Breaking Shadows (Darkness Falls Book 2) Read online

  When Black found out the homeowners were gone, he was able to come up with a quick plan to get Becky out of the hellhole she was in. The trick was getting her out unnoticed. They lived in a gated community that had regular patrols from a security company, but in the end, it proved to be easier than anticipated. The monsters who owned Becky and who left her locked in a cell to die from dehydration were vacationing. Freaking vacationing, while Becky lay in her own urine and feces, clinging to life. If Quinn was given even one minute alone in a room with those two bastards... Well, Quinn would be the one going to prison. Not them.

  Only at this point, since they got Becky out in an unsanctioned operation, under cover of night, there very well might not be charges brought forward. Unless Becky talked. Not just talked but knew specifics. Where she was held, who held her, who took her, who sold her. All of that could blow the case wide open. But if she didn’t know more than who had her, then she wouldn’t be able to bring down the trafficking ring that had sunk its claws into Darkness Falls, Wisconsin.

  Quinn had begun researching human trafficking and was disturbed at what she had found out in relatively little time and with just a few clicks of her mouse. Human trafficking had become a serious epidemic, not just in major cities like Milwaukee. While nearly eighty percent did happen in the large city, there were cases documented in all seventy-two counties. The website unluckythirteen.org had so much unsettling information. She wasn’t surprised. Her own history showed that even the most ordinary and upstanding citizens could be wolves in sheep’s clothing.

  While Darkness Falls was not as populated as Milwaukee, Madison, or even Green Bay, there was still a problem developing. One only needed to pick up the newspaper and read about the sadistic twins that had kidnapped her friend Kara not once, but twice. And the stepmother who had facilitated that abduction. Even though months had passed, and the articles had started to become far less frequent, it was still a fact that a serial killer had lived and preyed on their town. Not just their town, but towns all over the state had been their playground.

  But in recent weeks, the upcoming anniversary of the disappearance of Becky Plummer had been taking up all the headlines. A lot of people had thought she was a victim of the Roman Numeral Killers. Quinn wasn’t one of them. After all, almost all the victims had been identified, and Becky hadn’t fit the MO. It was frustrating that not all children received the same coverage when they went missing.

  It made Quinn angry when she thought about how there wasn’t an alert issued every time a child went missing. If the child is thought to be a runaway, they might make the news, but it might take days for any real coverage to happen if any coverage was given to the missing child at all. The Amber Alert that was issued for missing children was only done if the child was thought to be abducted. This was a flaw, in Quinn’s opinion. The Amber Alert was an extremely important instrument to help find missing children. With smartphones, people can instantaneously know when a child has been taken and what car they were seen in.

  However, unlike other states, there was no system in place in Wisconsin for missing children who weren't abducted. A child who might be a runaway. A child who might have gotten lost on their way home had no such mechanism to reach anyone with a smartphone. She had lost track of how many times a missing child notice showed up on her social media feed weeks after the child went missing. Often when she opened the article to read about the circumstances surrounding the missing child, there was an update saying the child had been found. Thankfully. Unfortunately, it sometimes took weeks to see those posts.

  In the day and age where there are Silver Alerts and Amber Alerts, there should be an alert for children or even adults who have gone missing that do not fit into the former two categories. Sighing, Quinn reached for the volume on the radio. Her head often would spin in circles and tie her in knots. Right now, she needed to not think. Right now, she needed to block out what she had seen.

  The emaciated and filthy body of the teenage girl was something that would give her nightmares for weeks to come. Becky didn’t deserve what had happened to her, and Quinn was going to make sure that the bastards who bought her were taken down. If for no other reason, then she couldn’t take down the ones who sold Becky to them. Because of that, she would see them rot in prison or she’d die trying. They didn’t deserve to see the light of day.

  She was pulling into her driveway when her phone rang. Taking a deep breath, she answered the phone before getting out of her car. She had a feeling she wasn’t going to get to go home and pretend to sleep after all.

  “Hello?” Her voice sounded tired even to her own ears.

  “Quinn, it’s Ethan.” His voice was like velvet across her skin. It did more to soothe her than anything else could.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked while rubbing the sandy feeling out of her eyes. Dread filled her as she realized that he might be calling to tell her Becky didn’t make it. It wouldn’t have surprised her; she was barely breathing when she had been rushed to the emergency room, but it would have crushed Quinn if that was why he was calling.

  “Nothing.” A pause. “Well, that isn’t really true.”

  “Just tell me.” Quinn knew she sounded like a class one bitch, but she couldn’t help herself. She was exhausted, and sometimes when she was tired she got cranky. “If she didn’t make it, just spit it out.” Damn it, but her eyes burned with tears.

  “No, no, it isn’t that. She’s fine. I mean, she’s holding her own. It’s just… Well, she isn’t strong enough to really talk right now, but was conscious and told us she will only talk to you, and I know that we didn’t want to involve you…”

  “I understand. It’s fine. Of course, I’ll come talk to her.”

  “It doesn’t have to be tonight. Kara is being a hard-ass and told us to leave her alone. No more questions for the night. It isn’t like Becky would be able to talk for very long anyway. She was only awake for a little bit, and we wanted to give her time to be with her parents.”

