the tightness of her lips, Cheska too. “They brought them to their knees and killed them. Shot them for refusing to sell me.”
“Who would do that?” Cheska asked, her greenness to this life showing in spades. “What kind of loved one would sell their child? Their family?”
“I’d say at least half of that container were debt payments made by desperate or dogshite parents,” Ronnie said coldly.
“No,” Cheska said, but Ronnie nodded.
“Kidnappings, debt payments, runaways, prostitutes. You name it. They make people vulnerable, or prey on the already weak.”
Cheska looked at me and saw by my unmoved face that it was true. We stayed the fuck away from that kind of work, but it was fucking thriving in the London underworld. Dealing in sex and human trafficking was a one-way ticket to money. Lots of fucking money.
“Where …” Cheska straightened her shoulders. “Where did you go? What happened to you?”
“I was sold. Sold at a market—”
“A market?”
“Like cattle,” Vera spat, drying Ronnie’s cheeks with her hands. “Paraded in a ring for people to buy as slaves—for cleaning, fucking, or whatever they fucking wanted.” The famous Adley anger pulsed from Vera’s voice. She was pissed at what her girlfriend had gone through.
“Where did they take you?” Cheska asked. “Abroad?”
Ronnie made sure Cheska was looking right at her when she said, “Knightsbridge.”
“But … what?” Cheska whispered.
“I was kept in a cage, in a basement in Knightsbridge. I was fucked and beaten by a couple who had a thing for pain. For years I served them, gave them whatever they wanted from me. Until they went away on business and the person watching their house had a heart attack and died in front of me.”
“You ran,” Cheska said, pride for Ronnie in her voice.
Ronnie nodded. “I was from the East End. I knew only one family who could help me. Knew only one group of people who could keep me safe and maybe help me bring my captors to justice.” Ronnie smirked and looked right at me. I remembered the day she landed on our doorstep, nothing but skin and bone and covered in bruises, but telling us she’d do anything for us if we helped her. “I knew the Old Bill wouldn’t help me.” She smiled wider. “So, I came to the good guys.”
“The good guys,” Cheska echoed, and met my eyes. The look she was throwing my way made my fucking lungs burn. She knew. My bird knew because she’d done the fucking same.
“And they helped me. Helped me find the couple and let me get my revenge.”
“The couple … they didn’t tell you who sold you to them? The group?”
“It was a front,” Vera said. “A fucking labyrinth of cover-ups and dead ends. A well-oiled machine of deception.”
“My old man took her on and gave her work in one of our factories,” I said, and the colour slowly came back to Ronnie’s face, the fucking life. “Rose to intel when he found out she’d been a hacker as a kid. Vera’s old man took her under his wing after that.”
“She quickly caught my eye.” Vera kissed her bird on the lips. “Then I won her over.”
Cheska sighed, and it was heavy. “That’s what they would have done to me?” she said, the reality and gravity of her situation hitting home. “Those girls, if I hadn’t found you, if I hadn’t made it to you at your club …” She turned to me, and the expression on her face, the fucking look she was wearing, carved the fuck out of my soul, wrenched that crack in my chest wide open into a fuck-off gaping canyon. “The good guys,” she said, using Ronnie’s words. She shifted closer and pressed against me like she could melt us into one fucking person.
“They shot my dad and Hugo like they shot your parents,” Cheska said to Ronnie. She pressed her hand to my cheek. “But you saved me, Arthur. You saved me from that awful, heartbreaking life. You saved me from what Ronnie had to endure for too many years.” Cheska reached out and took Ronnie’s hand. “You are an inspiration.”
Ronnie kissed Cheska’s hand and then sat back, the fight leaking out of her. Ronnie met my eyes. “They’re stepping it up,” she said tiredly, referring to the traffickers. Ronnie darted a glance at Cheska, and I held my woman so fucking tight I thought she might not be able to breathe. They wanted Cheska.