Broken Falcon, page 29
“I’m sorry,” she said, “but it’s important that we’re clear on this point. You said he watched Parks rape you, then they screwed on the couch, hoping you would watch?” She hated saying this in a room filled with his friends, but reminded herself it was okay. They already knew. They’d agreed that everything was open to discussion.
“Yes.”
“Did he orgasm?”
“I think so. Parks taunted him. Asking if he could cover my cum with his.” He said the words with surprising ease. He’d accepted the need and was probably compartmentalizing.
“Why does this matter?” Isabel asked. Her question had a slight edge to it. Eden knew she was protective of Chase and was glad for it.
“I think I’ve figured out why Dearborn visited Desiree.” She cleared her throat. “Me. I’ve been working on a few theories since I started in the sex trade. One conclusion I’ve come to is that everyone has a reason to visit a camgirl. And by that, I mean deep-seated. They might not even know it. Camgirl work isn’t free. And there is plenty of free porn available to get a person in the mood. But camgirls are interactive, and we cost money. You don’t keep going back if you aren’t getting something more than an erection from it. Because you can get an erection for free at one of the other sites.”
“Not always,” Chase said pointedly.
God, she loved him and his brave honesty.
She nodded. “Exactly my point. It’s sometimes men—not always men, but the majority of visitors to camgirl sites identify as male—who have difficulties in that area who turn to camgirls because they need the interactive element to achieve an erection.”
“But I thought we figured Dearborn was following you because of his connection to CamDames and trafficking?” Tricia said.
“I’m sure that’s why it started but you don’t show up at least two nights a week for two years for that. He could have checked in every other week and been done with me. The ledger tells a story. We now know he paid me between one hundred and five hundred a week, occasionally having private sessions in which he tipped even more. I think I’ve figured out why.” She glanced at the workroom door where she’d been so close to being assaulted this morning and let out a soft gasp.
“He even tried to get it today. This wasn’t about Parks. She was never going to see that tape in lockup. This was about him and his kink. And today he was getting revenge on Chase by using me for the only thing that gets him off.”
“And that is?” Seong asked.
“If I’m right, then around the time he was at Chase’s cabin, Hank started asking me to tell him stories of me having sex with other men. He wanted me to describe it with him as a spectator usually in the role of cuckolded partner.”
“So cuck fantasies were his kink,” Chase said.
Eden nodded. “And it started after he watched the woman he was trying to have an affair with rape you. I think that was the first orgasm he’d had in a long time. In my notes, I speculated that he could achieve an erection, but they didn’t last long and he was unable to satisfy his wife. He was unwilling to perform any other kind of clitoral stimulation, so his wife gave up on him. This is all speculation, of course, but you get to know a man in my business even if you only have their voice to go on.”
“So watching Parks with me triggered something in him that turned him on.”
“Yes. And then he tried to get me to recreate that fantasy. I was probably a stand-in for Parks or his wife, and he enjoyed the idea of watching. There might have been a punishment element in his mind in the sex that followed, whether he had it with a partner or masturbated.”
She glanced around the room and finally met and held Chase’s gaze. “This is about revenge and CamDames, sure, but there’s more to it than that. If he just wanted revenge, he’d have ended the game when he set you up for Tobias’s murder. Or he would have had me killed or abducted me from here. Those things would hurt you, and I’m sure he has issues with me too, so bonus revenge.
“But first he wanted me to read a letter as if I was his incarcerated lover, and then he wanted to have one or two men rape me while it was recorded so he could watch that video over and over. It was a violent cuckold fantasy played out against the woman who abandoned him. Not willingly, but still abandoned to the degree that he hasn’t been able to speak to her in a year without fear of revealing himself as her accomplice.” She paused. “This is all just my personal theory, by the way, I haven’t studied this area enough to claim any sort of expertise. But it fits with the behavior and how Hank chose to present himself.”
“How does Penny fit in all this?” Seong asked.
