Women don’t even wait for men to offer to buy them a drink nowadays; they just suggest it, apparently.
“I’m actually here with my girl,” I tell her, forcing a smile. “You are very pretty, but I’m going to have to decline.”
I glance back at the corner of the room. He’s still here. Unfortunately for me, so is the woman.
“Where is she, then?” she asks, running her hand down my arm. I stare at it in distaste. I really, really don’t want to be dealing with this right now.
“Right there,” I say, nodding my head toward the bathroom as Jo reappears, heading straight for me. The woman pouts, then walks away, and Jo quickly reclaims her seat next to me.
“A fan of yours?”
“Something like that,” I tell her, waiting for her to instruct me on how we’re going to handle this.
“They’ll have the place surrounded within minutes,” she says, looking straight forward.
“Are they coming in or are we taking him down?” I ask, placing my hand on her nape and squeezing gently. “Tell me what to do here, Jo.”
I’m not letting this man go. He’s our only lead right now, and I’m not letting this opportunity slip through my fingers.
“We don’t move until they come in,” she says in a calm voice. “We don’t want him to grab someone as a hostage, or anything like that. The squad is going to come in and take him down.”
She’s only just said those words when the door opens and eight police come storming in, guns in their hands. Everyone drops to the ground. Jo and I move toward the door, behind the men, watching while the suspect is arrested. I have to admit that it feels like I’m doing less than I could. Yes, we’re the ones who located him, but we could have taken him down ourselves just as easily. This way is safer though, and I guess they know what they’re doing. We watch him being put away in the cop car and then drive back to the police station ourselves.
“I have a good feeling about this,” Jo says, nodding. “He has to give us something, anything that can help find her.”
“We’ll find her,” I say, reaching my hand out onto her thigh. “Don’t worry about that.”
She turns her head to me, her eyes smiling. “I sure hope so, Ranger. I sure hope so.”
? ? ?
I kick down the locked door and walk into the house, looking left and right. I turn into one of the hallways, opening and searching each room as I go. I find her in the third room. There are eight women in the room, all huddled together in the corner. I see her straightaway, right in the middle, dressed in a white nightgown that leaves nothing to the imagination. They’ve obviously tried to give them a virginal, ethereal appearance, although the look on their faces is anything but. They all stare up at me with scared eyes, staying silent, waiting to see what I want. I can only imagine what they’ve been through. Elizabeth has a black eye, and I want to kill whoever has struck her. The police step in behind me, taking in the scene, and I feel Jo’s presence at my side; I hear her gasp. I know the police didn’t want me here, but I walked in anyway, before them. If they want to give me shit for it afterward, I don’t give a fuck; they can shove their protocol right up their asses. I take a step toward Elizabeth, who seems to be seeing me but not really seeing me. I say her name, and she shakes her head as if clearing it. I come closer to her, and the other women move backward, up against the wall, away from me.
“Elizabeth,” Jo whispers, stepping forward and crouching down in front of her cousin. She reaches out her hand but Elizabeth moves away. It’s like she doesn’t recognize her own family, like she doesn’t know where she is or who she is anymore. She’s locked in her own hell. They’ve broken her.
The police start going to the women, assuring them that they’re now safe. I lift Elizabeth in my arms—she comes willingly—and carry her outside to the waiting ambulance. Jo is crying silent tears next to me. I know she just wants to hold her cousin, to be there for her, but right now she’s not in a good state. I wonder if they’ll let us take her home after she’s checked out by a doctor. I don’t know what the protocol is, and I don’t know what will be the best course of action for her either. On the bright side, we found her, and she will never have to experience anything like this again. I look down at her face to see her looking up at me, and she mouths one word.
Cam.
“I’ve got you,” I tell her softly, pushing her long hair off her face. “The doctor will have to look at you, okay?”
No reply, but she doesn’t object as she is placed on a stretcher. She does, however, grab hold of my arm so I can’t move very far. Jo stands on the other side of her, speaking soft words to her, and I feel like I’m intruding on a moment.
“You’ll have to go to the hospital and wait until the doctor has seen her,” the medic tells us, wheeling the stretcher into the back of the van. I look to Jo, seeing how she’s taking it, and as soon as the van doors shut, she melts into my arms. She’s shaking. I don’t know if it’s relief that her cousin has been found, or if she’s sickened with what she’s witnessed today, but I lead her to our rental car. We need to get to the hospital, because Elizabeth needs to be around people she knows, she needs her family and friends to support her.
“I’ll drive,” I tell Jo when she tries to slide into the driver’s seat.
She nods absently as I lead her to the other side and open the door for her. She gets inside the car and I close the door, then get in and head to the hospital.
“How are you feeling?” I ask her, running my thumb along her knuckles. “Are you okay?”
“Did you see how they were all sitting there?” she asks, looking straight ahead. “On the floor. Wearing the same white dresses. How sick are these people?” She turns her head and looks at me. “Do you think she will ever get past this?”
Probably not right away, but I don’t say that. What I do say is, “She’s strong.”
“Yes, she is,” Jo murmurs, leaning her head back against the rest and closing her eyes with a sigh. “It’s over, yet at the same time, the battle is just beginning.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Who knows what they subjected those women to? The thought makes me want to beat the shit out of something, or someone. The fucked-up thing is there will always be operations like this around, and if one is taken down, another will just start. Elizabeth was all sunshine, rainbows, and butterflies, but the Elizabeth I saw today has a hollowness in her eyes that sent shivers down my spine. We found her, but she might already be lost, and I think that that’s something Jo needs to be ready for. You don’t come out of something like this the same person. She was kidnapped; taken across country and held captive, like a slave; locked in a room. They made her not a person but a possession. And I refuse to think of the other fucked-up things they may have done to her, because I will end up in prison for murder.
FIFTEEN
Johanna