I arched an eyebrow at her. “If I recall, you emailed me and made sure to attach some interesting files. So, excuse me that I’m not interested in small talk.”
She huffed out a sigh. “I suppose you’re right. Shit, how do I even start?”
“Preferably from the beginning.” I stated nonchalantly, leaning back in my seat.
“Well, my grandmother became really sick, and we had to use all of her money for her care. I ended up getting help from this man, Mr. L.”
“Mr. L? You don’t know his real name?”
She shook her head. “So anyway, I didn’t know that Mr. L was very dangerous.”
I rubbed my chin. “And I’m assuming this Mr. L gave you the money and now wants it back but doubled.”
She shook her head. “N-not quite.”
I tilted my head to the side, waiting for her to explain. Usually, when a loan shark offered up a lot of money, they wanted double, sometimes triple of what they gave out.
“He, uh,” she closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. Looking back at me, I noticed her eyes were beginning to water, but she didn’t allow them to fall. “He didn’t want my money, but instead, he wanted my…. purity.”
My eyebrows shot up as I sat up right in my seat. “Your purity?”
She nodded her head. “It’s exactly what you are thinking, too. The agreement was that he would take on temporary guardianship to pay for my nana’s caregiver and mortgage so that she had help and wouldn’t end up homeless. In exchange of his support, I had to marry his client. Well, Mr. L lied and hasn’t been taking care of our financial debt. The mortgage to my grandmother’s house is behind again and I barely have enough money from cleaning to pay the other bills and her caregiver. I only have until the end of the month before the final transaction goes through and I’m shipped off.”
“Damn,” I muttered.
I honestly didn’t know what else to say. I’ve heard of men and some women selling others for a profit, but I kept away from people like that. I may have run an all exclusive massage parlor and upscale escort homes, but it was always my workers choice to be there. I never made them do anything that they didn’t want to, nor did I coerce them into it. I could tell from listening to Addison that she was desperate, but ultimately bamboozled into this type of trade.
“Mr. Adalyn, I need your help.”
I sighed. “How am I supposed to help you, Addison?”
“I saw the video.”
“And?” I asked, standing up from my desk and walking towards the window.
“Maybe you can hire that man for me. I mean, he was able to do that to Dash a few months back with no hesitation and I thought maybe he could take care of Mr. L for me. I know this is asking a lot, but I don’t know what else to do!”
I spun around to face her. “You want me to hire the man that handled Dash?”
She nodded. “I promise I’m not some undercover cop or anything like that. I just need someone to help me escape my fate.”
I faced the window again and placed my hands behind my back. She didn’t recognize that was me in the video – interesting. Granted, I didn’t show my face, but I thought she would notice the voices were similar. Maybe I could use this to my advantage, but I wasn’t sure how just yet.
“How exactly do you plan on escaping your fate? I mean, say that we take care of your current problem, what about the man that you’re already being sold to? I’m sure he’s already invested some money in you. Do you think he’s going to be fine if his investment was lost or damaged? You could be putting a lot of people in danger. And what about your grandmother? If this Mr. L is paying her bills, what would happen if that stops?”
I glanced over my shoulder to see her head bowed as she chewed on her lip. She didn’t think this through all of the way, but who could blame her? She was at her last options and determined to try anything.
“Do you know who you were sold to?”
She kept her head down and shook her head. I rubbed the side of my chin and hummed. As much as I didn’t want to get myself involved with someone else’s issues, I had a gut feeling that I needed to help this woman. To see her so defeated, did something to me. I wasn’t the most sentimental man, but listening to Addison’s plea had my stomach in knots. Plus, the thought of her being married off to someone else pissed me off. I barely knew the woman and had no business being jealous, but still.
I let out a sigh as I folded my arms across my chest. “How do I know that I can trust you, Addison? You don’t know me and I for damn sure don’t know you. Yet, you are willing to risk your life, all from a video that you currently have in your possession? How do I know that you’re not gonna go to the police once you get what you want?”
She shot her eyes up at me and began to frantically shake her head. “I would never do anything like that. I know you don’t know me, but I’m not that type of person.”
“Why not run?”
Her face scrunched up in irritation. “I can’t because they’ll find me or worse, hurt my grandmother. Look, I can pay you everything I have and if that’s not enough, I could work off my debt. I can sweep floors or clean toilets in your office, hell, it doesn’t matter what it is. I just need a way out of my situation. Mr. Adalyn, I just came to you because I figured whoever that guy was in the videodidn’t mind getting his hands dirty. From what I saw, Dash had made some bad dealings with him, which ultimately got him killed.”
