Page 12 of Broken
Chapter Twelve
Ryder
Sitting in that room and just letting that prick destroy Ava’s life is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. There were moments where she just looked so dejected and I hated seeing her like that. I don’t know what it is with this woman, but I feel a connection with her that I have never had with anyone else. When her little hand touches mine, it electrifies my whole body rather than just perking up my cock like most girls do. With her, it’s so much more and I have no idea why, which is what scares me. I live this life because I have no choice, I do my job because I want to work my way up right to the top and nothing has ever stood in my way before. I have done some very questionable things and I have stood by while either Vic or Grant do some very illegal things, but that's the choice I made. I’m actually quite lucky I was identified early on as the brains, the planner, rather than the muscle. So, I plan all the jobs and come up with contingency plans to get us out of the shit when Grant inevitably doesn’t follow the original plan. That is my job and I made it clear that I’m happy to do that and use my power or weapon in defense, but I will never execute or kill anyone for no reason. I know it happens. Hell, I’m usually there for it, but I'm no killer. I do wonder if just standing there and thinking of the safest escape route makes me just as guilty as the person pulling the trigger. But these are dangerous men and if I start talking soft then it will be me staring down the barrel of the gun.
I have been in a lot of dangerous and illegal situations that haunt my dreams at night, but I know that this night will top out as one of the worst. I don’t know what it is about Ava, but I feel like it’s my job to protect her. The only problem is that to protect her, I would have to go against Grant and there's no way will I be doing that. He has set his sights on Ava and she will have to go along with his plan until he gets bored. That is exactly where my plan comes in.
The text both myself and Grant received was orchestrated by me the moment Grant told me he wanted to marry Ava. He has never wanted to marry before. Whenever his father has mentioned getting married, he has always said he doesn’t want to be tied down to one woman his entire life, and he plans on dating as many women as he can. The old man suggested that he marry anyway and keep his mistresses on the side, just as he does, but given the look of disgust on Grant's face at the mention of behaving like his father, it became very clear to me that he wants his marriage to mean something. If it ever happened, there would be no women on the side. This thought is exactly what I wanted to remind him of. I wanted to show Grant that if he marries Ava, he will either have to settle down just with her, or he will have to have mistresses and be like his father.
The text was an alert from the front gate to let us know Katyia is here to meet with Grant. She often comes around unannounced for casual sex, but Grant never brings her into the house. He always gets in the car and goes off with her alone. He has security guarding Katyia anyway and they take over his protection. But whenever he returns, it’s blatantly obvious that Grant really gets off on whatever it is that she offers. So, I may have discreetly arranged for her to show up unannounced and offer Grant the night of his life. I know he would then have a choice to make; does he spend the night getting to know Ava and decide if they truly should get married or does he go and fuck Katyia? I honestly thought it would have been a harder decision to make, but no, the minute he saw the text, Ava was dismissed. But I don’t like the idea of her going off and being locked into the far corner of the building and just being able to access that corridor. So I ask Ava to wait outside beause a fucking stupid plan is forming in my dick and coming out of my mouth. I really should use my brain to come up with ideas.
“Katyia is here, looks like you are in for a very good night, my friend.” I speak as friendly as I can, slapping him on the back like we are old friends. “I know you probably want me to escort you to her apartment, but I think I would be better off staying here. Vic can do the sweep.” I can see his eyebrow pop up in confusion because we have a routine. Whenever Katyia calls, Grant goes back to her apartment and I go with him. I complete a sweep and ensure that Katyia’s security is competent and then I leave. It makes him feel better knowing I have checked that he is safe. The look of confusion on his face is because I have never broken protocol.
“I’m just thinking about when your father calls tomorrow. I want to make sure that everything is prepared. I also want to educate Ava on what will be expected of her once you present her as your wife. It’s not exactly going to be a fun afternoon tea and we can’t have her walking in there blind. We don't want to give the old man any extra excuses to be pissed or to take away the amazing opportunity he has promised us. So, tomorrow we can talk with your father about the job, but to do that, we have to make sure that we keep Ava in line,” I say confidently, hoping he will see this plan genuinely is in everyone's best interest. I’m not even lying when I say I need to prepare Ava for meeting Alan Blakeman. He is one unpredictable, evil fucker and she will be walking straight into the lion's den.
Of all the responses I was contemplating, Grant genuinely smiling before starting to chuckle, is the last thing I expected.
