“Sorry, old chum,” smirked the man, as he whispered in his ear.“You’re a risk we can’t have now.Nighty night.”
He stared up at the faces of the men and woman that he thought were his friends, his colleagues.The blood was leaving his body too quickly and he couldn’t slow his heart enough to extend his life.It didn’t matter anyway.He couldn’t fight all three.He never could.
“Take him to the basement,” said the woman.
“You take him,” sneered the man holding the bloody knife.“You want to play like you’re in charge, then use those big, beautiful muscles and haul his ass to the basement.”
“My tits aren’t muscles, Benjamin, or did you forget what they feel like?”
“Oh, no babe.I remember,” he said rubbing his cock with the back of his hand.“Do you remember what this feels like?”
“Stop it!” yelled the other man.“You two are such fucking children.Either get back together or don’t but this little dance you play every day is making me sick.”
“We’re not getting back together,” said Judy.She didn’t want to alienate the one man that could help her to bring this vision to life.“Sorry, Paul.”
“Never mind,” he said frustrated with all of them.“Take care of him and then we need to find out who took the journals.We have to get them back and we have to find those fucking kids.”
“They’re probably dead, Paul.There’s no way they would have survived on their own and no one has reported finding them, alive or dead.”
“They’re out there,” he said rubbing his jaw.“The girl, the sister of the kid Pip.She was smart, clever and sneaky.She got them out and she’s keeping them alive.Somewhere.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Luke stared at Sutton, seated on the floor against the window as she watched her brother and the others playing their music.He lowered himself to her, sitting beside her and smiling.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“I think my brother and the others look happy,” she said with a sad smile.
“Then why don’t you look happy, Sutton?” he asked.
“He won’t need me anymore.None of ‘em will need me anymore.”Luke stared at the girl and nodded.
“You know, Sutton, you and I are not so different.I’m the oldest of my brothers and sisters.All six of us being raised by drug addicted parents.I had to steal food for them, get them ready for school, help them study, all of it.And I wasn’t even twelve.”
“What did you do?How did you get here?” she asked suddenly staring at him.
“Well, some very bad men came looking for my parents one day and they were gone, dead I think.The men decided they would take us kids and sell us to more bad men.”
She shook her head and then looked up at him again.
“I was scared of that every day.I’m not stupid.I know what kinda folks are out there.I-I worried that one day I would have to, you know, do something grown up to make money for them.I woulda too.”
“But you don’t have to, Sutton.Not now.Not ever.”
“We’re still just orphans,” she said quietly.
“That might be, but there are a whole lot of good people here ready to be your parents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, whatever you need.We want all of you, including you, to stay here, go to our school, be part of our family.We will watch over all of you and make sure that if you want, you can go to college.”
“I can’t go to college,” she said shaking her head.“Them doctors said I was stupid.I heard ‘em.They said I was sneaky and stupid, not like Pip.”
“Well, they were wrong.Anyone who can keep all of these children alive and well for a year isn’t stupid.I want you to believe me, Sutton.My friends and I are going to find those doctors and make them pay for what they did to all of you.”
“I wanna believe you, Mister Luke, really I do.You seem like a nice man.I really like your grandmama and granddaddy.They’re awful kind.And your wife, the pretty nurse that looks like Pocahontas?She’s special.”Luke laughed, nodding at the girl.
“She does look a little like Pocahontas, doesn’t she?I’ll have to tell her you said that.We all care for you and the others.If they want to play music, they can.But they also need to learn to read and write, study math and history, and definitely become more fluent in ASL.”
She nodded, still staring at the children happily playing.Luke looked down at her as she wiped her tears, shaking her head.
