SEIZED Part 4: A Steamy New Adult Romantic Suspense Thriller (Seize Me Romance Fiction Series) by JC Coulton Read Free Book Online Page B

to work from. I’m not gonna hurt them, I’m not gonna try and fuck them over. This is just business. All the girls know that woman do it better than anyone else on the planet. Blake, if I didn’t bring them here, where do you think they’d be, huh? They’d be dead. Finished. They were done for in Buffalo, and I saved them. I’m a fucking hero as far as they’re concerned.”
    She’s glowing with a self-righteous mania that’s nothing less than scary. I want to shut her down, show her the truth of her words, but she’s insane. She won’t see anything but the reality she’s constructed for herself and the master plan she believes she’s following. It’s incredibly ugly.
    I remind myself I’m not here to get through to her. I’m here to get her to work. There’s nothing more valuable than a loyal CI. If I can transform her from this mad bitch into a true source of value, then all of this will be worth it. I decide it’s time to counter with the beginning of my bribe.
    “So you’ve got it all figured out, do you? Here you are, the only female manager in town, pimping third-rate girls that are strung out and covered in pimples and puncture marks. Don’t you know every month your territory gets poached a little more? I see it, Neon. Everyone sees it. We see the fallout and the attacks. Faster pimps and hotter girls take each little square of land. The other pimps in town don’t want you in this game. You know it and I know it. It’s only a matter of time before they take you out. You’ll never be accepted without protection.”
    My in-depth knowledge of the dynamics of this industry seems to baffle her. She had always made it clear she felt it was a world of her own that no one else could understand. Even the rookie officers learn how the game works. They learn who the players are, who’s got the power, and how we can use their intel for good.
    The sex industry is a hot bed, a center for other crimes. The police are well aware of the informal laws governing it. If she doesn’t know the extent of our understanding of this game, she’s more deluded than I thought.
    While there are often madams running the parlors, and independents controlling the more elite call girls, and the private establishments, there are very rarely women running girls on the street. That’s what makes Neon so rare. She’s a traditional pimp in the modern sense. She has pussy and muscle and she runs drugs on the side. It may not be a high quality operation, but she seems to run a tight ship and that challenges the men in the game more than anything else. It all comes down to making money.
    I’m sure it won’t be long before she’s literally got a knife to her throat. They won’t hesitate to slit it either. There’s no mercy in this industry. Either that or they’ll force her to work for them, if they let her and the girls live.
    I decide to give her one more chance to tell me what she knows about April before I go ahead with the plan; maybe my big talk has scared her a little.
    “So you’ve never met April Lee? And her Uncle Jessup Lee has nothing to do with it either, right?” 
    Neon looks up at me sharply. Her eyes are so wired it’s hard to see where she’s looking. It could be at me or through me. There are enough narcotics in her system to drop a horse I’m sure. After this many years on the needle, she must need massive shots to get out of bed every morning.
    I can’t tell whether it’s amphetamines or downers; she’s completely disconnected. Operating on automatic, I’m willing to bet she doesn’t eat. The color of her skin is grey and waxy, as if she’s been embalmed.
    “I don’t know who April is, but I do know of Jessup. Everyone does. Whatever has happened to his niece is not my business.”
    “April was taken Neon, beaten and then snatched from Times Square. Carrie was hurt too. They’re innocent girls. Never seen a day on the street. One’s a veterinarian; the other’s a journalist. They’re