Siege’s chest visibly rose as he inhaled deeply, and then he raked his fingers through his hair. “There’s gotta be a ‘but’ there, brother,” he said, the desperation clear in his strained voice.
“There is. While we can’t go to the root of the problem, I found a possible way that can get Eli’s family permanently out of this sick business.”
Dex pulled out his phone, opening up PDF files and showing us pages upon pages of what seemed to be a spreadsheet of ‘transfers’ with timestamps on them.
“The Nest?” I asked, seeing the name pop up again and again. It’s the end destination from ‘Pickup’, and it’s the starting destination before transfers are made to clubs, hotels, sometimes even residential addresses.
It would’ve been helpful if we’d had the actual names of the clubs and hotels. Maybe we could go gather more intel from their admin offices’ paperwork, but they were all labeled vaguely.
Hotel 1, Hotel 2, Club 1, and so on.
“That’s what they call their main facility, and they keep the victims there before sending them to god knows where.” With the number of transfers they have in a month, and based on the average number of people we see when we do ops, I can say there would be over a hundred people being held there.
A chill went through me, and goosebumps erupted on my skin. The thought of so many people being trafficked, ripped from their homes and families, made my stomach churn.
“Where?” Siege asked, his jaw clenched so tightly that I knew he was thinking the same thing I was.
We needed to get these people out of there as soon as possible.
“That’s the thing. I don’t know. There’s no address. No coordinates. I still need more time to figure that out. But I’m sure that if we hit that facility, save those people in there, theywould definitely lose their business with the fucking demon who’s orchestrating all this.”
Dex’s arms were getting tighter around me, and I couldn’t blame him. I held his hand, rubbing the skin with my thumb in an attempt to comfort him, even leaning back so he could rest his chin on my shoulder.
This whole thing sucks, and I know that whatever helplessness I felt, Dex and Siege have it much worse because the responsibility mostly falls on them to figure all of this out.
“You’ll find it. I know you will,” I whispered to Dex as I leaned my forehead against his temple.
“I hope so, sweetie,” he whispered, a sigh escaping his lips. I then turned my gaze to Siege, who also had the same look of defeat in his eyes, though there was a touch of longing as he looked at both me and Dex. With my free hand, I extended it towards his, and in that moment, I found myself hoping that the care and love I could give them would be enough.
At least for now.
Because Nero can judge us all he wants, and he can hate the person I’m seemingly becoming.
But I’ll never stop helping in any way I can until we are all out of this mess.
Safe. Alive. Together.
3
NERO
“I’m telling her dad.”
What the hell is Cosette thinking letting those two stay at her place? It’s been days, and it’s the same shit every day. They would all go to school together, and would come back, still together, and never leave the house until the next day when they have to drive back to school.
“And just so you know, I’m fucking Dex, too.”
I hate that those words are ingrained in my brain. I don’t know if she only said it to fuck with me, but I can’t deny that I’ve been staring at the two of them in school far more than I should to see if there’s any truth in what she said.
This is not appropriate at all.
I took my phone out of my pocket, already searching through my contacts to find Mr. Evangelista’s number when Andy spoke from behind me on her spot on the couch. “Why does it bother you so much that Dex and Siege are there?”
The jealousy and hostility that I detected in her voice only served to irritate me even more than before. C seems to believe that I am taking Andy’s side because of unresolved feelings that I have for her, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Turning towards Andy, my hands curled up into tight fists that I’m glad my phone’s not flimsy or it probably would’ve broken already.
“It bothers me because you told me that they’re the ones who killed Eli. Am I just supposed to let C stay in a house alone with murderers? Or are you feeling so at ease because you’re lying to me? Again?”
