Chapter 4 Roderick
We go down fourteen floors before we hit the bottom of this fucking cesspool. My skin is crawling. The top three levels seemed to be the best kept of the building, but even those weren’t great. The lower you get, the more disgusting it is.
The thirteenth floor is the worst by far. The smell alone, even from the stairs, is enough to let me know the girls had been kept here. Probably in conditions worse than I could ever imagine, and my imagination is pretty good.
The lowest level is damn near bare, and if I didn’t know better, I would think it was unused. It’s smaller, just a small hall that leads to a door that one would assume to be a boiler room, or maybe a storage closet. But based on what the girl told Zander, it should be an office.
I’m the first to the door. I walk in with my gun at the ready, followed closely by Zander, with Spencer bringing up the rear. The cops can say they swept this building as many times as they want, but it never hurts to keep your guard up. If they had missed the girl, they could have missed anything.
I call out to the guys as I do a small circle in the tiny room.
To call it an office would be an exaggeration.
This room is barely big enough for the desk and two chairs that I assume the slimebag used for skin trades.
The thought of the business that went on in this office makes my stomach roll and my temper flare.
Zander books it for the desk as soon as I call the all-clear, dropping down and feeling around for some way to open the hatch. I don’t even make it around the desk before I hear the creak of the hinges and know he found a way to open it.
Spencer and I stand on the side of the desk, looking down into the pit as he opens it. I’m not sure what I expect; this night has been one curveball after the other, but somehow, the sight in front of me still finds a way to shock me.
It’s a crudely dug hole in the ground—no more than five feet wide each way and maybe eight feet deep. There’s no light and nothing else inside but a girl lying on the ground.
She doesn’t stir, even after the door is open. The small amount of light from the office illuminates the pit. It’s not a lot of light, but I imagine any light after pitch black would cause someone to stir.
How long has she been here?
Is she alive?
I go to express my concern to the others, but before I can, a gasp sounds from somewhere next to me. I’m unsure if it was Zander or Spencer, but it doesn't matter, it about sums it up.
Without a word, Zander lets the door fall open against the desk with a bang before hopping down into the pit. He lands in the small space next to where the girl lies. Quickly reaching down, he presses his fingers to her neck, letting me know he had the same concern I did.
After a moment, he reaches out and shakes her. She must be alive, or he wouldn’t be wasting time trying to wake her. She doesn’t respond immediately, but after a few moments of him shaking her, she begins to stir.
Sitting up, she stretches and almost smacks Zander in the face. I hear Spencer huff in amusement beside me as Zander looks back up at us, his confusion clear on his face.
We watch as she blinks rapidly against the light before looking around. Her gaze lands on Zander first, before finding Spencer and then turning to me.
She may be in the pit, but she obviously had better conditions than some of the other girls. For a moment, I let myself be na?ve enough to think maybe she didn't suffer quite as much as I assumed when I heard she was facing isolation. But as I look her over, I know that's far from true.
She looks as though she was bathed more recently than the others and maybe even had access to a hairbrush.
While her clothes are still dirty and ill-fitting, they aren't in as bad of shape as some we saw. But in this line of work, the best-taken care of probably means you’re the most often called upon.
Her skin’s littered with bruises. Her bottom lip appears to be busted based on the dried blood crusted on it, and that’s just what I can see from here. There's no telling what other injuries she has, both physically and mentally.
Was she protecting the other girls from more than just time in the pit?
My curiosity almost gets the better of me, and I open my mouth to ask her just that.
But Zander beats me to it, asking her for her name instead, and I snap my mouth closed.
Now is not the time for my curiosity. We need to get her out of here, and I doubt she wants to talk about anything like that with a stranger.
We continue watching her as if she could disappear at any moment. Then, finally, she looks back at Zander and smiles up at him. Even covered in grime and bruises, she's beautiful, but her smile lights up her whole face.
She has a petite frame, and I would guess she's probably only around five feet tall, maybe one hundred pounds soaking wet. So, while they don’t appear to have starved them, they weren’t feeding them more than needed to stay alive.
