Aiden looked at him, with an eyebrow raised.

  Corbin tossed the kid’s phone on the floor for the cops to find easily but not within reach of the kid. He’d didn’t want him to alert his buddies. “I’m waiting on the team to get back to me with details, but hopefully there’ll be something concrete.”

  Almost immediately his phone buzzed. Corbin looked down at the text message and smiled. “Absolutely lovely. Time to get going.” His statement was followed by a knock on the door, and they let in two cops.

  Corbin explained what was going on. “You can take Darwin’s statement, and we can cover the rest of the interview later. We have to go now.”

  They handed the kid off to the cops, but not before Aiden took a picture of the cops who were here. “Just so that we know who we’re handing them over to.”

  The cops flushed angrily. “Don’t worry,” said one of them. “We’re not a part of this, and this piece of shit is not going anywhere.”

  “Good,” Corbin murmured in a hard voice. “Make sure he gets to jail.” He stepped out the building and saw where Aiden had parked. Corbin looked over at his partner and said, “We need to trim down to one vehicle.”

  “Yeah.” Aiden nodded. “This one will be picked up soon. I’ve already arranged it.”

  Corbin nodded, hopped into the front seat of his vehicle, and watched as the two cops brought out the kid.

  They didn’t make four steps when they heard a sharp ping, and the kid took a bullet, right in the forehead, tumbling backward to the ground.

  Chapter 5

  When the door opened the next time, a different man walked in. Nellie stared at him, gave him a tentative smile. He didn’t even look at her and walked right back out, and her hopes sank. What were the chances that they had decided to change the jailers because the previous one was getting too friendly? Definitely not what she wanted to consider, but, at the same time, it made sense. If she were the jailer, she would have made sure of it.

  To even think of herself in that position made her sway onto the bed, exhausted and terrified. Just that little kindness from the one jailer had kept her hopes up. Absolutely nothing about this scenario would she ever take part in. But, if she were a commodity, that was absolutely how they would treat her.

  With her hope sinking, the man returned and held out a bottle. She accepted the water quietly, but he walked over to Jewel and jerked her to her feet. Even though she had been sound asleep, she came up crying, as if her instincts had been to expect the worse, and he just smacked her hard, making her gasp and quiet down instantly.

  He looked over at Nellie and gave her a cruel smile. “Just in case you think you’re somebody special, you’re not.”

  She didn’t say anything but watched as he dragged Jewel from their room.

  “Oh, dear God,” Nellie whispered to herself. She heard loud shrieks on the other side of the door, then … silence. She bowed her head. Obvious no one was around for miles to hear their screams. Jewel’s ordeal was an awakening call, and all it did was reinforce the fact that Nellie needed to get the hell out of here and fast. She sidled up to the door and listened with her ear against it. She heard muffled voices.

  “That’s all you have to fucking do,” one man snapped. “Treat them like the cattle they are.”

  “They’re not cattle,” the other man argued, his voice trying for a more reasonable tone. “They’re scared and alone. These are good women.”

  “If you can’t do the job, we’ll find somebody else.”

  “Hey, come on. You know I can do the job,” the reasonable one protested.

  “Then don’t be so damn friendly with them. You can’t be friends with them.”

  “It doesn’t cost anything to be nice,” he replied quietly.

  She knew this scenario wasn’t good for him or for her. She had to find a way out before this ended up a one-way street for her and her child. That she wouldn’t let happen.

  When the door opened again, she looked up to see the friendlier guard.

  He looked at her and winced. “She’s okay, you know?”

  Her eyes widened. “Are you sure?” she whispered quietly. “She didn’t sound okay.”

  “She is under guard and absolutely fine.” He shrugged. “I can’t tell you more than that, so it has to be enough for now. More than that doesn’t go down well here.”

  “And yet isn’t this to be expected? You’re keeping this woman prisoner. You’ve taken away her child. How is she supposed to react?”

  He nodded. “I get it. I guess this isn’t what you thought would happen when you got up yesterday.”

  She stared at him in shock. “No, it absolutely isn’t.” She looked behind him. “Is she out there?”

  “No, she’s been moved to another location.”

  “Oh,” she whispered. Now she was alone. Holding fear at bay was way easier when there were two. Alone? … That left her feeling way worse, vulnerable.

  “As long as she behaves, … she’ll be fine.”

  Nellie didn’t say anything because absolutely no way she would believe that, not after what she’d just seen and heard. “And me?” she asked, her voice faint. “Will I be fine too?”

  He immediately rushed to reassure her. “Yes, of course.”

  “No.” She shook her head sadly. “There is no of course in this. I heard what the other guy said. You’re being nice and all, more so than you’re allowed to be.”

  He stared at her and then quickly handed her a bottle of water. “Take it.”

  She accepted it and sagged onto her bed. She felt the tears in the back of her eyes, but she had no way of knowing what to do at this point. With a jailer and another asshole somewhere farther down the line, escape was impossible. She looked up at him. “Could you even help me if you wanted to?” she asked sadly. “Or any of us?”

  He shook his head. “I can’t do that,” he murmured, so low that she barely heard him. “They’d kill me too.”

