Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
Diesel, Raso, Pratt and York watched the emotions play across Jace’s face as Warcloud’s words played in his head. They knew the minute what was being implied hit him.
The four women knew that families didn’t like to think the worst of what their loved ones were going through when the horrible acts happen. They know it can take a hard toll on families once that a loved one is back home, and they face the constant nightmares the victims go through.
“Y-you’re saying that they would be addicted to drugs and that they are being harmed?” Jace asked, his voice shuddering.
“Jace, I’m not going to lie to you. If they are part of a human trafficking ring, they were drugged with in the first hour of being taken. Most often it starts when they are taken. Most human traffickers will use cocaine, heroin or other strong drugs like that to control them. Unless they were targeted for a specific buyer, it’s guaranteed they were sexually assaulted by one or more men within the first twenty-four hours of their kidnapping to get their spirits broken. They are beaten, verbally abused and in some cases starved to get them to comply with their orders.” Pratt advised him, trying to keep her voice soft.
“You said unless they were targeted for a specific buyer. What do you mean by that?” Jace asked, his eyes lighting up slightly in hope.
The hope in his eyes killed the three women. They knew that word for some reason, and they couldn’t figure out why, always gave the families hope. What made it harder was that it wasn’t hopeful.
They knew girls of a specific buyer can sometimes be found quicker, unless that buyer was out of the country, which is what usually happens more often than not. What also tends to happen with specific buyer, they will tell the kidnappers that features they want and then the girls can be taken at random just because they have the features the buyer wants.
Those buyers make it way harder to find them. That was something they hated having to explain to the families.
“There’s two ways to look at that. One, someone saw her and wanted her specifically. If that’s the case, any electronics or diaries we can find might help us if she writes about them. If it was the case of having specific features, that will make it way harder because there’s no link between her and the people who took her.” York pointed out, trying to soften the blow she just dealt.
“And with Noreen being gone, there’s no way to find out.” Jace deflated, sadness once again filling his voice.
“Not necessarily. There’s a chance that Noreen told someone else about what was going on or she’s got it hidden in her room. Warcloud has already gotten permission from the parents for us to look in her room. Now, knowing that your grandfather was procuring husbands for your sisters, that will also give us something to look at. See if that someone didn’t want to wait until they were of age. We’ve seen that happen before too. There are hundreds of possibilities. We will exhaust every single one of them.” Diesel promised the young man.
“Until you give up like the others have when Aiyannei was taken.” Jace fired back with the sadness evident.
“Jace, we don’t give up. While we may have to go back to San Diego once our vacation is up, your tribal people can petition for us to stay on a little longer, especially if we have leads that are leading somewhere. Even if we do have to go back to San Diego, we will not be giving up. Giving up is not in our nature.” Raso promised him, making him look her in the eyes.
“They won’t be alone in trying to find your sisters, Jace. Warcloud called me in as well. I will be doing everything in my power, alongside them.” Hank promised as he stepped up behind the four women.
“Jace, I can tell you, once these women take on a case, they don’t stop. My baby sister had been missing for years. I left the Marines because of her disappearance. Once these women found out about her, they juggled two cases at that time to help me find her. My sister is now home and getting the help she needs to find herself again. Speaking from experience, it’s not going to be easy. Even when she is found, these women won’t leave her side. They will constantly be checking in on her. Seeing what she needs. I will say this, be prepared to be pissed constantly, because they won’t give two shits about your feelings. Their only concern will be your sisters. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m glad they are that way.” Viper laughed as he said his last statement to Jace.
“You won’t give up on finding them?” Jace asked, nearly gutting the four women.
“We promise we won’t.” All four women said at the same time.
“Alright, let’s go to my mom’s house before Iyei gets home and causes more of a scene. My grandfather said he can see you after you’ve checked out the house. He can give you five minutes.” Jace nodded his head as he looked down at his buzzing phone.
“Aw, how generous of him to carve out only five minutes when his granddaughters are missing.” Raso chimed in, shaking her head.
The four women climbed into the SUV they had been in before while the men climbed into the second one. They waited for Warcloud and Jace to climb into their vehicle so they could follow them to Catori’s home.
“Why didn’t you guys mention Marcus when you talked about Jacko and Viper?” Raso asked looking over at Pratt.
“Marcus is our ace in the hole. He has one of the best skills, aside from his brother, that even Viper envies. According to Joe, something their father has trained each and every one of them with. I’m not telling anyone outside of our group.”
“Not even Warcloud?”
“Not even Warcloud,” Pratt and York confirmed, smirking at Raso.
Driving through the reservations, they could see some homes looked run down or empty. Others looked to have more modernized homes, but they were small.
There were even some areas where there were trailers, both single wide and double wide. They could see there were many different types of homes on the reservations, which showed the differences in the way society viewed them and reality.
When they arrived at Catori’s home, they could see that she was in what some would consider a modernized home, but it looked like it had seen better days. Which had the four women looking at each other before they got out of the SUV.