Her hair is a light shade of blonde, and judging by her roots, it’s either freshly dyed or her natural color.
I wouldn’t put it past someone in the business of selling young girls for sex to make them change their appearance based on what sells. It’s pulled back from her face in a sloppy ponytail, but it’s long, almost touching the ground, even as she sits up.
Her smile gives me pause, though, and judging by how Zander freezes as she looks up at him, I know he sees it, too.
She smiles up at him like he is the best thing she’s ever seen, and I mentally kick myself for not being the one to jump down and check on her.
I’m unsure why I want her to look at me like that, but instead of digging into it, I shake it off.
That’s the last thing that should be on any of our minds.
“My name is Jade,” she tells Zander, and I watch as a smile takes over his face. Zander’s always smiling, but very rarely is it genuine. Usually, his smiles are laced with some of the psycho energy that’s just a part of who he is, giving them a much more unsettling vibe.
He usually reserves real smiles for friends, meaning Spencer and myself.
But this is just pure happiness. It reminds me of when we were younger, back when Zander was always happy, without all the darkness that follows him around now.
I clear my throat, effectively pulling her attention to me, but her smile remains as she looks up at me and then at Spencer. I hear Spencer's breath catch as her gaze lands on him last.
Fuck.
We don’t need this right now. Neither does she.
“Let’s get you out of here, Jade. The other girls are waiting for you,” I tell her, reaching my hand down into the pit to help her up. I didn’t think it was possible, but her smile grows even bigger when I mentioned leaving the pit, or maybe it was the girls.
Then, without hesitation, she pushes herself to stand and reaches for my hand.
I’m unsure if I’m happy she put her trust in me to get her out of there or upset that she did it so quickly, without question.
Again, I let it go, telling myself I would take any way out if I were trapped in a dark hole.
Facing the potential consequences outside the pit is better than being trapped inside.
She can barely grab my hand with how small she is but manages, and I brace myself to pull her up. Again, I doubt she weighs very much, but with little space to brace myself and the odd angle, this could be a real pain in the ass.
However, the moment her hand grips my own, she places her feet on the wall and pushes herself up, making it so she's less dead weight, and pulling her up is damn near effortless. As I pull her over the edge, Zander looks up at me, confused. He’s crouched low to the ground, and I realize he was also ready to help her up with a lift, but she didn’t need it.
Maybe she's not as helpless as she seems.
She gets up, and off the ground in a fluid motion, dusting her clothes off as she goes. Not that it helps anything overall because, as I noticed earlier, she’s covered in grime, but the dirt on her hands and legs shakes free.
Spencer leans over the hole's edge and grabs Zander's hand, pulling him up much the same way I just did with Jade. We all just kind of stand there for a minute, looking at her. I don’t blame them; honestly, I’m confused as well.
She turns around to face us, and still, she’s smiling.
How can someone who clearly has been through hell smile so easily like that?
“Shall we go?” she asks, and her question is enough to pull me from my thoughts.
I step back, gesturing for her to walk ahead of me.
She walks around the desk and towards the door, and we follow her.
I hear Spencer and Zander talking in hushed tones behind me, but I don’t care to be a part of the conversation.
Instead, I let Jade take up all the room in my head as she strides up the stairs without a care in the world.
What is with this girl?
As we exit the building, we see that most of the cops are gathered around, as if waiting to see what’s going on. So helpful. Trent stands front and center. The moment Jade is through the door, his eyes go to her as if pulled by a siren's call.
He would have left this girl behind if not for us.
The urge to knock him out comes over me so strongly that I have to clench my jaw and dig my nails into the fleshy part of my palm to keep myself in check. I’m all but towering over him before I even make the choice to go to him. Unfortunately, he has enough common sense to take a step back.
“Where are the girls?” I hear Jade ask behind me, but I let one of the others answer her, choosing to keep my focus on Trent.
At the sound of her voice, Trent’s common sense seems to vanish as he tries to sidestep around me in an attempt to get to her.
I mirror his movement, effectively blocking her from his line of sight as Zander tells her he’ll take her to them.