  She nodded slowly. “I believe you.” And she did. She sagged onto her bed, feeling the tears choke her throat. He was right. They would kill him, so why would he risk his life when he didn’t even know who she was? There was no rhyme or reason for it, no logical explanation for him being nice to her, yet he walked over to her side and whispered, “I’ve tried to persuade them to let you go, but they’re pretty stuck on keeping you.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  He shrugged. “Because I don’t agree with this.”

  She stared at him. “You don’t agree with it now.”

  He flushed. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this, and it wasn’t supposed to go quite so badly,” he muttered, then glanced back to the door. “I can’t talk. Later …” And, with that, he disappeared.

  She stared at the door, wondering if it was even fair to have hope that this jailer might help her. But hope was something that lived eternal—as long as she fed it—and it would keep her alive and keep her sane, if only she could believe that he meant what he had said.

  He could let her go.

  He could absolutely be the link that she needed to get out of here. He could also be the instrument of an early death—for her, her baby, and even him too. She couldn’t forget that. His sense of self-preservation had to be alerted to any danger he was in too. She also didn’t know what he would want in exchange for helping her, … if he helped her.

  He’d said it wasn’t supposed to be like this. What did he mean?

  Nothing about this was normal, so anybody who got into it must have had some make-believe scenario going on in their heads where they thought any of this would work out to anybody’s benefit. Particularly to the women’s benefit. When he went out the door, it clicked shut, followed by a double click. She groaned as she sat here and stared at the locked door.

  “It’d be nice to know what’s outside of that door,” she muttered aloud, but her chances of finding out anytime soon weren’t great.

  Just then the door burst open, and Jewel was thrust inside. She collapsed to the floor, crying out in a horrific manner.

  Nellie raced over and helped her to her feet and back over to the bed. “Good God, what happened?”

  She sobbed. “They found somebody for my daughter. They’re selling her.”

  Nellie stared at her in horror. “Good God. There must be something we can do.” She glanced around the room, trying to figure out what, if anything, they could do.

  “If you think this won’t happen to you, you’re wrong,” Jewel whispered, and she started to bawl.

  “Has it already happened? Has she already been handed over?”

  Still sobbing, Jewel shook her head. “No, no, but soon. They’re making arrangements right now.”

  Nellie nodded. She stared at the door, walked over, and gently tested it.

  “Like that’ll work,” Jewel snapped. “Do you think I haven’t tried that time and time again?”

  Nellie turned and lifted her finger to her mouth and whispered harshly, “Shhh.”

  Jewel fell silent, as she stared at Nellie. Then Jewel hopped up and came beside her and whispered, “What are you trying to do?”

  Nellie didn’t say anything but listened with her ear against the door. Only silence greeted her. She heard no voices, no sounds—nothing. Then she heard footsteps—soft, muffled footsteps, almost like someone sneaking up. She pulled Jewel away, and both raced over to their beds and hopped in. But this time, when the door opened, it only partially opened, then closed again—only … not quite. Then the footsteps receded.

  Jewel looked over at her, her mouth wide open.

  Nellie put her finger against her lips again and whispered, “Maybe … just maybe somebody is on our side.” And, with that, the two women raced to the door.

  Corbin pulled up to the address that Hatch had sent him.

  “What’s this address for?” Aiden asked.

  “Hatch tracked it from one of the numbers the kid called in the last few months. Darwin is too stupid to use burner phones, but it seems these guys he’s working with are always using a different burner number.” Corbin pointed down the road. “At a store up ahead, they have been selling more than the normal amount of these phones.”

  “Would they be so stupid as to buy burner phones locally?”

  “Considering they could buy them off the internet or anywhere else, it’s possible. However, this is a lead. So we have to check it out.”

  “That we do,” Aiden agreed. “What about video cameras?”

  “I’ve got Hatch looking into it,” Corbin muttered, as he studied the location. “The guys have to be close. They don’t want to move the women and children until they’re ready to sell them because any transportation will be dicey.”

  “Yeah, but what’s dicey is also keeping kidnapped women and young children quiet, so they must have a vacant location to hold them.” Aiden studied his friend for a moment and then nodded. “What would you pick?”

  “Somewhere quiet with a deep basement, where they could scream, and nobody would know.”

  “Right, that’s a given,” Aiden agreed. “It needs to be close to services, to food, but big enough in a town that nobody will understand why they’re buying more food than they should be.”

  “If anybody even gives a shit,” Corbin said. “I mean, if they’re doing this right, they’ll just be anonymous faces in a sea of faces.”

  “And yet this kid brother was working for them, and he seemed to be a local.”

  “Because they have to have somebody on the streets, so to speak. Besides it’s his face in the public eye. They’re hiding behind him.”

  “Who was just terminated.”

  “Right,” Corbin confirmed, and then neither of them spoke about it. They knew exactly what would happen to Darwin, but they had hoped it wouldn’t. Even with Earl in the police station, he still might not live to talk. However, when you saw these kinds of criminal business alliances, too often someone realized they didn’t need to share the profits with so many others. “I figured it would end up this way, as soon as I realized he hadn’t been paid yet. And yet he kept making excuses.”

