Chapter 27
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
EREZ
There is no way to mentally prepare for the vile acts of sick men. We anticipated what we were going to walk in on, yet I wasn’t in the least bit ready to see it with my eyes.
We already guessed that there is always a single person present in the children’s holding area of the animal shelter.
We’re going in knowing that two more men had entered several hours ago.
According to our team monitoring the cameras, they still hadn’t come out by the time we arrived around one in the morning.
When I walk in to children crying, my brain glitches for just a moment. The men that are part of my task—to apprehend the adults—move for the man who must have been on watch or something. He gets to his feet and sort of freezes with wide eyes as Tomo and Kai quickly take him.
I think he’s probably so startled that someone has broken in that he simply froze. No yells of warning. No chance to pull a weapon. No alarm. Nothing.
All of that I register as if I were seeing it from afar.
I probably should have stuck with that man instead of investigating the very adult sounds coming from a room to the right.
What I saw will forever stay with me. For just a second, it felt very reminiscent of Alice’s paintings.
As a witness from the side, I’m watching from the very same point of view that Alice had been in many times.
The man looks up at me and meets my eyes. He grins, and a sick feeling overcomes me. Like the first guy, I’m frozen as I stare at him. It isn’t until he says, “Want a turn? This one is perfect,” that I fucking snap.
I haul him up and… completely black out as disgust and rage fill me. I’m acutely aware that I’m beating the shit out of him as the little girl in the bed screams and tries to get away. I’m not in the right frame of mine to do anything but beat the living shit out of this scum.
I don’t stop until Tomo and Kai physically pull me off him. That’s when the world flickers back into existence around me. My chest heaves as I try to pull myself together. I’m shaking. The scents in this place make my stomach roll.
“Come on,” Tomo says, pulling me from the building.
“The others—”
“Already taken care of. The kids are safe now.”
“The one in the room…”
“Jessie got her, Erez. She’s safe now too. We’ll get her some help and to Doc Molly.”
I feel like vomiting. Bile coats my mouth. Tears sting my eyes. I can’t stop seeing, hearing, and smelling what I just saw.
“You okay?” Tomo asks.
“I think I should have had a different task,” I admit as I bend over, bracing my hands on my knees and closing my eyes to get myself back together.
“I think you’re right. Let’s get out of here, okay?”
I nod and slowly right myself. Any sudden movement and I think I might actually throw up. “I’m going to ride with the animal team.”
Tomo inclines his head.
Through the dark parking lot, I can see them climbing into the truck they arrived in. The saying, “many hands make quick work” comes to mind as the trailer is locked up and the semi truck’s loud engine roars to life.
I climb into the back seat of the truck without a word, but as the others join me, I don’t see Fade. My stomach clenches. “Where is he?” I ask, twisting in my seat to look into the bed of the truck through the windows separating us. He’s not there either. “Where’s Fade?”
“He’s riding with the kids,” Rosalie tells me through my earpiece.
Riding with the kids… I don’t understand that.
I thought we were putting the female-presenting adults with the kids.
Little Alice screaming in terror as my fathers came into the room when I first brought her home echoes in my head, and I try to shove it away.
The memories of her in the first weeks she was home, her paintings, and the horror I just witnessed swim together in my head.
I wasn’t prepared for this. Maybe I should have stayed behind. This was… awful.
Voices speak through the earpiece, but I’m only vaguely aware of what they’re saying. I hear them. I understand the words, but I can’t comprehend them. They simply don’t register. My mind is too full of the trauma that was never mine to endure.
We get back to the Van Doren Estate forty minutes later. My cam is retrieved, and I think someone says something, but I don’t hear the words as I walk away. As I’m climbing into my car, Kai grips my arm until I meet his eyes.
“Are you okay to drive?”
I might throw up. There’s a good chance I might. Now that I’m taking mental inventory, my hand is throbbing. The pain that hadn’t registered until now is sharp enough to make me grimace. “Yeah.”
He doesn’t look convinced, but after a few seconds, he backs away.
I don’t leave the estate. Instead, I drive to Van Doren Prep where they were taking the kids. If Fade rode with the kids, then that’s where he should be. I can’t leave without him. I would never leave without him.
