Their Virgin Princess (Masters of Ménage #4)(97)

"I think we can handle security for our own wedding," Lan said.

"Are you planning on standing at the altar covered in handguns?" Coop asked.

Lan shrugged. "Not just handguns. I was going to add a P-90 and some knives, too. I feel naked without them."

"You can't be covered in firearms in our wedding pictures," Dane said, his lips curving up in the first smile Coop had seen on him all day. "What is wrong with you?"

Dominic sighed, those dark eyes rolling slightly. It was obvious the man was not impressed with their banter. "If the three of you are done making wedding plans?" He turned to his two partners. "This shit is so not happening with us. If we find a chick, it's going to be no muss, no fuss. It's Vegas or nothing. Now, let's move on. Sheikh, we've hit a brick wall with the whole Caymans account thing. I sent Law and Riley to the island where they canvassed the banks, and no one was talking. I tried bribes, but those are well-trained employees. Or they're terrified of the people they work for. Even if the clients are criminals, if something came out about secret accounts, the mob and the cartels would not be pleased."

"You told us you had some good news," Dane said, his jaw tight.

"I have some news about the girl who's on the news right now." He looked down at his file. "Brittany Hahn. She's a twenty-two year old from San Bernadino. She was partying in Tijuana during spring break a couple of years ago when she was taken by the same group that was hired to acquire Alea. I've done a little more background on these thugs. They're tied to a cartel in Colombia. Real entrepreneurs, those guys. They're diversifying. This particular cartel has its hands in cocaine, slavery, and kidnap for fun and profit. It's a new enterprise that's starting to become more popular. They take high value targets like celebrities and upper-level businessmen, then they ransom them back to their families or businesses. Let me tell you, if you've got money, you don't walk around parts of South America without ransom insurance." 

"But my cousin wasn't taken from South America," Kade said.

"No. But I believe this was a kidnap for hire all the same," Dominic said.

"We've gone over and over everything, and it's the only thing that makes sense," Riley explained, taking over. "If she'd been taken for use in the brothel, then she would have been raped."

"Alea was raped," Cooper stated grimly. "Maybe not physically, but she was violated all the same."

If Burke and Cole Lennox hadn't already killed the motherfuckers and burned down that house, Cooper would be on his way to Colombia.

"Agreed." Riley nodded. "But nevertheless if the purpose of her kidnapping was to use her as a prostitute, she would not have been discovered fully intact, so to speak. So the question then is, why was she taken at all? And who was paying for her upkeep?"

"I assume someone was going to buy her," Dane surmised, his hands tightening into fists. "And they were holding her for this asshole."

"I don't know about that," Dominic said. "Put yourself into the head of a man who would purchase a female for his own use. We're not talking about D/s, but true criminal slavery. Still, the owner's impulse would be very similar to what a real Dom would feel."

"Possessive." Cooper knew exactly what he was talking about. They all found the possessive instinct at first with Alea. "Any man who would want to buy a virgin is going to be possessive and territorial."

"He wouldn't leave her there for long. He wouldn't leave her training to someone else," Lan added. "I know I wouldn't. And the so-called training they gave her was mostly psychological torture."

"And they got her hooked on drugs," Cooper added. He hated the thought of his Alea strung out and aching. They had used the drugs to keep her calm and quiet and to make her dependent. Alea was strong. He could imagine she'd given the fuckers hell in the beginning. "Do you think they would do that at some buyer's request?"

"No, especially not heroin. That's not cheap," Dominic said. "I don't think they had a buyer lined up for Alea at all. These are not the type of men who allow for installment plans. But they do love a little blackmail. I have a different theory of what happened. I believe the princess was kidnapped and that the men had help from an insider who plotted to draw Alea out, then help to urge the sheikh to pay the ransom as soon as possible."

Tal shook his head. "I never got a ransom."

Dominic leaned forward. "Ah, yes, but from the kidnappers' point of view, why simply take money from the victim's family when they could first blackmail the person who set up the abduction? Once they bled their 'cohort' dry, they could always come to you with an exorbitant ransom request. And by doing it this way, they don't have to give their conspirator any of the promised kickback. They simply could have cut them out altogether or killed them. Either way, they're not sharing the fat ransom. So the longer they kept your cousin, the more likely you would be to pay an outrageous sum to get her back. In the meantime, they were busy getting paid by the same dirtbag who aided them in her kidnapping."