Breaking Shadows (Darkness Falls Book 2) Read online

  “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you here yet? What’s your ETA?” She fired the questions at her without letting Quinn say a word.

  “It took him longer to get her out than we had thought it would, and I got delayed by a freaking train. We’re about five minutes out. Be ready, I’m coming in fast.” Quinn didn’t say more than that because she didn’t want to alarm Becky—if Becky could even hear her. She was worried the girl had lost consciousness. But Kara was extremely intelligent and read between the lines in a split second.

  “She’s that bad?”

  “And then some. Just be ready.”

  “Understood.”

  They disconnected, and Quinn began praying silently to herself that they make it in time. It would be too cruel to lose her when they were so close to getting her medical help. Quinn wanted to kill the bastards that had kept her all these months. She wanted to rip their throats out and feed them to wild dogs. Becky had been treated as if she were a dog they had picked up and decided they didn’t like. The monsters had actually left her and gone on a freaking vacation. No doubt they wanted her to die while they were gone so they could feel like they weren’t actually responsible.

  Well, they were going to crap themselves when they came home to a police presence. Black was confident they could take down this one family and still maintain the case they were building against the actual mastermind. That mastermind was another one Quinn wanted to turn into mincemeat. If they found him or her. No, when they found him or her. They had to find the mastermind. Too many young kids, especially teenagers that would be considered runaways, had been going missing. The sooner they took the pervert down, the better.

  Realistically, she knew that there would just be one more piece of scum to pick up where this one left off, but she didn’t care. It was one less piece of scum. She had been told once, a long time ago, that sex sold. But at what cost? There were plenty of legitimate ways to get laid in Quinn’s mind than buying a person, but while some of these people bought these young children for their own use, many bought them to become entrepreneurs in the sex trade. Then there were those people that bought one of these missing persons just so they wouldn’t have to clean their own damn house; well, they deserved a beating as well. And why did they buy a human versus go out and actually hire one? The answer was because they were so full of greed that they would rather buy a human being to do their bidding than hire one so they could save a dime. These people were so filthy rich they could afford a legitimate housekeeper. But did they go that route? Nope. As long as the victim stayed in their service long enough to recoup the costs, they considered it a win.

  Her knuckles were white as she gripped the steering wheel. Quinn hated that people were so inherently evil. There was no way to eradicate that evil. One might say it would never be eradicated because humans had been given free will. While she knew it never would be, and even though Quinn considered herself a Christian, she didn’t agree with that reasoning. It was just a way to try to explain away the disgusting things some people would do for their own pleasure and to wash their hands of the situation. Well, Quinn wasn’t willing to wash her hands any longer, sitting by and helping those traumatized wasn’t enough. Some of the most powerful people on the planet hid behind their carefully constructed personas, and she was tired of them getting away with it.

  Her good friend, Kara, was proof that evil could be vanquished. And while Quinn’s own personal tormentor still remained free, unable to be prosecuted for his crimes against her, she would damn well do her best to help anyone she could. Whether she was skirting the laws to do so wasn’t a concern to her.

  “We’re almost there, Becky; another block. You still with me?”

  Terror consumed Quinn when the girl didn’t respond to her question. Was she merely unconscious, or had Becky died while Quinn was transporting the emaciated girl? Quinn didn’t have that much medical training; certainly, her first aid training was not enough to help Becky, but she knew enough to know that they didn’t have much time before Becky couldn’t be saved and that the only chance the girl had was to get her to a hospital and fast.

  Thank God, she thought to herself as she saw the lights of the hospital up ahead. It was amazing that she hadn’t been pulled over at the speed she’d been going to get there. She pulled in by the Emergency Room entrance and stopped as fast as she could without sending Becky flying. She wasn’t even out of her car before Kara came flying out with several hospital personnel and a stretcher.

  “She didn’t respond about a block ago when I called back to her.” Quinn knew her voice sounded strained and close to a breaking point. She was so intent on the young woman they were carefully placing on the stretcher that she didn’t hear the squeal of tires or notice the flashing lights of the unmarked car that came flying up behind her sedan.

  Kara caught her eye and nodded once, indicating that she was still alive. Quinn began to slump in relief as the hospital personnel rushed Becky through the doors and would have hit the pavement if strong arms hadn’t pulled her against a rock-hard body. Initially, Quinn panicked until she smelled the cologne of the one man that kept her up at night with naughty thoughts.

  They rushed the stretcher into the ER, Kara running next to it barking orders.

  “I need body temp, find a vein and get an IV going. I need that IV in yesterday. If her temp is low, warm blankets and IV fluids. I need bloodwork done ASAP. What’s her blood pressure?”

  “Pulse is a thread; blood pressure is eighty-five over forty-five.”

  “Start a drip of saline and then move to the lactated ringers.” If they didn’t get the right fluids in her right away, they would lose her; her body was already shutting down. There was no telling at this point the damage that had been done. “You got that vein yet?”

  “She’s so dehydrated, I’m having a hard time.”

