Chapter 1
I rested my head over the back of my chair, my curls fell down and I breathed deeply in and out. This job was undoubtedly the most boring thing I could ever do in any way. Compared to that, fishing with my father was nothing. The door opened and Nicholas walked in. Tall, blue eyes, brown hair that somehow was never combed.
He wanted to walk past me.
“Stoooooop!” I shouted and looked over the counter.
He stopped, closed his eyes briefly to control the annoyance rising within him, turned slightly around and looked at me with his blue eyes. His eyebrow shot up.
“Well, your uniform doesn’t let you do everything.”
How often did he think he had to overlook me, not listen to me just because I was the boss's daughter and here only the secretary? He buried a hand in his uniform pants and continued to look at me. I rested my head in my hand, my arm leaning on my desk.
“My father is busy,” I said and looked at him.
"Since when do I care about that, Raven?”
God, something triggered me massively about this guy.
“Since my father said no one is allowed in.”
“I… am allowed in,” he said determinedly, lifting the papers he had in his hand.
“Just give me the papers!” I stood up and tried to grab them, but he pulled them away immediately.
“Na na na! Who wants to read something they’re not allowed to?!” He came dangerously close to my face and I stubbornly stared into his blue eyes.
“Na na na! And who thinks I would read that?!”
“Because you do everything but listen.”
“I can’t stand you!”
“Likewise!”
And we stared at each other. Blue against green.
“What the hell are you doing!?” my father shouted and we both jumped back in unison.
“That will be sorted out eventually,” Nicholas said.
“Go screw yourself.”
“Not today, babe!”
I was furious and was about to comment further, but my father gave me a look that silenced me immediately, and Nicholas followed him with his self-satisfied grin.
After work, I stood in front of my bike and massaged the bridge of my nose. Just as I was about to put on my helmet, my phone rang.
“Yes?”
“We’ve got one of them. He’s heading back towards North Carolina.”
“Can’t those from The Banished at least wait until I’m home!?” I snapped.
“Sorry, Raven, you’re closest.”
“Do you still have him?”
“Yes, they didn’t find any trackers, but all the bikes are turned off, just not this one.”
“That’s what you get for using trackers that only activate with movement,” I muttered.
“Well, we don’t have as much money as they do, what can I do?” I could still hear Alice before I clicked my tongue.
“I’ll turn around, wait, I need to put on my helmet.”
I set my phone aside, switched the connection to my helmet as I put it on.
“Okay.”
“He’s heading towards the coordinates.”
I bit my lip.
“Coordinates: 35.7355 and -81.3276.”
I pulled my gloves on.
“I find that really risky. If he spots me, that’s it.”
“Raven, he’s almost breathing down your neck, he’s that close. Maybe you’ll know where they are hiding.”
“You have it easy, Alice. You’re sitting safely in front of the PC.”
“I believe in you, girl.”
I sighed.
I typed the coordinates into my GPS.
“If they catch me, you have a problem.” With a flick, my visor was down and I took off.
“Let me know when you see him. They’re not really invisible, except for Nick.”
“Don’t mention that name,” I growled.
Nick, Dominik, leader of this godforsaken gang.
Head of the whole gang, responsible for human trafficking, prostitution.
I had seen him a few times, just barely, chased him, turned back because it got too hot.
Except for one single time:
My girls and I were driving at night, as always.
My father couldn’t stop human trafficking here in North Carolina. Too often, too much, raids brought nothing.
So many dead along the highways, so many that the police tried to cover it up, tried to keep it quiet.
And they couldn’t get anything done.
Eventually, I met Rachel.
It was late at night when a large team of police officers came into my father’s precinct. I was just about to pack up when I had to work overtime.
I followed my father. Some women were sitting in a row, they looked emaciated, dirty, and scared.
I was called into my father’s office, where Nicholas was already standing.
“What’s going on?” I asked and handed him the papers with all the information that the police had given me.
“And what’s this slimeball doing here?”
Nicholas clicked his tongue. “Babe, just admit you’re into me.”
“Not a chance!”
Nicholas laughed.
“Are you even allowed to have tattoos as a cop?!”
I nodded at his neck, where a simple lightning bolt was visible.
“That’s none of your damn business, Raven.”
“Quiet!” my father shouted, completely exhausted and irritated.
We both looked at him. “Raven, you’re staying longer today. If necessary, the whole night.”
“What? Why?!”
Nicholas sighed: “Really now?” he asked, and his blue eyes met mine. “None of the officers here, whether female or male, are as empathetic as you. If the women need someone now, it’s you.”
I looked at him confused.
“A compliment from you?”
“Shut up, Raven,” he growled.
“You know what you have to do.”
He looked at Nicholas with a meaningful glance, he nodded and left. I frowned and watched him go.
“What’s he doing?”
“Don’t take it personally, but that’s none of your business.”
I rolled my eyes and went outside.
And then I sat in the interrogation room. I had Rachel in front of me, slightly tanned, big brown eyes. Her hair was shaved, she looked ahead, but not scared like the others, rather… stubborn.
“Goodness,” I murmured as I saw her torn top. She had nothing around her legs.
I took off my sweater. “Here,” I said.
