AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I jerk my head toward the room I’ve just come from and Annika nods in understanding.
Pulling the girl away from her body to hold her at arms length, she levels her glare at her. “I need you to tell me how many of you are being kept here.”
“Seven,” the girl sobs. “Five girls and two boys. They brought Sapphire and me upstairs, the rest are in the basement. They’re i-in…cages!” She breaks down again, holding her head in her hands. “I-I don’t know where the keys are.”
“It’s okay,” I say. “You’re going to be okay. What’s your name, darling?”
“Lizzie.” She sniffs.
“Lizzie, we’re getting you out of here, okay? Just trust us and stay close.”
She nods and I gesture to Annika to follow me. I head back to the other room where the girl is back on the bed, hugging her knees.
“Sapphire?” She looks up. “It’s time to go, darling, come with me.” I hold my hand out and she takes it.
I lead the way back to the stairs. All the doors on the landing are open which suggests Annika has already checked all the rooms up here. With my gun held in front of me and Sapphire at my back, Lizzie behind her and Annika bringing up the rear, we head downstairs. It’s worryingly quiet. The hallway is empty and instead of heading to the door, I lead them across the hall to the living room, stepping over the dead body Brent left there. The lounge is as dark and dingey as the rooms upstairs, but the difference is there are curtains at the windows. Thin, moth-eaten, yellowing curtains, but they’re all we have. I yank themdown, bringing the curtain pole down too. Unhooking them from the pole, I pass one to each of the girls who immediately wrap them around themselves.
Annika and I take Sapphire and Lizzie right out the front door to the black van waiting out the front of the house. It’s only when we open the back for them to climb in that Sapphire hesitates.
“Where are you taking us?”
“Somewhere safe,” I tell her gently but hurriedly, needing to get back inside to help the others.
“What if they’re lying?” She turns a panicked eye to Lizzie. “What if they’re just taking us somewhere worse? Selling us to some other people who’ll just beat us worse?” She’s getting hysterical and I’m unsure how to calm her but Lizzie steps forward.
“Saph, there’s nowhere worse than this. Please, let’s get in the van and take a chance that they’re actually here to help us.Please.”
The other girl nods and they both clamber in the back of the van. Annika passes them both a soft blanket and some joggers and t-shirts. I check the front and find Dooley in the driver’s seat, giving a thumbs up and then showing him two fingers, he returns the gesture showing that he understands that he has two passengers.
Annika is already heading back to the house, so I jog to catch up with her. “Stay behind me,rainha.”
She ignores me, walking quickly through the broken door and making a beeline for the door to the basement. A grunt comes from the room at the end of the hall, which I’m guessing is the kitchen. Pulling Annika behind me, I train my gun on the open doorway and slowly make my way through to where the sound came from. It is, in fact the kitchen and in the centre is a bloodied man sat on a chair. Stuart, Brent, and Lance aresurrounding him. Brent steps forward and pummels his fist into the man’s head.
“Everything okay in here?” I ask.
“Yep,” Brent answers. “Got our prisoner.”
A door at the back of the house opens and Lee walks through with a prone body across his massive shoulders and dumps it unceremoniously on the cracked tile floor. “Three more,” he says before heading back outside. Murray is next, carrying another body over one shoulder and dropping him on top of the other.
“Harvey.” Annika pulls me back to the hall and we head down the concrete steps to a basement with about half an inch of water on the floor. There are cages bordering the room, about ten but half of them are empty. In the others are more naked children, huddled on the far edges of their cells. The three girls whimper and cry, avoiding looking at us but the two boys growl and snarl.
“Who are you? What do you want?” one of them barks.
Looking at them, I would say they were twins, they’re wearing boxer shorts and their torsos are covered in cuts and bruises.
I hold my hands up in defence. “We’re here to help you.”
“You’re going to let us out?” the second brother asks.
“Yes,” Annika answers. She starts looking round for something, anything to open the locks. “Do you know where the keys are?”
“No,” the first brother says. “They always take them with them, I don’t know where they keep them.”
“Okay, hold tight, we’ll get you out.” I turn to Annika. “Stay here, maybe talk to the girls and see if you can get them talking.”
Surprisingly, she nods and goes to one of the cells, crouching by the bars. I run back up the stairs to the kitchen. The guy on the chair’s head is rolling on his neck.
“Hold up,” I say just as Stuart’s fist is cocked back. “We need the keys for the cages.”
