by A. K. Evans
Violet had been making great progress and I was proud that she was ready to share so quickly, but equally as surprised when she didn’t show up to the last session. It also appeared she wasn’t showing up to today’s either.
I shook my head trying to dispel any fears she had. “It’s different for everyone, Riley. While it saddens me to think Violet might be doing this alone, I can’t say I don’t understand her choice. I did it on my own for a long time. Of course, now I wish I hadn’t. Regardless, there is no multi-step program that we can all follow to heal. It just isn’t that easy.”
Before Riley could respond, our attention was directed to the meeting. As I sat there listening to stories being shared and women either crying with or applauding other women, I knew what my next step was going to be.
I was going to share.
Not today, but at the next meeting.
Somewhere in the middle of the story being told by, Jocelyn, the last woman who was sharing, Riley had tapped me on the shoulder to let me know she needed to step out. I couldn’t blame her. Jocelyn’s story was heartbreaking. Like me, Jocelyn was a victim of acquaintance rape. That alone was a difficult pill to swallow, but what made it truly devastating for her was the fact that it was her boyfriend that didn’t protect her. She’d been at a house party drinking, but her boyfriend was there. She never thought she couldn’t trust him. She only remembered having two drinks before feeling extremely dizzy and drunk. Seeking out her boyfriend, she told him something wasn’t right. He took her to one of the second-floor bedrooms so she could lie down. Not long after, she was fading in and out. She remembered hearing voices, then seeing one of her boyfriend’s friends on top of her. She knew it was happening, but she had no control over her body. She remembered seeing her boyfriend in the room doing nothing while this other guy raped her.
I couldn’t even imagine the pain she felt knowing that her own boyfriend could do something so cruel to her. The meeting ended and I found myself sitting there reeling from Jocelyn’s story. Many of us gave our trust so easily to people who did nothing to earn it; I had done that. And then I refused to trust anyone for years. I knew it wasn’t healthy to believe that everyone was bad and I managed to find a way to trust people again, but they had to work for it. I truly hoped Jocelyn, who was feeling so beaten down and broken, would continue to come to meetings and get help because I wanted her to be able to trust people again.
Looking around the room, I realized Riley hadn’t yet returned. She left her bag by her chair, so I picked it up and walked out to check on her. She wasn’t in the common space out front and some women had walked outside, so I followed behind them to see if she had stepped out. I didn’t think she would have come out alone and when I didn’t see her I was relieved. I also noticed her car was still parked in the lot. Walking back inside, I went to the bathroom. She wasn’t there either.
I started panicking. This just didn’t feel right. Riley always came back to the meeting and, other than the first time she walked out of one when I followed her out, she was never gone more than ten minutes. It had now been easily twenty minutes since she walked out.
Hoping I missed her walking back into the group therapy session room when I went outside to look for her, I went back in. There were still a few women in the room, but no sign of Riley.
“Hey, girls,” I interrupted one group. “Have any of you seen Riley?”
They shook their heads and one of them added, “I saw her get up during the meeting, but haven’t seen her since.”
I didn’t want to worry women who were already so fragile, so I simply brushed it off and threw out, “Oh, she must be in the bathroom then.”
Walking out of the room, I went back down the hall toward the empty rooms at the back of the center. I needed to make a call and I didn’t want to bring any undue stress on the rest of the women there.
First, I called Riley’s phone. It was no surprise that her handbag I was holding started ringing.
Great.
I quickly disconnected and made the next call.
“Hey, Lex. All finished up?” Cruz answered.
“Captain, I need your help,” my desperation evident, even with my hushed tone.
“Where are you? Are you alright?”
“I’m ok. The meeting just finished, but Riley is missing.”
He listened carefully as I explained everything to him.
“I’m worried about her,” I confessed. “She wouldn’t just leave. Can you help?”
“I’m leaving the office now. Stay inside until I get there,” he instructed.
“Ok. I’ll see you shortly.”
I disconnected the call and felt a hand grip my bicep. I tensed and heard a familiar voice fill my ears from behind me.
“I did not want to have to do this, but you’ve left me no choice.”
I was in shock.
Frozen.
Again.
“The first thing you’re going to do is call whoever that was and tell them you found your friend. Then, you’ll need to come with me.”
I was spun around and now face-to-face with him.
Oh God.
Oh no.
“Do you understand me?” his menacing voice asked.
I nodded and called Cruz back.
“Put the phone on speaker. You say one stupid thing and we’ll have bigger problems,” he ordered.
Putting the phone on speaker, we heard it ring once before Cruz answered, “Warrior, you ok?”
“I’m sorry for calling prematurely and bothering you at work. Grant just showed up and told me he saw Riley. Sure enough, she was in the bathroom.”
“Lexi, you told me you checked the bathroom.”
Grant’s fingers squeezed my arm a little tighter, indicating I better think quick.
“Yeah, I know. I must have missed her when everyone was filing out of the room. I’m going to just finish up here and I’ll see you at your place shortly, cupcake.”