  “I need that IV in place.” Kara’s voice was short and maybe a little bit panicky. If they didn’t hurry, they were going to lose her. “Try a femoral or subclavian line. She’s too dehydrated for the normal places.”

  He hesitated a moment too long, and Kara took control, placing a subclavian line in a matter of a few moments. She just shook her head at the rookie nurse, letting him know that it was a difficult IV placement and they would go over it later.

  “Start that saline drip stat.” The IV bag was up before she had finished the order.

  “How’s her temp?”

  “Ninety-seven.” The answer was clipped as the nurse grabbed the warm blankets given to him and started placing them over the small girl’s body. “She’s so frail.”

  “Not in here. Not now.” Kara sounded terse. They would have to go over her preference to not discuss the status of a patient that is touch and go in front of the patient later, as well. Looking embarrassed, he nodded at her and began to check Becky’s vitals again.

  Kara hated that she had snapped at the new ER nurse, but she had a good reason. She didn’t want Becky hearing them talk about her appearance. Kara knew what it was like to be talked about like that—people whispering about her own injuries all those years ago, and she wouldn’t allow it, not when the girl needed to fight for her life. She knew that Becky could hear them—she may not be lucid, but she most certainly could hear them. The girl’s lashes were fluttering as she fought to gain consciousness.

  “Blood pressure has stabilized, and her pulse is less erratic,” he said.

  “All right, good job everyone. Let’s give those fluids a chance to work. She’s far from being out of the woods. Did you get that blood draw?”

  “Yes, doctor.”

  “Good, get that to the lab immediately. It’s priority. We need to know if there is anything else we’re fighting other than dehydration and severe malnutrition. Let’s get her a room in the ICU. Once we get her stabilized enough, we can move her up there.”

  “Ethan? What are you doing here?” Quinn asked without turning around.

  “I could ask you the same question. Caleb,
why don’t you go inside and get whatever information they’re willing and able to give us so we can relay it to her parents when they get here.”

  “They’re on their way? How did they find out, and how did you find out?”

  “Kara called us a few minutes ago; it must have been after you called her to tell her you were bringing her here. We called her parents; they’re on their way.”

  Quinn only hoped that she was still alive when they got here and that they would get to take her home soon. Even if Becky was able to heal physically, the road was going to be a long and arduous one to begin to heal mentally. She let herself lean for another second and then forced herself to stand tall. Slowly, she extricated herself out of his arms, too, one step forward and she turned around to look at the most attractive and kindest man she had ever had the pleasure of knowing. If he only knew what he did to her just being this close, she would blush a thousand shades of red.

  “Good. That’s good. Any chance we can keep my name out of it, though?”

  He looked at her long and hard, the blue of his eyes fixed squarely on her hazel eyes.

  “That depends.”

  “On?”

  “On how the hell you found her in the first place.”

  “Oh, that.”

  “Yeah, that. Try not to be coy with me. We have known each other a long time, and before they get here, I want to know if I’m backing the right team by not telling them you brought her in.”

  “You have to trust me on this. I had nothing to do with her disappearance.” Even she could hear the worry in her own voice.

  Ethan took a step back when Quinn said she had nothing to do with the disappearance of Becky Plummer. The idea had never crossed his mind that Quinn would have been involved in the disappearance of the young girl. Quinn was one of the most selfless people he had ever been honored to know—and that said a lot, because his sister, Kara, was pretty damn selfless herself. Maybe it was the fact that they both were just geared to help those who needed it. But Ethan knew there was more to it. He knew that Quinn had a similar backstory as Kara. She had never told him as much, but he had stared into the haunted eyes of his sister and Caleb’s sister long enough to notice when someone had been a victim of a crime.

  He would never say that word to Kara, though. She hated the word victim. And since she had married Caleb, the haunted look in her eyes had been replaced by a happy spark—for the most part. There were still moments when he could see her traveling back to those nights. However, Caleb always sensed it and managed to shake her out of the moment. In fact, he was getting pretty good at it. If only they could find a way to help Taylor and Quinn the way that Caleb had helped Kara.

  “Ethan, I’m not a suspect, am I?”

  Ethan shook himself mentally, realizing he hadn’t answered her.

  “Of course not. But I need to know how you found her.”

  “Off the record?”

  “Off the record.” Though it sent his hackles up that she even had to ask. Ethan trusted her, and he knew that if she was involved, it was aboveboard. That was a good thing since he didn’t travel outside the lines when it came to the law. His knowing that she would do anything and everything to protect a victim and to make sure the law would prevail was all it took to trust her. Actually, she was very meticulous when it came to victim’s rights and evidence retrieval at the center she worked for. She always made sure that the people that came in received medical attention and that all evidence was processed correctly. “For now, we will consider you a CI.”

  “CI?” She asked.

  “Confidential Informant.”

  Right, she should have known that. She nodded her head once as if to say that it was good enough for now.

  “I got a call at the center that there was a young girl being held captive.”

  “Who was the caller?” He would have cracked a smile at the huge roll of her eyes she sent his way if the situation wasn’t so serious.

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “You have to give me more.”

  “He’s one of ours,” she said ambiguously.

