25. Willow
CHAPTER 25
WILLOW
ANGEL ON FIRE – HALSEY
I never thought I’d be back in London.
Sitting in the backseat of Killian’s truck, we park up outside a small, closed café on the outskirts of Hammersmith. It’s empty aside from the three men who wait outside wearing hardened expressions, surrounded by their armed guards.
I recognise Hudson and Ethan, both in matching all-black clothing and gun holsters. The third man has slicked-back, pearly-blonde hair and wears a blue suit that sets him apart.
Releasing the steering wheel, Killian shuts off the engine. “Looks like this is the place. Who’s the new guy?”
“Not a clue,” Zach replies from the seat next to me. “Some welcoming committee. They look like fucking stormtroopers or something.”
“This isn’t Star Wars, Zachariah,” Micah chuffs.
“As Grams would say, they’ve got a face like a slapped ass.”
I choke on a laugh. “She’d say that?”
“It was one of her favourite lines.”
“Classic Lola,” Killian concurs.
Heart twinging in my chest, I rub a hand over the phantom pain. Her absence shows itself in the strangest of moments. I wish she was here now to hug me and tell me that everything’s going to be okay.
No one dares to walk near the three men, seeming to sense the threat that radiates off their packed shoulders and muscular frames.
They’ve shut the café for this meeting and set up surveillance. Every precaution under the sun has been taken to keep us safe now that we’re exposed in the capital city again. Mr Sanchez would have to be a miracle worker to make it through their layers of security.
I blow out a breath. “Let’s get this over and done with.”
“Wait.” Killian pins me with a fearsome look. “Just say the word, and we’ll get you out of there. No questions asked.”
“I’ll be okay, Kill.”
“He’s right.” Micah grabs my hand. “If it gets too much, you need to tell us. This isn’t worth risking your health for.”
“I’ll let you guys know, okay?”
Zach gives me a charming smile. “Okay, babe.”
“Come on. We shouldn’t keep them waiting.”
Micah climbs out of the car, then moves to open my door for me, wearing one of his usual reassuring smiles. It immediately sets me more at ease. I’m glad to have all three of them here this time around.
With the guys trapping me between them, we approach the others. Ethan smiles tightly, wearing a mask of tension, while Hudson offers me a hand to shake before introducing the third man.
“This is my brother, Kade.”
A welcoming smile tilts Kade’s lips. “It’s a pleasure, Willow.”
“Nice to meet you.”
His hazel eyes are friendly as they search my face, giving the impression that he can see past all my layers of defences. But I don’t feel threatened—he has a warm, reassuring presence.
“We’re expecting Elaine to arrive shortly,” Hudson informs us. “Let’s all move inside.”
Guiding us into the café, we all take seats around a small table. The atmosphere is heavy with anticipation, and the guys glower at everyone but me, all on high-alert.
“So,” Kade breaks the silence. “We need to put a wire on you to record the meeting.”
“You’re not fucking touching her,” Killian thunders. “Hands off or lose them.”
Kade laughs. “Willow can attach it herself.”
Lips sealed in a tight line, Killian still doesn’t look happy as Ethan hands me the wire and voice recorder. I feed it beneath my t-shirt then tape the wire onto my breastbone.
The small black box is tucked into the waistband of my jeans to pick up the conversation with Elaine. I’ve memorised the brief and questions Ethan sent me beforehand.
“When is she arriving?” Killian fires off, obviously still grumpy. “We have places to be.”
“Any moment. We’re only here for security, given recent events,” Hudson answers. “We’ll move to guard the entrances and exits while you talk to Elaine.”
Ethan shifts forward to look at me. “Willow, it’s really important that we get her testimony. We need a lead on Sanchez, and she may know someone or something that could help track him down.”
“After all this time?” I frown at him.
“We’ve checked all of his registered properties and everywhere mentioned by other victims.” Hudson’s words are clipped, sounding frustrated. “This victim is older, from before your time. She may have new intel.”
“He’s holed up somewhere,” Zach surmises.
“Exactly. Someone is helping him.”
“Who?” I ask.
“Well, we’ve got Mason and his other associates in Mexico and the States under surveillance too. They aren’t involved.”
Crap. Mr Sanchez could be anywhere, plotting anything, and we have no idea. If this woman can help us, then I have to try.
“What about Mario? Did he give you anything?”
“Not a damn thing.” Kade scowls. “He’s clammed up and is refusing to speak.”