The van is pulled up right outside the newest dorm building. I see Fade holding something as I park my car. Approaching, I find that he’s holding a small girl, and… I’m a little confused. Maybe I misunderstood where he was assigned.
He shifts and meets my eyes. The smile he gives me is filled with emotion. I don’t get too close to where he’s standing with the child. Hearing Greylyn’s voice, I look toward the van. She’s sitting at the entrance to the van.
“You want to come out?” Grey asks. “We’ll get you cleaned up and warm. Are you hungry?”
None of the kids answer her. I can hear whimpers. Someone is crying softly. Lillian and Jessie are standing by the van too. The only kid out of the van might be the one that Fade is holding.
“You’re safe now,” Grey assures them. “All those men that hurt you are going to be punished. They’ll never hurt you again.”
“No one will even touch you again,” Jessie says. “Unless you say they can.”
There’s no movement in the van.
I look around, finding more people milling about.
Doc Molly is close by, but she remains at a distance.
Jalon is standing at the edge of the building, largely hidden in shadow, likely trying to stay out of sight.
As I’m taking inventory of the situation, Lyra Van Doren comes out of the dorm and stops at Jalon’s side.
She has blankets in her arms. They talk for a minute, then Lyra approaches Fade.
I’m close enough to everyone to hear the exchanges. Conversations that barely take hold in my mind as it slowly becomes numb to everything.
“Hey,” Fade says quietly, and the little girl’s eyes open. Her fear is bright.
I recognize her. She was the one screaming from the bed. She was the one…
“Are you cold? Want a blanket?” Fade asks.
The girl nods.
“I have to set you on your feet for a minute.” Her arms tighten around his neck. “I promise I’m not going anywhere. I’m right here. Can you stand for just a second so I can wrap you in a blanket?”
She doesn’t want to. I can see that in her body language, but she’s so fucking brave so she nods. Fade crouches down and sets her on her feet. Lyra drapes a blanket over her shoulders, and Fade tucks it around her before scooping her back up again.
“There you go,” Lyra says. “You’re such a brave girl. I know it’s hard to trust strangers, but you’re safe now. We’ll never let anyone hurt you again.”
Tears fall down her face. She doesn’t respond otherwise.
Lyra grips Fade’s arm for a moment and heads for the van. “Hey, babies,” she greets. Jessie and Lillian back up a few steps. “I brought you some blankets. The desert can get cold at night. Are you cold?”
I can’t see the kids, but I can see Lyra handing blankets into the back of the van. “There you go. Do you want to come out? No?”
She takes a step back, and Greylyn joins her. Jessie and Lillian remain by the van. The kids don’t know they’re safe. When was the last time they were safe? How long have they been trapped in that hell?
“Mr. Callum?”
I turn my attention back to Fade at his name. Doc Molly approaches.
“My name is Molly Markanich. I’m the family doctor. Who is your little friend?”
Fade shakes his head. “We’re keeping her name a secret. Aren’t we?” Fade asks, and the girl smiles a little.
I interpret that to mean that she either doesn’t remember or won’t speak out loud.
“Ah. Okay. I like that game too. Do you have any boo-boos you want to have looked at?”
Her eyes turn wild, and she begins crying again.
“Molly,” I say softly, and she turns to me. Maybe she hadn’t seen me standing there. She approaches with a smile.
“Your hand has seen better days,” she notes, and once again, I’m reminded of the pain in my hand.
I shake my head. “Not important right now. I just wanted to tell you that…” My eyes lift to Fade. He’s watching me. “That one, the room I… the man I beat… She was being…”
“Ah,” Molly says and places a hand on my forearm. “The current victim of the night.”
I nod. Bile coats my mouth once more, and I nearly gag. “There was another, I think, but I didn’t make it out of that room.”
Molly’s lips press together. “I hope you beat him to death,” she says quietly.
“I don’t know,” I admit.
She squeezes my arm. “Thanks. There was one other actively being…”
“I didn’t see. But I know for certain there were three men in there. One was acting as the watch at the door. One was with that little girl.”
Molly looks momentarily murderous before her expression evens out. “Thank you.” She doesn’t return to Fade right away. She remains with me as she takes several cleansing breaths. By the time she turns, her face is serene again and she manages to smile.
Fade stares at me for several minutes before turning his attention to Doc Molly. “She ran down the parking lot on bare feet,” he says.
