The girl looked up at Keira, tears welling. “No, but I can be whoever you want me to be, if you get me out of here.”
Keira spun away as if she’d been slapped and moved further down the hallway, her eyes getting rounder the more she peered into the cells to find young girls locked inside.
Rogue tested the locks on the outsides of the doors. Each required a key. A key he bet he’d find on the guard in the office upstairs.
Even if they found Lily down there, without a bolt cutter or a key, they wouldn’t be able to get Lily out.
“Find her, Keira. I’ll be right back.” Rogue turned and raced back up the stairs and down the hallway to the guard’s office. Once inside, he searched the wall for keys hanging on hooks. When he found none, he moved behind the desk where the guard lay on the cool concrete, just starting to move his fingers.
Rogue found a wad of keys hanging on a D-ring clipped to the guard’s belt. He removed the D-ring and hurried back into the basement.
Keira stood in front of the door at the end of the hallway. She looked up with tears in her eyes. “I found Lily.”
Rogue hurried to her with the wad of keys.
The girl he’d seen in Jade’s picture stood on the other side of the door, tears slipping down her face. “Please,” she begged. “Get me out of here.”
“We will,” he said. “Hang tight.” He jammed one of the keys into the padlock. It didn’t open the lock. One by one, he tried the keys. Seven keys in, he turned the key. The lock clicked.
Keira yanked the door open.
Lily flung herself into Keira’s arms, sobbing.
“Shhh, sweetheart. We’re going to get you out of here,” Keira promised.
Lily took Keira’s hand and tugged her toward the stairs. “We have to go before they come back.”
Keira held back, her gaze meeting Rogue's. “We can’t leave the others,” she whispered.
They’d planned on rescuing one young girl. More than one would complicate the mission.
“How many?” Rogue asked.
“Counting Lily, Six.”
“We have five minutes,” he reminded her.
Keira glanced at her watch. “Now, we have four.” She took the keys from Rogue and worked each lock, one by one, until all the doors were open and six girls gathered around, some crying, others eager to get moving.
“Follow me and keep quiet.” Rogue led the way up the stairs. As he neared the top, a small hand slipped into his. He glanced down at a girl with long, dirty blond hair and dark circles beneath her blue eyes. She stared up at him like a puppy expecting to be kicked. “Are you here to save us?” she asked in a voice as small as she was.
“I hope so,” he said. “What’s your name?”
“Jenny,” she said.
“Stay close and quiet, and I’ll do my best to get you out of here.”
Jenny nodded, her face grim but determined.
When Rogue moved, she kept up like a shadow he couldn’t shake.
He looked past her to Keira, holding Lily’s hand in her right hand and Rebecca’s in her left. They brought up the rear while herding the three girls in front of them.
Rogue climbed the stairs and hurried to the other end of the hall.
The guard they’d tied up was kicking his feet against the desk over and over, making enough noise that anyone walking by the confinement facility might step in to determine the cause of the ruckus.
Keira slipped past Rogue into the room and hit the man again with the taser, her lips pulled back in a snarl. “Bastard. They’re just children.” She didn’t linger but marched back out to the girls and pushed through the inner door toward the one leading out into the compound.