“I’m not sure. I think it’s safe to assume that apart from Chase,” she met his gaze and added, “I’m sorry, but—”
He nodded. “I was Parks’s first true success. And Penny was her second.”
Eden nodded. “You had a life to return to, so she had to bury your memories of your weekends in hell. But Penny had no one. Did she ever get to surface from the nightmare of being controlled? Was she internally screaming inside, even as she went through the motions of her days?”
“You said she started working at the coffee shop a few months before you did,” Chase said. “Maybe that was a sign Parks’s control slipped when she was arrested. Maybe Penny was breaking free?”
“And then Dearborn reeled her back in?” Isabel asked.
Eden cocked her head. “Actually, it might be the opposite. Once Parks was arrested, Dearborn had to fear your memories returning. He knew you might remember him. He wouldn’t know if you’d heard his name or not. And he knew you’d seen Penny too. So she stopped performing as Penny Candi. They tucked her in a coffee shop to give her something to do. It was convenient that Sling Man and Jacked Knee did all their pickups of runaways nearby—”
“Someone disabled the coffee shop cameras,” Tricia said. “I think Penny started working there and disabled the cameras, and then they started using the side street with the dark alley as the meet spot.”
“And then Chase started intercepting girls they hoped to nab for trafficking and sending them into the coffee shop, where Tricia and I waited,” Isabel added.
“When did you intercept the first girl?” Eden asked Chase.
“It was about six months ago.”
“Right around the time Penny suggested I apply and after you were already a client. I wonder if Hank—or rather, Dearborn—figured out from the start that Chase was Falcon,” Eden said.
“Possibly. If he didn’t then, he did the night we met. You showed up in the group and said you’d met someone that night. I’m guessing they knew Raptor responded to the call. Then Falcon showed up.” He stopped there, but Eden finished the connection in her mind.
Falcon dropped enough money for Desiree to forgo all pretense of entertaining the group and they went private. If Dearborn hadn’t put two and two together before, then that sealed it.
“We’ll probably never know if Penny suggesting I apply at Vivace Coffee was a coincidence or not. It was a very normal kind of thing to do, and we don’t know how much of her life and actions are hers. We don’t even know how old she really is, but my guess is she’s not twenty if the first time you saw her in the video clip from your memory, she looked only fifteen or sixteen.”
Eden paused, feeling her eyes burn with tears for the girl. “This morning, when I looked into her eyes, I saw pain. And she set up the blast message to let everyone know I was going live.”
That was met with nods and understanding. Everyone here had accepted that Penny was a victim, no matter what she’d done, and Eden realized they’d already been through that with Chase.
They had less problem wrapping their minds around it than she did. Seong included. But then, a year ago, Seong’s job had been to investigate everything about Chase to find if there were any holes in his claim of innocence. She’d already told Eden she’d found nothing. It was one reason she’d readily accepted his innocence in Tobias’s murder. It reeked of a setup, she’d said.
“I’m guessing they started watching you, if they weren’t already,” Chase said, “after the coffee shop incident. When I walked in to show you Sling Man’s photo, that just sealed it. Dearborn didn’t even have to do research to figure out who I was. He’d met me. Probably more than once, but I only remember the one time so far.”
“Do you really think they’re trying to find Jasmine?” Isabel asked.
Chase shook his head. “No. The first night, sure, but not anymore.”
“Good. It’s important to keep the shelter a secret. We’re on shaky legal ground as it is with the fact that we take in minors who are supposed to be returned to their parents. If Voigt Forum finds out about it, they’ll dox us for sure.”
Chase looked up. “What is Voigt saying about me?”
Alec looked up from his tablet. “Nothing yet. Keith assigned one of the office staff to monitor all right-wing social media for mentions of you, Eden, and Redford or anything associated with CamDames or the Vivace Coffee bombing.”
“I’m confused about that,” Eden said. “Why bomb the coffee shop?”