There was silence for a moment before he responded, “Ok, Lex. I’ll see you there then.”
I hoped he realized what I said and knew I needed him to help me.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t begin to think about that because Grant took my phone out of my hand and began dragging me down the hall toward the back exit of the center.
There was a van parked behind the building. As he pulled me toward it, he barked, “I told them you were off-limits, but you had to go sticking your nose into things you shouldn’t have. Now I can’t do anything to save you. You’ll end up wherever you end up and there’s nothing I can do about it now.”
“Grant, what are you doing?” I asked.
Maybe if I could keep him talking I’d buy myself enough time for Cruz to get here. I had to believe he knew I still needed him.
“Transporting you,” he explained.
“Where? Where are you taking me?”
“To the place where you’ll be prepped to be sold.”
I shook my head, unable to speak. Grant was just about to open the back of the van, when I snapped out of it. I pulled my arm back, but he just tightened his hold on me. Even still, I struggled and tried to get away.
“Stop fighting me, Lexi.”
No way. I didn’t fight once before, but I wasn’t going to let that happen again. I kept struggling until he backhanded me across the face. It was so hard; I saw stars and was disoriented.
That was enough time for Grant to open the back of the van, haul me up, and throw me in. When he slammed the door shut, I realized I wasn’t alone.
Someone was curled up in a ball, shaking, crying, and terrified.
It was Riley.
Cupcake.
She used her safe word. Something was very wrong and I had no doubts Lexi knew what she was doing when she used that word.
I knew she was in trouble, but I couldn’t tell her that I was going to come there anyway. I didn’t know the situation, so I couldn’t risk putting her in more danger.
The second she discon
nected the call, I looked over at Lorenzo. He was sitting in the passenger’s seat of my truck on our way to WAAR. After receiving the first call from Lexi when she stated she didn’t know where her friend was, I had this gut feeling things were not good. Lorenzo happened to be standing nearby when I got the call and didn’t hesitate to join me. As we walked out of the Cunningham Security office, we saw Dom and gave him a quick update.
“Go,” he ordered. “I’m going to grab Pierce and we’ll be coming right behind you.”
No sooner did Lorenzo and I get into my truck and start pulling out of the parking lot when Lexi called back. I immediately answered her call through my truck’s Bluetooth system. That’s when she used her safe word and we were still just over five minutes away from her.
“Something tells me you don’t believe her friend showed up,” Lorenzo guessed after the call was disconnected.
“You’d be right,” I confirmed.
“How do you know?” he pressed.
“She called me cupcake.”
Lorenzo let out a sound and noted, “I’m not sure that explains much.”
“I’m not sharing things that aren’t mine to share,” I started. “That said, Lexi needed a safe word when we got together. Cupcake is her word. This is the first time I’ve ever heard her use that word.”
“Who’s Grant?” Lorenzo changed the subject.
I was relieved to hear not an ounce of judgement in his tone after what I’d just told him. If I was being honest, I guessed I never really believed I would have heard it, though.
As I drove faster to get to her, I answered, “The guy who facilitated the opening of the rape crisis center Lexi did the PR for, the same one she’s now volunteering at.”
“Got any other info on him? A last name at least?”
I shook my head. We never really discussed him to that extent. Then, it dawned on me. “He was a referral from her brother, Logan,” I spat out. “Logan can probably give us more information.”
We pulled up to WAAR. Lexi’s car was parked in the lot, but there was no sign of her. Just as I was about to get out of the truck to go inside and look for her, my cell rang.
“Can’t talk now, Levi” I answered, connected to the Bluetooth.
“She called here,” he returned.
“Lexi?”
“She said she was throw into the back of a white van. They’re driving now, but she doesn’t know where. There’s a girl in the van with her. Riley. Apparently, when this guy, Grant, threw Lexi in the back of the van he took her phone. He didn’t realize Lexi was carrying Riley’s purse with her phone in it.”
“Are you having Michaels track them?” Lorenzo cut in.
Trent Michaels was our resident tech guru. He could hang with the best of us in the field, but behind the computer is where he excelled.
“He is tracking the GPS on the phone, but the battery life was at less than ten percent. As much as I wanted to keep her on the phone and have her report what was happening, I didn’t want to risk having the phone die.”
“Did she tell you anything else?”
I was met with silence.
“Levi?” I warned. “What did she tell you?”
“Fuck, Cruz,” he bit out. “After hearing the call she made to you, Grant said he could no longer protect her and that he was transporting her to where she’d be prepped to be sold.”
Rage boiled up inside of me.
“Over my dead body,” I seethed. “They aren’t putting her through this again.”
“Keep your cool, bro.”
I couldn’t.
“Levi, she was raped four years ago and she just now found a way to trust people again. If we don’t get to her, I’m certain she’s going to be damaged beyond repair.”
“We’re going to get her,” he insisted. “I’m in Trent’s office right now; he’s going to tell you where they’re headed. We’ve also got Dom, Pierce, and Holden on this call. They’re two minutes behind you. I’m assembling the rest of the team that’s available. If Grant is taking Lexi and her friend to wherever the rest of these women are, we’re going to need the resources.”