“You really do think of everything, Ryder. She does need to be prepared before he comes, even if we have to bribe her with something. Tell her that if she behaves and acts like a wife should in front of my father, I will confirm to him there and then, in front of her, that Manny’s debt is paid off. Obviously, all of her other issues like the bank, the house, and the 49’s will have to be earned, but this will be a good start. Are you ok staying here to babysit her? You know I can never turn down some time with Katyia.” I expect his smile to be slimy when he says that, but it isn’t. I think this is one of the most genuine happy smiles I have ever seen on Grant's face. The edges are curved up into cheek dimples that I have never seen before. His angular jaw seems softer almost, like he is no longer holding his face tense and rigid. His eyes are what give the game away because they sparkle and shine with longing. I have known how he feels about this girl from the moment he first laid eyes on her, but seeing it with my own two eyes completely throws me off. If he likes Katyia so much, why is he doing this with Ava?
“Of course, I don’t mind. You know me, I like to make sure there isn’t going to be any surprises and Ava certainly is a wild card. It's hard to plan when I don’t know how she is going to behave. Your kindness with Manny should go a long way in securing her compliance and hopefully, I can talk the rest into her tonight. I would never want to pull you away from the lovely Katyia. Will this be your last time together?” I know that asking this question might be pushing him a little, but sometimes with Grant, you have to push him into seeing what you need him to. I can see the cogs turning in his brain as a frown crosses his face. He looks genuinely upset. Honestly, it still surprises me that Grant is capable of caring for another person, but the look on his face right now confirms it. But, their meeting didn’t exactly happen in the greatest way and her background is even worse than Ava’s. There's no way in this world Grant would ever get permission to allow Katyia to become Mrs. Blakeman.
Katyia is a twenty year old Russian girl who has been through more in her young life than most people have in a lifetime. She was trafficked here when she was just eighteen years old. She was brought across in one of Blakeman’s containers from Russia. Her sister travelled with her, but sadly, did not survive the trip. The barbarians who bring the girls over here make no effort to care for them during the journey. In fact, they know that they are going to be sold as sex slaves, so they take some of them for a test drive right there in the container, infront of all the other girls.
During Katyia’s journey, one of the men decided they wanted her, however she had been marked as a virgin and was not to be touched, but he tried anyway. Katyia’s sister stood up for her and the two men raped and beat her to death as punishment. Katyia was there the whole time and was made to watch, along with all of the other girls.
When Katyia’s transport finally arrived at the dock, the Blakeman’s ground crew were there waiting to transport them all to the warehouse. Alan does this so only a very few select crew members know who is involved in every aspect of the business. The person who finds the girls in Russia only meets the crate transporters, the crate transport only meets the lorry driver who picks up the crate, and most of the time, he has no idea what he’s even delivering. These girls are transported for weeks at a time in the same container with no cleaning or toilet facilities. The food and water that is packed in with them has to be made to last between them all. When they arrive, they are a mess, so obviously, they are cleaned and made to look ‘pretty’ before they are sold.
Most of the time, the girls are kept in a facility, taught what to expect from the life they are about to enter, and educated on what it means to obey. Really, they are just waiting for the next auction to be arranged. Katyia’s auction was the first time that Grant and I had been asked to attend with his father, to see the process of how the girls are dealt with. Stage one out of three for learning everything there is to know about the business. I still remember it like it was yesterday because even though, at this point, I had worked with the family and Grant for almost a year, and I had seen some pretty nasty, depraved things, I had never seen anything as heartbreaking as watching those girls hopes for a better life get dashed.
The car pulls up,Vic remains inside, but me and Grant climb out. I know Grant is excited because I can feel the anticipation humming off him like a ten year old boy about to attend his own birthday party. I, on the other hand, am a bit more dubious because we are walking into the unknown and that is not something I like to do. The old man gave us absolutely no information about this job. All we know is that Grant is going to learn how a major part of the family business works tonight and if he proves himself, he can slowly be introduced to all the others. This is obviously what we have both been waiting for, the big leagues. The Blakeman family deals in three things; drugs, guns, and girls. So we know in this warehouse we will learn more about how one of these works.
The idea of us becoming more involved with the dealings is amazing. I didn’t get into this business just to deal in the small stuff. I want to get the most knowledge that I can and that means getting involved in the main things. The old man meets us as we round the car and the small smile he gives us both is the only sign of affection I ever see him show his son. Standing next to him is Johnny DiMarco, or as he is more commonly known, Bullet. I will give you one guess as to why he is called that. He’s the family enforcer and the most psychopathic man I have ever met. He barely talks, he shows no emotion, and he kills without hesitancy or reason. He works for Alan Blakeman because he pays him the most money, but he has no allegiance to this family. He will double cross them all in a heartbeat if it benefitted him somehow. So far, nobody has found anything to tempt him away and people have stopped trying. Mainly because if he turns down your deal, he kills you for wasting his time. He is by far the most dangerous person that I have ever met in my life and I dread to think how many people he’s murdered. Just being around him makes my skin crawl.
