#Seen

by Taylor Hart

  Ralph produced a crowbar and Captain Jace pried open the metal door. It probably took less than a minute, but to Zoey, each second felt like forever. All four of them were running up the stairs when a gunshot sounded.

  Zoey’s heart leapt into her throat. “Sammy!” She’d heard her yell out, so she knew Sammy was in the building. What if he had killed her?

  They all ran faster, and the captain pointed to the doorway at the top of the stairs. “There!”

  When they burst through to the roof, Zoey saw the blood first. She had to look beyond it to see three people struggling at the edge of the roof.

  A bearded man was aiming a gun at them. Sammy was struggling to get her footing, and blood trickled down her shoulder. A creepy older-looking guy wearing a wife beater tank top had her in his grip, holding her in front of him like a human shield. He shouted, “Stay back!”

  “Help!” Sammy called out.

  “I’m so tired of you!” the man yelled at her, but he kept the gun trained on them.

  “Just calm down.” The captain motioned for Zoey to stay back. “We’re just here for the girl. You can go.”

  Oh, hell no, thought Zoey, but she kept that to herself.

  The guy with the beard turned the gun on Sammy. “She’s already shot. I’ll just finish the job.”

  The captain’s eyes flashed with steel, and Zoey saw a side of this man that was a far cry from the relaxed, Southern hippie gardening man. He pulled his gun and pointed it at Wife Beater’s chest. “You do that, and you and your friend will die. You have my word.” He motioned for him to let her go. “If you just let her go, we’ll leave.”

  Zoey wasn’t sure if the captain meant it or not, but he seemed sincere.

  “Boss,” said the man with the beard. “We’re kind of out of options.”

  Wife Beater looked back at them, and Zoey could see crazy in his eyes—she’d experienced it way too much at the hands of insane people. “Then I guess we’ll all go meet our Maker today.” He grabbed Sammy’s hair and pulled it harder, yanking her closer. “I always get my girls!”

  Sammy screamed.

  “Wait!” the captain called out. “We’ll negotiate, then. What do you want?”

  Zoey stared at him. Both men needed to be locked away so they’d never see the light of day again. If that didn’t work for them, they could die here and now.

  Wife Beater laughed. “No negotiation. I get to keep the girl.”

  “How about we don’t kill you and your friend if you give her up?”

  “I already told you, I always get my girls.”

  The captain sighed, and his calm slipped back into place like a mask. “Well, goodbye, then.”

  Wife Beater’s brow furrowed.

  Just then, a black helicopter lifted into the air and two shots were fired.

  “Ahh!” Sammy screamed, and in the process of moving away from them, she almost fell off the roof.

  Even in the chaos, Zoey couldn’t stop herself from running toward her. “Sammy!”

  Nicholas reached Sammy first and pulled her away from the side. Sammy collapsed in a heap onto him.

  “Sammy!” Zoey touched the uninjured shoulder.

  Sammy flung herself into Zoey’s arms, sobbing into her shirt. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I was so stupid. I’m sorry.”

  The helicopter had already landed, Cyrus stepped out, and Nicholas and Cap and Ralph were hauling the bodies toward it. Zoey saw the look on Cyrus’s face as his men put the prisoners in the heli. It looked like they’d be bringing the predator in alive after all. Maybe he would get answers.

  Emotion clogged her throat, but she focused on Sammy. “It’s okay. Good people just stepped up to save your life. It’s all okay.”

  Her eyes met Nicholas’s.

  A ferocious look was on his face. He pointed at Cyrus. “That’s the North Star to Freedom Foundation in action.”

  Cyrus turned and nodded at them.

  Chills rushed through her.

  Sammy clutched her harder, as if she would die if she weren’t clinging to Zoey. “I can’t believe it. I was so stupid. I was so stupid.” She wailed louder. “I was so scared!”

  “God protected you,” she said to Sammy. Tears ran down her own face, and a rush of warmth filled the center of her chest, then spread outward like water. “God protected you.” And she knew it was true.