Chase jolted and Eden cocked her head, realizing no one else had noticed his reaction. But they were all deep in their own internal mapping of the situation, it seemed. “What is it, Chase?”
“It just occurred to me the bombing could have been a test for Penny. She could have been ordered to do it to show she was still in their control. They did that with me a few times prior to last fall. Small sabotages that no one would ever guess was me.” He looked to Seong. “Was Penny investigated after the bombing?”
“All coffee shop employees are being investigated. I don’t know how far they got with Penny.” She rose and said, “Let me make a few calls.” She slipped from the room and went to the interior staircase for privacy.
After she left the room, Eden said in a whisper, “I have a plan for how we can corner Dearborn. But it won’t work if the FBI is involved.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chase hated everything about Eden’s plan, but he was outvoted by his so-called friends. They had to put off the actual plan discussion until after Seong left to share everything she’d learned with her associates at the FBI.
When she finally left, she impressed upon Chase the need to stay put, but it was unofficial in that there was no arrest warrant being served. He’d given her his statement and Redford’s vehicle had been seized the moment Chase parked in Eden’s driveway, as previously arranged.
Even so, it wasn’t until early afternoon that Seong left.
“You aren’t going into his office alone,” Chase said for the dozenth time. His jaw was clenched so tight, he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t broken a tooth yet.
“There is no way he’ll talk if anyone is in the room with us. And I’ll have the nanodrones that Nate’s girlfriend designed. We’ll get his confession from sixteen different angles.”
“He’s not going to confess. He’s going to bolt, and he might take you hostage.”
“I won’t let that happen,” Nate said softly. He had been assigned the role of Eden’s bodyguard at the evening candlelight vigil on campus for students and faculty to honor slain student, Tobias Redford. Eden was determined to show up and corner Dearborn. Everyone agreed Chase was out as bodyguard, so Nate had stepped up.
“It should be me. I didn’t kill Redford.”
“But Dearborn will freak if he sees you,” Isabel said. Probably repeated. Chase was having trouble letting this point go. He couldn’t stand the idea of Eden facing Dearborn without him when he was the best unarmed fighter in Raptor and they all knew it.
“He doesn’t have Sling Man or Jacked Knee,” he said. They’d all adopted Eden’s names for the goons. “And Penny is safe in the hospital.”
“But there was another guy in the parking garage,” Sean said. “Whoever he was, he won’t hesitate to shoot first if he sees you.”
“What if that was Tobias?” Chase asked. Anything to get his way.
“Wait, what?” Eden said. “You think Tobias was more than just a victim here? You think he was Dearborn’s accomplice?”
He shrugged. “No clue. But maybe. Could it have been him?”
Eden closed her eyes, and he guessed she was trying to picture the shape of the man he’d had in a headlock in the garage. Finally she shook her head. “I have no idea. The mask completely covered his face. I didn’t even see his eyes, like I did yours. But the build could be right.”
“If it was him, then the third henchmen isn’t a problem. Dearborn is on his own.”
“Let me do this for you, Chase,” Nate said softly.
His tone caught everyone’s attention and Chase wasn’t the only one who looked at him questioningly.
Nate let out a deep sigh. “I didn’t have your back in Alaska.” He glanced at Isabel and added, “I didn’t have Vin’s back either. If there’s anything in my life I regret, it’s that I missed my Falcon teammates’ cries for help. If I’d seen what was really going on, Vin might still be alive. And you”—he held Chase’s gaze without flinching—“might not have suffered all you did. We might not be here right now at all. Parks never would have gotten her hooks in you.”
“It’s not your fault, Nate,” Isabel said, echoing Chase’s thought.
“Maybe not, but I still have regrets, so give me this, Chase. Give me a chance to have your back. I’ll protect Eden with my life.”
Chase knew that. The operative was a former Green Beret, and he’d been with Raptor longer than anyone in this room—including the company owner. And there was no arguing with that plea. Bastard.
