"Any being forced to go?" Derek inquired.
"Not that we've seen. I think the websites are a dead end. There's nothing going on there illegal that I've been able to find," Cam said.
Dylan's blood pressure was rising just listening. They'd been over this all before, and he couldn't keep his mouth shut. "This is so fucked up. These guys are hurting those women. Open your damn eyes."
Lukus shot him a dirty look as his brother Derek stepped between them. "Listen, I know you don't approve, but it's all about consent. The women are giving it. That means it's a dead end."
"He's brainwashing them. They don't know what they're doing." Dylan couldn't believe anyone would voluntarily let someone whip or paddle them until they were bruised or bleeding, like was happening nightly on the websites.
Derek stepped closer, talking more softly, as if to try and keep the conversation between the two of them. "I know you don't think it's possible, but there are a lot of women who get into the whole D/s scene. Your sister-in-law is one of them. Are you accusing me of brainwashing Rachel?"
Dylan didn't miss the defensiveness on his brother's face as they met eye to eye. They may have been the same height, but Derek had fifty pounds of muscles on Dylan. He made an intimidating roadblock. Glancing around the room at Lukus and Zach, Dylan knew he was outnumbered.
Still, he wasn't backing down. "I know you love Rachel, but I don't understand how you can justify disciplining her. This is the twenty-first century. I don't get why she doesn't hate you for hitting her." Dylan tried again.
"Listen, you twerp, I know what the year is. If you'd open your ears you'd know that I'd cut my right arm off before I hit Rachel. I spank her. Discipline her. And we do what we do because it's what makes Rachel feel safe and protected. It's what she wants; what she needs. But the only way it works is because she consents to it all. Just like Tiffany consents to Lukus, and Brianna to Markus. And if the women working in the warehouse have consented, then it's a dead end. We've interviewed a dozen of them and they are all happy with their job and the money they're making."
"What about Hannah? She's not happy. She's not consenting."
Lukus had obviously been listening in on the brothers' conversation because he injected questions. "What about Hannah? You've had a hard-on for her for weeks. Explain it to me. Why do you think she's different?"
"For starters, she seems scared to death of Davenport, and she refuses to go anywhere with him since she went to his house just once. I haven't seen her going to the warehouse, so his interest in her is different. He's not after her to be in front of a camera."
Cameron piped in over the phone. "I've watched all of the footage from the security cameras at the warehouse, and Dylan's right. Davenport has never taken her there. Dylan's photos of the two of them together are different. For starters, Davenport has no shortage of women. We've seen him out with at least six different women just in the weeks we've been on his ass. He doesn't need to chase anyone, yet he's clearly pursuing this woman, who is having no part of going anywhere with him."
Lukus looked thoughtful. "That is odd. He has women throwing themselves at him and if it was just sex he was after, he's got a whole warehouse full of sex workers. Why seek out an innocent outsider?"
Derek probed, "What do we know about her?"
They could hear Cameron typing as he dug into Hannah's background. "Well, we know she works full-time at Bloomer's Florist and part-time at the Four Seasons, bar-tending a few nights a week. It looks like she got her California driver's license about two years ago. Had an Ohio license before that. She was registered at Ohio State University for one semester a few years ago and then dropped off the grid for a while until she showed up here in California. Wait..."
They waited for several minutes while Cameron's fingers flew across the keyboard. Dylan held his breath, anxious to learn more about Hannah's past in hopes it would help him understand how to better help her now. The techie's surprised whistle wasn't a good sign.
"Shit. Looks like she's had one hell of a time of it. Her old man is in prison serving a forty-year sentence for kidnapping and sex trafficking. He got caught red-handed with a half-dozen young women, several under age, locked up in a building he owned. Says he pimped them out to his friends and business associates. There's a picture of Hannah and someone that looks like it could be her older sister in the article from about three years ago that covers the sentencing. The article says they both testified against their father. Well shit, that sucks."
Dylan was filled with fury. It was bad enough a stranger like Jake Davenport was fucking with Hannah, but how messed up it must be to have a father who abused women. He prayed she had been spared, but even as he thought it, he knew the chances were slim that Hannah had escaped unscathed, having lived with someone like that as a child. His blood started to boil to a new level.
"Hey, here's something new. This might be the link we're looking for. Looks like she recently got her associate's degree from the local community college; the same college Jake recently did a big project with, donating security electronics to the technology department in exchange for a big tax break."
Dylan could see Lukus's thoughts churning. "Accounting, you say? Have you been able to hack into their employee records? Do we know who is cooking the books for him?"
"Yeah, I got into those records last week. Up until last month, Jennifer Atkinson was listed as the official accountant for Strictly