  “You know Kara isn’t wrong to stop you from talking to her tonight. Becky is her patient first.”

  “I know. It’s just…” She could actually visualize him raking his fingers through his messy, blond hair. Could envision the pain in his crystal clear, blue eyes.

  “I know. I want to hang these bastards by their toes in the middle of Darkness Falls and let every parent have a go at them, too.”

  “Remind me never to get on your bad side,” he said with a soft chuckle.

  “My bark is worse than my bite.” She leaned her head back against the headrest in her car. “I’ll come to the hospital first thing in the morning. Good-night, Ethan.”

  “Quinn?”

  “Yeah?” Quinn whispered, letting the healing powers of his voice float over and through her.

  “Watch your six. I’m going to do everything in my power to keep your name out of things, but if somehow it gets leaked…whoever took her is going to be gunning for you.”

  She swallowed hard. He was right. There was no doubt in her mind that her life was in jeopardy if anyone found out she was involved. And they would find out. Of course, they would find out, it really wouldn’t be that hard to bribe someone into talking.

  “Yeah. Watch yours, too. Okay? I guess I have come to like you. Not sure why, though.”

  She smiled when she achieved the desired effect she was hoping for, and he laughed. It seemed to slide around her and caress her through the phone.

  “Yeah, you aren’t so bad yourself. Night, Quinn.” And with that, he disconnected and the smile that had been on her face only seconds ago cracked and fell away.

  Ethan hoped that Quinn heeded the warning that she watch her back. He was terrified something would happen to her. Terrified he would lose someone that he had grown quite fond of. Hell, who was he kidding? He was more than fond of the lady; he was head over heels for her. The timing was never right to broach the subject. He was busy chasing down criminal after criminal, and she was busy helping the
people they left in their wake. Both of their jobs had them immersed in darkness all day long.

  Theoretically, they understood the demands of each other’s jobs. But he wasn’t a fool; he knew the demands of their jobs would be hard to overcome. And neither one was willing to give up what they did. Not that he would ever ask her to do that. Quinn was damn good at her job. He hadn’t met a victim advocate better than her in all his years on the force.

  When this case was over, he was going to finally make a move. He just had to get them both through it alive and well. Ethan still needed to repay her for all her help when he was recovering from the injuries he had suffered during the Roman Numeral Killer investigation. What a lame name that was. Of course, the press had to rethink the name when they found out it wasn’t just one person, but three, that was responsible for all the death and destruction. His own mother being the mastermind. It still disgusted him to even think about it. He had to shake himself from his reverie when he saw Caleb and Kara making their way toward him.

  “What did she say?” Caleb asked.

  “What do you think?” He looked at Kara long and hard. She looked tired. It had been a while since he’d seen her look tired—Caleb had helped those dark rings and shadows disappear from her eyes. It wasn’t like she had an easy job. It stood to reason that she would look exhausted. It was late, and she probably had been working for over twelve hours in a busy emergency room, but he couldn’t stop himself from worrying about her. Old habits die hard.

  “Knowing Quinn, she offered to come right away, danger be damned,” Kara said while glancing at a chart in her hand.

  “Hm, sounds familiar. I mean, they do say it takes one to know one, right?” Caleb said cheekily.

  “Anyway, I convinced her to get some sleep if she can and come in the morning.” He looked at his watch and sighed while raking his fingers through his hair. “Which, apparently, isn’t that many hours from now.”

  “You should really go home and get some sleep, too,” Kara said, finally looking up from her chart and studying him with those all-knowing eyes. His sister wasn’t just a bona fide genius; she was very adept at reading other people. Another thing she had in common with Quinn. Her gaze unnerved him as if she could see deep inside him and see how his mind was consumed by thoughts of Quinn.

  “What about you, Kara? How many hours have you been here?” He hadn’t intended for his voice to sound snappy, but it did.

  “I was just going to check on Becky one more time and then head home. Caleb is going to come home with me and get some sleep, right?” she asked, smiling at her husband.

  And there it was—the light that had shown up the moment she met Caleb; it was almost too hard to look at. As if he could be blinded by the sheer brilliance of that light, the shine in her smile. But he couldn’t begrudge her happiness. Kara had worked too hard for far too long to get beyond the demons of her past. Now that the monsters that haunted her were all well and truly dead, it was easier for her to move on. But it wasn’t until Kara met Caleb, and Ethan had seen what commitment and love could be—not the tainted version their parents had shown them, but real love—that he realized what he was missing out on. And it hadn’t taken long for him to figure out who he was missing out on that feeling with.

  4

  After a few hours of sleep interrupted by dream after dream of Becky Plummer’s emaciated body, Quinn gave up and got out of bed. She never slept well, anyway. It was something Kara and she shared. Insomnia induced by trauma in their past. But Kara had told her with Caleb in her bed, the nightmares were few and far between, and she had started to sleep for longer stretches of time. If only.

