by Lexie Ray
She thrust faster and faster—from quick shallow strokes to long slippery-quick thrusts—relishing in every inch of him. The shift in pace sent Ash reeling with desire. He could climax any second. He held her breasts firmly in his hands, squeezing and caressing, as he let her ride him to the heights of her pleasure.
It was swelling up and building higher, making Hunter’s heart race and breath quicken. Suddenly, Ash’s hands were wrapped firmly around her ass, guiding her thrusts and holding her against him when she craved a deep grind to contrast the sweet friction of her more forceful thrusts.
He was about to bring her over the edge. She just needed a little more, deeper and harder. It was as though she couldn’t get enough of him. She thrust harder, faster. Then, after a moment, she resumed the slow deep grind. Then, she returned to a hard and fast motion.
“Hunter, I’m close,” he whispered, but she ignored him, continuing to ride him her way, working his body exactly the way she needed it. She was reaching the crest, as well.
Without warning, she peaked. Her body began wildly clenching, expanding and contracting around his thick hardness. A rushing wave of intense heat swept through her from deep between her legs, rippling out through her entire body. She moaned, throwing her head back, holding him tightly, and riding him to the bitter end.
“Are you coming?” he asked in a whisper.
“Yes, yes, yes,” she said. “Yes, oh my God, it’s so good.”
Her sultry voice in his ear was too much. It was impossible to control himself and hold back when he heard her climax and felt her body pulse around his. When he heard her quivering voice utter ‘yes’, it was as though he had brought her a world of ecstasy. Ash exploded inside her, finally coming himself.
They squeezed each other tightly, riding through the swell of their orgasms as long as their bodies would allow them. The bliss inside them entangled with unbreakable love. It pulsed and swirled in absolute and pure eroticism.
Eventually, they calmed. Hunter’s lips found his, and they kissed long and deep, as beads of sweat formed and rolled down their bodies.
Hunter dismounted Ash and sat beside him. He grabbed his cell phone from the nightstand and opened a web browser, logging in to track Blair’s GPS.
“She got pretty far,” he said, as he squinted, looking at the small map on his phone’s screen. “She’s moving,” he said after studying it for a moment. “She’s moving quickly.”
Hunter leaned in and looked at the map. Ash was right. The little red dot that signified her sister’s cell was traveling along its route pretty quickly.
“She’s in a car,” he said, finally figuring it out.
“Grizzly picked her up?” she asked, glancing between the screen and Ash and back again.
“It looks that way,” he said.
“And he didn’t come inside to murder everyone?”
“Apparently not,” said Ash. “We should get dressed.”
But Hunter was already doing just that.
In a matter of minutes, Hunter and Ash were dressed and in the dark sedan that had been parked out front. Hunter started the engine, while Ash studied the map.
“Head east,” he said.
Hunter pulled out, driving along the long and winding dirt road until it intersected with one of the main roads.
It was difficult to track precisely what roads would get them on Blair’s heels the fastest, but Hunter managed to remember the general grid of rural country streets that could lead them to her sister.
By the time they had driven a good three towns east, Ash noticed the red dot stopped traveling. In a matter of minutes, they were driving down a desolate road, which was peppered with potholes, bumps, and odd cracks where the pavement had buckled up over the years. The road cut through a thick forest but eventually spilled out into a clearing where an all-night diner sat, dimly lit like a depressed oasis for midnight travelers.
“She has to be there,” said Ash. “Kill the lights.”
Hunter did, and the road before them went dark. The parking lot, a dirt expanse large enough for three cars, max, was empty except for one vehicle. If they parked next to it, it would be too conspicuous.
“Pull over here,” said Ash. “We can walk over.”
“What, are they just getting a cup of coffee or something?” she asked. “It doesn’t make sense for them to stop here.”
“Maybe Grizzly knows the owner. Maybe this is an establishment of one of his contacts.”
“Or maybe it isn’t, and if we walk in there with guns drawn the cops will be there in no time,” said Hunter.
“Let’s walk over and see if we can see anything through the windows,” said Ash. “Stay alert, though. Keep your gun free and easy to reach.”
They got out of the car and slowly approached the diner, staking out as much as they could.
By the time they reached the dirt parking lot, Hunter could see into the diner. There was Blair at a table.
Ash grabbed her arm, and they both ducked behind the one car that was parked there. After taking a moment there, Hunter lifted her head, straightening up, so she could see through the window again.
“There she is,” said Hunter.
“Do you see Grizzly?” he asked.
She couldn’t though, not from that angle. Quickly, Hunter jogged across the dirt intending to duck behind a tree at the far end of the parking lot.
“Hunter, wait!” Ash whispered, but it was too late.