  “One of ours? As in, an officer? Why wouldn’t he go through the proper channels? Why call in a civilian?” He was on full alert now and had dropped his voice so only she could hear him.

  “He’s undercover. Deep undercover.”

  “Enough said.” Ethan knew the department had someone deeply ensconced into the human trafficking circle, but he didn’t let on that he knew that. Everyone was exceptionally tight lipped about it all, no one wanted to mess the case up. Sex crimes chewed up and spit out cops on a regular basis, especially when it came to crimes against children. The people that sat in those dark rooms viewing the filth that was taken off pedophiles’ computers burned out exceptionally fast.

  “I want him to trust me in the future if he needs help again.”

  “Understood. The parents are going to want to know who helped bring their daughter home.”

  “I tell you what, if she makes it, you can get their number, and I will talk to them, but it has to be kept confidential.”

  “Deal.” He looked at his watch. “They should be here soon; you need to get out of here.”

  “Thank you, Ethan.”

  “No, thank you for getting her here safely.”

  “It was nothing.”

  “No, it was something. You put your life at risk to help her.”

  “You would have done the same thing.”

  “It’s my job.”

  “You know that it wasn’t safe to allow the police to bring her in—not this time, and I’m tired of them winning, Ethan. I want—no, I need—to do more. I need to do something to try to balance the scales. Counseling them after the fact isn’t good enough.”

  “I understand. Just…” He trailed off.

  “Just what?”

  “Be careful. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “Trust me, I will be; I have a lot to do on this earth yet.”

  With that, she climbed into her car and left. Ethan stood watching her taillights while thinking to himself, I bet you do, no doubt in my mind that you have a lot left to do. No sooner had her taillights faded away than another car pulled up to the curb. It parked haphazardly in front of his and instinct told him that these were the parents of Becky Plummer.

  Ethan wasn’t sure he liked that Quinn was involved in this. But he was grateful that she helped get the young teenager out of whatever predicament she was in. Too often that wasn’t the case. That didn’t mean he was going to let this slide. As a matter of fact, his brilliant sister better be willing to tell him how she became involved. Who was he kidding? There was no chance she was going to tell him anything. For now, he would have to push the mysterious Quinn Sanders to the back of his head. Even though he was a homicide detective, Caleb and he had been called in to tackle this case. Captain wanted all hands on deck on this one, and he didn’t have time to think about the woman that he couldn’t get out of his head. He had a case to solve.

  3

  Quinn took a deep breath. The farther away from the hospital she got, the more the trembles subsided. She had been worried that Ethan would pick up on how rattled she was. After all, Quinn was not a police officer. Sure, she helped them, but she was a victim advocate. Her job was to help people who had been abused mentally, physically, or sexually. Initially, the center that Kara had helped come to fruition was going to be a rape crisis center. But in the months since it had opened, it had become so much more. It’d become a home for everyone who walked through the door, herself included.

  However, in recent weeks, she’d become alarmed by the chatter from the teens coming in to the center. Chatter that centered around two terrifying words. Sex trade. More and more teens were coming in saying they know someone being groomed to be sold for sex. Quinn had decided to start researching and had discovered that the average age of these children, who were overwhelmingly female, was thirteen. It still made her stomach turn.

  On
e thing that she had accomplished in her years working with victims of abuse was gaining the trust of the police. They came to her more frequently to help with counseling someone. Even though she was a clinical therapist and had years of experience under her belt, it didn’t prepare her for the depravity that people put other people through. Many nights she woke up in a cold sweat, not just from her own past, but from stories people had told her, the pictures she had seen, the beaten women, men, and children she had met.

  When a young boy told her that he had heard whispers where the police might find Becky Plummer, she was no longer willing to sit back and just listen, so she sprang into action. Though her network was extensive, she was unable to find out any further information. In the end, the answer found her, and she didn’t have to look any further, she was contacted by an anonymous person who’d heard she was looking for Becky Plummer. He asked to meet up with her. At the time, she didn’t know who she was meeting, and while she knew it was dangerous, she was willing to risk it to get Becky back because she was just fed up. However, she also knew that it would help no one if she walked into a trap. Making a split-second decision, she told the only person she could trust to have her back. Ethan insisted on coming with but wasn’t thrilled about staying in the car. It was the make it or break it part of the deal, though. She allowed him to come with, but only if he stayed in the car. He was instructed if she didn’t come out in five minutes to come in after her. It turned out it wasn’t necessary. As soon as she saw Black, she knew that she had made the right decision in coming to the meeting.

  While Quinn didn’t know Black, she recognized him from her many trips to the precinct. Quinn was usually a great judge of character, and she knew that he could be trusted. During their brief meeting, he told her he had heard she’d been asking around about Becky, so he did some digging and found her. He explained how he was undercover and was breaking protocol by contacting her, but he felt he couldn’t involve the police directly without blowing the whole operation. Knowing the officer’s life was on the line if they didn’t proceed cautiously was almost enough to make her turn back. Almost, but not quite, because he knew the risk and was completely on board with taking a chance to get her back.