by T. J. Kline
Medics were already rushing in as she located a ring of keys in cabinets on the back wall. Jones tugged Toni off to one side of the room as the SWAT took both men into custody.
“She’s not here?”
Toni shook her head, her eyes training on the man still holding his nose, howling as the medics walked him out to the ambulance.
“Does she look like you?” The timid voice broke into their conversation and all three of them turned to find the battered girl from the cage standing to one side of them. “There was a lady here who looked like you.”
“We're twins.” Hope flashed in Toni’s eyes.
“They dragged her to a van early this morning. It was still dark. Something about getting ready to catch a flight.”
Disgust filled Leo when he considered what the woman - girl, Leo corrected himself - had gone through. She didn’t look older than fifteen. Although he didn’t want to press her, not after what she must have experienced, he still had a case to solve and the best time to get answers - about Rose or any of the girls from his case - was while the details were still fresh in her mind. He waved a medic over and instructed her to go with the EMT to the ambulance. Toni reached for the girl, intent on stopping her but Leo put a hand on her shoulder.
"Let her go. I'll talk to her in a minute."
"But, she knew Rose." Her voice held a pleading note he'd never heard there before.
He brushed his thumb over Toni’s cheek where a yellow bruise surfacing beneath her pale skin. “This is your jurisdiction now, but trust me to do this for you. I’ll find out about your sister.”
She swatted his hand away, glaring at him, her fierce determination returning. “I’ll go with you.”
Leo glanced at Jones, silently asking him for help.
“Maybe you should let him talk to her, T. You’re a little…” She spun to face him, her gaze cold, nostrils flaring.
“I’m what?”
Jones rolled his eyes and shot a glance at Leo as he sought a word that wouldn’t send Toni into a tailspin of rage in an attempt to mask her fear for Rose. “You’re intense. Leo might sound less…desperate.”
She craned her neck at Jones, making Leo glad he hadn't been the one to say it. Jones was lucky Toni had re-holstered her gun. Her glare gave new meaning to “if looks could kill.” Jones held up both hands in surrender.
“You do what you want but, I’ll tell you that girl has seen shit. Don’t you think it’d be far more productive to send someone who can calmly talk to her instead of someone ready to strong-arm answers out of her? Not to mention she just saw you drop two full-grown men and nearly put a bullet into the head of one of them?”
Toni fell silent but Leo could see that, while she recognized Jones was right, she didn’t like sending Leo to get the answers she wanted. She frowned, her jaw twitching with the effort it took to control her emotions.
“You’ll find out where they took Rose?”
Surprised by her acquiescence, he wasn’t going to wait around for her second-guess her decision. His gaze locked with hers. He couldn’t make this situation easier for her but this was something he could do. “If she knows anything, I’ll find out.”
Turning on a heel, Leo jogged toward the stairs.
“Leo?” The catch in her voice made him turn to face her. “Find her.”
“I will.”
She left so much of what she wanted to say unspoken. But he didn’t need her to say losing Rose would destroy her. It would break Toni, in a way that could never heal. Rose and Toni were two parts of a beautiful whole. Toni was the heart, but Rose was the lifeblood that kept that heart beating. Without Rose, Toni was a nothing more than a walking corpse.
The young girl glanced up from where she sat on the end of the ambulance as the EMT took her blood pressure, a gray cotton blanket around her shoulders. Her fingers gripped the blanket a little tighter, tugging the edges closer together in front of her.
“I’m Detective Castellano.” He held out a business card, stopping a good two feet away from her, not wanting her to feel cornered. Her gaze flicked to the card in his fingers. “I was with the other agent when we came into the basement.”
She eyed him cautiously, squinting at him. “The one looking for her sister?”
He nodded as she tucked her chin, lifting the blanket higher around her shoulders, partially covering her mouth. Her hands trembled as she clutched the edges of the blanket around her thin body like a shield.
“What’s your name?” Her eyes clouded, and he knew she was ready to lie. “You’re a runaway?”
“Yes.”
Leo fought the urge to mentally run through the list of missing persons he’d been studying over the past few months since getting Megan’s case. Torn between trying to earn her trust and getting her off the streets before she ended up a victim again, Leo prayed he could play his cards right and do both.
“Okay, what should I call you?” It was a safe compromise for the time being.
“Kara.”
“Okay, Kara. Are you hurt?” He glanced at the EMT and she shook her head subtly, slipping the blood pressure cuff from Kara's thin arm.
“I’m okay.” She rubbed her bicep, dropping her fingers to cover the inside of her elbow. He could see the track marks beneath her fingers.
“Want to tell me what happened?”
A sharp laugh slipped past her lips, sounding hysterical until she contained it with a hand over her mouth. Her dark eyes stared at him - through him - glazing over. “What happened? I came to the 4Teen Center because he claimed he could help me get off the streets. Instead, he turned me into…this.” Her lips pinched together and her gaze was still glassy, staring off into the distance.
“How long?”
“About a month ago.”
A month? She’d been living this horror for a month? He waited, hoping she’d elaborate without prompting.