  Chapter 30

  Zoey

  Back at control, Zoey sat at the conference table, riding on a high after dropping Sammy off at the hospital with her parents. The team was digging into a couple of pies, chattering about their success.

  Nicholas had half a piece in his mouth as he talked to Olivia. “It was so cool when the heli came up. It was just like that scene in Back to the Future II, where they are in the past and Marty is going to get thrown off of the roof, and then he steps off and the DeLorean catches him and they fly away.”

  Olivia grunted, more subdued than everyone else. “Impressive.”

  “Yeah, boy!” Noah jumped up. “Chest bump!”

  Nicholas jumped up, and both of them knocked over chairs as they bumped chests.

  “Boys will be boys,” said Georgia.

  Zoey laughed and put her fist out to bump. “Stupid, boys.”

  Noah made a fart sound.

  “True dat,” said Georgia, fist-bumping her back.

  Nicholas shoved a bite of pie in his mouth. “More chest bumps.”

  “Arggh!” Noah hollered.

  “Calm down,” Cap said, though he was smiling.

  Jackie bounced at the table, putting her arm around Zoey and squeezing. “This is so cool! And Sammy was saved!”

  Captain Jace and Ralph dished up pie. Zoey pointed at the captain. “Seriously, wife beater guy tried to act like he was going to keep Sammy, and Captain Jace was all calm and Batman-ish.”

  “Yes, totally Batman,” Nicholas agreed. “There’s no other superhero name for him.”

  Cap just smiled at them.

  Zoey reached out, pretending like she was going to take Ralph’s phone. “And Ralph kinda saved the day, too.”

  Ralph pulled his phone close and narrowed his eyes. He stood. “Good job, kids. I have to go help Cyrus.”

  Zoey met Nicholas’s eyes. “Have they gotten anything?” she blurted.

  Ralph hesitated, then shook his head. “Not yet.” He took off. “Catch ya later.”

  As they all hollered out goodbyes, Zoey looked down at the tattoo scorpion between her ring finger and pinky, and she felt a surge of triumph. “We got her out.”

  Nicholas grinned. “Yeah.”

  She swallowed back more emotion, feeling so grateful.

  Captain Jace cleared his throat and stood. “Okay, I have some things I need to say.”

  Everyone got quiet.

  “First off, I want to say well done, team. Well done. It was a good night for saving souls.”

  “Preach it.” Nicholas raised his hand, and Zoey high-fived him.

  Captain Jace’s face got more intense. “It appears that after the interrogations today, before we turned over the sex traffickers to the cops, along with all the evidence we’ve gathered, that Hunter did have a boss. Unfortunately, all of the accounts he told us about were already ghosted out.”

  Disappointment hit the center of Zoey’s chest. Marcella. Cyrus had told Jace not to kill @hunterlives yet. It had to be breaking Cyrus’s heart to know that God was working all these miracles for others, yet his daughter was still out there.

  Dang it. Dang it! She blinked, but she saw the tears in the others’ eyes too.

  Nicholas slammed his fist on the table. “We’ll find her. We have to.” He put his fist out. “North Star on three.”

  The others put their fists in, Cap joining them.

  “One, two, three!”

  “North Star!” They all threw their hands into the air.

  Epilogue ~ Zoey

  Zoey and Nicholas stood at the door to Sammy’s house. It had been a week si
nce they’d seen her or the cheer team. Tonight, they’d gotten special permission to go to this party because of all the work they’d put in to help them win the state competition.

  Sammy greeted them at the door. Luckily, she’d only been grazed by the bullet, so only the bandage on her arm showed that she’d been physically injured. As soon as she saw who was there, she bolted into Nicholas’s arms.

  Nicholas let out a light laugh. “Hey, there.”

  Sammy pulled back and threw herself at Zoey. “Thank you. Oh my gosh, my heroes. I am so glad you came! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

  Sammy’s parents appeared, and they spent several minutes being thanked by them.

  Captain Jace had asked to keep this as quiet as possible. Unfortunately, Sammy’s mother had already called the police and the whole cheer team knew that Sammy had been taken, so it was kinda out in the open.

