Auctioned Mates Revenge
Chapter 28

Matt's

POV

I left Renda with Grace with the feeling that Grace had lied to me about her name. It was the same feeling I'd gotten when Renda had given me her name.

Lucas growled If we just commanded her-

No.

Lucas may not know the meaning of patience, but I knew that there was no other way to get Renda's love and trust other than to be patient.

Didn't we know better than most that being mates didn't guarantee everlasting love? Besides, how ridiculous would it be to try and command anyone to do anything? What did Lucas think we were some ancient, all-powerful alpha? Lucas snorted, but he said nothing else.

Felix was gone before I reached the bottom floor and announced that the club would be closed. The patrons looked upset but upon seeing me, they scurried out without much else to say, whispering to each other.

It was good they were curious about why I was there and closing Club Heaven. If enough of them were important enough, the news would reach Mordecai around the time that Felix had managed to take him up on his offer.

It would burn Mordecai to have already signed the agreement to bring Felix into his pack but not get Club Heaven. He was an arrogant and stubborn bastard, much like Ben. He'd be trying to pay me a visit about Club Heaven soon enough. I gathered the security forces as the assistants that Armand sent arrived.

I had them interview them all while I sent all the women back to their dorms, the bartenders, home, and locked the front doors. After that, I headed back to the office. I tried the doorknob and found it locked. I knocked on the door. "Renda, it's me."

I heard movement before the door opened. Grace looked up at me with a tense smile. I eyed her suspiciously before entering the room. Renda was sitting behind the desk, poking at keys as she squinted at a sticky note. The sight was troubling and endearing.

She didn't even know how to type on a keyboard? She knew how to order an Uber, but did she know how to do much else with her phone?

I'd have to fix that some other time.

The computer let out an angry sound and she huffed before glancing up at me. I closed the door behind me and rounded the desk.

"What are you doing?" I asked, trying to keep the smile off my face as I watched her try again.

It was obvious she had never used a computer before as she didn't know how to capitalize letters.

I took the keyboard from her and the sticky note, leaning into her space. Her scent filled my nose and made Lucas rumble with want and contentment as I typed in the login information and unlocked the computer. She huffed, "Well... thanks."

"I could teach you to type one day if you'd like." I pulled away before Lucas got too eager and picked up one of the folders on the desk. There was a line of numbers and letters on the tab of the folder. It looked like a code of some sort. As I expected, there was a receipt inside and a few other pages with information on the people listed.

Trinity and Cherry were the only two names that stuck out to me, but there was no information about who sold them.

I glanced down at Renda who seemed uncomfortable, clicking on random icons on the desktop.

"Renda," I said, gently. "What are you looking for?"

She flinched and didn't answer. The mouse stopped moving. With a sigh, I set the file down.

"Grace, who usually handles acquisition? Do you know?"

"The owner," she said. "He fired the man who used to do it to save on costs."

I wasn't surprised at the reasoning, but I was surprised at the fact that she knew the reason.

"How much do you know about the process?" I asked.

She looked between me and Renda before lifting her chin, "The sellers' contact information is in the safe along with the detailed sales contracts."

I looked down at the file, "Show me."

She crossed the room and moved the ugly abstract painting off the wall to reveal the face of a large safe. Before I could ask, she opened the safe with a few turns of the dial.

I eyed her, "Grace..."

"I'll tell you everything I know," she said, her voice trembling. "I'll cooperate with whatever you're trying to do... I just... I just want my freedom."

My heart clenched as she wouldn't look at me. I looked at Renda and found that her eyes had glossed over with unshed tears. Renda empathized with Grace. Maybe they'd formed some sort of alliance.

Having Grace's trust might help me gain more of Renda's trust.

"You have my word," I said solemnly as I looked at Grace. "I'll get you an identity and everything else and safe passage to wherever you want."

Her eyes were guarded, but she nodded as I went to the safe and looked inside. There was no money, but there were a few ledgers and a notebook full of codes. There was another folder full of papers that seemed important.