She looked at me confused.
“Put this on, it’s a shame the cops didn’t give you anything to wear.”
“It… happened too fast,” she said strained and hoarse.
“Do you want something to drink?”
“I don’t trust you. There were cops with those pigs too.”
“I know… We know the problem. But hey, I’m just a secretary. Not a cop.”
She looked at me, her eyes looked confused.
“Why the hell are you allowed to sit here then?!”
My chair slid aside with my movement and I stood up to go to the water cooler. I took a bottle and walked across the bare white floor to the table and set it down for her.
“Open it, you see it’s completely sealed.”
Her eyes narrowed and I sighed and took the bottle back. I opened it and drank.
“There. See.”
But she said nothing.
“Oh, sorry… Don’t you like it when others have touched it? I can understand.”
She laughed bitterly.
“I was an object in human trafficking, girl,” she grunted and took the bottle.
“I had to swallow semen from guys I didn’t even see properly.”
My mouth opened but no sound came out.
“After guy 50, I stopped counting.”
She raised the bottle to her lips and drank.
Hastily. She choked and coughed.
“Are you okay?!”
She nodded.
And that’s how it all started.
I listened to everything all night long.
Rachel was picked up one night after a party, drugged, and abducted.
At some point, she asked for the date and then she went into a slight state of shock.
She seemed to have been missing for two years. I had to listen to all the horrific things she had either experienced or witnessed.
Rape.
Mutilation.
Prostitution.
I didn’t see her again for months.
And somehow that marked me.
Rachel and I became friends, shortly after that Alice stumbled upon us, she was supposed to testify in a cyber attack case.
For her, it was dumb that she got the papers in front of my father.
For me and Rachel, it was a blessing.
I had been dealing with this human trafficking case for months and set my mind to help my father, even though he couldn’t know anything about it.
For Rachel.
And for all the other women and girls.
And then I noticed that Alice was the one we were looking for, and she was more or less blackmailing me.
At first, it wasn’t her thing to work with me, especially not with this blackmailing, and my style wasn’t hers either, but what could I do?!
I rolled through my father’s files night after night, wrote down routes, took notes, and eventually, we ended up in the dark web, which… luckily Alice and Rachel took over.
Alice was used to being there, and Rachel was so hardened that no matter what she saw there, she just shrugged it off.
I still don’t know if human trafficking made her that tough or if she just lost her mind there.
Through the dark web, we figured out who the perpetrators were, and from there we moved forward piece by piece.
Until we almost caught them once.
The first time I faced Dominik and held my gun on him. The first time I was still trembling and he laughed.
We were at the Port of Wilmington, one of the most important ports on the East Coast.
“You’re shaking,” I heard Dominik speak for the first time. Dark, rough, emotionless, and muffled by his damn helmet.
“Shut up!” Rachel shouted, but Dominik snorted, his eyes narrowing.
“You’re just two. You must really have guts. Come back when you’re more.”
“Are you making fun of us?!”
Dominik looked at some of the large containers.
“Fun? Me? No. Quite the opposite. But you’re not a threat now. Look around.”
He looked around and I saw that there were people everywhere aiming at us.
“See? No chance. Go.”
“Why would you just let us go like that?!”
“Because I have enough to do with the goods.”
Sirens could be heard from a distance and I looked at Rachel as I looked into the darkness behind Dominik. “Fuck!” he shouted.
“Get out. Now!” he shouted at us and I frowned.
“Us?! Why us?! We’re the good ones!”
But damn, he was right! If my father found out what I was doing here, I’d have a problem.
“Rachel, come on!” I shouted.
“What?! We’ve got him now!”
I ran ahead without another word, but she realized I was right.
How naive we were.
Three of us.
Of course, we couldn’t do anything!
We owe our lives to Dominik’s mercy.
That wouldn’t leave me alone.
And just as I was passing my father’s police station, my phone beeped. I stopped my machine and answered the call. “We need you,” my father said.
“What? It’s the middle of the night.”
“I see you from the window. What are you doing outside?!”
I sighed and looked up at the second floor of the building, the window was brightly lit.
I arrived upstairs and since I couldn’t stop anyone as a secretary, I immediately headed towards my father’s office and opened the door. My father was still standing by the window and Nicholas was sitting in his chair. He had his head back and his eyes closed.
“Coffee party or what?” I asked and he snorted, still with his eyes closed.
“What’s going on?”
“We’ve been able to intercept women again.”
“What?”
“At the Port of Wilmington, some came in that we could intercept.”
“What?! And you couldn’t catch that asshole?!”
Oh God, how lucky I was that Rachel and I got away in time.
And Nicholas snorted again.
“Kid, do you have a cold?!” I snapped.
He looked at me with one eye.
“How are we supposed to just catch Dominik?! Do you know how hard that is? The guy is smart.”
“You’re praising a criminal… why are your hair so wet?”
I looked at him, he generally looked worn out. His hair was soaked with sweat at the tips.
“Sorry? I was at the crime scene… it’s… exhausting.”
Now I snorted and he sat up straight. He looked at me, his eyes narrowing. “As a secretary, you obviously can’t know that.”
I took a dangerous step forward, but my father cleared his throat.