“Yet,” Hudson adds ominously.
Cracking his knuckles, the sense of danger is so palpable, I have to force myself not to flinch away from him. I mentally remind myself he’s one of the good ones. Even if my brain can’t see past his intimidating exterior.
“How did you find this woman in the first place?”
“Her name was given up by another victim,” Ethan answers. “But she’s unwilling to speak to us directly. It took weeks to convince her to meet with you.”
“What is she so afraid of?”
“The same thing you are.” His eyes duck low. “Dimitri Sanchez and the power he wields. She has too much to lose.”
A lump forms in my throat.
Here I am, risking it all.
Am I doing the right thing?
The sound of voices from outside interrupts our murmurings. The layer of armed guards maintaining the perimeter have stopped a short, thin woman with greying-brown hair from entering the café.
“That’s her.” Hudson stands up. “We’ll be right outside, Willow.”
“Okay, thanks.”
The others follow suit, waiting for my guys to copy them and stand up. Zach and Micah both stop to kiss my hands.
“Be careful,” Zach whispers.
“I will.”
“Shout if you need us,” Micah adds.
Letting them both pass him, Killian hesitates, staring at me for several seconds as if attempting to burrow deep into my brain.
“I’ll be fine,” I whisper to him. “Go.”
“Are you sure about this?”
“What happened to trusting me, Kill?”
“I trust you,” he insists. “It’s this fucking world that I don’t trust. It seems determined to take you away from me.”
I hold his gaze, reaching up to smooth the wrinkle between his brows. “I won’t let it.”
He nods once then kisses me firmly on the lips. I watch the three of them leave, passing Elaine in the doorway as she timidly enters the café.
Standing up, I wait for her to approach. Her narrow hips are cloaked in an ill-fitting pair of jeans with a cream sweater.
“Willow?” she croaks.
“Hi. Elaine, I’m guessing?”
Nodding, Elaine takes the seat opposite me. “Hello.”
“Is that your real name, can I ask?”
“What do you think?” she snaps back.
“Fair enough.”
“I’m not staying for long.” She sighs wearily. “I just wanted to tell these people to leave me alone. I don’t want to speak to anyone about the past. That’s final.”
“I understand. I thought we could just talk?—”
“No,” she interrupts.
“Please, Elaine.”
“There’s nothing else to discuss. Instruct your associates to leave me alone. I have a life and a family. I don’t want them knowing about this.”
“Look, you’re scared. I get it. I’m terrified too, all of the time. But that’s no way to live, and it won’t end unless we bring Mr Sanchez down.”
Elaine flinches. “He made you call him that too?”
“Yes. We’re not so different.”
“I hardly think so.”
“We went through something similar at the hands of that monster. You can talk to me about what happened to you. All we want is the truth so we can bring him to justice for what he’s done.”
Air hisses out of her nostrils. “I just want peace.”
“So do I. Help me to get it for all of us.”
Visibly wilting, Elaine looks down at her entwined fingers, twisting together. I can tell that I’m getting through to her. She just needs a push.
“He hurt me every day,” I reveal, my chest tight with pain. “It was relentless. My daughter suffered too.”
“You have a daughter? With him?” she asks in shock.
“Yes, Arianna is his. He beat her as well.”
She looks stunned to learn this, her features twisting with anger at the thought of Mr Sanchez hurting an innocent child. I decide to keep going.
“Some nights I just laid there and let him do it. That was easier than fighting back. But other times, I would kick and scream until he beat me into submission.”
She hesitates, paling further. “I never fought back.”
“That isn’t something to be ashamed of.”
“Isn’t it?”
“No,” I insist fiercely. “What he did to us was evil. It’s his fault, not yours. That’s why he has to be punished.”
Elaine looks contemplative as she chews her lip. “He deserves to rot in prison for everything he’s done to you. To all of us.”
“Then help me put him there. Please.”
Softening, she moves to the edge of her seat. “I’m so scared.”
“That’s why we do this together. Not alone.”
“And if I do this, will I be left alone?”
“Yes. All we need is your testimony.”
She nods tersely. “What do you want to know, then?”
“When did you last see him?” I quickly ask before she changes her mind.
Her eyes go faraway, misted-over by the past. “Twelve years ago. I managed to run during a business trip in London.”
“You were married?”
“No,” she says quietly. “Nothing so formal. When we met, Dimitri was very charming. I was enamoured immediately. I had no idea who he really was until it was too late.”
