Her gaze just made me shiver.
“I should have known something was strange when you just showed up out of nowhere to take the case,” she said after she finished her examination. “Were you actually one of ours all along?”
The ground in the construction area was cold and filthy, and I was tired of sitting in the dirt. No matter what I said or did, this wasn’t going to end well for me. I wanted to at least face down Calderon on my own two feet.
Grabbing onto the ladder with my good hand, I hauled off the floor. Every movement sent more fire licking up and down my injured arm, but it was worth it when I was finally able to meet her head on with my back straight and my head high.
“Let’s get one thing clear. The only people I work for are your victims. I represent every child you’ve abused. It is my job to help the survivors tell their story in court, and make sure the ones who weren’t lucky enough to survive still get their justice. That’s who I work for, and they don’t have to pay me a damn cent for this job. I’m happy to do it.”
Calderon backed up a step, her face twisting in disgust, as she was clearly unimpressed by my little display.
“Then why are you here? This isn’t the job of a lawyer.”
Again, I laughed.
“No, it’s not. I’m here because people like you disgust me. I’m here to make sure you’re brought to justice, because it’s the right thing to do.”
I watched her cold blue eyes grow wide.
“That’s it?”
I shrugged my one good shoulder.
“That’s it. I don’t expect you to understand. “Doing the right thing is probably a foreign concept to you.”
With a dismissive wave of her hand, Calderon turned away from me.
“Just get rid of him. He’s a waste of time.”
Eager to follow orders, the male handler raised the rebar pipe again, ready to bash my head in.
“That’s quite enough of that.”
Before the male handler could take a step toward me, someone new spoke up.
The first thing I noticed was that the man was holding a loaded gun. For a moment, I panicked. A gun would make this situation a thousand times more dangerous. But then my panic turned to relief when he stepped out of the shadows and I recognized the man’s face.
With a confident stride, and a steady hand keeping his gun trained on Calderon and the two handlers, Logan Hollingsworth smirked at me.
“Hey, Kitt. Glad we managed to catch up with you in time.”
CHAPTER 23
Jordy
Police cars created a dazzlingshow of red and blue lights surrounding the front of the airport. I stared at them through the large front windows, watching the colors play together as I debated what to do.
Surely, so many lights were a good thing. We’d wanted to get people’s attention. Keep Grace Calderon from escaping to another country until we could drag her to court to answer for her crimes. That was why I’d brought the boy I’d saved to the airport security to tell his story. I’d also given them my statement, but they’d been more interested in what the boy had to say, and I’d been shuffled to the side. Now, an hour later, I felt like dust that had been swept into the corner and forgotten.
What had happened to Kitt?
The last I’d seen of him, Kitt had run interference with the boy’s handlers to give us a chance to escape. It had worked. We managed to slip through the construction area unnoticed and reached security without running into any problems, but since then, I’d heard nothing about Kitt.
I had plenty of experience with handlers like that in the past. They looked ordinary, but they were stubborn, and not to be messed with. These were the people that the bell ringers trusted to keep their “product” in line. They were dangerous, and I didn’t imagine that rogue handlers who chose to leave the bell ringers to follow Grace Calderon would be any better. If anything, they were probably even more dangerous.
Worry bubbled in my gut with each second that passed without answers.
Kitt couldn’t be hurt or... worse, right?
