“Fuck,” echoes throughout the QD.
Someone is breeding women and selling their babies.
“Can you get more out of him?” Coal asks, coming to stand next to me.
“I’ll try, but he’s nearlydone,” I warn.
“Do what you can, darlin’,” Nickel says. “He may not know much more, but that’s never stopped us before. We’ll find out somehow.”
“Nickel’s right,” Copper agrees. “Whatever you get is better than nothing.”
“These motherfuckers,” Cross growls, pacing up and down. I’ve never seen the usually stoic, quiet brother like this. “Babies? Fucking babies? What sick fucker does shit like that?”
“Statistically, it’s usually women,” Bee says softly.
I meet her gaze. She’s not wrong. Men don’t get involved in selling babies. But women? Yeah.
Copper wraps an arm around Bee’s shoulders and pulls her into his body. This will hit them hard. They rescued their son, Noah, when he was put up for sale.
“Do what you can, Nora,” Nickel says, coming towards me. He presses his lips to the side of my head. “We’ll find a way to stop them.”
“We will,” Brass agrees. “It’s what the Queens Wraiths do. We punish those who harm innocents.”
The brothers nod as one, and shouts of “Wraiths” fill the night like a battle cry.
I pick up the smelling salts when silence settles again and hold them under Burres’ nose. “Tell me about the babies.”
He doesn’t know much, but he gives us a name before his heart gives out.
It’s something.
Every IT person on our team will be looking for information on someone called The Nanny. Not a straightforward task, considering how common that term is. But I have faith that they’ll find them, even if it takes years.
Brass, Bolt, and Iron offer to clean up the room, and I accept. However, cleaning my tools is my job. They understand and are happy to work around me while I bleach and clean every speck of blood from them. I use luminol last, then a UV light to check that they’re spotless.
It’s early morning by the time we finish, and the sun is lighting up the morning with a pink, cleansing glow.
Nickel is waiting for me as I climb the stairs out of the QD, holding a black bag for my clothes. I follow him around the back of the van, stripping and shoving my coveralls, t-shirt, and leggings into the bag before dressing in a tracksuit.
We don’t say one word. It’s one of the many things I love about my man. He knows I need time to decompress. I’ll talk when I’m ready.
Nickel walks away and hands the bag to Blue. He stacks it with the others in a trailer on theback of a golf cart that Thea sometimes uses for the trip to the clubhouse from her home. Then, he drives towards the cidery, where I know they’ve got an incinerator.
Nickel turns back to me and holds out his arms. I walk right into them, sighing contentedly as they close around me. He holds me for a minute before sliding an arm under my legs. He lifts me and strides towards our home.
Burying my face in his throat, I whisper, “Love you, Nickel.”
He turns his head to skim his lips over my forehead. “Love you too, Nora. More and more each day. Let me take care of you, darlin’. You’ve been strong enough for one night.”
“Okay,” I agree.
Tears fill my eyes, and I don’t stop them from falling. They wet his shirt as I try not to think of all those innocent babies and the pain their mothers must be going through.
Nickel steps into our home and heads straight for the shower, turning it on and letting it heat as he strips us.
I can’t seem to stop crying now that I’ve started. My tears fall onto his shoulders as he kneels to remove my tracksuit bottoms. The tears continue to fall as he guides me under the spray and fills his hands with shampoo. He gently washes my hair, then my body, leaving no spot untouched. Not once does he tell me to stop crying.
When we’re clean, he holds me to him as the water beats down on us.