“So you were in a relationship?” I poke further.
“Yes, a very passionate one at that.”
I want to delve into what she means, but I force myself to stick to the list of questions that Ethan drilled into me.
“And how did he take you?”
“I agreed to go on holiday with him to Florida. That was the last time I saw England until we returned to London, almost a year later.”
“Did you ever think about going to the police?”
“I was too scared to speak up after I escaped him. You know how powerful he is.”
I’ve never heard of Mr Sanchez having a relationship like this. There were women involved in our life together—women he’d rape, beat and abuse, provided by Mason’s supply lines.
But the way Elaine describes her time with him is different. He didn’t traffic her using violence and threats like the rest of us. This version of him took his time to groom her before making his move.
“What happened then?”
“It felt like a honeymoon. We were so in love with each other, I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world.” Her eyes well up. “I still remember when everything changed and the first time he hit me.”
Her words take me back. I remember it too. Strapped into a seat in the aeroplane, groggy and drugged up to my eyeballs, Mr Sanchez struck me for sobbing and ruining his peace.
Elaine wipes underneath her eyes. “It got bad fast. He’d become so angry, furious even, and take it all out on me. The beatings worsened, and I was so terrified, all I wanted was to go home. But he wouldn’t let me.”
“He kept you there?”
“Not in America. After the holiday, we returned to Mexico. He was living in Tijuana at the time. The trip there was so awful… He wouldn’t stop hurting me, even when I begged for relief from the constant pain.”
Reaching across the table, I take her hand into mine. Instead of pulling away as I was expecting, Elaine squeezes my fingers and gives me a wobbly smile. We’ve both been through the same living hell.
“These locations in Florida and Tijuana… do you have any addresses?”
Her eyes scurry around the café. “One, maybe.”
“What about a description for the other? Rough location?”
“I may… Maybe I can write a description or something. It’s been a long time, and a lot of the memories are a blur.”
Excitement pulsates through me. “Anything can help.”
“I don’t want my new name attached to any of this information,” she hurries to say. “I have a new life now, and my husband knows nothing about what happened to me. That’s why I didn’t want to come forward.”
“We can keep the information anonymous.”
Nodding, she pulls a pen from her handbag then scribbles down some information on a napkin. I eagerly take it, feeling like I’m holding the Holy Grail. This could be something we can use to track him down.
“When are you due?” She nods towards the hand rubbing my small bump.
“I’m about sixteen weeks along, so another five months or so.”
“An autumn baby. How wonderful.”
I rub a hand over my belly. “We haven’t found out the gender, we want it to be a surprise.”
“We did the same with my first two.” Elaine smiles wistfully. “It makes things even more exciting.”
“You have kids?”
“Four altogether.”
“Wow, busy house.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” She laughs a little before sobering again. “I have to keep them safe, Willow. They can never know about any of this. It would kill them.”
Unable to stop myself, I lean closer, softening towards her. “You never wanted to tell your husband?”
“Of course, but he wouldn’t understand. I don’t want anyone to look at me differently. They would if they knew what Dimitri Sanchez did to me all those years ago.”
“I thought the same thing for a long time.” My chest burns at the thought of the guys. “But people will always surprise you, and I should’ve given the men I love more credit than that.”
“Men?” she repeats.
“Uh, it’s a little complicated.”
Her eyes twinkle as she becomes more comfortable. “As long as they make you happy, it doesn’t matter how complicated things get. You hold on to those men, and never let them go.”
“I have no intention of ever doing that.”
“Then you’re one of the lucky ones.”
Releasing her hand, I swallow to clear the lump growing in my throat. Old Willow never would’ve believed I’d be here now, facing my fears and doing it regardless of how terrified I am.
She didn’t have the strength to run headfirst into the war we’re currently facing. I’m not entirely sure I have that strength now, but it isn’t going to stop me from proving Mr Sanchez wrong in his quest to break me.
“I think your husband may surprise you too,” I offer honestly.
She snorts. “I really don’t think so.”
“He deserves to know, Elaine. If he loves you as much as it sounds like he does, he’ll stand by you regardless of your past. That’s what love is, right? Accepting each other unconditionally.”
She looks down at the scarred Formica table, seeming to think about that. I glance outside where the others are standing guard, surely trying hard not to watch the meeting unfold behind them.
If I’d trusted the guys long before I did and told them the truth, things may have ended differently. They begged for it so many times, but I couldn’t give it to them until I had no other choice.