“Can I look at your feet?” Molly asks. “Fade doesn’t even have to let you down. You can stay right there, wrapped tightly in your blankey. Is that okay?”
She doesn’t agree for a long time, but eventually she nods.
Molly talks to her about everything she pulls from a bag on her hip.
She shows everything to the girl, allowing her to touch each instrument.
After Molly explains the cuts on her feet, the girl allows her to see them and watches as Molly cleans and bandages each one.
Then Molly produces socks from somewhere and holds them up. “Do you like kitties or bows?”
The girl looks between them and chooses the kitties. Molly slides them on her feet then covers them with the blanket.
“There. Feet all set. Do you have any other boo-boos you want to tell me about? Does anything else hurt?”
The girl stares at Molly then tucks her face into Fade’s neck.
“It’s okay now,” Fade says quietly. “You don’t have to tell Molly right now. You can tell Molly another time if you want to.”
I think the girl is at her limit today. She stops responding and clings to Fade.
Molly glances in my direction then heads for the van. I get a little closer to Fade until I can rest a hand on his back.
“We need someone who trusts us but is closer to their age,” Greylyn says.
“Envy,” Lyra says. “She’s old enough to understand what we need.”
“Axl is not going to like that,” Greylyn says as she pulls out her phone and walks away.
More vehicles show up. More kids. One in each. If I’m not mistaken, these are the kids that came from men who had borrowed them. More kids like the little girl that Fade is holding.
They cry. They scream and fight and don’t want anyone near them. Which, of course, makes the kids in the van even more terrified.
I’m close enough to Fade that my hands rest on his hips and my head against the back of his by the time a vehicle drives up from the direction of the estate.
Envy jumps out of the backseat, still in her nightgown and holding a stuffed rhino.
She wears a purple silk bonnet with rainbows all over it on her head and fuzzy slippers on her feet.
She looks very unhappy to be here, but then her gaze lands on Fade and her eyebrows knit together. Envy crosses the space until she’s standing in front of Fade, looking at the little girl.
“Hi,” Envy says. The girl stares at her. “My name is Envy. What’s your name?”
She shakes her head.
“You don’t know?”
More head shakes.
“That’s okay. How about I give you a name? Let’s see. Serephina?”
The girl makes a face, and Envy laughs. “No. Okay. Um… Jasmine—no. Oh. How about Lana?”
I’m surprised when the girl nods. There’s even a tiny smile on her lips.
“Lana. I like that. I live here, Lana. All these people are my family, and they love me so much. I even have my own pool!”
The girl now called Lana opens her mouth as if she’s going to speak but doesn’t.
“You’re really brave, Lana. Here, want to cuddle Fanny? He’s my comfort rhino. He makes me feel better when I’m scared. Are you scared?”
Lana nods and reaches for the stuffed animal. Envy hands it over then leans in as if she’s going to tell Lana a secret. “I’m scared too sometimes.”
Envy gently touches the girl’s face. Right where a bruise is forming. “Everything is okay now,” she says quietly, but I think that comment is for herself more than Lana. “I’ll be back in a minute, okay, Lana?”
Lana yawns and nods, closing her eyes as she tucks herself into Fade again. Axl rests a hand on Envy’s shoulder. Then Envy is looking at the van where there are kids peeking outside the open door. The cars with their back doors open, terrified kids crying or hiding inside.
“What happened?” Envy asks.
“Very bad men hurt these kids,” Axl answers quietly.
Envy looks up at her father. “I hope they’re dead.”
Axl smiles. It’s not happy or vicious or anything other than an empty expression. “They’ll be worse than dead soon.”
Envy nods and marches over to the van.
It takes her twenty minutes to gain the kids’ trust. She has them out of the van and holding hands in a long chain. Together, they make their rounds to all the vehicles, and soon, there are ten children following Envy to the dorm.
Envy demands lots of mattresses, pillows, blankets, and stuffies.
She declares that they’re having a sleepover and there are no adults allowed.
I’m not in the least bit surprised that’s exactly what happens.
Lana is reluctant to leave Fade, but she does eventually, curling up with the group of abused kids.
“This was a night from fucking hell,” Fade murmurs. “Take me home.”
I grip his hand tightly in mine and lead him to my car. Gladly.