Chapter Six – Lee
”Is she asleep?” I asked as Liana stepped out of the bedroom. She nodded and yawned.
”Yeah, she’s out for the count,” she replied. ”I was worried she would be too stressed to get any rest, but it looks like she’s exhausted from everything that happened.”
”They sleep a lot at that age,” I remarked. It was hard to tell exactly how old Kara was, given that she hadn’t been fed properly, but she looked close to the age Dina had been when she...
No. I couldn’t even think about that. I needed to keep that shit out of my head. What mattered was what was right in front of me right now, and I couldn’t let my past get in the way of that.
”Right,” she sighed, and she slumped down into the couch. I was standing against the wall, not wanting to make myself too comfortable without her say-so. She had been through hell, and I imagined that she’d want some time to herself to decompress.
She glanced back over towards her bedroom, where she had left Kara sleeping.
”I just can’t believe they were keeping a little girl in there,” she murmured, shaking her head. ”I mean, I heard some stuff about Lombardi from the Dogs, and I knew he was a bad guy, but this...this is beyond anything I could have imagined.”
”I know,” I agreed. Truth be told, I couldn’t believe it was real. I had known he was into some twisted, dark shit, but keeping a little girl there? Locking her up and raising her without any contact, while her mother was using drugs in front of her? From everything Liana had filled me in on, Kara would have been better off being raised in the woods by wolves than stuck in the mess she’d been in in that compound.
”You want to sit down?” she asked. I found a yawn escaping my lips before I could stop it. I knew I needed to get in touch with Chuck and update him about everything, but I was sure he would be sleeping right now – I could fill him in on all the disgusting details in the morning.
I sat down next to her, distinctly aware of how close we were to each other. This apartment was pretty small, and it wasn’t as though we had much choice but to be on top of one another.
”I don’t know why they went after me,” Liana admitted, shaking her head. She was clutching a coffee in her still-shaky hands, and the way her delicate fingers were wrapped around it was hard to ignore. I had never seen her so vulnerable in all the time I had known her; usually, at the bar, she could keep up with the jokes and banter that flew back and forth, giving as good as she got from the guys. But this? This was different. She was shaken to her core, and, after everything she had seen, I couldn’t blame her.
”I do,” I muttered, my voice low. I didn’t want to have to admit it, but shit, what choice did we have? She turned to me, eyes wide.
”You do...?”
”They went after you because you work at the Kennels,” I replied, through gritted teeth. It was their way of sending a message to us. Making sure we knew that they were the ones calling the shots. They’ve been abducting women from all over the city – getting them hooked on their product and then only giving it to them if they work at one of his fucked-up brothels. But they knew they had to send a message to us. They knew they had to show us we weren’t safe from it either. We don’t have a lot of women around the Dogs, at least ones who aren’t dating members – you were the perfect choice for them.”
She fell silent for a long time, as though it was all just hitting her now.
”Fuck,” she murmured, her voice trembling. ”I... I thought just working there, I would be okay, but...”
”You know this world, Liana,” I reminded her gently. ”You know that nobody is off-limits when it comes to people like Lombardi.”
She nodded. I knew she had a past in motorcycle clubs – her father, I was pretty sure, had been part of a gang back in the day, if what I’d heard from Chuck was right – but having a past in that and facing up to the reality of what it meant to be associated with the Dogs were very different things.
”I know,” she sighed, lifting the coffee to her lips, and taking a sip.
”Should you be having coffee right now?” I remarked. ”It’s late, you should get some sleep...”
She shook her head.
”Probably not,” she admitted. ”But I don’t think there’s any way I’m going to be able to sleep tonight.”
There was a haunted look in her eyes, a distance, as though she was still trapped in that cell. I couldn’t imagine how terrified she must have been or what they had threatened her with. They hadn’t set her to work yet, at least, but it probably wouldn’t have been long till they forced her into one of those dingy rooms to spread her legs for whoever would pay for it.
”You’re okay,” I reminded her. ”You’re safe.”
”I don’t know how I can ever feel safe again, knowing they’re out there,” she replied softly. ”I... I knew that it was dark, the shit they were involved in, but seeing Hadley like that...”
