“I will.” She paused. “So, how did you get into this?” Chloe asked. “Aiding and abetting the traffickers, I mean.”
“Same way most of these girls wound up on this yacht. Fell for a cute guy who had nothing on his mind but using me to line his pockets.”
“And now you help them.”
She shrugged and tried to put on a “don’t care” face, but Chloe saw the fear beneath.
“They’re still using you,” she said softly.
The woman stiffened and her eyes met Chloe’s in the mirror. “No. I use them now. They pay me well.”
“Louise, too?”
“Yes. We were taken at the same time. Sold to the same guy.” She swallowed and looked away as she sprayed Chloe’s already stiff hair. “I would have killed myself by now if not for her. She’s like my sister.”
“Why don’t you leave? Both of you? Why don’t you escape?”
She shuddered. “Because there’s no place to escape to. I have no one now. It’s been years. I don’t know where my family is.”
“I’m a cop. I can find them for you.”
A brief hope shone in her eyes. Just for a split second, then it was gone. “It’s too late.”
“It’s not—”
“It’s too late! Now shut up!”
Chloe snapped her lips together and waited for Thelma to finish. Before standing, she turned. “Do you mind if I ask you another question?”
Thelma raised her brows and sighed as though weary of the discussion. “What?”
“Did you ever come across a girl named Penny St. John?”
The woman paused. Frowned deeper. “Penny?”
“She was taken six months ago by a guy named Carson Langston—who we now know was Ethan Wright. At least we think he had something to do with it, since he disappeared along with her. At first, we thought he was taken with her, but when no trace of him was found, we figured he set her up and disappeared.”
“He’s dead now.”
“Yes. How did you know?”
“Because Neal killed him. He made sure to show us how much he made the guy suffer. Did you know they were best friends?”
Of course she didn’t know that. Chloe bit her lip and shook her head, not wanting to say anything that would close the woman up again.
“Yeah, he killed his best friend. Ethan would have done anything for him. But that’s what Neal does. He kills people who cross him, are stupid and attract the attention of the cops, or people he has no use for anymore, so let that be a warning for you.”
Chloe met Thelma’s gaze. “What happens when he has no use for you anymore?”
Thelma’s eyes chilled and her lips curved in a matching smile, all hint of the vulnerable victim from just a few minutes earlier, gone. “That won’t happen, not as long as there are pretty and vulnerable teenage girls. As for Penny, I remember her.”
Chloe did her best to stay cool. “Will you tell me what happened to her?”
A shrug. “Same thing that’s going to happen to you.”
“Who bought her?”
“I don’t know. I don’t keep up with the transactions.”
Thelma was being awfully chatty. Because she wasn’t concerned that Chloe would be able to do anything with the information, no doubt. “Who keeps up with the transactions?” she asked softly.
“Neal.”
“On that little laptop I saw him with?”
“Probably.”
“Anyone else?”
She laughed. “No, I don’t think so. Doesn’t matter to you anyway. You’re getting ready to be a transaction. Now go sit down and wait your turn.”
“It doesn’t affect you at all, does it?” Chloe asked. “You have no compassion for the girls, for me?”
Thelma eyed her. “Why should I? No one had any for me.” She raised the weapon and aimed it at Chloe. “Now sit.”
Chloe sat. Waiting was all she could do at this point anyway. If her timing was right, things were going to get interesting in about seven minutes.
Blake pressed his hands to his eyes. “This is hopeless,” he muttered to Linc. “It’s been almost two hours and we’ve turned up nothing.” How was he supposed to find Rachel and Chloe when every person they’d talked to had given them a negative answer? “We’re wasting time.”
Then again, what else was he going to do?
“I know it feels that way,” Linc said, “but we’re not giving up.”
“Of course we’re not giving up.”
Their boat pulled to the next yacht. Two women, one blonde and one brunette, looking very comfortable in their bathing suits, walked down two flights of stairs and leaned against the rail to greet them. “What’s going on, guys?”
With a sigh, Blake pulled Rachel’s and Chloe’s pictures up side by side on his phone and held it out to the nearest boater. She took it. “We’re looking for these two and think they’re on one of these yachts out here. Have you seen them?”
“No, sorry.” She let her friend look. The friend shook her head and Blake saw nothing in their expressions to indicate they may be lying.
“Thanks.”
She returned his phone. “Y’all want to come aboard?” The other woman spoke for the first time. “We’ve got shrimp and drinks. We can put on some music and have a sunset cruise.”
Linc smiled. “Thanks, ladies. Not this time.”
“Okay, well, good luck finding your girls. Sorry we couldn’t help.”
Blake took his seat again and pulled up the pictures of Rachel and Chloe again. Then went to Chloe’s. He’d taken it when she wasn’t looking, just so he could have a picture of her. She was laughing at something Linc had said the night of their dinner at A Taste of Yesterday. With her head tilted sideways, her eyes glinted at her brother as she teased him about something.
Pretty. And still spunky in spite of being wounded by a jerk. He wanted a chance to show her not all guys were like Jordan Crestwood.
She’d put herself in harm’s way for Rachel. The only reason she was at the museum was because she thought she could find something that would help lead them to Rachel.
“What are you thinking?”
Blake shook his head and put the phone away. “That I’m going to punch Jordan Crestwood next time I see him.”
“You’re going to have to get in line.”
“I’m moving to the front.”
Linc grunted. “What else?”
A sigh slipped from him. “I don’t know. That life is short and we need to grab on to the good times and let the bad ones fade away. If we can. Is the past really worth holding on to if it keeps you from living in the present? If it stops your dreams right in their tracks?” He shrugged. “Sorry. Too much time to think.” Yeah, too much thinking and not enough finding. Where are you, Chloe? Rachel? Panic threatened and he turned to find Linc watching him.
“You’re thinking about your dad?”
Blake had confided in Linc long ago. Linc was the one person who knew just about everything about him. He was ready to let Chloe inside that tight circle if she was willing. “Yes. And other people.”
“I like that idea,” Linc said. “Letting go of the past and grabbing on to the good times, the future, I mean. If one can do it.” He paused. “Chloe’s one of those people you want to have in your future, isn’t she?”
Meeting the man’s eyes, Blake considered the question. “Yes. If we weren’t so wrapped up in trying to find Rachel, I would have asked her out by now.” He gave a short laugh. “Then again, if we weren’t so wrapped up in finding Rachel, I might not have run across Chloe again and wouldn’t have found out how special she is.”
“She can be a pain.”
Blake heard the roughness in the man’s voice and knew he was scared, terrified for his sister. “I’m willing to take that chance.”
“Yeah. I’m ready for her to be that pain again. I miss it.”
“Then let’s find her.”
25
Louise returned with a rattled-looking Rachel four minutes later than Chloe expected her to. “It’s in here,” Rachel said. “I’m sorry. I forgot about it.”
“Get it and shut up. Gotta keep you healthy just a little longer, then you’re outta my hair.”
“Where are you taking us?” Rachel asked. “Why is everyone in that little boat off the side?”