Wife's Bitter Revenge Against Neglectful CEO Husband-Chapter 37: Desparately Seeking Drake and Davon

"Stiff, I bow to your skills," Bea said.

We were scrunched in around Stiff as he worked through the files he had received from Cometkazee.

I remembered Cometkazee. He reminded me of Bea. He was a free spirit who thought outside the box. Many times, I would have sworn he’d set himself up for failure, but as if by magic, he would pull off the impossible.

"How did Comet come up with these?" I asked.

Stiff said, "His little brother disappeared a couple of years ago. CK went on a mission to find his brother. These files are surveillance of the group he thinks took his brother.

"Hey, Jake, they’re your boys. Sit here next to me. See if anyone looks familiar."

The files were filled with short, grainy security feed videos and long-range photos. The visuals featured a group of boys who appeared to live in a dorm environment straight out of a juvenile prison film. Each boy wore a gray jumpsuit with a unique number on the back. The walls, the floor, and the paint on the tables and chairs were all the same shade of gray as the jumpsuits.

The boys appeared healthy, and the food looked like the standard fare at any elementary school, but the kids didn’t look happy. There was no goofing around like one would expect among little kids.

Then again, if I had stern guards watching over me, I might not be very chipper either.

We were about a half hour in when I saw a guard open a door off the main room.

"Hey, stop," I said. "Can you magnify there?" I pointed to the open door.

The video quality was poor to begin with. Magnified didn’t make it any better.

"Can you clean it up?"

Stiff did his best. The results would never win any awards, but it was good enough to confirm what I had seen.

I slammed my hands over my mouth as tears rolled down my cheeks.

"Teela, what’s wrong?" Bea asked.

"What do you see reflected in that mirror?"

I knew what it said. I’d seen it in full color a hundred times, but my friends were seeing it for the first time through poor-quality security feed. It took them a few minutes of brainstorming to read the neon words flashing on the mirrored wall of what I knew was a mirrored room.

Stiff finally pulled it together. "Whatever you do, wherever you go, someone is watching. Whatever you do, whatever you say, someone is listening."

It was the first two lines of the mantra I’d been forced to watch over and over to the point I still saw it in my dreams.

I collapsed in a nearby chair with all eyes on me.

"A reflection room," I whispered. This is the reason those young boys behaved so well. They’d gone through the same hell I had. Please, I prayed. Please tell me they weren’t left in there as long as I had been.

Bea said, "You mean like the Heavenlys have in their basement?"

I nodded.

"Holy hell." Stiff ran a hand through his hair.

"Yeah."

"Care to fill me in?" Jake asked.

Bea gave him the two-minute version of what felt like a decade of hell.

I gulped for air and reached for a water bottle. My hands were shaking. Those poor boys. Those poor, poor boys.

Jake took the bottle from me and opened it. He helped me take a drink.

Jake said, "Take a minute while Stiff and I finish. Bea, do you have a blanket or jacket you can wrap her in?"

"I’m on it!"

Was there another reflection room identical to the one Lettie set up for her boys? Did she borrow the idea from someone else, or was the Heavenly family involved with whatever was going on with these boys? Did King Know? If CK’s suspicions were real, was food processing just a cover for human trafficking?

Oh, geez. Did I just spend three years living with human traffickers who built a fortune off the sale of people—worse, little kids?

For the first time, I was thankful I’d never received any money from those people.

Or I could be jumping to conclusions. The end result was I knew we had to get those boys out regardless of whether Drake and Davon were there. And if the Heavenly family was involved, they had to be exposed as the criminals they were. All those little girls and grown women who admired Lettie for building her business empire deserved to know the truth. All the children who had been separated from their families and forced to experience goodness only knew what deserved justice.

Bea rushed back with a plaid throw. She wrapped it around me as she cooed like a momma bird to her fledgling.

"Stop." Jake pointed at the screen. "There. That’s Davon."

"Oh," Stiff said.

When nothing followed, I looked up to see Stiff and Jake trying to communicate without words.

"Guys, just say it."

Jake said, "I saw Davon but not Drake."

There was something he wasn’t saying, something that would explain his sudden pallor. If they wouldn’t tell me, then I needed to see it for myself.

I threw off the blanket and stood.

Stiff slapped the laptop closed and leaned on it. I think we should take a break. I could use an iced vanilla latte. Who’s with me?"

"Stiff, don’t make me break into your laptop while you avoid the inevitable. Because I will."

"Hey, I’m hackproof."

"Are you willing to bet on it?"

Stiff thought about it while flashing pathetic puppy eyes.

It didn’t help when I started a countdown. "Five, four, three, two—"

"Fine, but sit first and take a deep breath."

I did as he suggested before I looked. It helped, but the sight was still heartbreaking. The little boy Jake identified as Davon was a limp doll in the arms of a guard. The guard was carrying him out of the reflection room.

The date on the video was weeks old. What were the odds the boy was still there?

Jake asked, "Where are they located?"

Stiff said, "I’ll reach out to CK."

Jake nodded. "I need a salary advance."

Stiff pulled his black card out and handed it to Jake. "Anything you can’t find, let me know. I know people."

Jake tossed me the key fob.

"Don’t you need the car?"

"Not where I’m going. Here." He tossed me a bag of electronic devices. "Three GPS trackers. Three listening devices. I imagine a car like that comes with a GPS tracking feature as part of the security package as well. I’ll pick up a blocker to be safe."

I held up the bag. "I could have sworn he told me he didn’t bug the car."

"He did." Jake patted my shoulder as he passed me to leave.

"And he wants me to trust him. Ah well, these will make for interesting conversation in therapy."

Bea said, "Devil’s advocate here, but aren’t you lying to him about being a hacker as well? Not only a hacker but the very same Night Shadows that he is looking to hire."

"First, I’ve all but confessed to him over the security breaches. He dismisses the idea as soon as it comes up. Besides, he deserves it."

"Is there ever a good reason for lying during a relationship? I mean, other than the white lie variety, like your bubble butt looks good in that dress, and your penis is the perfect size for my vagina?"

Stiff added, "Don’t forget it’s all his fault, and I know exactly what you mean. No one ever knows exactly what someone else means."

I said, "How about any apology that contains the word ’but’?"

"Good one," Bea said. "But you are avoiding the question."

"In theory, you’re right. To my credit, though, my goal is to end the relationship, so lying actually moves me one step closer to my goal. Whereas King wants to salvage the marriage, so lying works against his goal. Big difference."

"I see your point."

Stiff finished what he was doing and closed his laptop. "Done. Now, someone feed me before I expire."

"Let’s go out to celebrate our first day," Bea suggested.

I held up the key fob. "We can take my car!"

"When did you get a car?" Stiff asked.

"When King gave me a great idea for revenge."

"How so?"

"I’ll tell you on the way."

My friends were smart. I knew if I had jumped to the conclusion that the Heavenlys were involved in the abduction of these boys, they would too, but I wasn’t ready to have that conversation. Going out to somewhere noisy and where alcohol flowed was a good way to avoid discussing the possibility. It would also give us an outlet for all the tension created by what we had discovered.

I only wished Jake had stayed with it. While I respected that he was a man of action and needed to go, the friend in me wanted to provide him with emotional support. But perhaps now was not the time.