A couple of days after Marcus and Ed had told me about their plan to return to The Auction House with me to bid for another woman, the night had arrived. Getting us on the list for entry that night had been easy. All day at work I was distracted by thoughts of the night that I bid for Hannah out of pure panic. The guilt for what I had done was warring with the happiness that I felt at having Hannah as my wife. Being asked to bid for Kristin had caught me purely by surprise as I was distracted by intense thoughts of not wanting to be anywhere near The Auction House, much less inside of it again. This time would be different. I would take Marcus and Ed into The Auction House with the confidence of knowing exactly what I was doing and the fortitude to go through with it. The FBI had paid me back for my $900,000 bid for Kristin, and they were prepared to send me whatever amount was necessary to bid for another woman tonight.

"Are you OK?" Hannah asked me after dinner. "You looked distracted at dinner, and I’m willing to bet that you didn’t taste a bite of your food." I took Hannah into my arms and held her.

"I’ll be OK once The Auction House no longer exists," I told Hannah. "Once every person responsible for that place is behind bars."

"I’ll be OK when you’re back here, safe and sound at home," Hannah said to me, gazing up at me with her green eyes.

"I’ll be thinking of coming back home safe and sound to you, Hannah," I told her, smoothing down a flyaway section of her red hair. She smiled up at me and opened her mouth to speak but a knock at the study door interrupted us. I bid the visitor enter.

"Ready?" Marcus asked me from the doorway "I don’t mean to interrupt, but the police officers are here to take over early. We need to stop by the police station to handle some last-minute paperwork."

"I’ll meet you out front," I told Marcus and he closed the study door. I returned my attention to Hannah and she cupped my cheeks, gently pulling me toward her for a kiss. It was firm and slow, and entirely too short.

Hannah broke the kiss. "Go," she said to me, "and hurry back."

"I will," I told her. "I love you, Hannah."

Hannah smiled up at me. "I love you too, Roman."

Hannah and I parted ways at the study, and I found Marcus and Ed waiting for me outside in the car. Marcus sat in front with the driver, and I sat in the back with Ed. My driver pulled out of the driveway and onto the street, heading toward the city.

"What’s this about last-minute paperwork?" I asked them.

"It has to do with the women we found in that warehouse," Ed said to me. "A couple of them don’t want to go into protective custody. They’d rather go home and be with their families."

"You need to approve that?" I asked Ed.

"That’s right," Ed told me. "Initially, they all agreed to protective custody, but two backed out today. That’s why this is last-minute."

"I can understand that," I told them. "I can only imagine how hard it’s going to be for them to rebuild their lives with their families after what they’ve been through." Marcus and Ed nodded and silence fell in the car as we were consumed by our own thoughts. It occurred to me that the next woman I bid for wouldn’t be someone that any of us knew. I had bid for Hannah, having met her previously, and Marcus knew Kristin when he asked me to bid for her. The fact that Marcus and Ed would be taking over after I bid for the woman was of little solace. I suspected that I would still be housing her as the responsible person on her contract. Lori was right, if this continued to happen, there would be no more available rooms in my house. "How exactly are you going to choose which woman to bid for?" I asked.

Ed shrugged. "It’s hard to tell just by looking at someone whether they have the knowledge that you need," Ed said to me.

Marcus glanced back at us. "We need someone who is aware of their surroundings and can tell us what we need to know," Marcus told me. "It’s not an exact science, but she’s generally not going to be under-aged. Not that the teens don’t know things, they just may not be as aware of their surroundings."

"And she’ll have a certain level of confidence," Ed added. "Often those women become automatons. It happens to keep their minds and bodies safe. They just do as they’re told in order to decrease their suffering. They cease to think. The woman that we bid for won’t have that defeated look. She’ll be alert and watchful, taking in information and learning as much as she can about her situation."

I nodded. It made sense. "A woman like Kristin," I said.

Marcus scoffed. "Kristin is certainly a pistol," he said, "but she wasn’t that way when we found her."

"She wasn’t?" I asked.

Ed shook his head. "She was terrified," Ed said, "and no one can blame her for that. She barely spoke a word to me, Marcus, or anyone else. Her rebellious streak is new. Kristin was one of the women who needed in-patient mental health therapy. Me and Marcus would visit her when we could."

"Maybe it’s not a rebellious streak," I said to Ed. "Maybe Kristin decided somewhere along the line that she wanted to be like the FBI agents who rescued her and gave a damn about her well-being. I think she just expresses her gratitude in her own way."

"She’d certainly make one hell of an agent," Marcus said. We pulled up to the police station and Marcus got out of the car, leaving instructions for my driver to drive around the block and park in the rear parking lot. Once we were parked, Marcus returned to the car a few moments later and switched out with Ed so that he could go in and sign his portion of the paperwork. They didn’t want to leave me alone in the car without a bodyguard. Ed returned and we drove around the city for a while to kill time before The Auction House opened their doors for business. They pointed out the locations that they had raided and gave me a rundown of their theories on other locations where the boss could be based and where he was holding the woman. The two locations were likely in separate places.

When it was finally time for us to arrive at The Auction House, my driver pulled up to the curb that led down to the alley entrance. Marcus, Ed, and I made our way to the alley only to find that men were leaving the alley. They were men that I recognized as patrons of The Auction House.

I frowned. "I wonder what’s going on," I said to Marcus and Ed.

"Let’s go find out," Marcus said to me. We wound our way through the group of men standing in the alley or walking out of the alley. There were guards at the door to The Auction House as there had been on both occasions that I had visited, but one of the guards was turning the men away.

"I’m Roman Thaddeus," I told the guard who had been sending men away. "I’m on the list for tonight with two guests."

"We’re closed," the guard said. "The club won’t be open tonight."

"Or any night," the other guard said before turning to another group of men who had walked up beside us to get in. "We’re closed down," he told the men. "You’ll have to find somewhere else to go tonight."

"What happened?" I asked the guards. "I got on the list for tonight, and no one told me anything about the place closing down."

One of the guards shrugged while the other one ignored me to tell a new arrival that the club was closed. "I’m just doing as I’m told," the first guard said to me. "I don’t get paid enough to know the how and why. All I can tell you is that the place is shut down."

Marcus placed a hand on my shoulder. "Come on, Roman," he said to me. "Let’s go." Marcus, Ed, and I strolled casually from the alley, listening to some of the men who were milling around complaining about the club being shut down.

"Something’s up," Ed said to us quietly as we stood waiting for my driver to pick us up. "Fitzgerald must have heard or seen something he didn’t like."

"We have to find him," Marcus said, "and soon, before he can get too far out of our reach."

I glanced back at the alley entrance of The Auction House, wondering what could have tipped Fitzgerald off when I saw Court Macalester leaving the alley. He made a right turn, walking away from us and I smirked. Maybe tonight wouldn’t be such a waste after all.