Enslaved [Freedom Be Damned 1] (Siren Publishing M?nage Amour) (6 page)

* * * *

Mas handed a thick sheaf of papers to Trevellyan. “This is the trickiest, most complicated, devious setup I’ve ever seen. It’s been checked by a forensic accountant, and she’ll be sending you a pretty steep bill, but as you know, I can only access information in the public domain. She had to go digging a little deeper,” said Mas, his big, blue eyes as wide and innocent as a newborn baby’s.

“The first thing you need to do is get these accounts legally frozen, otherwise you’ll never get a dime back for Aurelia. I’m betting the other call center workers will join her in a class action suit, which will mean all the costs will be divided, so it’ll be a much better deal for all of them. Plus you need to time the freezing of the accounts with the storming of the building. That way you catch the bad guys as well as stop them accessing their getaway money.”

“I suppose you just happen to know someone who can do that for us?” asked Trevellyan, a deep respect dawning for Mas’s skills.

“Nah, but Niall will. When is he reporting to you?”

Merrick flicked a shirt cuff up to look at his watch. “Ten minutes.”

“Awesome. I’ll e-mail you my account tonight.”

Mas slouched out of their apartment, and almost immediately, the doorbell rang, and Niall was there. He handed over a camera memory card, saying, “This is a copy. I have all the film safely hidden away. I expect these guys will put up quite a fight, so keep it safe. I’m pretty sure they’re doing something to the call center women. They take them into a top floor room for a day and then bring them back. I was figuring it was sex, but now I think it’s some form of brainwashing. I’ve seen two of the women who’ve been taken, rubbing their heads and looking confused. You’ll need to get counselors, maybe deprogramming people lined up, as well as the cops.”

Trevellyan flopped down into a chair in shock. This was so much bigger than he’d expected. “Aurelia?”

“I have no reason to think she’s not fine. I reckon they’re doing the other team right now.”

Niall looked at them sternly and started giving a lot of instructions about whom to contact and how to do it. Trevellyan still felt like someone had run him over with a truck, but fortunately, Merrick’s take-charge nature was in full control, and he was writing notes as fast as Niall was speaking.

When the conversation seemed to have stopped, he asked, “When do we do this?”

“Likely it’ll take all tomorrow to get everything set up. So tomorrow night. Then you’ll have her back safely, and hopefully the other women, too.”

Trevellyan just nodded. He was still shell-shocked, but so grateful for this man, for Mas, for Evelyn. Damn. They’d struck gold when they’d contacted Evelyn.

* * * *

The call center was very busy this shift. Usually there was a steady stream of calls, but she could have a break to stretch her neck and shoulders from time to time. Today the calls were endless. The red light in the ceiling, showing that every line was busy and calls were waiting, was on almost continually. Yet strangely, some of the calls just seemed to be people asking time-wasting questions. Of course, they got those kinds of calls, usually from lonely old people, but not so many, and these people sounded young, not elderly. It was strange.

She certainly didn’t have time to think about it now. She was racing from call to call, hoping the red light would go out, and the shift would quiet down some.

The door slammed open, and suddenly, the room was full of men in black ninja suits, all holding guns pointed at the women. In that moment, the phones went dead, and there was complete and utter silence in the room.

“Stand up. Raise your arms high in the air,” thundered a voice.

Aurelia’s body instantly obeyed without her brain stopping to think.

Her hands were cuffed behind her, and they were all marched out of the room, down the hallway, and out into the yard. She hadn’t been outside the building since she arrived. Now that she thought about it, that was kind of strange, but there’d been no need to leave the building. Everything was provided inside it.

Dozens of police cars and army trucks were parked in the yard, and every woman was put alone into a vehicle. Aurelia could see the women from the other shift, and she looked for Sarah. Sarah was being loaded into a military truck. Mrs. Treeby was in another military truck. Damien was being walked across the yard to a police car, and the other man, the one she’d seldom seen, was already inside a vehicle.

Aurelia watched while a big truck was backed up to the barn, and a long line of police carried loads of electronic equipment out of the barn and put it in the truck. What was all that? How much electronics was needed for a call center?

Soon the vehicles were traveling slowly toward the gate. Aurelia saw a huge hole in the fence. They weren’t leaving via the gate at all. Each vehicle bounced across the grass, passed through the gap, then rejoined the road. She twisted her neck and saw the line extending a long way behind her, as well as far in front of her.

Well hell. I guess this means I’m out of a job again. And what gives? Who’s done what wrong? Was I right? Was something funky going down here? And what about my possessions? In particular, I want that photograph back!

* * * *

A month later, they were all sitting in the men’s apartment, Evelyn relaxed back into the arms of Trevelyan and Vaughan, Aurelia squashed into an armchair with Mas sitting on one arm of it and Niall on the other. They looked a little bit like dogs trying to mark their territory, thought Evelyn, but they’d just have to learn to share!

“Thank you for reading the subliminal messages from me, Trevellyan. I’m so glad we’ve all gotten our back pay and had our bank accounts sorted out again,” said Aurelia.

“The court cases will likely drag on for ten years, but no one will give Damien, George, or Mrs. Treeby bail, and their own money will stay frozen, so it’s all good,” said Mas.

“Besides, you two are going to help me track down the other call center so we can close it, too, aren’t you?” said Aurelia, looking at Niall, then Mas.

“Other call center?”

“What the fuck?”

“Aurelia?”

Evelyn laughed. Aurelia was going to keep Niall, Mas, and Trevellyan on their toes for some time to come. Of course, there was another call center, likely several more. It was an incredibly easy way to make a lot of money. Inserting a microchip in the workers’ heads to brainwash them so they didn’t know they weren’t being paid, and never wanted to leave, was just the icing on the cake, really. They were already enslaved by the demons of the system without even knowing it before the microchip was implanted. The endless work, and the seemingly nice employers, blinded them to the facts that they had no life, no freedom, no contact with friends or family, and, as it turned out, no money either. With slave labor and minimal expenses, the people running the call center would be making huge amounts of extra money on top of their actual contract for answering calls.

“Now, Trevellyan, Merrick, Vaughan, when are you going to make an honest woman of Evelyn. I want to attend some kind of formal commitment ceremony before Mas, Niall, and I go looking for the other call center.”

Now it was Evelyn who felt the world drop from under her feet. Formal commitment ceremony? Did she even want that? Sure she wanted the men, loved being with them, but formalizing it? Oh yes, yes she did want that, but did they?

Trevellyan looked surprised, but not shocked or anything like that. Merrick was nodding his head, and Vaughan had a huge grin on his face. All right, it looked like a formal commitment ceremony would happen.

“How does two weeks’ time suit you, Evelyn? I reckon we could organize something nice by then?” asked Merrick.

“Idiot! You need to ask the lady first,” chided Vaughan, the grin still splitting his face.

He dropped to his knees in front of her and said, “I love you. We all love you. Are you ready to commit to us?”

“Yes, please, beautiful lady,” said Trevellyan.

“I love you,” added Merrick very softly.

“I love you all, too. I’m ready to commit to you.”

“At last. I’ll help you plan the party,” said Aurelia.

Berengaria is a multi-published author of erotic romance: contemporary, paranormal (ghosts, vampires, fairies, and werewolves), and Regency-set historical. She loves to read all different kinds of romance, so that is what she writes: one man/one woman; two women; two men; two men/one woman; three men; two women/one man…Whatever the characters need for their very hot happily ever after, Berengaria makes sure they get it.