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I cut her off with a kiss, pushing her against the opposite wall. My hips press into her, letting her feel the extent of the affect she has on me. I suck the gasp straight from her mouth and delve my hands up the front of her shirt to paw at her breasts with the finesse of a caveman.
“What was that for?” she pants when I come up for air.
“For cuddling me in front of everyone.” I kiss the corner of her mouth. “For planning a rescue mission to get those kids out.” I kiss the other corner of her mouth. “For giving your girls a home.” I kiss the tip of her nose. “For letting me look after you when I know it’s not easy for you.” I kiss her forehead. “For firing me.” I kiss her mouth gently.
Annika swallows, looking at me with doe eyes and a flush to her cheeks. “Harvey, I…”
“Come on.” I hold my hand out toward her bedroom. “Let’s get changed and head back downstairs.”
She nods and I follow after her trying to ignore the thumping in my chest.
It occurs to me that we might be a little intimidating as we talk to the now fed and watered teenagers. Annika and Lance sit next to each other on one of the white sofas, Brent to Lance’s side, stood and making a conscious effort not to fall into his default of massive tattooed arms crossed over his massive, t-shirt clad chest. Instead, he leans one hand on the back of the couch and puts the other in his jeans pocket. I perch on the arm of the sofa closest to Annika, clasping my hands together and resting them on my thigh. Still, the image of the four of us opposite the nine kids, looks like we’re about to give them a good dressing down. That’s not our intention at all.
Keeley is sitting with Reece and Charlie, her head resting sleepily on one of their shoulders while the other one holds her hand. It’s clear that the boys looked after all the girls. Stuart is in with the doctor, begrudgingly, and Lee has taken Murray and some of the other men to set up enough blow-up mattresses in Mabel and Keeley’s room. They were all very adamant they wanted to stick together tonight and there was no argument from us.
“I know this must be tough,” Lance says with a cool neutrality. Maybe it’s a gang-leader thing. They can speak with hardly any inflection whilst maintaining an edge of menace, but it’s obvious that he’s trying to sound gentle in his approach. “But we need to ask you guys some questions about your lives before you ended up in that place, and also about what happened while you were there.”
Some of the girls start tearing up again and the boys both stiffen, staring at us with narrowed eyes. I decide to step in.
“We’re not trying to drudge up painful memories here,” I say, looking mostly at the boys who I’m not convinced won’t try something stupid out of defence. “The more we know about your lives, the better equipped we are to get you back to loved ones.” One of the girls looks up at me panicked and I hold my hand up to her to stop her having to explain. “Or to find you somewhere to stay away from anyone who has ever hurt you.”
“Why do you need to know about our time at the house?” Recce snarls. “You’ve already burnt it down. Nothing more to be done.”
This time Annika speaks, tilting her head at him. “You’re telling us anyone who ever visited that place was there tonight? Because we know that isn’t true. The more we know about what they were doing, the easier it is for us to identify other operation and bring them down. The more I understand about what they’ve done, the more I can ensure their punishment is fitting.”
Someone audibly swallows. “Are you going to call the police?”
“No.” Her answer is as firm as it’s ever been and for once, I’m completely happy with it. Anyone who knew about these kids being locked up and used for God-knows-what and didn’t report it or try to help does not deserve the mercy of the judiciary system. Let alone those who took part in hurting them. I’ll take great pleasure in serving them actual justice.
“We’ll make sure no one who ever hurt any of you can hurt anyone ever again,” Brent says softly, the gentle tone a stark contrast to the violence hidden within that statement.
“Why are you doing this?” Charlie asks, an equal mix of suspicion and curiosity in his voice.
“I told you,” Mabel says before Annika can answer. “She’s a good person. They all are.”
Pride wells in my chest as she looks at me with a gentle smile. She has come far from the girl who came into this house brandishing a knife with shaking hands and refusing to believe that we would help her with no ulterior motive. Defending Annika makes me love her even more and her blind faith in Lance and Brent, who she has never met before, just because we have worked with them tonight, shows that she has opened herself up to trust us completely. Annika looks up at me and gives me an understated smile, she feels it too. My chest feels full to burst. I want to pull Mabel into a fierce hug, I want to wrap Keeley up where she’s fallen asleep against Reece and keep her young and innocent forever. I want to kiss Annika, tell her she belongs to me, tell her she’s mine.
“We want to help you,” Annika reiterates to the group. “Whatever you think you might know about me, I can assure you that I do not condone the torture and imprisonment of innocent people.”
“What makes you so sure that we’re innocent?” Charlie mutters and I wonder if he’s referring to the man he killed or something else.
“You are children,” Annika answers firmly.
“How old are you?” I ask the group as a whole.
They all look between each other. “That depends,” Recce says. “What year is it?”
40
ANNIKA
It has been one of the busiest weeks of my life, and I have opened three hotels before. After we spoke to the rescued teenagers, we established that they’d been kept in the house for varying lengths of time. Mabel and Keeley were the newest in the group, we already knew they’d been sold around six months ago. The twin boys were both the oldest and longest serving prisoners, having been sold five years ago when they were only thirteen. The look that had passed each of their faces when they realised they’d missed their eighteenth birthday was heart breaking.
Our girls, the twins, and one other girl were the only ones who had been handed over to the bastards who kept them locked in cages by their parents or guardians. Thankfully, the other four had been taken and had families looking for them. As much as I wanted to help, I was unsure how I would have found homes for seven traumatised teens. Turns out, three was quite easy to rehouse. Lorraine declared very determinedly the night of the rescue that the boys would come home with her and Stuart. The look of shock on my head of security’s face was comical enough to make me snort. The boys agreed reluctantly but wanted to stay with the group until the others were sorted. Gatheringeveryone’s names, we spent two days locating their families and one by one, they were reunited with parents and family. It was tearful and heart warming to watch them find homes again but cry as they said goodbye to the only friends they’d known for years.
About two days ago, Diamond came to the house to go over some things I really had to do to keep my businesses running and, because I hadn’t been going to the club, she decided to ambush me. She stayed to chat with Lee and got talking to Pippa, the girl with the broken ankle, who had latched on to Lee like a comfort blanket after he accompanied her into the medical suite. Diamond was in love and asked me if we had found somewhere for Pippa to go, bouncing with a girlish grin when I told her no. Today, Diamond came by again, this time to take Pippa back to her home with a promise that Lee would visit soon. Soon after, Stuart collected the boys, leading them to his car while listing rules they’ll have to adhere to when they get home. Reece and Charlie hugged my girls tight when they left, tears in all their eyes when they broke away.
“Trust me, you’ll all be seeing each other all the time,” Harvey says next to me as they struggle to let each other go.