It was all coded, I could tell that much. There was some hope that Grace would know how to decode it, but looking at her expression, I wasn't sure about it. I brought the folder towards the table.

Renda looked a little more at ease at the sight of the pages and started reaching for things as if she didn't care that I was there.

"I-I know there's a code, but I can't tell you much more than the contact information is in the notebook and the folder has all the contracts."

That was enough to start working on it. Renda was pouring over the pages before pulling out a pad of paper from inside the desk and a pen.

"Grace, why don't you go and meet up with the people downstairs. Tell them I sent you to help with their interviews."

Grace nodded and left the room, leaving us alone. I looked over the contracts. The amounts varied. They all referenced order lists that weren't attached to the contract. They were all dated and signed with stamped codes. Felix could have easily passed it off as office supplies or alcohol if anyone came to look with these kinds of records.

"What did you replace in the archives?" I asked.

Renda looked up at me and froze, before looking away.

"File cabinets and a separate section of files in cardboard boxes," she nodded at the folders with codes on them. "These folders came from the boxes... Grace said the boxes are related to the files in the safe."

"They're coded," I said. "Anyone who profits from human trafficking has to protect themselves. I imagine every leg of the trade has a different way of doing it."

Renda's jaw clenched and she looked back down at the pages as she started scribbling something. A few moments passed before she let out a gasp before grabbing the file containing the receipt with her and Trinity on it.

A grin of triumph cut across her face.

"Victoria!"

I frowned, "Who is Victoria?"

She flinched and looked up at me before sitting down. She worried her lip and I waited for her to answer.

"... the one who sold our batch."

I stood and rounded the table to look. On the pad of paper, she'd written out a bunch of letters and numbers in line.

At the bottom, she'd translated the code on the folder, detailing the date the contract was made, with who, and how these women were accounted for in the books.

The cipher she'd made would be valuable if I ever wanted to turn it all over to the Inter-Pack Authorities to have them tried.

That was if they were all still alive when I was done with them.

"You're genius," I said. Her eyes widened as she looked up at me. "How'd you figure it out?"

Her cheeks reddened, "Well... I'm sure it's nothing compared to a 4.8..."

"It's not nothing. I'm terrible at puzzles," I confessed.

She looked down, seeming uncomfortable with the compliment.

"It's nothing... I just... I was always fond of puzzles when I was younger."

I grinned at the little bit of information and started planning for future gifts I could give her while trying to get her to relax around me.

Using her cipher, we looked through the rest of the records to replace all of Victoria's contracts. She had a lot of them. Renda and Trinity's was her first sale, but there were several others after that and got onto the computer to replace a digital master list.

As I thought, there was one. Renda hovered with wide eyes as I navigated through the spreadsheets searching for the roster of women Victoria had sold.

They were mostly between 15 and 17 years old. My stomach turned thinking about it. Most of the girls she'd sold to Club Heaven had been marked sold or dead. So, I couldn't ask any of them about how they came to be at Club Heaven or where they were from. The next best thing to do to get some more information about where Victoria was getting these young women was to entice her into selling more to Club Heaven and asking them.

Her contact information was there, but I had no idea how to make such a call. I supposed there had to be some sort of code.

"Renda..." She frowned at me. "Do you think Grace would have been around to listen to some of the negotiations for these girls?"

She blinked and I wanted for her to catch on. It didn't take long and I smirked.

"We make a pretty good team, don't we?" I leaned dangerously close, sharing a breath with her and letting her scent fill my senses. "We could make an even better team if you told me what you were after..."

I saw the temptation in her eyes. Lucas was still and quiet, but I could feel his yearning for her to just give in. I wanted it to. Her eyes darted down to my mouth before she flinched and jerked back. "I-I'm going to go replace Grace and ask."

She hurried out of the room without another word. I watched her go, barely holding back Lucas' frustrated growl. I took a deep breath and forced him to calm down.

We're making progress. I told him. That's all we can hope for right now.