  “At one point in time you would think the brothers would have figured it out.”

  “Do you ever wonder how our species even survives when there’s so much lying, cheating, and just lack of honesty everywhere?” Corbin asked, as he continued to look about his surroundings, trying to find where the women could be held.

  “Absolutely.”

  They headed to the electronics store first. When that became a dead end, with nobody willing to talk about anything, Corbin found a panhandler outside, and he walked over to him, held out some money. “I have a few questions. Some more money for some answers.”

  The guy immediately looked wary. “Answers about what?”

  “Looking for a guy who has been coming back and forth, buying burner phones.”

  He shrugged. “How would I know?”

  “I think you would know. Have you seen the same people coming and going lately?”

  “Sure. Lots of the same people come and go,” he replied, eyeing the twenty pound note in Corbin’s hand.

  “Anybody odd?”

  “No, not odd.” He shook his head. “Some people do come in and go in a big hurry.”

  “Yeah? Anybody in particular?”

  He looked over at Corbin and Aiden and asked, “What’s this about?”

  “Some men kidnapping women and children.”

  At that, the panhandler’s face thinned. “I had nothing to do with any of that.” He started swearing. “God damn, don’t you try to pin that on me.”

  “We don’t think you did that, but we think that you’re here all day, every day, and chances are you might have seen something important. Like the guys only buying burner phones.”

  He sneered.

  “More than that,” Corbin added, “I think you’ve probably noticed suspicious behavior and wondered.”

  At that, the panhandler fell silent and nodded slowly. “Somewhat, yeah. A van was here the other day. Two guys were in it. Then one guy ran into the store, while the other guy didn’t like being left alone. However, the first guy pretty well yelled and screamed at him, although it was done quietly. I still heard enough to realize the second guy didn’t want to stay there in the van.”

  “Of course not.” Corbin waited. “Did you hear anything?”

  The panhandler stared off in the distance. “Just something about we went to too much trouble for this to get screwed up.”

  “Right, that would fit too.”

  “But I don’t have any proof of anything these guys were doing. I just saw a van.”

  “What about the plate?”

  The panhandler stared at the twenty and looked up at Corbin and the back at the twenty. Corbin shook his head, pulled out his wallet, and found another twenty. The guy nodded. “I got three off the plates,” and he reamed them off.

  “That’ll help,” Corbin noted. “If you see that man or the van again”—he handed him a card—“let me know. There’s a lot more money where that came from.”

  “They really stole some girls?”

  “Multiple women but, more than that, they’ve also stolen their kids.” His voice nearly growled, as he added, “One of the mothers’ bodies showed up dead.”

  The guy shook his head. “It’s a messed-up world out there, man.”

  “It is, indeed. You stay safe.”

  And, with that, they headed out again. Back in the vehicle, Aiden driving this time, Corbin quickly reported to Hatch about what they had found.

  Hatch started a trace on the numbers. “Okay, we’ve got several options,” Hatch said, “but the most likely van with no windows was stolen.”

  “Of course it was.” Aiden pounded the steering wheel. “It feels like we’re out of time here.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Corbin agreed. “But we can’t focus on that. We have to stay focused on what we’ve got going on right now.”

  “And I get that, but my instincts say we need to move,” Aiden said to Corbin.

  “Look for likely locations, warehouses, condemned buildings.” With that, Hatch hung up.

  “We should search the area where the van was stolen from,” Corbin suggested.

  “Why would anybody take a van close by?” Aiden asked.

  “Convenience.” At that, Corbin’s phone buzzed. He read the text message out loud. The van was found in a warehouse, after it had been stolen two days ago. “So they used it just for the job and then ditched it.”

  “You and I would do that,” Aiden noted, looking over at his friend.

  “Yeah, we sure would. Still, if it’s convenient, then they are close by. Because moving all the women and children has got to be convenient too.”

  “True. If we don’t get a handle on this fast, they’ll find an area of town not very convenient and move them.”

  “No, I get it.” And, with that, Corbin punched into his GPS the address where the vehicle had been stolen, while Aiden drove along per the directions. Ten minutes later Corbin noted, “It’s a commercial district. I wonder what brought them here to steal a vehicle?”

  “Honestly it could be just as simple as the fact that theirs broke down,” Aiden suggested.

  “Hey, it’s possible, but we’re grasping at straws.”

  “Of course we are. That’s all we have to grasp at right now.”

  As Aiden drove by the surrounding area, Corbin surveyed the commercial district closely, looking down alleyways and sides of each warehouse. He caught a glimpse of one woman helping another woman step through a narrow rusted door of one warehouse close by another. He yelled to Aiden, “Stop.”

  Aiden immediately hit the brakes and pulled off the side of the road. “What’s the matter?”

  And Corbin pointed in the direction where he saw the women.

  Aiden whistled as he turned around toward the women. “Okay now, hang on a minute. Are those the ones we’re looking for?”

  “I think so,” Corbin murmured. “Leave the vehicle here.” They quickly bolted from the vehicle and headed toward the women. As soon as the women caught sight of them, they started to run away. But one was obviously pregnant, and the other one looked like she was suffering in a big way.