Page 93 of My Bully's Crush: Vol1
“Are we still talking about the little girls on the computer?”No one answered my question, but by process of elimination, I figured I was right.
The room changed immediately.I can’t quite put it into words, but it was as if there was a shift in the air, not visible, but it was felt all the same.I could almost surmise that that little skirmish was their way of blowing off steam before getting down to business, and the next few minutes proved why.It was the least expected bombshell of them all.
“Come on, Ryder, sit down.We think it’s time we told you our reason for being here, the other one at any rate.”
“Okay, what is it?”Why am I so nervous?
“Your tours, do you know that some of your female fans never make it home after seeing you on stage?”Huh?
“Why?Do they get into accidents from drinking and driving or something?”
“No, nothing like that; they’re being trafficked.”
“What the hell are you talking about.”
“Sex trafficking, human trafficking, whatever you wanna call it.That’s what we do.We try to find the people who do that shit and take them down.”
“Who does that?I don’t know anyone who does that.How can my tours be used for something like that?I don’t understand.”
“Your manager Scott, Mary Hudson, and Matt, along with some others.”
“What, how?How do they do that?Is it just random?How would they set up something like that?”I felt my anger growing by the second as the weight of their words hit me in the gut.I never imagined that something like this could be so close to me; it was hard to take in.
“Some of them are random, yes, but mostly they choose young girls that come backstage or sign up for a meet and greet.”My heart beat a steady rhythm in my chest, but I felt dead inside.I looked around the room at all the men, “You don’t think I had anything to do with it, do you?”
“No, we’ve checked, and you’re in the clear.But that’s how you came to Chad’s attention.When your PI was digging for information, he tapped into something that sent off signals.He doesn’t know what he tapped into, but we were alerted.We needed an excuse to get close to you, and we asked Chad to make contact.”
“While we were discussing things, the nieces overheard and apparently have been following your personal drama online and decided they wanted in.So, Jace came to see you, and since we weren’t sure if you were involved or not, Zak and I played the role of your coaches to get into your house.”
“So, this whole time, you were investigating me as well?”
“Nope, just the first day.That’s how long it took for us to figure out you had nothing to do with any of it.Your wife, on the other hand, knows a little bit about it.She’s not directly involved, but she knows what’s going on.Her dad, on the other hand, is in deep.”
“So, they were using me as a cover?”
“You’re not the only one.That’s why it took us so long; we kept finding more and more avenues they were using.Let’s just say your manager, whoever he manages, is being used the same way, and the higher-ups in that church are the real masterminds.”
“Fucking demons walking around masquerading as men,” Lyon grumbled, and the others nodded their heads in agreement.This was too much.I’d accepted that they were using me for money, which was more straightforward and easily accepted in this town, but this was a whole other type of evil.
“Are you sure… of course you are.”I won’t even bother asking them for proof because they’ve proven themselves time and again since we met.
“What about Elena?Do they do it to her tours as well?You can’t tell her; it would kill her.”
“No, but if they could’ve done it with her, they would have.That seems to have been part of their plan.”
“What do you mean done it with her?”
“Mary didn’t just want to be her manager.”
“What are you trying to say?”I had a bad feeling in my gut at Tyler’s incendiary words.
“There are some very wealthy people in the world who would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars just to spend one night with their favorite celebrity; your girl has lots of admirers.She wanted to pimp her out like she does her daughters and their friends.”
“What the fuck are you saying to me right now?”I guess the old me wasn’t too far behind because my first and only thought was to go find these people and put a bullet in them one after the other.I’d trusted these people at one time, and what’s worse, she’d tried to warn me.Elena had tried to warn me about the cultish way the church was and Mary’s hold over some of them, especially the leading members.
But they’d known about spiritual guidance; they spoke so highly about living the right way and doing the right thing.One of the things Matt had told me, and I later remembered, was that Elena getting rid of my child was a sin that would be on my record and would lead me straight to hell.
I went to that place bitter and broken after one of our breakups years ago, and once we got back together, I’d invited her in because it seemed to be a decent place I could trust.They were doing so much for me that I thought being there was a way to keep our relationship wholesome and not like so many in this town that don’t last long enough for the ink to dry on the marriage certificate.