  Maybe someday Quinn would give herself a chance at love and maybe that love could heal her the way it had done for Kara. But Caleb wasn’t a normal guy. Caleb was a superhero. He was in tune with her emotions, as if he anticipated Kara’s mindset. But it wasn’t just that; he knew her, inside and out. The love they shared was almost painful to see. If Quinn were a bitter person, she would hate them for finding such a special connection, but that was something Quinn was not. Scared of intimacy, slow to trust, but not bitter. Never bitter. Never jealous. She had too much to be grateful for, and Kara had become her best friend. Along with Taylor Montgomery, Caleb’s sister. The three of them had spent many nights laughing and crying and sharing their stories—their fears.

  After a fast shower, she made her way into the kitchen and threw her favorite hot drink in her Keurig. Hot chocolate. Kara and Taylor gave her a hard time for owning a Keurig, but not actually using it to make coffee. Quinn abhorred coffee. She loved the smell, but no matter how many times she tried to drink it, it repulsed her taste buds. Kara laughed hysterically and said that Quinn and Ethan would be perfect together, because he, too, hated coffee.

  Ethan. The name was like a Band-Aid over the wounds from the previous night. As if the mere thought of him could make everything all right. At least for a little while. Sighing, she took her mug and went and sat on the stool by the island in her kitchen. She knew she should eat something, but it was hard to crave food when thinking about what Becky had been through. She turned on her laptop and checked her emails. As she deleted the junk mail, one email stood out. With trembling fingers, she opened the email and stared at the words that were on her computer screen.

  You’re going to regret not keeping your nose out of our business.

  “Son of a bitch.” She rubbed her temples. What was the purpose of the email? Was it to scare her? Blackmail her? What would the person behind the email want to accomplish? And the bigger question, did she share this with alpha male and hot detective Ethan Vanderbilt, or should she keep it to herself? The sensible side of her was shouting to tell him immediately; the side that didn’t want to rely on anyone—especially a man—shouted at the sensible side to shut the hell up.

  Standing, she wearily made her way to the front door and grabbed her keys and purse while putting her shoes on. It was going to be a long day. She hated to admit how rattled she was by the email, but she was, and her sensible side won out. Turning and going back into the kitchen she scooped up her laptop, deciding it was best to show Ethan than to keep it quiet. Whoever sent that email was most definitely not a friend, and Quinn was a smart girl. She had survival instincts and then some. Nonetheless, it was unnerving that someone had already found out that she had been involved in Becky’s retrieval.

  The question was: who had leaked the information? The police? She didn’t think that was the case; Ethan and Caleb were the only ones who saw her, and she trusted them both. Was it someone at the hospital? The center? She had been asking about Becky, and it wouldn’t be that hard to figure it out when the girl went missing that Quinn had something to do with her being removed from that cellar. Hadn’t Harrison said that he heard someone coming? Someone must have been aware she was there. The assholes that had left her in that hole had either left her there to die or had left someone in charge of feeding and getting her water. The fact that someone was there and almost caught them led Quinn to believe that they had left someone in charge of Becky’s well-being—someone who’d done a shitty job since she was barely fed and had run out of water.

  She used her key fob to unlock her car, but she didn’t get in until she glanced behind the driver seat to make sure no one was lurking in the backseat. Paranoid? Hardly. People were ambushed every day, and those people hadn’t gotten an email that could only be described as a threat. It was a quick drive to Mercy Hospital; Quinn’s apartment was chosen because of its proximity to the hospital. It was best if she got to the hospital fast if she was called in to counsel a victim and A Place to Hope was close by, as well. Oftentimes victims decided not to press charges or even get examined. In those cases, they might go directly to the center, and Quinn would do her best to convince them to be seen. She had a fairly good track record of calming a victim and encouraging them to seek the help they so needed. If they did go to the hospital, every second they waited in a sterile emergency room cubicle
waiting to be examined and questioned was a second closer to them bailing from the hospital without getting the resources they needed to heal.

  She parked her car in the visitor lot and sat for a moment, steadying her hands—that were still shaking—before she got out to meet with Becky. She couldn’t be rattled in front of her; the girl was looking to her for strength. It was very important to not only show compassion but fortitude when she spoke with the young girl. She was just reaching for her car handle when someone rapped on her window, causing her to jump so high that she nearly smacked her head on the roof of her car. Hand to her chest, she looked out the window to see Ethan standing on the other side with an apologetic look on his face. He mouthed the word sorry, and she forced a smile on her face as she got out of the car.

  “I didn’t mean to startle you. I just saw you sitting there, and I thought we could walk in together. Caleb isn’t here yet. He said something came up, and he would be a little late.” He paused from his fast talking to look at her. She shifted uncomfortably under his scrutiny. “Tough night?”

  She grimaced. It wasn’t like she could hide it, and she wasn’t a particularly vain person. Although, Ethan did tend to make her feel self-conscious. Anyway, she wasn’t one to lie about stupid things.

  “Yes. I had a hard time getting sleep. How about you?” She couldn’t help but notice the dark circles around his eyes.

  “I’ve had better. I ended up going back to the station to look over the case file with the information gathered after Becky’s disappearance.”