“My name is Thea Harmon. I was sold by my—” I freeze. I haven’t thought this through. How much do I want to say? Anything I say, she’ll record, and if she records … Damn it. “Someone. I was sold by someone and ended up trafficked to an underground society.”
Piper smiles, and I want to smack her. She must realize her expression because she screws up her glee and plasters a frown on her face. “I-I’m sorry that happened to you, Thea. But I’ve had a theory about some of these rich businessmen. I knew they weren’t just jet-setting around the world. Did you say trafficked?”
“Listen. There are more of us. I was able to get out, but they need help. Law enforcement is embedded with EV. They won’t help, and the ones that try are eliminated. There are someverypowerful people in play here.”
“EV?” She shoves her phone farther toward my face.
“Echelon Vanguard. The society. Listen, these people will come after you. They have trained hunters, ex-mafia members. Money flows freely for them. They can pay off anyone to keep quiet … and it’s rare someone escapes. Even when they do, they’re terrified about the repercussions if they speak out.”
Piper juts out her chin. “The powerful might be able to dodge the law, but they can’t dodge headlines.”
I shake my head. “We have to be careful. Theywillcome for you and anyone you claim to love.”
She taps a finger to her chin like what I just said doesn’t even bother her. “I have some theories on members. Do you recognize any of these names? Graves, DuPont, Vignola?—”
I wince. I can’t implicate Slade, can I? Technically, he shares a name with his grandfather, but Ican’tgive him away. That’s not why I’m here. I need EV exposed; I need the girls safe.
Doubt creeps in. What if the story isn’t handled correctly? What if EV is tipped off before the evidence is stacked against them and the public? In my mind, this was going to be tied up with a pretty bow. I go to the journalist with the “balls” to bring them down, they publish the story, EV goes away.God, Thea. How naive can you be?They’ll go away all right … right out of existence, including the girls who can testify against them.
“I, uh, no. I mean, maybe. Graves, possibly.” I fib, glancing to the side at a flickering bulb covered in cobwebs overhead. This is wrong. This is all wrong. I thought outside the society would be better, that if I sought someone who truly believed in the possibility of a secret organization filled with untouchable men doing illegal activities that they’d be appalled.
Piper isn’t at all. She’s elated. This is her next big story; a vindication that all her time and resources spent digging were worth it. She hasn’t lived through the humiliation of the Market, seen the crushed spirits of young girls taken or sold into a life of abandon—made to denounce themselves or forsake who they are at their core to please men. She hasn’t experienced the panic, the haunting anticipation, the torment of being left to stew in your own imagination.
I suck in a breath that smells of damp concrete and stale exhaust, tears springing to my eyes. I left him.
“Hey, are you okay? It’s going to be okay.” Piper rubs my arm, putting away her phone. “Let’s get you some food, and we can talk?—”
The screech is immediate, and the rubber claws the ramp of the level we’re on. The sound slices through Piper’s words as a black SUV shoots around the corner, its headlights cutting through the hazy, shadowed light. I drag a hand up to my forehead, blinded, only to see another set of lights right on its tail. Both slam to a stop, the smell of burned tires filling the air. Doors fly open in unison, and men spill out. I backpedal, bumping into Piper, who’s frozen. Dark coats, hard faces, the glint of weapons on their hips. I gasp.
Turning, I clamp a hand on Piper’s arm, shoving her through the two pillars. “Run!”
She shrieks, her heels clacking against the concrete as she slips. I haul her up as their footsteps close in. We take off, Piper ahead of me. With how little I’ve used them in the past months,my legs burn as we head up the incline. Piper flies toward a lone car, ducking behind it.
“Keep going!” When I glance behind me, the four men split off, and my eyes widen as the driver of the first car revs their engine behind them. “Go!”
Piper slips again, losing a heel. She reaches back to grab it.
“Leave it!” I grab her hand, dragging her upward to the next level. My shoes slap along while her feet limp to keep up. My heart rapid-fires—it’s not enough.
There’s more of them. Men speed up, gaining on us. They roll in faster, and I shove her behind an old beater van parked near a set of steps, skidding to a stop in the shadows. “Go! You need to go, and don’t stop. They won’t stop hunting you.”
Piper stares at me, wide-eyed. Her bun is now a wild mess, strands clinging to her long lashes, and a button on her shirt is hanging by a single thread—she looks wrecked and terrified. I did this. I brought her here, and I’m not going to let her get sucked into this world, this life. She needs to be around. She’s the only one with enough information outside the society, right? Only she can help the girls now. Unless there’s someone else out there.
Her chest rises and falls, mouth gaping at me. “W-what about you?”
“There!” one man yells.
“Now!” I bark, tearing free from the veil of the van. I stand and step out, blocking Piper as she spins and takes off. My chest splits, but I force my legs steady, meeting the glares of the guards head-on. They grab me with a forceful grip, but I don’t flinch. I don’t fight. As I’m wrestled toward the car, my gaze goes to the rain and the dark clouds behind it. I’m not sure where I’ll end up: sold to another organization, miles around the world in another country, or six feet below solid dirt. I just hope I don’t disappear. If they bury me deep, I hope whatever takesroot pushes through the earth. A dandelion, wild and sure, that scatters seeds into every place they don’t want me. I hope those seeds take root, and that they bloom where they aren’t meant to grow to put pressure on EV and crack its façade.
Slade … perhaps someday he’ll see me as the brave woman who once stole his heart, and know that I loved him, even though I never got the chance to tell him. Thank him.
Hot tears spill from my face as I think about him, how he saved me.Don’t stop fighting, Slade.
“Why do we fall, Sir?”Alfred’s voice fromBatman Beginsechoes in my mind as the back door to the SUV opens.“So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
I’m shoved inside, and the gentle British timbre of Alfred’s voice is interrupted by the slithering snake oil of none other than Henry DuPont. “Ah, seven-fifty-five. Wonderful to see you again.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
