Mr. President:A Billionaire & Virgin Fake Fiance Romance(105)

"I know you don't want to tell me, and I just want to understand the why of it, Austin … "

"Look, Destiny, all I can promise you is that there's no sex trafficking  going on in here," I look her straight in the eye, trying to make a  believable face.

It's so fucking hard to keep a straight face when you're trying to have  someone else believe you. "I swear to you, I'm not that kind of man. In  fact, if you have ever thought Python is part of a sex trafficking  operation, we're just the opposite of it."

Right.

You thought I was moving girls around because I was trafficking them, didn't you?

Don't fucking lie if you're shaking your head.

Well, I'm not.

"I know what kind of man you are, Austin," Destiny is saying to me. "And  I don't believe you've ever be involved in something like that, but  this woman you call Mistress Strokes? Who is she?" Destiny asks me.

"I know nothing about what's going on, Austin, and it's making me  fucking crazy!" She throws her hands up in the air in an exasperated  motion, and then sinks in her seat, putting down her glass of whiskey  after looking at it and almost giving a shocked look.

"Mistress Strokes," I say and then trail off. "Fuck, Destiny, it's  complicated. I wish I could tell you all about Strokes, but her secrets  and her story aren't mine to tell."

Destiny looks at me and raises her eyes. "But I fucking trust her, and that's all I can tell you," I finish.

"That's alright, Austin," I hear someone say from just outside my  office, and both Destiny and I turn to look at the newcomer at the same  time. Standing in the doorway, her hand still around the doorknob, is  Mistress fucking Strokes.         

     



 

She straightened her hair and cut it just below the shoulders, but she  kept it dyed blue. Destiny is looking at her, and I can tell she's  appraising her.

She's never seen the Mistress up this close. Judging by the look in her  eyes, I realize that Destiny never thought Strokes was this beautiful.

"Destiny, right?" Mistress Strokes asks her with a smile, sitting down in the twin sofa facing us.

"That's me … " Destiny says quietly, subdued. "And you're Mistress  Strokes," Destiny says, more a statement of fact than anything else and I  notice her voice fraught with caution.

She knows that she's about to get her answers, and she wants to tread lightly now.

"That's right, darlin," Mistress Strokes says. "In the flesh," Strokes adds as she turns to face me. "Do you trust her, Austin?"

"I do," I reply without hesitation. "I trust her with my life. I love  her." I don't need to say anything else; Strokes trusts me completely,  and I know that she only needs to hear what I just said to trust  Destiny. Its been a long process for her to accept that someone so  entangled in Lester's web can be trusted, but I guess that she's finally  ready for it.

"Very well then," she whispers, lowering her voice, "I have a story for you, Destiny."

And here we go; it's time for our secrets to be let out in the open.





81





Destiny





I lean toward Mistress Strokes in my seat, ready to finally find out what's really happening.

Since Lester asked me to come into Python, my life has never been the  same, and it all started because of this woman. I respected the fact  that Austin didn't want to share a secret that wasn't his, but now she's  here, right in front of me with that bright blue hair of hers.

And I'm ready, I'm ready for the truth.

Mistress Strokes' lips are pursed, and she is looking down at her hands,  trying to gather her thoughts. She looks slightly pale, and I can tell  that talking about whatever's going on isn't easy for her. So I just  reach for her, placing one hand on top of hers. Right now, she looks so  frail and vulnerable, and I just want to comfort her.

"Take your time, sweetie," I tell her, and she managed to look at me and show a faint smile.

"Thank you," she whispers, and then clears her throat. She balls her  hands into fists, takes a deep breath and then starts. "Austin told me  that you were worried about Python being involved in human trafficking …   Only Lester could dream up something like that," she mutters then,  shaking her head, but then continues. "There's nothing of that sort  going on around here, Destiny, I can promise you that."

"I know," I tell her, squeezing her hand. "I trust him." I look at Austin and he smiles at me, gently nodding.

