They had to get out of here. She looked up at the bars on the windows. Maybe there were other windows that weren’t barred. Or the front or back doors. Maybe they had a phone here—she could call Kelan. God, he had to be worried sick by now.
Fiona slipped silently to the ground to hunch against the wall, afraid any more movement would make the floorboards creak. Someone turned on a radio, covering the sound of the girl’s whimpers.
Fiona knew she was a coward, shaking in this corner as she passively witnessed another woman being raped. She thought of her training with Angel. He always said if avoidance was an option, take it. But would Selena huddle here and do nothing?
No, she wouldn’t.
But she wouldn’t have to. She knew how to gut a man while he still stood.
After a bit, the man finished. He said something to the girl that Fiona didn’t quite hear. There was the soft sound of clothes being adjusted, then he made his way through the house. Fiona heard a door being closed, then the garage door opening. The dogs outside started to bark.
Fiona stayed locked in place, uncertain if it was safe to move about. She heard the girl get up and go into the bathroom. After a few minutes, Fiona got to her feet then moved silently to the edge of the partition. She peeked around the other side. Everything was straight in the girl’s room. The bed was made up neatly, the blankets tucked in tight, like the bunks down in the bunker of Ty’s house.
Fiona looked at the bars blocking the window in that room. God, if there was a fire, how would they get out?
She left the bedroom and went into the main room. The house was tiny. It had only the two bedrooms, both of which had been partitioned into two sleeping quarters, the bathroom, and a bigger room that had a couch at one end and the kitchen at the other, with a table in between.
The other girls were in the kitchen; the one who was bored before was stirring something in a pot on the stove. Smelled like SpaghettiOs. For breakfast.
The girl looked over at Fiona. “You got a name?”
“I’m Fiona.”
“I’m Bess.” She pointed her spoon at the other girl and said her name. Fiona didn’t see the youngest of the group, and when she realized what that meant, her stomach threatened a revolt.
“What just happened?” Fiona asked.
“What do you think?” Bess answered without looking up from the stove.
Fiona pointed to the bathroom door. “She can’t be more than fifteen.”
“So? Geez, what a precious world you must have come from.”
“Why didn’t you stop it? Why didn’t all of us stop it? It was one man. We could have taken him.”
“Why? So we get rid of one. What do we do with the forty others that come by after him?”
The youngest came out of the bathroom, pale-faced and tear-stained. She crossed her arms and didn’t look at anyone.
“That’s Haley,” Bess said after giving the girl a brusque once-over.
Fiona frowned. “I’m not staying here for this.”
“Where you gonna go?” the other girl asked.
“I have friends who will come right now to get us. Let me use a phone.”
“No phone here.”
“A computer, then. I can email them.”
“They’ll be shot if they come for you.”
Fiona smiled. Her friends weren’t the usual kind. “No, they won’t.”
“Look, we got nowhere to go,” the girl seated at the table said.
“Then come with me. I’ll find you someplace to go. I’ll get you help.”
“You even try, they’ll kill you. And us,” Bess said.
“Who will?” Fiona asked. The girl at the table shrugged and gave her a blank look. Bess stabbed at the boiling pasta. Haley never looked up.
“Well, then, answer me this. I had earrings and a bracelet on when they took me.” She didn’t want to accuse the girls of stealing them, but she desperately needed to know if she’d had them when she got here…if they were still here somewhere. “Did they fall off when they brought me in?”
“Never saw them,” Bess said from the stove. Her back was to the room. She didn’t see Haley’s gaze shoot over to Fiona.
“Okay. So, I guess I’m outta here.” Fiona turned on her bare heel and started for the front door. The windows that were in the main room were also barred. Hopefully, one of the doors was unlocked.
Haley ran ahead of her and blocked the door. “You can’t go out there.”
“Why?”
“The dogs.”
Fiona smiled. “They are just dogs. Probably, they’ve been mistreated and are touchy. They’re not going to hurt me.”
Haley shook her head, her brown eyes big. “They’ll kill you. They were trained to kill us.”
Fiona looked from Haley to the other girls. Their faces were tense. Well, whatever. She’d worked with Eden, helping her train some of the dogs she had at the kennel at Ty’s. She knew how to be calm and assertive with dogs.
“Let her go,” Bess ordered. “It’s her funeral.”
“I’ll send back help,” Fiona told the girls.
“Don’t bother,” Bess said.
Fiona frowned. “This is no way to live.”
“It’s better than living on the streets,” the girl at the table said. “Here at least we have food.”
Fiona looked at the two open SpaghettiOs cans. She remembered feeling sorry for herself after Alan died, having no family, no home. No one. But she did have family. People who loved her and cared for her. She had her friend Mandy, then the whole team, and Eden and Ivy and Casey and Zavi. And Kelan. Tears filled her eyes. They had to be worried sick. Kelan especially.
She gave Haley a reassuring smile as she gently pushed her aside. “I will send help. I promise.”
She turned the doorknob, and was glad it wasn’t locked. She opened it. The dogs were not out front. Maybe they wouldn’t even know she was outside. She glanced around the yard, looking for a gate. It was off to the side, by the drive. All she had to do was get from the front door to the gate—and through it—before the dogs caught up to her.
She couldn’t tell from where she stood if the gate was locked. If the dogs really were crazed beasts, she took a significant risk trying to leave without knowing if the gate was kept locked.