I Want Her to Know What Love Is

In this chapter, another attack is made on the freed women at the hotel. This chapter is light on sex, although it does have some oral and regular sex. My thanks to JohnnyGalt for his editorial assistance, without which this would not be as good. This is a copyrighted work of intellectual property and not to be edited, altered, changed or published in any other format, including audio, without the author's express permission. ©️Copyright 2025

I Want Her to Know What Love Is, Ch 25

I Want Her to Know What Love Is, Ch 25

Scrambling

Scrambling

"Do you really believe he hung himself?" I asked. "Greg never struck me as suicidal."

On the one hand, I was glad he was dead. It saved me the trouble of doing it myself, but on the other hand, this smelled like shit.

"Be a big coincidence, wouldn't it?" Travis said. "The guy we need to question dies by his own hand. No, I don't believe for a second he offed himself. The guy was murdered."

"No cameras in the jail?" Winston asked.

"Not in individual cells except for isolation, and the general pop cameras suffered a momentary glitch for several minutes around 2 a.m."

"That means an insider," Edgar said.

"That's what I'm thinking," Travis said.

"What about the phone the lawyer had?" Sahar asked.

"It disappeared out of the evidence room last night," the other detective said. His name was Jed. "The first thing I checked this morning."

"Don't tell me," Winston said. "Another security camera glitch."

"Yeah, plus the property room guard taking a shit. He locked up before he left, but someone cut the lock."

"It doesn't mean he didn't tell someone when he was taking a shit. Someone's bent like a broken straw," Winston said.

"That's our take on it," Jed said. "Sorry. I know this makes our fucking Department look like crap."

"There had to be a reason they were killing all of those hookers yesterday," Beth said. "Somehow, they know something that someone else doesn't want known. It means their safety is more paramount now than ever. One of them may know something we need to know. It makes me even more interested in hitting all of the seedier massage parlors. Dollars to donuts, there are a lot more trafficked women there. Women who haven't been chipped yet, or we would have seen them on the drones yesterday, or they're on a different frequency."

"If we find any women in the massage parlor that have been chipped under another frequency, we can try another scan with the drones," Edgar said.

"When we question the hookers and slaves, we can have them look at mug shots," Winston said.

"Does anyone really think these guys have been arrested before?" I asked. "This is someone who doesn't want to be known as a trafficker. Probably should be looking at photos from the society pages for bigwigs and police roll calls instead of mug shots."

"That's not a bad idea," Winston said.

"No, it's not," Peter said. "I'm sure there are some street cops that partook of some free nookie, but if we find any that were more involved than an occasional freebie, it gives us a start. And I'd start with photos of sergeants and above. Someone had some real juice to kill the cameras and murder a guy at the jail, and get into the property room."

"What about the guys shot or arrested yesterday," Beth asked. "Were any of them cops?"

"No. Local muscle only. They all had some kind of record for general villainy, but no badges in the lot," Travis said. "That reminds me. We need to get reports on some of that shit that went down yesterday. Robert, that means you and Carlton for two. I should probably run your weapon through ballistics, too. There were some others as well. I've got a list of names we need reports from."

"Are you issuing me another weapon? At the moment, I don't feel comfortable going unheeled," I said.

"We have some extras," Edgar said. "What do you want?"

"Nine is fine."

"Smith and Wesson M&P? We've got an armorer who can work on their guns, so we deal exclusively with them."

"That's good."

"Ethan, give one of ours to Mr. Johnson. He can give his to the detective."

I cleared my weapon and gave it to Travis and Ethan gave me one from their stock, and they were well stocked. He gave me two additional full magazines to go with it, fifty-one rounds in all.

"I need to bring up something else," Beth said. "When we get all of these hookers unchipped, we need to move them from here, and wherever they go can't be known to anyone outside of this room. Frankly, I'm even wondering about anyone I haven't worked with before, no offense. If we bus them out en masse, the busses can be followed the old-fashioned way. We can take them all two or three at a time, but if they all go to the same place, all the bad guys need to do is follow one car, and they'll know where the rest are. I'm not comfortable spreading them out, either. Given what happened yesterday when the hotel got shot up, I'm surprised we haven't already gotten kicked out of here. We don't have enough security to keep them all safe without bunching them. Any ideas?"