“I expected it’d be a safe place, I guess.” Her gaze lifted, clearing, and met his. “It wasn’t.”
“How old are you?”
“Eighteen.”
“How old were you when you ran away?”
“I didn’t. My parents kicked me out last year because I was dating this guy…” Her words trailed off and her fingers slipped from the blanket and it fall from her shoulder. “It was so stupid. I was so stupid. I thought…” She shook her head and reached for the blanket, tugging it back up around her shoulders. “I had nowhere else to go after he broke up with me and I ended up on the streets.”
“How long ago ?”
“Who knows? Two months? Three?”
Exhaustion crashed over her and she closed her eyes, taking a slow breath and rubbing her hand over her dirty forehead. He needed so much more information from her before she gave in to the demands of her body. About Monique, the Center, and about Megan. But first, he needed to find out about Rose, for Toni.
“You said they took the other woman to catch a flight? Who was she? Where they were sending her?”
Kara pressed her fingers against her temples and closed her eyes again. “I think they said on a flight. No, wait.” Her dark eyes opened and locked on his. “They said she was going on a trip. That was the word they used. But they found bruises on her and said something about holding her over for a few days to let them fade.”
“Here?”
“No. They only kept her here for a few days. When they drugged her. Then they took her upstairs, and I didn’t see her again.”
Leo dreaded hearing anything else. They didn't have any other leads. They had no idea where else to look and, so far, they had discovered nothing in the basement to lead them elsewhere. They could search the main facility but that would take time, a commodity they didn’t have.
“You keep saying ‘they.’ Do you mean the two men we saw down there?”
“No.” Kara shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest protectively, the blanket tight in her fists again. “Tank.”
“Is there anything else you remem
ber, Kara? Anything that might help us find any other women?”
“It’s not just women. They had little kids, boys, too. They sent them out of the country for labor camps. At least, that’s what they said.”
Leo blinked slowly, trying not to remember the faces of the hundreds of missing children files he’d seen over the past few months. How many of those kids were shuttled through this place?
“She was there too.”
“She?” He had his suspicions, but he didn’t want it to bite him in the ass for influencing a witness before her official statement. He needed Kara to say a name.
“The lady that runs the center, Miss B. She’s in charge.”
Monique Bentley had sat with him, lied about Megan and sent Tank after Toni.
“Kara, do you remember a girl named Megan staying here? Maybe another girl named Becca or a Stacy? They were a little younger than you, all blonde?”
“I remember Megan and Becca, not Stacy.” Her voice grew quiet. “I liked them.”
“Liked?”
She pressed her lips together tightly, staring at the ground. “Becca left about a month ago, right after I got here, and Megan left almost a week ago. I'm pretty sure that's when she left.” She frowned, staring down at the ground. “I'm not sure how long I've been in that cage.”
“Why were you down there?”
“I asked about Megan, when she would come back. Tank said she overdosed and for me to stop asking questions. It was my punishment.”
“Did you believe that's what happened to her?”
She looked up at him, her gaze cold and dead, like an animal accustomed to abuse. “They were sold.”
“Sold?” Dread welled in his chest, squeezing tighter as the puzzle pieces slid into place.
“We’re all sold. Sometimes for a few hours, sometimes a few days. Some never come back.”
“And Rose?”
“Is that really her name?” Her eyes widened slightly, suddenly more alert. “She kept insisting it was, but they said she lied, that her name was Casey.”
Shit! They didn’t make Toni’s cover. They kidnapped Rose because they believed she was Toni, or at least her most recent identity. Rose was one of their victims to be sold overseas.
He needed to get an APB out on Monique Bentley and her thugs. They had enough to shut down the Center and book Monique and Tank. It would put a significant speed bump in the trafficking operation but it wouldn’t halt it completely. At least, not yet.
“Thank you for your help, Kara. We'll make sure you’re taken care of. You’ll spend tonight in the hospital for observation, okay?”
She gave him a one-shouldered shrug. Leo turned to see Toni exiting the garage, her gaze seeking him out.
“Detective.” Kara's hand shot out, grasping his bicep. “You need to find her. They sold her too. When he brought her in, I heard them say someone would do worse than what Tank had done. I know how bad Tank could be. No one deserves that.”
11
Toni managed to leave Leo and Jones unsettled. She’d caught them staring at her most of the evening until it became aggravating. Maybe throwing her glass into the fireplace had crossed the line but, shit, she'd had too much to drink. And who wouldn’t be frustrated in her situation?
The assholes she tried to take down had kidnapped her sister, mistaking Rose for her. What the hell had she been thinking of going undercover in the same city where anyone might make that error? She'd been thinking Las Vegas was too big, and she was too smart for anyone to make the connection. Her first of so many mistakes in this case. Since then she’d hadn’t changed her appearance, she’d missed the tail on her until he rammed her car, and underestimated her subject.
She glared at the two men sitting on the couch across from her, following her every move. “What?”