  “Come in!” Sammy stepped back, and Zoey walked into a packed house. The whole cheer squad and several other students were hanging out, enjoying the pop music reverberating through the rooms.

  “You brave warriors!” Tiffany appeared out of nowhere and flung herself at Zoey.

  Zoey let herself be hugged. Judging by the looks on several other cheerleaders who were getting in line to hug her, this might be how the whole night went. Tiffany wasn’t her favorite, but she tried to remind herself she really wasn’t in high school. “Hey.”

  Tiffany turned and put her arm around Megan’s shoulders. “We’re all besties now.” She sniffed a bit overdramatically. “That’s what happens when strife comes to a cheer squad—we pull together.”

  Tiffany flew out of her arms and into Nicholas’s.

  He let out a sigh. “Geez, you’re going to knock me over.”

  Megan held out her arms to hug Zoey, rolling her eyes and whispering in her ear. “There’s been good changes. I don’t know if being besties with Tiffany is one of them.”

  Zoey laughed.

  Liz was next, hugging her tightly. The girls on the cheer squad all took turns throwing themselves at Zoey and Nicholas in hugs.

  At the end of the line was Ms. Montlake, who opened her arms. Zoey went into them willingly.

  Ms. Montlake laughed and then pulled back, tears in her eyes. “You all made such a difference. I had no idea.” She looked lost. “Thank you. I wasn’t sure what would happen when the committee somehow heard about two kids that weren’t really in high school. But when they learned of your mission to obliterate trafficking and to reveal predators, they kept the championship in place—and they’re having us do a whole video, like a documentary they’ll send out region-wide, exposing the nature of this type of trafficking.” She smiled. “Sammy is telling her story.”

  Zoey hadn’t known that. “We can’t be in it.” Cyrus and Cap hadn’t really wanted them to come tonight, hoping to keep the secret from spilling further. “We really have to try to keep all of this quiet.”

  Nicholas nodded. “It puts us in danger.”

  “We know.” Ms. Montlake made a movement to zip her lips. “Mum’s the word.”

  Sammy reappeared, taking Zoey’s and Nicholas’s hands and pulling them into the backyard. It was packed with students, to the point where it seemed the whole school was in attendance.

  “What is going on?” Zoey asked Sammy.

  Nicholas flung his hand out. “This isn’t keeping it quiet.”

  “Sorry, but pretty much the whole school knows. I mean, we’ve actually been on a mission to make sure any pics of you guys have been taken off all social media. Everyone has been great about it.”

  “Thanks,” said Zoey.

  Ralph would likely take care of that, too.

  “I think Ms. Montlake told you that the regional cheer board wanted us to do a documentary.” Sammy gave her hand a squeeze. “We want you guys to see it.”

  Next to Zoey, Nicholas grunted. “Oh man.”

  Zoey couldn’t help but grin at him, nervous butterflies pulsing through her. “Come on, ‘Finder,’ you love this.”

  He frowned and pointed at her. “We didn’t agree that that’s my superhero name.”

  Sammy took them to the front, where several blankets lay on the ground in front of a projector and a huge screen. Sammy’s father was busy running cords and getting set up. He paused when he passed by Nicholas and Sammy and put his hand out for a high five. They obliged.

  Sammy laughed. “Things have been so much better since…everything. I know that probably sounds strange, but I’ve talked to my parents about so much stuff, and they’ve just been amazing.”

  Zoey vowed to call her own parents tonight. They kept close tabs on her, but it was time to share more with them about all this good stuff that had happened. And she was proud she’d played a small part in it.

  A movie started rolling on the screen. It opened with the whole cheer team doing their dance at state. The students moved in to sit down on the blankets, and Zoey and Nicholas found themselves surrounded by all of the cheer girls.

  Nicholas’s hand brushed hers softly. “You okay?”

  “We don’t ask that question,” she whispered, but she kept her hand beneath his. She liked that Nicholas was her friend.

  “True.” He smiled.

  Sammy’s face filled the screen, looking sadly at the camera. “I’m here today to talk to you about how I was targeted by a sex trafficker. He was a predator, and he got me. Well, almost.” She tapped her head. “He got in my head. I thought he was a real person, and you guys…” She bit her lip, and it trembled as she worked on getting the next words out.

