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“All matches up.” Mitchell said. “Check AZ4.” Ice flooded my veins. I couldn’t see AZ4—was he fucking with me? Where were the children?
I pointed my flashlight into the corners but couldn’t see AZ4, “I don’t see that.”
Something wasn’t right. There was something evil in here, and there was Mitchell’s dead tone. “Best return ever, per item. You’ll find it.”
The fuck? I stepped deeper into the shadows, acutely aware this could be a trap, that this was the last thing I’d see before someone shot me between the eyes, there was no one else back here, and no more shipment boxes, and for a second I was confused. Then I heard it, a faint cry, and my world shifted. The sound was coming from toward the front of the trailer, and I didn’t have to be an expert to know there was probably a false wall. I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t find the catch to open something, and face people who had been stolen to be sold on. I backed away from the wall, stumbling over a crate, and headed for the back, and toward the fresh air.
Think. Think!
I pointed at Kayden. “You! Sneezy, get your ass up here and help me.”
Guard-In-Charge stepped up, but Kayden was quicker, jogging up the ramp, and joining me.
I led Kayden to the front of the rig, and I didn’t say a single word as I searched for the catch that would open the false wall.
“Down a bit,” Mitchell joked in my ear.
I wanted to tell him to fuck off, but I was supposed to be here to do a job. I felt a gentle touch to my elbow, glanced down as if I was checking where Mitchell told me, and Kayden was making a careful thumbs-up out of my bodycam’s line of sight. Did that mean Sanctuary had this? Would they be the ones to make sure people stayed safe?
I found the catch. A door slid open, and at first I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing. A cage? Wire, at least. Kids. All bar one was sleeping—unconscious probably—but the one who was wide-awake, stared at me, wincing as the flashlight caught his eyes. They held so much fear, hands bleeding where he’d been trying to get through the wire. He was ten? twelve maybe? Around the same age as Ben, but malnourished, in filthy clothes.Fuck.
“No,” he whimpered.
“And?” Mitchell asked with impatience. “Give me a fucking headcount? The live ones if you can tell.”
I wanted to grab Mitchell by the throat and shove him in a cage and leave him to rot.
I couldn’t tell who was alive and who was dead. They might be sleeping, drugged, how could I tell? I had to hope they were all alive.
“Twelve,” I confirmed, brain on autopilot.
“Nice. Now shut the fucking door and get back outside. First collection will be with you in fifteen.”
I closed the door on the kids, pushed the latch into place, and for a second, I was immobile. Kayden hustled me out without making it look obvious, and I pulled myself together as we neared the door and ramp. I caught his eyes as we turned to face the truck, waiting on that first collection.
Please tell me Sanctuary can help those kids.
In the moment of connection, his eyes widened enough for me to notice, then he made a fuss about my flashlight blinding him.
I’d seen enough.
Sanctuary had my back.
And they would save the kids.
But if it came to it, I knew that if they didn’t, then Kayden—one against over twenty others here—would die trying.
And I’ll be right there alongside him.
ChapterTwenty-Six
Josh
We’d arrivedat our new safe house seven days ago. outside a town called Ellery. We were on the side of a mountain, a river to one side of the sprawling ranch, a veteran’s center to the other, and then not too far down the road, the town itself. At first glance the place wasn’t as locked down as the one we’d left. Oreo was out mousing every day, Ben and I managed to get outside and expend some energy, and I noticed the difference in him and Oreo both. Neither of them wanted to be locked up and unable to go out, so the ranch was probably the best result for all of us.
At second glance though, there were cameras everywhere if you knew what to look for, and before he left to do whatever he’d been called up to do, Kayden explained there was a net of comms interference, whatever that meant. All I knew was that we were cut off from everything, but I was safe, Ben was here, plus of course Oreo, and as of a few days ago we also had Ryder with us. He was still under supervision from our resident nurse—Lois—who ran an impressive four-bed medical space, but he was up and walking about, and I only caught him wincing once, something he hid super quick when he realized I’d seen. Turned out Ryder was a historian of sorts, or at least he knew more about history than I did and had started taking over lessons for Ben who idolized the guy. I couldn’t blame him because there was something about Ryder that made me feel as safe as I felt when I was with Ethan—but still, Ben and I missed Ethan, and it wasn’t as if we received much in the way of information about him.
All Ben knew was that he was away being a bad ass, all I knew was that he was undercover, and what he must be going through terrified me. What if Danvers found out that Ethan was lying? What if Rouxier and the people he was involved with, decided one day to remove Ethan if they didn’t trust him?