"If we had a military installation, that would work," I said. "Limited access and everyone needs to sign in."

"What about Camp Ripley?" Travis asked.

"While it is a National Guard training facility," I said, "it's also a law enforcement training facility, and it has a military museum open to the public. If we're suspicious of certain law enforcement officers, I'd say it's a no-go."

"If we had a big enough boat, we could put them all in a boat in the middle of a huge lake," Ethan said. "Too bad theAmerican Entrepreneurisn't available. It would hold everyone with a little crowding, but it's probably a week to get it anywhere near Minnesota."

"Talking about Lake Superior, do they have cruise ships?" Jed asked.

"Not this time of year," I said. "While the lake might not freeze over, no one wants to cruise in January. Unless we're hauling everyone out of state, I think we need to be local and just control access like we are here, except someplace without other guests and more limited access. Look, I'll let you guys figure that out. I need to speak to my sister. The guy was a rat bastard, but he was her husband and the father of her children."

"Take care of that," Beth said. "We'll figure something out."

"Let me know what you find," I said. "I'll help fund it if it's needed."

I left the meeting to find my lovers and my sister. God, the last couple of days had been a whirlwind of activity. I'd stumbled into bed long after the raid on the warehouse last night. All of the rescued had to be placed in rooms with their children if they had them. Some of the hookers were double-bunked in a room. Arrangements were made for the medical guys to show up this morning, trying to remove the trackers from everyone. Both of my ladies were sound asleep when I got to bed, and this morning hadn't been much better, trying to get everyone fed. At the current time, there was a lot of confusion and questions, but not a lot of hysteria, which would have made it worse.

Small meetings were going on all over the place with the ones who knew things, trying to explain to the others what was going on. Stephanie looked a little the worse for wear, but she hugged me when I came in looking for Bobbi and Sonia.

"Thanks, Rooster. Thanks for saving me."

"You're welcome. Do you know where Sonia is?"

"I think she's another couple of rooms down on the right. There are a lot of kids there."

"Thanks." I squeezed her hand. "We're going to figure out how to get you all situated. Just hang in there."

Sure enough, I found a room further down the hall where a playroom had been set up for the various children. Tommy and Belinda were doing their best to keep the kids organized and entertained, along with four or five adults, including Bobbi, Sonia, and Maya. A number of games, picture books, coloring books, and crayons had been brought in by someone, and they were doing their best to keep the children occupied.

I hugged my two for a long time, then thanked Belinda and Tommy for all the help they were giving.

"Mom said an eight-year-old boy was killed," Tommy said.

"That's true. I think he tried to protect his mom, and they didn't want to waste time messing around with him."

"Is this still Greg?" Maya asked. "All this murder and mayhem?"

"I don't think so. Have you gotten a call from the Hennepin County Jail today?"

"No, my phone ran out of juice because I forgot to charge it. It's on the charger now, why?"

"I need to talk to you, in private. Bobbi, Sonia, please join us. I'll try to send another couple of adults here to help with the children."

"Did something happen to Greg?" Maya asked.

"It did, and we need to talk."

I took her hand and headed down the hall, my two ladies following along. I asked a couple of other ladies to please help with the children, and they quickly volunteered. I found a quiet room that seemed unoccupied at the moment. I had her sit down, but didn't let go of her hand.

"A couple of Minneapolis PD detectives were assigned here because of all the crap going on. We were discussing a number of items this morning, and one of the detectives stopped by the jail to question Greg on his way here, and Greg was found hanging in his cell."

Maya gasped. She'd been on the outs with Greg for several months now, but she'd been married to the man for several years, and he'd fathered her two kids. Hearing that news was going to be a shock, despite the current animosity. She'd been happy he'd been arrested, but I couldn't imagine she'd wanted him dead. I squeezed her hand again.