“Father, thank you very much once again for inviting myself and Ryder along tonight. The opportunity to learn from you is fantastic and I can assure you, we will soak up every ounce of knowledge you give us.” I literally have to bite my tongue to stop myself from laughing at how far up Alan’s arse Grant is right now. He always sounds like a posh twat but when he’s talking to his father, he’s so desperate for his approval, he turns on the extra large twat sign.
“Yes, well, I do hope you will behave in a manner befitting our name, Grant. No showboating. Remember, you are here to observe and learn. That does not require you to speak. If you are to take over from me, Grant, you have to learn how things work, but you will also learn tonight the importance of having the right people at your side,” says Alan, as he glances over at me before a big smile crosses his face. I feel Grant stiffen at the side of me, clearly unhappy with the attention that his father gives me as opposed to him. Ever since he discovered my ability for puzzle solving and risk assessment, he said he saw something in me. That's why he put me as his son’s head of security, with the unofficial task of keeping the crazy in line. When I agreed, I would have done anything to please the old man. You just don’t say no to him. Plus, if he supports you then you can go all the way in this line of work, and the higher up you go, the more knowledge and more money. I need to work my way as high up as I can and this is how I plan on doing it. I’m going to ride Grant’s posh coat tails all the way there.
“Ryder, my boy, so glad you could make it. You will learn a lot about a main part of my business today. As you will see, it’s something that very few people are privy to. Come, stick by me and I will show you how everything operates.” He clasps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me along with him. I can almost sense the hiss that comes out of Grant’s mouth and I can clearly hear his knuckles cracking as he clenches and unclenches them into fists. That’s his tell for when he is considering reaching for his weapon, which he knows is a dumbass move with Bullet standing guard, but it makes me wonder who it is in his crazy little head that is taking the bullet; me or his father. Knowing Grant, he’s probably killed us all in his head at one time or another. I don’t risk looking back because I need Grant to think I’m going along with this out of respect for the old man, that my loyalty will always be with Grant. Everyone knows that’s bullshit, we are all loyal to the old man, but only because he’s the one who controls our futures. It’s his enterprise and he runs it extremely close to the belt. I want to know how it ticks, and how he operates, the ins and the outs.
We are at an old industrial site that I have never seen before, far on the outskirts of inner city London. We are off the beaten track that nobody would suspect led to this place and there's a reason that this place is so far out, it's not exactly the type of place they want you to stumble across. But if anyone ever did, the old man has that covered too. This large warehouse and several smaller ones surrounding it are all painted and decorated to make it look like they are actual warehouses. Vanilla Sweets 'n' Treats is colourfully displayed across all the walls and on the welcome signs. How ironic that the sweets and treats behind these doors are anything but vanilla, and you can fuck right off if you think they are made here in the UK. Obviously, it’s a shadow company of the Blakemans and doesn't really exist. It's just another legal way for him to go about laundering money and having places where he can run the different aspects of his business. I know he has a different venue for all three branches, so the Vanilla Sweets 'n' Treats company must be responsible for one of them. I would guess either drugs or girls fits more with the name, but I'm sure it won't be very long till I find out.
Although, there are a lot of things that make this place look convincing as an active operating warehouse, there are a lot more that don't. A distinct lack of lorries and product movement for one. In fact, there will have only been one lorry enter today and he will have left already. No others will enter or exit because this warehouse doesn't distribute to shops, they get the very select clients to come to them. That brings me onto the next abnormal feature. Whilst it can be perfectly normal for warehouses to have electric fences to keep potential thieves out and even the odd security guard patrolling the lot ensuring that everything is in order, with support from the CCTV, this place has all of that and more. The fence surrounding the perimeter has two layers and given the humming from it, there is a seriously high voltage being emitted. But if some super hero somehow lives after touching the electric part of the fence, they then have to get over the rolls of what look to be illegally scaled barbed wire, so sharp it could flay a person's skin off with just a mild catch. Guarding the perimeter is no rent-a-cop security guard, these are highly trained ex-military personnel if the way they operate in formation, march, and hold the weapon by their side is anything to go by. These guns are more than just your standard security job issue 38 caliber revolver. These are high grade, fast, automatic weapons that are designed to cause maximum impact with even the lowest level of training. So fuck knows how much damage these groups of trained killers could accomplish. I sure as hell do not want to be around to find out. Then, on top of all that, there is the technology on site. What looks like ordinary security cameras are so much more. These are top of the range and I know my favourite little hacker Eli would be impressed, but the cocky little shit would still claim he could do better. Alan knows nothing about Eli, he works specifically for Grant only. I am the only other employee that knows about him. Grant needs a hacker that isn’t connected to his father and although it is my job to report everything to Alan, I don’t. In this case, I never will. It’s bad enough that Eli is involved with Grant and his drama, there’s no way I want the kid stuck working for the Blakeman’s the rest of his life. He can do so much better!
