Trust me
The SUV’s door closed with an uncertain finality. Was this the start of her demise? Or had she just been saved?
Her gut told her this man was different from the others, and not because he was American. No. It was the fact that he looked at her like she was actually human.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
In the driver’s seat in front of them, an older man who was almost a cliché in his driving cap hit the gas.
The blond man turned so that his back was pressed against the door and he was closer to fully facing Terri.
“My name is Logan Denton.”
“O-kay…”
He arched an eyebrow the slightest bit.
Terri blinked. “Wait. That sounds familiar.”
“I’m from Chicago, like you.”
“No.” She shook her head. “It’s more than that. And how do you know I’m from Chicago?”
She thought hard, trying to remember where she’d heard or read his name. “I’m a hedge fund manager,” he supplied, ignoring her question.
That rang a bell. He was more than a hedge fund manager. He was one of Chicago’s most talked-about billionaires. He’d been mentioned in a few articles she’d read, but now she couldn’t remember exactly what for.
“You’re also a participant in human trafficking,” she added.
It would have been best to play it cool and reasonable until the perfect moment for escape arrived, but a fellow Chicagoan buying her absolutely boiled her blood. They could have stood in the same coffee shop line together! Checked out the same library book!
Although, to be fair, she would have remembered standing behind him in any line.
“I understand how this looks.” His lips drew tight. “This isn’t something that I’ve done before.”
“Okay. And why should I believe that?” she scoffed. “Hell, why should that even matter? You just bought me.”
Hands trembling, she removed her high heels. If the car stopped in a busy place, she would be out the door. An escape made barefoot would be twice as fast as one made in heels.
“I know. It’s what I had to do, though. I couldn’t just waltz in there and take you. They’d kill me and dump my body in the river.”
Dropping her high heels on the car’s floor mat, she straightened up and considered that. He was right. Of course they would have assumed he was some sort of undercover cop or guy looking to play hero, and, therefore, a threat to the whole operation.
“Still…” She eyed him warily.
“I didn’t buy you expecting you to actually be my slave, Terri.”
That made her jerk back. “How do you know my name?”
He ran his fingers through his thick hair. Even though his lips drew tight, they remained full. Soft.
She blinked and shook her head. What the hell? Was she seriously salivating over a man who’d just bought her?
“Your brother, Charlie Lane, is district attorney.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
He paused, eyes flicking left and right as he formulated an answer. The car emerged from the long line of warehouses and turned onto a road that led back into the heart of the city.
“We have business,” Logan said. “Yes.” He nodded. “You could call it that.”
“What kind of business? And you still haven’t told me how you know my name or how I’m related to him.”
She folded her arms. This guy was hard to get a read on. He might have swooped in and saved her, but the move didn’t seem to be a completely altruistic one.
“Fair enough.” He obliged with a nod of his head. “I’ll answer all your questions right now, to the best of my ability.”
With that, he cleared his throat and sat a little straighter, like he was preparing to give a big presentation.
“I’m a hedge fund manager and your brother is eager to indict me on insider trading suspicion due to activity from years ago. I’ve been in Ho Chi Minh City for a few weeks now, and I heard about you through the grapevine.”
“What grapevine?”
“The one composed of billionaires who have their hands in multiple pies.”
“You’re in the human trafficking business?” she snapped.
His eyes widened a bit. “No. No, I am certainly not.”
“Hm.” Her arms remained folded. “Then how did you know about me?”
“Because an associate who knows about Charlie’s hunt for me heard that you were here and that you’d been taken.”
“But this associate knew I was his sister,” she volleyed back. “And he what? Had someone watching me?”
This whole thing made her head spin, and it was impossible to tell if even a shred of his story was true.
Logan did little more than blink. “No. But he knew what was happening when it comes to the operation we just left behind.”
The weight of that crushed Terri’s heart. This man, this informant, whoever he was, knew a trafficking ring was happening and he had done nothing to stop it?
“And what?” she asked. “He’s a customer there?”
“No. He’s not. As I said before, there’s a grapevine.”
“Okay.” She pressed her hands to her aching temples. “Thank you. Thank you for… taking me out of there.”
“You’re welcome. You don’t have to thank me, however.”
She dropped her hands. “Because you’re looking to make a trade?”
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “It would make me very happy if you could talk to your brother and find a way to get him off my back.”
Before she could stop herself, Terri laughed. “Really?”
His blue eyes sparkled. “Why is that funny?”
“Charlie and I don’t talk about his work. I know next to nothing about it.”
“I don’t see that as being an insurmountable obstacle.”
“Hmm. Okay.”
A silence fell between them. Logan didn’t seem to expect her to say anything else right away, so they sat there for a while and looked out the windows at the city coming to life. Shopkeepers opened their doors.
Bicyclists zoomed alongside traffic. The world was there for the taking.
And it almost hadn’t been. Ten minutes before, she’d been half sure her life had been stolen from her forever.
But then Logan had saved her. So, technically, she probably did owe him a favor.
“I’ll talk to him,” she said. “I don’t know what good it will do, though. He’ll probably think it’s suspicious that I’m even bringing up work.”
“Talking to him is all I ask of you.”
“It’ll probably take some time.” She chewed on her lip. “What do you want me to say, anyway? Did you commit insider trading?”
He hesitated.
“Right.” She nodded. “That’s all I need to know.”
“Perhaps we can come up with a conceivable story as to why you’d be bringing it up.”
“Yeah. Maybe.” She sighed and dropped her head against the headrest. She felt like she’d been dragged through hell and back.
“We’re going to my penthouse,” Logan said. “You can rest there for as long as you need.”
She had to give it to him: he was good at reading people.
“All of my things are at the hostel,” she said. “My phone. Passport. Assuming no one has stolen them.”
“We can’t go there now. I’m sorry. It would look too suspicious. Perhaps after a few days.”
Due to having no energy to argue, she nodded. It was hard enough to comprehend everything that had happened in the last twelve hours. Eight? Six?
She couldn’t guess. She didn’t even know what time the men had broken into the hostel.
“You have a penthouse, you said?” she asked.
“Yes.” His eyes softened. “You can trust me, Terri.”
Something in her chest hitched at that. Still…
“Even if I didn’t,” she pointed out, “would I have a choice?”
His jaw tightened. “No.”
“That’s what I thought.”
With a nod, she turned to look back out the window. Orange morning light streamed across the city. A new day was on its way. What would come with it, she had no idea.
All she knew was that she had never been so grateful to be alive.