"The detective doesn't think it was a suicide. There was a 'glitch' in the jail camera system last night around 2 a.m., about the time of his death. Some evidence they found at Greg's lawyer's office, a phone in which he'd been using to order certain executions, was stolen from the evidence room, a similar glitch to the camera system precluding anyone from seeing who did it. It's suspected that someone high up in the legal system with enough pull to get cameras shut off might be responsible. We think it's tied to human trafficking now, not just prostitution. I think Greg was involved, as he'd purchased three of the slaves we discovered himself, and someone higher up decided Greg was a liability. I'm sorry for the way this ended."

"You mean a police officer is involved in human trafficking?" Bobbi asked.

"Someone higher than a mere officer. This person had juice, or I suppose it could be very good hacking skills on someone's part to shut off a surveillance system without cutting off all power."

"Are we safe?" Sonia asked.

"For the moment," I said. "I doubt the whole system is bent, and the FBI folks have worked with Beth and Edgar before, so they're trustworthy, and they don't have access to the jail. Considering we don't know what we might know, I suspect it's mostly the hookers and slaves who are highest at risk right now. They're the ones who've been attacked thus far. They're the ones most likely to have incriminating information on possible bigwigs in the trafficking organization."

"What are they going to do?" Maya asked. "How do we find out who it is?"

"That's part of the discussions now. That and coming up with a more secure location. I imagine we need to start running mug shots in front of all the hookers to see who they had to have sex with without the john paying."

"Like Greg?" Maya asked.

"Yeah, except we need to develop mug shots of high-ranking police officials or the rich and powerful. We're not looking for minor criminals at the moment. We're looking for folks who haven't been caught, and don't want to be. How about after lunch, we have a big meeting and explain all this shit to the girls? I could tell they all had a lot of questions, and while we don't have all the answers, we have some. We'll try to get one of the big conference rooms so we can talk to everyone at once. We want to get everyone's tracking system removed before we take them to a new location. We also suspect there are more slaves in some of the massage parlors, but if they're chipped, it's on a different frequency. Spread it around, we'll give everyone what answers we have after lunch. I hate to say this, but I need to spend some quality time with my two girls. Sonia, you still haven't had your spanking for peeking yesterday at the hospital."

"M'mm," Sonia said. "I haven't. When do you think you can warm my ass up for me?"

"Tonight for sure." I laughed, then kissed her and Bobbi. "Do me a favor and call Ann and Benson and let them know things are up in the air at the moment. We might not be able to let the kids attend school on Monday."

"That long?" Sonia asked.

"You were a hooker too, Sonia. Did they have plans to chip you all along that I spoiled? I'm not letting you out of my sight."

"He's right," Bobbi said. "We need to get a handle on this first."

"Maya, I'll help you talk to Tyler and Joy if you want, or if you prefer a woman's touch, the others can go with you. I also need to talk to Mom, let her know what happened."

"You talk to Mom. I'll talk to the kids with Bobbi's and Sonia's help, then I'll try to get hold of Alex. He should know we don't have to wait for a divorce now."

"I'll leave you to it."

Mom's explanation was a little longer. She didn't know what had been going on the last few days much at all. Doc hadn't told her more than he was busy doing a whole lot of minor surgeries today, and they weren't in his office.

I gave her the whole convoluted story from the New Year's Eve adventures, the attacks yesterday, to what Doc was doing today, and Greg's apparent, but not likely, suicide at the jail. Mom had heard some of it on the news, but not all of it, including Greg's death, which had only been discovered this morning. I told her Maya knew and was telling her kids. As I said that, I saw a couple of guys go by, decked in what looked like full combat or riot gear.

"Excuse me. Something's happening and I need to check it out."

"Nothing dangerous, I hope."

"Me either."

"Be careful, Robert. Take care of everyone."

"I will."

I hung up and stuck my head out of the room, looking to see if there was danger or if it only looked that way.

The fully armed guys were rounding up the women and asking them to gather all of their stuff, and taking them up to the top two floors. The woman looked a little frightened, although none of the men was particularly brusque or yelling. One fellow seemed to be in charge. At least he was directing traffic, so to speak."

"What's going on?" I asked him.

"Are you Rooster?" he asked.

"I am."

