Page 38 of Reckless

“Which one do you think she’s in?” I asked.

She placed a hand on her heart like she was searching inside herself for the answer. And maybe it was that twin thing people talked about sometimes. Like how they could read each other’s minds and guess what they were going to say next.

“This one,” she said with a certainty that I didn’t possess. But when she opened the door, standing right inside it was a mirror image of Stella.

I’ll be damned. We found her.

Chapter Seventeen

STELLA

Gemini

Learn to take the good with the bad.

My arms wrapped around her bony shoulders as I clung to my sister.

She was here.

She was real.

She was alive.

Tears streamed down my face as all the emotions I’d been pushing down for the last six months came bubbling up to the surface. I’d been existing in a constant state of survival mode. Hyper focusing on how to find her and using humor to deflect from facing the stark reality that I might not ever see her again.

“Stell? Is that really you?” she asked, voice quivering.

I pulled away and looked at her, holding her tightly about the shoulders. “It’s me, Andi. I’m here.”

Her dark hair had lost its shine and there were purple circles under her eyes. Her once glowing tan skin had taken on a pale, yellowish cast and she’d lost an alarming amount of weight. The room she was in was full of a bunch of women, all wearing the same skimpy outfit—a thin white slip with spaghetti straps that were practically see through. I could see the bones of her ribs poking out. Did they not feed her here? She gave me a watery smile. Her eyes were full of un-spilled tears.

“Holy shit. I can’t believe you found me.” Then that relief on her face morphed into fear. “They didn’t get you too, did they?”

“No, I came here to break you out. You and all the rest of the people here.”

“How—”

Callahan popped his head into the room. “I hate to break up this beautiful reunion, but we have to go.”

I grabbed onto Andi’s hand tightly, feeling the bones shift beneath my grip. I’d worry about getting her healthy again once we got out of here. One thing at a fucking time.

“Follow me. We’re getting the hell out of here.”

I turned and looked at the rest of the women that were huddled together in that cage they called a room. “You can follow us if you want to.”

They looked around at each other with unease. I didn’t blame them for being scared. It was apparent that they had been massively mistreated in ways I might never understand. But that ended today.

Andi and I took off running down the hall we had come from, follow Callahan’s lead. Andi trailed slightly behind me, her breathing sounding labored. What the hell had they done to her in this place?

We took a left, then a right, then another left. There were several women who’d followed us, padding along the empty corridors in their bare feet. The stark white of their slips matched the blinding white painted walls. It was like being stuck in an abyss. There was no color. No life. Just bright lights and the perpetual stench of fear. I couldn’t believe people paid to do this to other human beings.

Just as we were about to reach the loading dock, a door opened. Callahan halted in his tracks and motioned for us to go back, but it was too late. We’d been spotted. Men filled the hallway blocking us from either direction. But what shocked me was seeing Carmine Underwood walk through towards the front and come face to face with Callahan.

Men came up behind us and ripped Andi and I apart, digging their hands into our biceps. I struggled to free myself from their grasp, but they were too strong. If I made any drastic moves, I was afraid they’d hurt Andi.

“I should have killed you the other day, but my nephew here promised that you were one of us. His soft spot for you blinded him, but that’s okay. I saw you just fine. Simon. Would you do the honors?” Carmine asked.

A burly man I recognized from the grainy security footage we found on the flash drive emerged. Andi gasped and she looked downright terrified. I’d never seen her look like that before and it churned my stomach. I took it that she recognized him and wondered if he had been the guy she’d been seeing when she was taken all those months ago.