I maneuvered the truck back to the parking lot entrance. A second later, Trent told me where they were and the direction they were headed. They’d only gotten about ten minutes ahead of us. I pulled out of the lot, determined to get to Lexi.
We’d been driving a solid fifteen minutes, the last ten on the freeway.
“We don’t think we’re getting that cell signal anymore,” Levi informed me. “Trent believes the battery died on the phone.”
My warrior. The only connection we had to her was gone.
“What about Lexi’s phone? Have you tried that?” I suggested.
“Already tried, Cruz,” Trent assured me. “I’m guessing he turned her phone off. It’s only showing me the last location, which is pinging off a tower near the place she was taken from. That signal hasn’t moved since we started following them on her friend’s phone.”
“Get a number for Logan Townsend and bring him in on this call,” I ordered. “He referred Grant to Lexi. Grant is one of Logan’s clients from his shop. See if he can give us anything.”
A few minutes later, Logan’s voice filled the cabin of the truck.
“Hello?”
“Logan, it’s Cruz,” I announced. “I’ve got you on a multi-way call here. I’m in my truck with Lorenzo, and we’ve got Levi and Trent on the line back at the office. A couple of the guys are in the truck behind me.”
“This already feels bad. Is Lexi ok?”
His voice was tense and alert.
“I’m on the freeway trailing a van she was thrown in the back of. I need you to tell me everything you know about this guy Grant she’s been working with.”
“Grant Chambers?” he asked. “He’s one of my clients. What am I missing?”
“I’m thinking he’s the ring-leader of the case I’ve been working on,” I shared.
“What does your case have to do with my sister?”
“I don’t know enough yet to be certain or to give you details, but my case is the Windsor sex-trafficking ring.”
“You better be fucking kidding me, Cruz,” he clipped.
“I wish I was,” I shot back.
“Fuck!” he roared.
“Focus, Logan,” I urged. “Any idea where I’m headed? Where would he be taking her?”
He was silent a moment before he responded with nothing but defeat in his voice, “He’s the senior VP of Logistics and Distribution for Glazier’s Supply. They’ve got tons of warehouses and they aren’t just in the state of Wyoming.”
This was not good. I understood Luke’s downtrodden tone because Glazier’s was a massive corporation. We needed to figure out a way to narrow down the possible locations that he could be taking Lexi.
“We were trailing him, Logan. There’s another girl in the van with her and Grant doesn’t know they have her phone. The battery on that phone had little power left and it just died, so we no longer have a way to track where they’re headed.
“Which way are you going?”
“East on twenty-six,” I began. “We’re past Dubois, but still north of Willow Creek. I just pulled over because I don’t want to keep going if they’ve gotten off at any of these exits.”
“There’s a new warehouse they’re opening somewhere in that area,” he blurted. “Grant told me about it in an email a while back when I’d reach out to him about some things on his car. Give me a second. I’ll see if there’s any information on that on their website.”
I anxiously awaited any word from Logan. There was no guarantee that it would be where Grant would take them, but I was hoping for a miracle. As Lorenzo and I waited, my mind drifted to Lexi.
Normally, extreme cases like this didn’t faze me. Years of working in the field and experiencing high-risk situations on occasion allowed me to have a sense of determination and focus. I never worried if I’d be able to get the job done, but now I was comple
tely overcome with a feeling of dread and despair. I hated to think what would happen if we found her too late.
“I’ve got it, Cruz. The warehouse is in Crowheart, just a few minutes north of Willow Creek.”
He went on to rattle off the address as Lorenzo punched it into the GPS. I only hoped our instincts were right and this is where he was taking her.
I wasted no time and got back on the road.
“You get that, Levi?” Lorenzo asked.
“We’re on it,” Levi responded. “Michaels and I are getting the location over to the rest of the team. You’ve got guys only a couple minutes behind you. I’ll reach out to Detective Baines in the meantime.”
“Thanks, Logan,” I called out. “I’ll let you know once I’ve got her safe.”
“Bring her home, Cruz,” he demanded.
“I won’t come back to Windsor without her,” I replied before disconnecting the call.
Keeping my foot on the gas, I drove to the location Logan gave us. The entire way there I hoped for a miracle.
“Are they really going to sell us?”
Riley and I were still in the back of the moving van.
She was terrified. I was just as terrified, but I knew I needed to be strong for her, for myself.
“No,” I assured her. “Cruz is going to get to us before that can happen.”
The truth was that I had no idea if he’d know where to go. The battery on Riley’s phone died, so there was no longer any way for Levi and his team to track where we were. Even still, I needed to stay positive. Riley was far too worked up. If I let my emotions get the best of me in this situation, we’d never stand a chance.
I was determined to fight.
“I’m scared, Lexi.”
I moved close to Riley and put my arms around her. “I know,” I tried to comfort her. “But we’ve got to stay positive.”