She trailed off. I didn’t speak, didn’t cut her off. I knew it helped to put it into words sometimes. Helped clear some of the fog from your head, if only for a little while.
”She was so out of it,” she muttered. ”I mean, she was using so much. It was like she couldn’t so much as open her eyes without needing something to take the edge off. Like she hardly even knew she had a daughter there...”
”It was probably what she needed,” I replied. ”Just to keep her head on straight.”
”I know, I know,” she replied. ”I don’t blame her for that, not at all. I don’t know what I would have done in her position, I don’t know how I would have handled myself. I’m not judging her for it, it’s just...”
She glanced over towards the door. Her cheeks were flushed, and her mouth was set into a hard line.
”I get so mad when I think about what that little girl must have been through,” she added quietly. ”How much she missed out on. And she doesn’t even know it. Those assholes had her convinced that was normal life. They had her convinced...”
Her voice trembled, but it wasn’t with fear or grief anymore. No, it was with anger. Some deep-seated rage rose from somewhere deep inside of her, like she couldn’t control it – like she couldn’t even imagine controlling it.
”I’m sorry,” she breathed, trying to bring herself back down to earth.
”You have nothing to be sorry for,” I replied. Seeing her so pissed about this, so ready to take them on, it had me feeling some kind of way. Like the two of us were on the same page. I knew Chuck had been right to play it cool all this time, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a part of me that didn’t want to storm into Lombardi’s compound and destroy him, wipe him off the face of the earth once and for all.
She locked eyes with me.
”I want to destroy him,” she whispered. ”I... I didn’t know what they were doing. How bad it got. If I had, I would never...”
She trailed off again, thoughts scattered from the sheer level of stress and exhaustion she was dealing with right now. Her hand rested on the couch, just a few inches from mine, and I thought about taking it but decided not to.
”I would never have been able to rest until I knew he was dealt with,” she finished up. She looked up at me.
”You guys are working to take him down, right?” she asked. I nodded.
”We’ll get there.”
”You need to get there faster,” she told me urgently. ”Just think about everything else they could be planning, everything that might be going on, and how many other girls they might have locked up in there...”
She trailed off again. I felt a surge of certainty rush through my system. If I hadn’t been dedicated to the cause before, I sure as hell was now, and I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of it.
”I will,” I replied. ”First thing in the morning, I’ll go to Chuck, and I’ll let him know what happened. What you saw. You can come with me, fill him in yourself. As soon as he finds out, he’ll change his tune. He’ll make a move.”
She closed her eyes and nodded, seemingly relieved.
”Good,” she murmured. She opened them again and glanced around.
”God, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to sleep tonight,” she confessed, smiling slightly. ”I thought I was...I never thought I would get to see this place again. But I thought at least I would be sleeping in my bed if I did. Guess I’ll have to get some pillows out of storage and set up the couch, huh?”
”You want me to stay here tonight?” I offered her. She shook her head at once.
”No, no, don’t worry about that,” she replied. ”You’ve already done enough. More than enough. I know you have your own life to get back to.”
”I want to stay, Liana,” I replied, the certainty in my words catching even me off-guard. It wasn’t just about taking care of her, though that was of course part of it – it was about taking care of Kara, too. I had already let one little girl get hurt on my watch, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if it happened again.
”Okay, well, if you’re sure,” she remarked, cocking an eyebrow. ”I don’t think I have much in the way of bedding, but...”
”Trust me, I’ve slept on a few floors in my time,” I chuckled. She smiled at me. God, that smile – it was such a relief to see it again. I had been so worried that it had slipped through my fingers for good before. I was glad to see her starting to look comfortable again, though I knew it would be a while before she could fully relax. After what she had been through, nobody would have blamed her for needing time to unwind.
She finished up her coffee and got to her feet, heading to the storage closet next to the bedroom; I watched as she fished out some covers and pillows, and found a smile crossing my face.
I had been right, and I had gotten her out. I knew Chuck was going to have some shit to say to me when he found out how much I had risked by going in there and freeing her, but when he heard what had been going down in that place, he’d be glad I’d done it. We had a better idea of what Lombardi was doing now – and it was so, so much worse than any of us could have imagined. I was ready to do whatever needed to be done to bring that fucker down, once and for all...
And make him pay for what he had tried to do to Liana.