“CJ, I have a problem. A Guardian problem.”
“Go on.” As lead of the Guardian teams, I want to loop him in first. If he bites, I’ll go to Brady, then Brady and I will go to the team.
“Carmen and Rosalie’s roommate, Kaye, is being intimidated, and coerced, by her former professor at UCSF. He’s using emotional and physical intimidation tactics to get her to submit to edge play.”
“You’ve got my attention.” CJ’s light Texas twang hardens.
“She came home yesterday with ligature marks on her ankles and wrists. Bruising around her neck.”
“Could be bondage play?”
No way in hell does CJ think this is bondage play, but he’s obligated to consider all angles.
“She’s a husk of her normal self. Not to mention, his intimidation tactics escalated to include the other girls. He’s using threats against them to get Kaye to submit. I need to get all of them to safety, then we need to deal with him.”
I need to kill him.
“What are you thinking?” The drumming of CJ’s fingers is unmistakable. It’s what he does when thinking.
“Who’s Scott?” Mitzy’s suddenly on the line. Her high-pitched squeak is a jarring contrast from CJ’s slow drawl.
I rattle off Scott’s full name and position at UCSF. She’ll look up his basic information, then do a deeper dive into his background.
“Get me up to speed.” Shock number two. Sam, head of Guardian HRS, who oversees all the teams: Guardians, Techies, Medical, and the new Protector division is on the line as well. He’s direct and to the point, the epitome of efficiency.
I give him the details. “I want to move the girls back onto HQ grounds.”
“That’s going to be tricky.” A new voice comes on the line; the soft, yet powerful voice of Skye Summers, co-founder of Guardian HRS and lead of our medical team. “Carmen and Rosalie made a point of moving back to the townhome and went against our advice to stay within the safety of HQ. You’re going to have difficulty convincing them to return.”
“I’m hoping Kaye will convince them moving back is the safest option.” I pull on my chin, a bit taken aback by who all is on this call. I only meant to talk to CJ, then go from there.
“And you think they’ll agree?” CJ asks the obvious question.
“They’ll do it for Kaye, if not for themselves.” I continue pacing in the hall, fingers cramping from how hard I grip the phone.
“Good point,” CJ says.
“I want to take a look at Kaye’s injuries,” Skye pipes up. “Any thoughts on whether she wants to prosecute? If so…”
“I barely got her to agree to let me help. You can ask, but she’s frightened. Too scared to act openly about what he’s done.”
“Aren’t they all?” Sam speaks and there’s silence on the line. Every threat we face is real and this is exactly the kind of assignment where we do our best work.
“Ask her when you get a moment alone with her,” Skye says. “If not, I’ll take her aside and be as gentle as I can.”
“Will do.” Honestly, Doc Summers would be far better than me approaching that aspect of things. My gut twists with what Scott did to Kaye.
“Sam, what are your thoughts?” Forest Summers’s deep voice rumbles through the phone.
My mouth gapes. Did CJ dial in the entire chain of command? All the way up to the founder of our organization? Forest Summers himself?
Our organization moves fast, but this is light speed.
“Zeb, have you brought this up to Bravo-One?” Sam asks.
“No, sir. I didn’t want to presume we’d take this on until I discussed it with CJ.”
“Well,” Sam says. “You’ve got the green light from me. Anyone dissent?”
A chorus of “Noes” rings out.
“Zeb, Brady’s on the line,” Mitzy speaks. “Bravo-One, we’ve got something for the team. Zeb, you want to fill him in?”
“Absolutely.” I brief Brady on what happened to Kaye and my intention to put Scott down.
“Sounds like a plan,” Brady says. “But what are you going to do about Carmen and Rosalie? They threw a fit when Rafe and Hayes wanted them to stay at HQ. Now you’re going to convince them to move back? Props if you make that happen. They’re fiercely independent.” There’s a low chuckle from Brady.
“That’s the goal.”
Brady makes it sound like a challenge, but I’ve seen how the girls interact. They’ll do whatever it takes to help Kaye.
As for fiercely independent, that’s not a stretch. Carmen intercepted the rescue of Isabelle LaCroix by jumping on the end of a rope dangling from our helicopter. She led the charge for returning to her father’s residence to rescue not only Rosalie, but scores of women who were held captive there.
During that mission, we rescued the captive women, but lost Rosalie and Hayes during exfil. The two of them escaped through the jungle, and to hear Hayes recount what happened, Rosalie basically saved herself and dragged him along for the ride.
“They’ll do it for Kaye. That won’t be a problem.” I’m ninety percent sure it won’t. If anyone can convince Carmen and Rosalie, it’ll be Kaye.
Not me.
“That’s all I need to know.” Brady doesn’t waste time with superfluous questions. “Are you at the house?”
“Yes.”
“Good. You work on the women. We’ll brief the team once you have the green light from them.”
“I have quarters,” Mitzy says. “We have four empty TLQs in the dorm. Sending the requisition in now. As for Professor Douchebag, this isn’t the first time he’s done something. There are complaints filed against him.”
“He has other complaints? How is he still on the faculty?” My words come out an animalistic growl. I’m beyond pissed. Way beyond.
Murderous comes to mind.
“Tenured, for one, and for the other?” I can practically see Mitzy shrug. “All the complaints were dismissed. Sounds fishy to me. I’m going to sign off this call and do some digging. I’ll have something to report back by tonight.”
“Anything else we need?” Sam gives everyone a chance to speak before ending the call.
As soon as I’m off with all the bigwigs, Brady calls me on a separate line.
“How bad is it?” he asks.
“Asphyxiation play. Tied her down. Could’ve killed her. He sent that box with the dog shit in it the day Rosalie and Carmen moved back in. The next day, he cornered her at the library. This has been going on for weeks. Now, he’s openly threatened all of them if Kaye doesn’t submit.”
My guts twist and churn thinking about how long this has been going on. Kaye’s red-rimmed, unblinking stare, completely vacant of emotion, tells me how much damage she’s sustained.
When I held her, she looked miserable with the abrasions and bruising, but it was the way she curled against me that broke my heart.
I should’ve known. I should’ve been out there protecting her. Instead, I’ve been moping around the townhouse during my weekly watch because I thought I’d been relegated to the friend zone.