But they loved me anyway.
I’m so lucky to have that.
“That’s why I’m going to fight this until the end,” I continue, feeling my determination harden. “For that unconditional love and the people who gave it to me. They deserve my fight.”
Elaine watches me, the corners of her mouth curling upwards a little. “Not all of us are as strong as you, Willow. But I suppose…” She waves her hand as if to wipe away the rest of her unspoken thought. “I’m glad we have someone to fight for all of us.”
“I’m not strong.” I shrug her off. “A few days ago, I kicked the team out of my house and swore I’d never meet you. I was afraid of putting myself back in the firing line again.”
She nods in understanding.
“But here I am.” I gesture around the empty café. “Because no matter how afraid or tired of this world I am, I want to be a good person, not the broken little girl Mr Sanchez made me into.”
This time, she reaches across the table to initiate, taking my hand into hers again and gripping tightly.
“Thank you. From all of us.”
I squeeze her hand back. “You don’t have to thank me.”
“I do. I’m just praying this will be enough to bring that monster down… for all of our sakes.”
“Me too.”
Letting me go, she stands up and grabs her handbag. I panic, desperately trying to remember the list of questions. My mind has gone blank, filled with emotion instead.
“It was nice to meet you,” she offers sincerely. “And I hope you find whatever it is you’re looking for in life. I hope… you can find peace. That we can all find peace.”
I stand up too, following in her footsteps. “Let me give you my phone number. Please call me if you need to talk to someone.”
Quickly scribbling it down on a napkin, I hand the number over to her. She hesitantly takes it then nods in thanks.
“See you around, Willow.”
Watching her go, I feel a twinge of pity for the small, frightened woman. I can see strength in her, beneath the battle scars and pain. She survived Sanchez. That takes a strength most could never dream of.
Elaine walks out with her head held high, straight past Ethan, Hudson and Kade. She doesn’t stop to speak to them, even as they call her name. This trip wasn’t for them. It was for her… And me.
Striding back in, Killian rushes to my side first, pulling me into a hug like we’ve been separated for years rather than minutes. The other two aren’t far behind with the team.
“Are you okay?” Killian fusses over me. “Did she upset you? I’ll go drag her back here by her hair if need be.”
“Cool it, Kill.” I chuckle. “We’re good.”
“Sure?” he worries, his gaze and hands roaming over me.
“Alright, caveman.” Zach claps him on the shoulder. “Let’s turn the testosterone down a notch, shall we? You’re gonna drown poor Willow in it.”
“Fuck off, kid,” he growls.
Wading through them, I step into Micah’s arms, needing his quiet assurance. “She was fine. We talked for a bit, and I got the information we needed.”
Picking up the napkin from the table, Ethan scans over it. “She gave these to you?”
“Yes. Two properties from her time with Mr Sanchez twelve years ago. One in Florida and another in Tijuana. She didn’t remember much else.”
“What else did she say?” Hudson presses.
“That he didn’t traffic her initially. They had a consensual relationship that turned bad before he forced her back to Mexico and held her there for a year. He was abusive—physically and sexually.”
“Shit,” Kade mutters.
“Precisely,” Ethan echoes. “This just got a hell of a lot more complicated.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No, sweetheart.” Ethan smiles appreciatively. “You did good. This is information we can use. I just wasn’t expecting to hear another side to the story. That may not work in our favour in Elaine’s case.”
“We have to protect her. She wants to remain anonymous.”
“And she will. This is just information to give us a new lead on Sanchez’s location.”
Moving into Zach’s arms last, I stifle a laugh when he blows a raspberry on my cheek. His grin widens as he spots the smile on my face. Only he can make me feel better in tense situations like this.
“Well done, Willow,” Kade compliments.
“Thanks. I don’t know how you guys do this for a living.”
Hudson shrugs. “You get used to it.”
Pulling the wire from my chest, I hand it and the voice recorder to Ethan. “Got everything you need?”
“We’ll see if it’s enough to give us a lead. Thank you for coming back. We’re going to try and end this now, I promise you.”
“Better keep your word.”
“He will.” Killian wears his best hunter’s smile. “Else he won’t have any fucking legs while running around after criminals.”
“That a threat?” Ethan chuckles.
“Consider it a promise. Ryder can always find a new boyfriend.”
“Alright.” I grab Killian’s arm to steer him away. “That’s our cue to leave. I want to go home.”
“Amen to that,” Zach hums.