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“When you said you had information from Audrina, I thought it was more teenagers. But looking at the number of young kids, that’s sick.” Cowboy looks like he is ready to punch someone for this. I know he was thinking about his kids as well.
“Prez, this is bigger than we thought,” Knuckles starts, inputting the search parameters into the dark web again.“I could only run the ads I found against open missing person cases. I am getting hits on closed ads by running these new files. The Company most likely got these kids, too. God knows where they are now.” He looked green, like he would be sick, even thinking about what could have happened to them.
“Knuckles, I need you to,” Copper took a shuddering breath,“I need you to hack into the nationwide John and Jane Doe database and run the descriptions of these kids there.”
“What are you thinking?” Cowboy asks, his fist clenched on the tabletop.
“I hope I am wrong,” he shakes his head,“Ireallyhope I am wrong, but there are some open files that we could match that also had Sonya’s name on them. What if the closed ones are so the cops can’t track them back here?”
“How would they track them and find them back here?” I asked.
No sooner than those words left my mouth, Knuckles’computers lit up with ads and alerts from the database Copper suggested. Window after window started to pop up and chime.
“What the fuck is going on? Did you get hacked?” Cowboy roars, looking like he is about to panic and hit the power kill switch for the room.
“No, we didn’t get hacked. Copper was right. Every single one of the closed files is alerting to the body of an unknown child found dead.” Knuckles sat back in his chair and watched all the alerts flash and rotate as more and more information was found.
“What the actual fuck?” I whisper, watching every face of a child, little and big, flash on the wall. My eyes cut to Prez; he is already up, calling the brothers back. I’m not going to fight this. I knew I could never tell her. She would never sleep again if she knew every child on this drive was dead.
Nate came back from talking to Cowboy late. I am trying to sleep on the couch with Baby Girl on my chest. She is teething, and sleep hasn't happened for anyone in the house. I am jolted from my half-sleep state as Nate lifts Baby Girl from my chest, shushing us both. Baby Girl quickly falls back asleep as he takes her to her and Dillon’s room.
Since the night I found Aletta here, I have made no effort to return to my house for anything more than clothes. You might be thinking,Audrina, does that mean you have discovered how big Rambo’s tickle stick is?The answer to that is no, I have not. Every time we start to get to the point where hands begin to wander, I need to stop. I am not there. Too many painful things are associated with sex right now. I have started talking to a therapist, and we are making progress, but it’s taking time. Nate has been nothing short of amazing, but I cannot help but fear that I will become a burden to him, and he will move on.
Much to Aletta’s dismay, Nate and I have been sleeping on the couch. She reminds us constantly that she should take the couch, but Nate turns around and tells her that her life was uprooted.
“We need a bigger place,” I whisper to the room.
“I agree,” Nate says, making me jump. I didn’t hear him return from putting Baby Girl in her bed.“I’ve been thinking about it and want to run something by you.”
Sitting up, he sits next to me, grabbing my hands.
“I know that your house holds a lot of bad memories for you, but I was thinking maybe we can make new ones.”
I feel my heart rate start to pick up. I did what I thought I needed with my house, and I still can’t stand to be there. Everything reminds me of the moment when Clint did what he did. I see it through the new paint and furniture. It’s suffocating each time I go there to grab clothes or something we need.
“I don’t know,” I tell him honestly.
“If you can’t live there, I understand, but there’s four of us, amour. With Aletta here, we’re even more packed in. She needs to be here for her father. This allows her to be as close as possible. If you don’t want to live in your house, maybe we will sell it, and we will find something that’s ours.”
“You…. You want to buy a house with me?”
“I want a home with you, Audrina. I want the four of us together. It can be in the house you have, where we make new memories and rid the house of the bad ones, or we buy something new. I don’t care, as long as we’re together.”
I start crying as I nod and fall into his arms. I don’t know how long we just sit there, but at one point, I think the exhaustion took over, and we both fell asleep just holding each other.
What felt like a blink of an eye later, the sound of cartoons wake me from sleep. Rubbing my eyes, I see Dillon eating a pop-tart and watching TV. I get up and see Baby Girl in her high chair chatting away, trying to feed Aletta and Bri cheerios.
“When did you get here?” I mutter, taking the cup of coffee Nate offered me with a kiss on the side of my head.
“We had plans today, remember? Shopping and haircuts?” she looked up at me like I had lost my mind when it clicked. Everything came back to me—my phone call with Bri, the talk with Nate about our future, and I had to choke down my emotions again.
“I remember now that I have had coffee,” I say, running my fingers through Baby Girl’s hair as I sit down next to her while she continues to eat in her chair.
“I forgot to tell you I need to be at the garage today. Is there room for kids in your plans today?” Nate asked sheepishly.
“That’s fine. Two kids are better than four. Johnny is on kid duty today.” Bri answered for me.
“Great, because I have to go. Thank you!” Nate kisses the kids and then bolts out the door.