"Smitty, at your service."

"Part of Beth and Edgar's team then? Former Delta? Tango knows you?"

"Hoorah. At the moment, we're trying to get all of the guests out of the hotel and moved to different accommodations. It seemed easier than trying to sneak everyone else to some other safe house. Because we don't want anyone being able to break through or shoot through the ground floor windows at any of the ladies, we want to move them to the third and fourth floors. We'll put the combatants and law enforcement on the second floor, disable the elevators, and guard the stairwells, making it as close to impossible as we can for anyone to get to them. I think Joshua plans to buy this place and turn it into the shelter we have planned, so we can get started on getting everyone comfy here for the moment. We have a kitchen team prepared to come in and start cooking meals as soon as we get all the hotel staff out."

"Rooster, is it okay to follow these guys' orders?" Stephanie said.

"Yeah." I raised my voice so it would carry better. "Ladies, we want to move you and your children to higher floors, to make it more difficult for people to bust in through the ground floor windows into one of your rooms. We're going to turn this whole hotel into a shelter for you and your families. I know a lot of you have questions right now about everything that's going on. We'll try to answer those at a meeting right after lunch. These folks are the good guys, here to ensure your safety. If they give you an order, it's for your own protection, so listen to what they say. We'll take care of you."

"An explanation would be nice," someone else said.

"We're still trying to figure out what that explanation is. We know some, but not all of what's happening. That's what we're trying to figure out, but until we do, we want to keep you all safe."

"What if we want to leave?" another woman asked.

"If you leave, we can't guarantee your safety, and it's possible that some folks want to see you dead or enslaved. We won't keep anyone here who wants to leave, but if you're sure you can protect yourself from armed villains who were working in pairs yesterday, leave. We think you've all been tracked using GPS locators placed in your bodies and/or, in gifts given to you, such as jewelry or purses. We'll tell you what we know after lunch. I'd make sure you don't have any of those things on you before you leave, or they will find you. We have some medical people here removing any subdermal implants people have."

"What do you mean?"

"Some of the women hooking on Lake Street were slaves, and had skin implants containing GPS trackers. We also found more of them on non-slave hookers, who were perhaps being prepared to be enslaved. It was supposed to be just birth control treatment, but in most instances, we've found, the device was both birth control and a GPS locator. Some of you may have received gifts containing the GPS devices if you refused to have a birth control implant. Believe me, we'll cover all of this in our briefing this afternoon. Please do as the gentlemen suggest about moving to the top floors."

The women and children started moving along, grabbing whatever things they had, and that wasn't much, given the circumstances of their relocation. If we were keeping people here, and I had to agree it was the best option, then we needed to set things up for a longer-term stay.

I found Maya, Sonia, and Bobbi with Joy and Tyler, soothing the two kids who were crying. Sometimes, you forget that just because a person was a total asshole as one thing, like being a husband, they were maybe better at other things, like being a father. Greg had been a reasonably decent father from the kids' reaction to his death.

I got down on my knees and gave both of them a hug.

"No matter what else happens, you've got your Uncle Rooster to do things with. If your Mom doesn't find someone else to be your dad, I'll be one for you."

"Thank you, Rooster," Joy sobbed.

"We're going to do our best to find the people responsible for your Dad's death, I promise. Hopefully, they get locked up for a long time."

I hugged both of them and gave them kisses on their foreheads before hugging my sister and my two ladies. I was a little pissed off when I headed back to the briefing room where Edgar confirmed what little I'd heard from Smitty.

"We're giving other paying guests some money to move out of this hotel and go to another. Joshua's put in an offer for the place and it looks like it will be accepted. We'll see if some of the staff want to stay and manage the shelter. We're going to lock down the stairways and elevators, put non-combatants on the top two floors, our guys on the second, and use the bottom floors for meetings and incidentals, with only roving patrols on it. It seemed so much easier than moving everyone."

"I agree. A lot of the women want to be told something about what's going on. They're getting antsy not knowing. Some have suggested they want to leave. I told them we'd have a meeting after lunch."

"We should be able to handle that."

"What are we doing for food?" I asked.