulling some lip balm out of her pocket and smoothing it on. “I’ve spent way too much of my life listening to Alejandro buttering up filthy rich clients to not know a few things.”
Sam got up and grabbed two cold Sam Adams bottles out of the fridge and came back to the table. “I can’t believe he didn’t insist on knowing who your contact was.”
“Well, he thinks I’m Alejandro, so when I started dropping hints, I heard the keys of his computer clacking right away, so he was definitely checking me out. He must have run my phone number first, which of course came back to Alejandro, then googled me. And when he saw Alejandro’s clubs and restaurants—”
“And the beautiful women of Miami draped all over him,” Sam cut in, flipping the top off Alex’s beer.
“Exactly.” Alex took a long swig before she went on. “When all that matched up, I guess he started to think I was legit. I didn’t expect him to ask, actually.”
“Actually,” Sam said. “I knew we had it at one point right after you used an acronym. What was the meaning there?” Sam slid a piece of notepaper toward her, where she’d written MSOG while Alex was still on the phone. “Because after that, I could tell he didn’t have any doubts about you.”
“Actually, we can thank my cousin for that too.” Alex swiped at a moisture ring from the beer with the side of her hand and reached for the coasters on the table. “Miami is a hot spot for sex trafficking, and so countless Cuban girls are targeted. Alejandro makes sure he stays in communication with the trafficking task forces so when he sees something that doesn’t look right in the club, or someone enquires about ‘backroom services,’ he knows exactly who to call.”
“Does he see a lot of it?”
Alex nodded. “He’s learned a lot of their code words and phrases, and he emailed me a list last night.” Alex took a deep swig of her beer. “And MSOG stands for Multiple Shots On Goal.”
“What?” Sam’s face was blank until the meaning dawned on her. “More than one girl?”
“Exactly.” Alex brought up the list in her phone and slid it over. “I chose that one to drop into the conversation because it showed I might be a bigger client who wanted multiple girls, which of course is more valuable to him.”
“Before I forget about it,” Sam said, pulling her wallet out of her back pocket and handing Alex a card. “When your cousin sent the SIM card from his phone, he also sent his driver’s license in case you need it in there. This is going down in two days, so after the Tuesday evening meet we planned at his place, I’ll overnight Alejandro his stuff back to Hawaii Wednesday morning.”
“I spoke to him the night after we did the video call, and he’s doing nothing but lying on the beach with his new Colombian girlfriend. His clubs have multiple contact numbers for him, so I don’t think he’s too worried about it.”
“Rough life.” Sam checked the recording of the phone call and sent a copy to her phone. “I’m stressed as hell about this.”
“Yeah, not only do you have to work with a newbie, but there’s a lot riding on what happens.” Alex took a deep swig of beer. “But if we do it right, we get to help bust one of these losers for good and get those girls out of there.”
Sam sighed, tapping her thumb on the raw wood table. “It’s not just the girls inside, although that’s huge. It’s all the girls that will pass through there in the future if we can’t take him down.”
“So I just need to keep him talking, right? We just need enough to take to a judge and ask him to sign a search warrant?”
Sam nodded and jotted down two points on a notepad, then slid it over to Alex. “Yep. Specifically, we need him to acknowledge that they’re underage, if they are, and that they are available to you in exchange for money. That’s what’s going to get us in there on a search warrant for sex trafficking.”
“And I’ll be wired for sound?”
“Sound and video, actually, and we’ll test it several times before we go. Boise is sending up a handful of people from their SWAT team in case something goes down, and we’re going to position ourselves both outside the mansion and in boats on the lake side. I checked it out, and we can gain entry quickly both ways if necessary.” Sam got up and grabbed two more beers, popped the tops, and handed one to Alex.
“I was doing some work at the resort this morning, and Charlotte told me that she rescheduled all your lessons as well, so you’ll have the day free.” Sam grabbed a coaster and tapped her bottle to Alex’s. “She also asked me if I knew where you were this weekend.”
“And what did you say?”
“I told her nicely that I did know, but that it wasn’t my business to talk about.”
“Damn. She’s a hard one to shake.” Alex took her time finishing the beer and took the bottle to the trash. “Thanks so much for helping me arrange that slip for the yacht. Lily’s loving it so far.”
“Damn, dude.” Sam rolled her eyes and smiled. “I might have messed myself up there. Sara texted me some insanely gorgeous pictures when she got there, and I think she might be in love with that thing. I’m in trouble.”
“Speaking of which, I’d better get back.” Alex folded the notepaper into her pocket and stood. “But after we nail this loser, we can have dinner or something so I can clue Lily in. I hate not being able to tell her.”
