Chapter Sixteen #2
It was both horror that she was here and relief that she was here and in one piece. Not safe, but not visibly hurt like Dani.
There was a guy standing next to Sammy holding a plastic cup, and he leaned down to say something in her ear that made Sammy grimace and lean away from him. But the man grinned like he liked that response.
Fear and fury twined inside Lia, a dangerous combination. She tried to breathe through the emotions and focus, but she knew she had to get inside. Now.
She moved for the door. Laughter and shouts and the murmur of voices spilled out of the house, but Lia knocked, already planning her greeting in her mind. She was a friend of Dani’s. Sad and in desperate need of help.
She could make that believable. She knew what desperate felt like, deep in her bones.
When nothing happened, she knocked again, louder this time. When no one came to the door, she inhaled carefully. She knew what she had to do.
She turned the knob and pushed the door open.
A few people turned toward her as she stepped inside, but a lot of people didn’t even notice.
There were little groups. People sitting on the floor, on tables, on furniture that was water damaged and molding.
The group consisted of mostly men, but a few women were here and there—every last one of them looked high.
Lia’s gaze moved to Sammy, who did indeed have her hands tied behind her back. She had that belligerent set to her chin, and all the evidence of having cried, but she otherwise seemed whole and in one piece.
But Lia couldn’t stare at her. It would ruin everything.
Slowly, the talk and laughter in the room died down, and just about everyone was looking at Lia standing in the doorway.
Even Sammy. But Lia couldn’t meet Sammy’s gaze, because there was a man with his hand around the back of Sammy’s neck possessively and if Lia looked too hard at that she might blow everything.
So Lia looked around at the curious faces studying her. She adopted her best unsure, nervous expression. “Um, hi,” she said, eyes darting around like she didn’t know who to land on. “I… I was looking for a girl named Dani,” she announced to the crowd.
The man who’d had his hands on Sammy, pushed away from her and took a few steps toward Lia. He studied Lia with cold, critical eyes.
“What do you want Dani for?”
“I worked with Dani at the diner.” Lia kept her gaze on the man, even though she ached to rush over to Sammy.
She was pretty sure this guy was the leader—if not of the whole group, at least of tonight’s activities.
The way everyone turned their attention toward him, like they hung on his every word, made it clear he had some kind of power or leadership here.
“She said she had a good thing going here,” Lia said. She licked her lips nervously—both a little put on and very true. She leaned into the nervous—just like Agent Wood had once instructed her to do.
Don’t fight your real feelings. Use them for what you need to project.
“And I just got kicked out of my boyfriend’s place,” Lia said, trying to make her voice shake to go along with her fake sob story. “So I just thought…maybe you’d still be looking for people, but I can leave if I’m not…welcome.” She even took a step backward, toward the door.
Not that she’d ever leave Sammy, but Lia knew how to act, how to set a scene. She was practically trained by the FBI.
The man cocked his head, narrowed his eyes. Not so much in suspicion, but a slow, uncomfortable perusal.
“We’re real…particular about who we hire,” he said. But his mouth curved in what she figured he thought was a kind smile. Hell, maybe she would have fallen for fake kindness all those years ago.
Lia nodded like she understood particular. “I’m willing to work hard. I’m… I’m kind of desperate.” She let the tears she was feeling over Sammy being in the middle of this pool in her eyes, then worked hard to blink them back.
Because men who did this kind of thing loved desperate, but they wanted a woman who was trying to be brave.
So they could break her.
Case in point. This leader now made a considering noise. Then he opened his arms as if in welcome. “You have come to the right place, sweetheart. We do need help. Now, what’s your name?”
“Eddy.” It’s what she’d gone by way back when, so why not? She grimaced like she was embarrassed. “Pretty sure my parents were high when they handed that one out.”
The guy laughed. She was even more certain he was the ringleader when a couple other guys around him laughed too, but only after he did.
“Good one,” he said with a wink. Everything he did was meant to make her at ease, but she could see all the cracks in it. The predatory gleam.
Was she just older and wiser that she didn’t fall for it, or had her captors way back when just been that much more charismatic? And did it matter? She’d been fifteen and desperate.
She wasn’t any more. She was here to save Sammy. That was all that mattered.
“Speaking of high, what’s your poison?” He swept his hand around the room. Most people had gone back to whatever they’d been doing, but a few of the men were watching her with intent eyes.
She didn’t even try to hide her nerves. It was expected. Hell, they probably fed off it.
“You’re going to…share?” Lia asked somewhat skeptically. Then she let out a nervous laugh. “That’s not really a good sign in my experience.”
“Oh, don’t be suspicious, Eddy. We’re all family here. If you join the family, you get all the perks of the family. We take care of our own. There’s some good stuff here.” He pointed at a table where some needles and other items Lia didn’t recognize sat.
Luckily, Lia had spent most of her teen years making excuses not to partake. She knew how to avoid and deflect. “Needles make me nervous. I wouldn’t mind a drink though.”
“Sure, sweetheart. You just come with me.” The man slung his arm around her shoulders in an overfriendly move. Lia worked hard not to stiffen as he pulled her deeper into the house.
She glanced at Sammy on her way past, just couldn’t resist. Sammy was watching her with wide, scared eyes. Lia did her best to force a reassuring smile.
Everything was going to be okay. She was going to make sure of it.