  Zoey turned to the real Sammy and saw a sheen of tears in her eyes. Zoey took her hand.

  “I want to tell my whole story,” on-screen Sammy was saying, “because I want to prevent this from happening to others. And this story actually starts with me and my mean girl ways.” She put up a finger. “Note: I never thought I was a mean girl until I was on the outside of my friend group.”

  Sammy took the audience through her life and her friends and how it just felt easy to always be with her friends. Sammy hadn’t realized that she could have reached out to new students or people who weren’t in her group. She hadn’t even thought that others might be hurt by the way her group acted. She was very honest, talking about how it felt when she was on the outside.

  “I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus,” Sammy continued. “But my best friend and my boyfriend got together. That, combined with not getting head cheerleader for competition, combined with losing all my other friends and this status I thought I needed—it put me in a bad place. I was pathetic.”

  “I hate that part,” Tiffany whispered. She was sitting next to Sammy, resting an arm over her shoulders.

  “Hush,” said Megan. “This isn’t about you.”

  Zoey chuckled. Even after they were officially gone, the drama would still continue at Rosemont High.

  On-screen Sammy continued, her face brightening. “The really cool thing about this whole experience was that I got to feel what it was like to be on the outside and I had some really great people reach out to me.”

  Next to Zoey, Sammy turned back, meeting eyes with Megan and Liz. Both of those girls were crying, too.

  Sammy told the whole story: how it started with a simple post on Instagram, a cry for help, and this guy reaching out to her and acting like he cared. His fake profile had been convincing, and she’d really thought he lived close and was friends with other people she knew.

  She wagged her finger at the camera. “But you guys, here’s the biggest deal. Don’t be friends on social media with anyone that you can’t touch.” She poked her own shoulder. “Don’t think that they’re real because they are a friend of a friend, because they say they are real, or because they compliment you and tell you you’re pretty. Because, you guys, I know how vulnerable we all are. I know it. I…” Her voice caught and she looked down, pausing. Her hand went to her heart. “I am vulnerable, too.”

  Zoey looked at all the
kids in the audience, and she saw that each of them was crying too.

  Sammy looked back up. “I was so lonely and empty. It felt like I was falling even though I had amazing parents, but…I was tricked. I was fooled. I was flattered.” Her face hardened, and she pointed at the camera. “That’s how they get you. That’s how they target you. They trick you into thinking that they love you. They trick you by telling you the things you want to hear. They give you the compliments you need the most at the exact time you need them.”

  She sniffed. “But let me tell you guys how stupid I was.”

  Zoey listened as Sammy gave a rendition of making reluctant plans to see the predator. Sammy explained how she’d met up with him in a public place, thinking she was meeting a true confidante.

  “I don’t know what I thought.” Sammy shrugged. “Honestly, it felt so exciting to be meeting some hot college guy, and it felt more fun that it was secretive. But here’s what happened when we met. He was this fat, old guy who reeked of B.O. and had this look in his eye.” She sucked in a breath and started shaking.

  On camera, Zoey heard her father ask, “Sammy, do we need to pause this?”

  “No.” Sammy focused on the camera. “He had this look in his eyes that was so dark. It was bone-chilling dark, and he looked at me and told me he would rape me, right there in the car. He told me if I didn’t quit yelling, he would duct-tape me and throw me in the back. I kept yelling, and he punched me in the face.”

  The audience gasped. Some of the girls covered their faces like they’d been punched too.

  “He spoke about a trafficking ring. How I would join it and how I would become theirs. How they were my new family.”

  Zoey sniffled. Sammy squeezed her hand.

  On the screen, Sammy continued. “I got lucky. That’s why I’m talking to you, sharing this story, fighting for this: because that pervert weirdo sadist almost killed me. And he would have gotten me out of the state and tortured me, raped me, then sold me. Sold me every hour upon the hour for sex. I. Got. Lucky.”

  A pause ensued, long enough that Zoey wondered if it would end like this.