So far, they’d shooed the staff away from the room but hearing them shuffling around the house irritated her, grating on her last remaining, overly sensitive nerve. They went about their regular routines, life continuing on as if Rose wasn’t out there somewhere, scared, hurt and needing her help. Toni wanted to throw something else. Her sister's voice echoed in her head, calling out for her. But, instead of doing something, she sat here, nursing her guilt with forty-year-old Scotch and two distressed men, unwilling to let her out of their sights.
Jones tugged Leo toward the doorway and leaned close. “Do you need me to stay?”
He probably thought she was too drunk to hear him. Or she didn't bother listening. Perhaps if she made her wishes clear, they'd both quit fretting over her like old women and leave. Let her wallow in her self-recriminations and guilt.
“I don’t want either of you here.”
She didn’t because as soon as they left - fuck procedures and rules - she would leave to find her sister.
Or die trying.
Leo jerked his head to one side as if to tell Jones he should go. Jones rolled his eyes and shrugged. They were about as subtle as a heart attack.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, will you both stop? I’m too drunk to leave and there's no clue where to start looking for her right now. You put out an APB so until we get a response, there's nothing else to do, right?”
“T—” Jones held out his hands, entreating her.
“Just go home to your wife,” Toni grumbled staring into the fire, waving a hand at him, letting her body slouch further into the sofa. “There’s nothing you can do here. I’m going to drown my sorrows in this scotch until I hear about Bentley’s arrest. Then I'll torture the bitch with my bare hands until she gives me my sister back. God help her if Rose has a scratch on her.” She tipped the glass back again, the ice clinking against the sides as the cold liquor washed over her tongue.
“I’ll walk you out,” Leo offered.
“You should go too,” Toni called as he headed for the door with Jones. “I want to be alone.”
Leo’s eyes softened. “What you want and what you'll get are two very different things, babe.”
She watched the pair walk out, the deep timbre of their voices from the front door almost soothing. She couldn’t make out what they said but it wouldn't take a genius to imagine the conversation.
Watch out for her. She’s torn up.
She blames herself.
Who knows what she might do. Don’t let her out of your sight.
The problem was, they weren’t wrong. She was to blame. Even her mother blamed her. Their mother hadn’t left her room since Toni had gone out to find Rose. Toni closed her eyes, imagining the horrors Rose must be going through and dug her nails into the arm of the couch.
It should have been her. If she'd let them grab her this morning when that kid hit her car, it would have led her right to Bentley and they would have never known Rose existed. Toni could talk her way out or fight her way out. The entire Bureau would search for a missing agent. But Rose? To them, she was just another case to solve.
Toni rose from the couch and walked to the fireplace, bracing her hands on the mantle, staring into the flames. Leo’s footsteps tapped lightly over the floors as he came back into the room, stopping a few feet from her. She felt his presence but she didn’t tear her gaze from the bursts of color rising from the logs in the hearth. A log split with a pop followed by a quick hiss.
“Toni?”
“I should’ve listened to you.” She watched the colors in the fireplace bleed from blue to orange to yellow, stretching higher, fed from the fuel beneath it. Like her guilt, growing stronger with every passing second, drawing more strength as she recounted her every sin.
“I promised not to go undercover.”
“Toni—”
“I was so confident. Thought I had everything under control. So sure no one could touch me.” She turned toward him. “So fucking cocky.”
Toni prepared to face his accusations but when he rushed to her, his warm hands cupping her face, his thumbs brushed away the tears she hadn’t realized streamed down her cheeks. Tears for her pain. For the loss she didn’t w
ant to consider might be a possibility.
“We’ll find her,” he promised.
“But what if it’s too late?”
“It won’t be. We’ll find her.”
“What if I got her killed?”
Her heart fractured as she spoke the frightening words aloud, as she let the possibility take hold of her mind. Her fingers gripped his shoulders, unsure whether she was trying to push him away or use his strength to keep her from collapsing. She ached. Every cell in her body. Her mind whirled with the statistical improbability of finding her sister unharmed. She knew the odds, she fought against them with every case, but this one was different. This was personal.
Toni wasn’t certain how her heart continued to beat when her chest had filled with concrete. Unable to stand under the load of it any longer, she wanted to let it drag her down, let it pull her into the floor. She wished she could let it consume her. She’d thought it was the alcohol numbing her. It wasn’t; she was dead inside.
“It’s my fault.”
Leo’s hands moved over her back, her hair, her face, caressing her and speaking soft words into her ear. Although she couldn’t make out what he was saying, the words washed over her like a soft rain, nourishing her withered soul. His lips touched her closed eyes, kissing the trail her tears left on her cheeks.
She didn’t deserve his empathy or compassion. She never had.
Toni pushed at his chest, but he didn’t move and she didn’t have the strength to fight him. If he wanted to stay, she wouldn't turn him away. Before she realized what he was doing, Leo lifted her into his arms. She curled into his chest like a child. Neither spoke. No words that would make her suffer less guilt or less sorrow. Her head grew too heavy, her grief making her too weary to fight any longer.
Toni leaned into his warmth, pressing her ear against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart, the steady inhale and exhale of his breath, as he carried her toward the stairs. Turning her face into his broad chest to hide the fresh tears, she raised her hand to cover his heart, as if that gesture would help her absorb a little of the absolution he offered.