Matthew picked up his recorder and turned it off. It was an archaic contraption and completely unnecessary considering everything in this room was recorded by the surveillance cameras, but he liked to maintain his own evidence. Things had a way of getting lost. He put it in his briefcase along with his files and headed out the door.
As he walked toward the elevator, he glimpsed ‘Sophia’ exchanging a tearful embrace with her mother. Matthew didn’t exactly like the woman after all he’d learned about her, but he was happy she was finally getting the opportunity to see her daughter and perhaps apologize for everything she’d put her through. As part of the agreement, Sophia’s family would be relocated and her mother would be offered her choice of training and employment. It was more than she deserved in Matthew’s estimation.
Matthew would be heading back to an empty apartment in South Carolina until he was assigned to a new case. He hoped it would differ greatly from this one and he was fairly sure it would. In the meantime, he’d decided he wouldn’t give up on getting in touch with Demitri Balk. The guy was dirty and despite all evidence to the contrary, he wasn’t untouchable. Perhaps, in time, he would also lead him to Muhammad Rafiq and the rest of his cohorts.
James Cole deserved justice.
“I don’t want revenge, Caleb. I don’t want to end up like you, letting some fucking vendetta run my life. I just want my freedom.” – Livvie
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Day 287: Kaiserslautern, Germany
He’d learned the hard way that there was no future when all he could see was revenge. The only thing revenge had ever given him was a brief moment of satisfaction, followed by an empty abyss. He was through with revenge. He wanted to feel full instead of empty, loved, instead of feared.
Love, Caleb reminded himself. Love was the purpose of all this. He’d been dreaming of this moment for nearly a year, but now that his moment had arrived, he hesitated. Was it the right thing to do? Should he take his own advice: leave and never look back? He wasn’t sure.
As a slave trainer, he had trained at least a score of girls. Some had been willing, offering themselves as pleasure slaves to escape destitution, sacrificing freedom for security. Others had come to him as the coerced daughters of impoverished farmers looking to off load their burden in exchange for a dowry. Some had been the fourth or fifth wives of sheikhs and bankers sent by their husbands to learn to satisfy their distinct appetites. He had trained so many, he had forgotten their names.
He knew them all by heart now. Ojal Nath had ended up in Turkey; her master had died and passed her off to his son. Caleb had paid a king’s ransom to set her free. She was safe at home with her family now, and she had enough money to support herself and her young daughter.
He’d been too late to save Pia Kumar, she had been dead for nearly five years. She had been beaten to death by her master’s new wife. Caleb had made sure to bury the both of them together. Alive.
Isa Nasser, Naba Mazin, and Jamila Awad, had refused their freedom. They had come to him willing from the first and they lived happily with their respective masters/husbands. They’d been more terrified of Caleb than of remaining in their servitude. He’d wished them well and vowed to keep an eye on them.
His years spent with Rafiq had built him a reputation and Caleb took full advantage of the fear he’d cultivated as Rafiq’s ‘loyal disciple’. A lot of blood had been spilled in the last ten months, some of it even belonged to Caleb, but it didn’t buy redemption. Caleb knew he could never be redeemed and he’d made his peace with it. He couldn’t right the wrongs, but he could offer a better future to those he’d wronged for the sake of his own selfishness.
It wasn’t about revenge. Caleb had had enough revenge to last him several lifetimes. The things he’d done to Rafiq and Jair in Mexico hadn’t given him solace. They’d given him nightmares. For Caleb, it had become about love. He loved Livvie. Through her, he’d learned what love could make a person do and it drove him forward. She had given him a gift and while he didn’t deserve it, he tried to make sure it had not been wasted.
His work was far from over and he remained dedicated to his task, but the road was long and Caleb was only human. There was a hole in his heart and each day it grew, threatening to pull him into a pit of despair.