"You're lucky to have her," Strokes tells Austin, and then squeezes back  my hand. She then turns her gaze to me and continues her story. "You  see, Lester is after me because I'm fighting against all the sex  trafficking going on in this city," she says in a quiet voice. "I live  for it, Destiny. I do my best to find the women who have found  themselves trapped by traffickers, and I do whatever it takes to set  them free and give them a chance at a new life. Money, new identities …   Whatever it takes."

"Mistress Strokes is a modern-day saint, Destiny," Austin tells me,  looking at her with pride. "She's done more for women than most  politicians will ever do, even if they could live multiple times over."

"None of this would be possible without Austin, though," the woman  continues as I feel my heart start to thump. "He's been financing me,  and Python has served as the headquarters of this operation. We hide  women here, if it's needed, and a lot of Python's profits are used to do  a lot of good."

Her thin smile has widened and she's even looking better now, some color  in her cheeks. She's proud of Austin, proud of Python, and proud of the  work they have been doing.

God, and to think that I had my suspicions about Austin. It must've been  hard for him, to know that I didn't trust him when, in fact, he was  actually the hero in this story.

"There's one thing I don't understand, though," I ask, "what does Lester  have to with all of this? He's the Police Commissioner, for God's sake.  He should give the two of you a medal, not hunt you down," I say.

They go quiet. I continue. "Sure, he's corrupt, but I don't--" That's  when I see anger flaring up in Mistress Strokes' eyes. She hates his  guts, and that's putting it lightly.

"Corrupt? He's not just corrupt! He's a fucking scumbag, that's what it is! I wish he--"

"Calm down, Strokes, we're between friends," Austin cuts her short, speaking in an appeasing tone.

"Sorry …  Sorry, I …  I hate him. It's hard for me to talk about him," she  sighs, and Austin hands her a small bottle of water. She opens it and  takes it to her lips, drinking almost half of it in one single gulp.  "Lester is not just corrupt, Destiny. His corruption knows no limits,"  she spews at me, her hatred showing through.

"I don't know if he's hungry for money, or for power, or whatever it is …   But he has no limits, he really doesn't," she continues. "He's been  profiting millions by allowing sex trafficking rings to operate right  here, in New York while he takes kickbacks on a weekly basis. I'm  betting that he even has a stake on a few of them …  He's that low of a  human being."

I suddenly feel nauseous, remembering how I used to allow him to have  sex with me and then paid him protection money. I feel repulsed,  disgusted …  I don't even know how I feel right now, to be honest. I just  wish I could get him in here now and break his cock in half. Sex  trafficking? Jesus fucking Christ.

"No wonder you hate his guts … "

"That's just part of it," she says to me and takes a deep sigh.

I can tell there's another bombshell coming.

"You see, Lester is my stepfather," she whispers in a resigned tone, and  hunches her shoulders as the word stepfather falls out of her lips. I  don't even want to imagine how it'd be to have the devil for a  stepfather. "He has been trying to shut me down through unofficial  channels, but I'm not making his life easy. That's why he pressed you  into all of this. He can't get the police inside Python without a valid  reason, and Austin already spends a lot of money on security so that  none of Lester's criminal dirt bags can ever step a foot inside here.  But he's growing reckless and Austin and I, we're making a real dent on  whatever operations he has a finger on, and we're hurting is wallet. And  I figure he's pretty pissed about that."

"You figure right, yeah," I say, thinking back to how he stormed my  club, raining hell on me. "I'm so sorry, hun …  I can't even begin to  imagine how it'd be like to have someone like him for a stepfather."

"My mother was a fool," she whispers, and tears start welling up in her  eyes. She takes a deep breath and recomposes herself, looking at me as  if nothing had happened. She's tough, I have to give her that. "But she  loved him. She never knew anything about this and, by the time I  discovered what he was up to …  I couldn't bring myself to tell her," the  woman that I know as Mistress Strokes says to me.