Out of experience, I’m at a different entrance to my brother. He can’t help but try to keep an eye on me and that compromises both of us.
Turns out they over planned the attack because the three men guarding the house are taken out before I even get inside. I step over the first dead body without a second glance.
Three more of Camden’s men have rounded up the assholes who arevisiting. They’ve all been zip tied and blindfolded and dumped in an empty room on the ground floor. Anyone who hasn’t taken the advice of keeping their mouth shut has duct tape over their mouths.
Downstairs consists of a kitchen, a large room that has some couches, a table with a poker game set up but no one playing and a TV hanging off the wall at an odd angle, like whoever set it up couldn’t take the time to do it properly. Everything in here is brown and smells like stale cigarette smoke and sweat.
The last room is being used for storage, like a hotel supply room. Bed sheets, and giant bottles of cleaning products are what get to me the most.
There are three floors and each one has been adapted to fit as many rooms in as possible. As I round the stairs to the first floor, I cover mymouth. It smells really bad. Like drains, vomit and semen. Whoever the fuck thinks there is anything sexy about coming here…
There is no point following that thought. The kind of men who come here are sick fucks who need their brains fumigating and locking the fuck up.
Each door is opened as I walk by, Camden’s men doing a full sweep to make sure no one is hiding. Some of the rooms are empty. Most of them aren’t.
My head tells my heart not to get involved in this but how the fuck can I not?
There are women in various states in the rooms. I think it’s the ones who are more alert and sobbing at being found that hurt more than the ones who are completely out of it on drugs.
Camden comes up behind me when I get to a room with a girl who looks to be in her late teens, she’s sitting on the bed, staring out of the window, like she doesn’t even know we’re here. Her arms and legs are covered in bruises, her hair looks like it hasn’t been washed in weeks.
The trauma these women have dealt with fucks with my head.
“We’ll get them help,” Camden says, drawing my attention. He leans in close. “I fucking swear it Callum. Not a single one of these women will know pain like this again.”
“Easier said than done,” I murmur.
He knows what I mean, they won’t get over this any time soon, if they ever do. He leads me away from the room and doesn’t pause to let me check anywhere else, saying everything has been cleared and Sheridan is on the third floor.
When I get to her room, Martinez is standing just inside the doorway with a man on his knees, his hands tied but up over the back of his head, not at his lower back. Martinez has hold of the ties and a gun pointed at the back of his head.
I take all of that in before looking at Sheridan. I don’t know her, I’ve never met her, but I’m pretty sure even Speedway wouldn’t recognize her now.
She’s way too skinny, the same bruises mar her skin and track marks line her inner elbow. She too is staring into space.
“She’s okay now,” Xavier says and I turn to see him behind the door, he’s holding up a needle and everything you need to inject heroin is behind him.
“What is that?”
“Narcan,” he says. “She was OD’ing when we came in here.”
“Fuck.” I run a hand over my head and turn away from her.
“This piece of shit was shooting her up. Like he knew who we were here for.”
Martinez kicks the man in the kidneys but keeps tight hold of his wrists so he can’t get away. He is wearing steel toe boots as well and we all hear the crack of his ribs.
“She’s okay, she’s going to get through this?”
“The medics are on the way up. They’ll make sure she is okay before we move her,” Camden says from the doorway. Then he looks at Martinez. “Take him next door, the room is empty.”
Martinez doesn’t pick the asshole up, he grabs his long greasy hair and drags him out. Behind me, Xavier is kneeling beside Sheridan talking quietly to her. He has a wet cloth and is wiping her face.
“His sister was in a place like this once,” Camden says quietly. “Come on. Once the medics stabilize her, they’ll get her out, then we’ll call in the cops.”
“This is fucked up Cam. I’ve heard of these places, but shit. The people behind this-”
“We’re on it, Cal,” he pats my shoulder. “They’re not getting away with this. Come on, we don’t have much time.”