Eli is the reason I even know what some of this technology is. Not only do the cameras record your movements, they also perform a full body x-ray so that it’s very clear if you are armed and where. There is also facial recognition software built-in to make sure that the people who come to the warehouse are only those that have been invited. The best part is that they have managed to include all that and make it look like a shitty fifty quid camera that looks like it's probably not even working and is going to fall off the wall any moment. This is Alan Blakeman's planning, he needs to have the upper hand over everyone who is stepping into that room in case there’s any potential for things to go down. The security x-ray scan also looks for police wires so they can make sure there's no narcs amongst the visitors. The room also has a signal blocker, so no mobile phone tracker or call can be reached here. The old man hasn't been in this business for as long as he has by not taking every precaution that he possibly can. There will be no way to tie him to a single person in the warehouse, let alone any illegal activity. He will also have someone who owes him, ready to take the fall and say that they sent him in there and he knew nothing. Not that it would matter because I'm fairly sure the Blakemans have several cops and judges on the take. He runs this town and everyone in it is just along for the ride.
Having performed as much of a risk assessment as I could before walking into the unknown, I was shocked when we walked from the side of the building to the front and as we rounded the corner there were several super cars all lined up. I'm talking; Jaguar, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Ferrari, Hummer, even a limousine. The combined total of the cars in this car park must be around ten million. My mouth drops open and I’m sure a little bit of drool leaks out of the corner. If it hadn't been for Alan pulling me along with him to the entrance, I think I would have been quite happy to spend the next couple of hours staring at these cars. I mean, holy shit, they are things of beauty. I bet they would purr if I got them underneath me. A slight giggling from next to me is enough to break me out of my car related trance.
"Like what you see?" asks the old man whilst scanning an arm to show me the cars. He looks like the world’s fucking poshest car salesman on the world's poshest car lot. I have only ever seen these cars on TV and in my dreams. It’s kind of a stupid question. I like the look of these cars better than probably half of the women I have slept with.
“They are amazing. I think just one of those supercars costs more than my whole apartment,” I say, slightly embarrassed having admitted I live in a glorified shit hole. But it is really just a place to store all of my shit. Most of the time, I stay at Grant’s house. It has a cinema room, gym, and a sauna. It’s better than most luxury hotels and when I started working for Grant, he made it clear he would prefer his staff to be close. However, I’m the only one he has actually invited to stay in the main house, everyone else lives in the staff house. Vic doesn’t stay on site, nobody really knows why and given his constantly angry as fuck face, I’m not asking him! The staff house is a small building at the back of the main house. It's basically an old garage space that has been expanded and made into a staff area. There are small single bed rooms, a large communal area, a male and female bathroom and a small kitchen. Staff are permitted to eat in the house when all their jobs are complete, but they are not allowed to use any other areas of the house. I expected to be joining them and missing out on the luxury, but Grant told me he wanted me in the main house. He says he sees me as a friend, which is great. I want him to trust me because then I might be able to work out how the fucking lunatic thinks.
I hear a throat clearing next to me that brings me out of my day dream. Then I remember I basically told the richest man I have ever met that I’m dirt poor. I risk a look over at his face and instead of the sympathy or disgust I usually get from people, instead he has a gleam in his eye. Alan Blakeman has built his empire by finding weaknesses in others and exploiting it. I can tell that he knows he has just discovered my weakness, what drives me, but he is wrong. I am fine with him thinking that is my weakness because now he will stop looking and he won’t find my real weakness.
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much about that now, son. After tonight, if all goes without a hitch, I will make sure you not only get a substantial pay rise, but also a nice bonus for helping with this event. I may even let you pick which of these you would prefer.” Alan is smiling at me as he makes his proposition, but I can hear what he’s really saying. The thinly veiled threat rings loud to me. I am responsible for Grant and I have to make sure he doens’t fuck today up in anyway.
“Thank you, Sir. That would be very much appreciated. I will do my best to make sure things remain under control.” Even though it’s obvious he is referring to his son, the old man never says his name in situations like this. It is always covert, suggestive words that still make his feelings perfectly clear. I think that he just doesn’t want to admit that his only heir is a loose cannon because then he would have to consider that he isn’t suitable to run his business for him, which would be a fucking disaster. No Blakeman in control means there will be an all out power struggle for the chance to rule and nobody wants that.
The old man nods his head at me to show that he understood what I was referring to and then he nods his head towards the entrance to the warehouse. He walks ahead with Bullet and I fall back to enter with Grant. He seems to be in a bad mood. His face is all scrunched up and his eyebrows are drawn together in a frown. He looks like a teenager who is sulking, and I need to get him in a better mood if he’s going to be well behaved tonight. So, I switch on my ultra friendly persona.
