Temptress

87 - Amber | Choices

Well, the FBI had been actively working on it for ten years, and now Cleo and Harry managed to set us back and ruin every progress.

With Desmond and Catherine out of the picture, there was no way to track the suppliers or study their routes... there was no way to know, especially since everyone would retreat.

I also wondered if they had second in commands to take over in case anything happened to them, so now we also had to take care of that and worry about new people entirely.

And I was supposed to make a report about Harry and Cleo.

Just the fact I saw them at the party was a terrible thing, they were supposed to stay away from anything trafficked related and they decided to literally go to an auction where the girls would be sold off.

They were there because of the list, I was connecting the dots now... and I also realized that the girl Cleo killed right before we escaped from the fire was Cindy Payne.

She was the one Anne told me about.

Coming to New York was the worst idea, I told Anne she had to stay away from Harry, Desmond, and Catherine.. she was presumed dead after all.

She was the reason we finally had enough evidence to build a stronger case against them, and she was smart to take the immunity deal because she always knew about the trafficking and she knew she could go down for it.

I wondered what changed, though... she started helping us with tiny bits of information around fifteen years ago, before this even was a big case. Anne reached out, as if something had triggered her to speak up.

She was in an abusive relationship, Desmond was a fucking asshole who deserved to die, I knew that. But working for the government meant protocols and more protocols, things were just so fucking complicated.

It wasn't as simple as Cleo and Harry assumed, they didn't even think of the consequences. And now every single important person was dead and I was ignoring my supervisor's calls ever since the masquerade.

My job tonight was to watch and analyze everything, this was the first time I actually managed to sneak into a party like this and look at what happened.

I had contact with so many clients, I had the opportunity to study their behavior and collect so much information... not anymore.

Fuck.

What the fuck was I supposed to do?

I was about to lie and say everyone died in the fire.. including Cleo and Harry. I understood their motives and I could understand the desperation, but they were the most impulsive and stupid people I had ever met.

Yes, I first thought they were involved with trafficking, all the FBI did. They worked for their parents, so their jobs were connected to the suppliers and the trafficking itself, either killing someone to facilitate a deal or simply to avoid possible competition.

But after we talked, I knew they were innocent. I liked to believe I knew Cleo, even though I couldn't recognize her at all tonight. The look in her eyes was so fucking cold and empty, she was killing everyone who got in her way without even blinking.

She apparently killed her mother... it showed how affected she was by all this.

And they had no idea Anne was involved with the list.

She blurted out her plan and she told me about this Cindy girl and the way she was abused in one of these parties. Anne tried to explain how she rescued her before she took the deal and faked her death, many years ago. Apparently, she found out about these parties too and maybe she felt too guilty about her husband's doings.
                           
But the brilliant reason for the list was because she freaked out about the FBI, since our case was growing stronger every day and we were so fucking close to striking. With both Cleo and Harry in the list of people we would bring in and lock up.