“You know one of the things that sucks about learning how to feel again? All the fucking emotions.” Chase didn’t spill a tear, but just barely.
Isabel covered her smile with a hand, while Eden leaned into him, wrapping her arm around his waist. Her eyes did spill over with tears as she said, “Emotions, man, they’re the worst.” Then she laughed, and everyone, including Chase, did too.
He brushed his lips over her forehead. She was doing this for him. To put his nightmare to rest once and for all. “You’ll be careful?” he whispered for her ears alone.
“Always. Remember who I am. Caution is my number one rule. I didn’t even give you my number that first night. Or proposition you, even though I wanted to.”
He kissed her again and faced the group. “Fine. Nate accompanies her. But I’m on campus. Just in case.”
Keith wasn’t here, so the statement was directed to Sean, who was the ranking operative on the team. But of course, this wasn’t an official op. There was no client. This was his friends gathered to figure out how to clear his name and take down one of the people who’d nearly destroyed him.
But habits die hard, and Chase always respected the boss, who, in this instance was Sean.
Sean nodded. “I want a floor plan of the building.”
“I could probably sneak one or two of you into the lab. I have keys,” Eden said.
That idea perked him up. “How close is the lab to Dearborn’s office?”
“Is three doors down close enough for you?”
He gave a slow nod, for the first time not entirely hating this.
“So you’ll sneak us in, then you and Nate will go to the vigil, and you’ll convince Dearborn to meet with you in his office—presuming he’s at the vigil, of course.”
“If he arranged for Tobias’s murder, I’m pretty sure he’ll be there.”
“Why did he kill Tobias?” Tricia asked.
Eden shrugged. “Convenience? No clue except that it was easy to pin on Chase once I told Tobias about him. I’m starting to think that Dearborn is frustrated because he was Parks’s partner and nobody gives him credit. He could be disassembling as we move closer to the first anniversary of her arrest—which is just a week away. He hasn’t been able to talk to her at all from that moment. And now he’s lost his one connection to her—Penny—and his two goons. He’s on edge, and the idea of a private talk in his office with me will be too much to resist. Make no mistake, he’s a brilliant man. He earned his PhD thirty years ago. He knows more about human psychology than I probably ever will…now.” The last word said it all. Eden was accepting the loss of her dream.
“What makes you think you can outsmart him, then?” Isabel asked.
“One, he doesn’t respect me as an equal, doesn’t think I could ever possibly figure out the scam he’s been pulling on me for two years, and two—”
She stood and pulled open the light hoodie she’d donned over a tight tank top when she’d dressed earlier. The tank hugged her curves and highlighted her narrow waist, while her yoga pants showed off her round ass. She swept a hand down her spectacular body. “He wants this. So much so that he’s paid me over twenty-eight thousand dollars over the course of two years just to get a peek.”
“It’s kind of hard to argue with that,” Tricia said with a grin. “I mean with both the body and the money.”
Eden grinned. “I had to give up ice cream to get this body. At least it was worth it financially.” She turned to Chase, “Sorry, babe, enjoy it while you can, because if I’m not paying the bills with it, I’m having ice cream and garlic bread. But not at the same time.”
Chase burst into laughter. A full belly laugh that shouldn’t be possible right then, but damn. She was the light he’d needed for so damn long and her strength and fearlessness was an absolute turn-on.
He pulled her onto his lap and tugged the hoodie closed at the front. “Okay, then. We’ve established that Dearborn doesn’t stand a chance. What time does the vigil start?”
“Seven p.m.,” Nate said.
“So Sean and I should be in place in the lab by six.”
Heads bobbed around the table in agreement.
“We leave at five fifteen, then.” He checked his watch. “That gives us four hours.”
His meaning was clear, and the members of Falcon team plus Rav and Isabel all rose. Isabel said, “Alec and I will ride this out at the estate. Keep us posted.”