Just before reaching the tree, Hunter glanced over. She had to see through the window. She had to confirm Grizzly sat across from her sister. But, when she turned her head to see, it wasn’t Grizzly who sat across from Blair.
It was Sarah Voss.
* * *
“You said you didn’t know any of the girls,” said Linden, as he slapped a thick stack of files down on the interrogation room table once again.
“You can’t keep dragging me back in here against my will,” said Twitch in a tone of voice that indicated he was pretty sure he was right, but not entirely certain.
“Look at them,” said Linden, flipping open file after file, across the table. “These are people, missing people, missing girls. Their parents miss them. Their lives have value, and they want to be helped, found, and saved.”
Twitch stared down at the photos clipped inside. The left side of the folders all contained the smiling school photos of the girls. Twitch recognized many. Devon as a five year old, smiling brightly. Margot squinting adorably for the camera, head cocked dramatically, and chin tipped up. On the right sides of the folders were composite sketches of what the girls might look like presently and ten years from now. Some of them were very accurate, others like eerie mutations.
“I know they’re important,” said Twitch. “But I can’t help you.”
“Yes, you can,” said Linden. He was pleading with the kid now. His voice was high pitched, straining to convince and cracking under the immense pressure he might fail. “You knew the DVD password was bullet. You know things that you don’t even know are important. Things that are vital to cracking this case. The girls weren’t at the farmhouse. Neither was Lorne Mann. They still need saving.”
Twitch did his best to block out the man’s pleas. The woman detective had told Twitch not to say a word—that Hunter and Ash’s freedom depended on it. That they’d all reunite soon. And Twitch refused to do anything that might jeopardize that.
“Look,” said Linden finally sitting down. “This is a massive corruption ring I’m cracking open. I know it. You know it. And I don’t have anyone, not one soul to work with who’s from the inside, from the farmhouse, who knows what went on there. Except you. You’re all I got. So, I need you to start talking. I need what you know to go on paper and get reported so that the Feds can get involved. So that we can catch these guys.”
“Whatever you think I know, I don’t know it,” yelled Twitch. “All I know is that Lorne kept me there.”
“I really didn’t want to have to show you
this,” said Linden, as he opened a laptop, tilting the screen towards Twitch.
“What’s that?” He asked.
Linden pressed the space bar and the DVD began to play. “Your password unlocked this footage we found at the farmhouse,” said Linden. “I’m warning you, it’s very hard to watch.”
Twitch stared at the screen nervously. He already knew what had gone on at the farmhouse, in the barn, he didn’t need to see it in HD. But the footage wasn’t of an attack in the barn. It was much, much worse.
At first the screen was black, then grainy and dark as though the camera lens was slowly coming into focus in a dimly lit room. At first Twitch wasn’t sure what he was looking at—until he saw a form come into view. It was the figure of a woman. Suddenly, a bright light illuminated the woman, and Twitch recognized her to be the detective who had spoken with Twitch a day ago. The lady detective, but she appeared much younger—maybe by fifteen or twenty years. Twitch realized that the woman wasn’t in a room, but outside, as the camera angle widened. There was a playground in the background. The lady detective said something into the camera, which Twitch couldn’t hear. There was no audio on the DVD or Linden had kept it on mute to spare Twitch from something horrific to come. It was hard to say. Soon, the woman stood with her back to the camera as the camera zoomed in passed her and focused on a little boy playing in a sandbox. The little boy had to have been about four, maybe five years old. He had wispy blond hair and a round face. He looked like he could have been any little boy, or so Twitch thought, until the camera angle zoomed in tightly framing the boy’s face. The boy looked up. His steel blue eyes looked around the playground for someone—maybe his mother. That’s when Twitch suddenly realized who the little boy was.Twitch was looking at Ash.
Then, when the adults in the far background were looking off, not paying attention, the woman ran up and grabbed the boy then ran towards the camera. The boy screamed, his mouth twisting open, tears streaming down his face. The lady detective wasn’t his mother. He didn’t know her. This was a video of Detective Sarah Voss stealing a baby.
Linden stopped the video then placed the curser deeper into the time line and pressed play. Now, Sarah appeared to be a bit older. The park she was in seemed more urban than the last. Again, she snatched a four year old—this time a little girl. Twitch recognized her as Margot. After a few moments of watching, Linden again cued the footage up later in the timeline. Sarah was even older. She stole another baby. Finally, Linden stopped the DVD, and the computer screen went black.
“Like I said,” said Linden. “This thing is much bigger than anyone could have ever imagined. And I need your help.”
“That was the detective,” said Twitch.
“That’s right.”
“She told me not to say anything about the girls in the folder. She told me if I did that Hunter and Ash wouldn’t be safe and that the girls wouldn’t be safe,” said Twitch, as tears sprung to his eyes.
“I need to find those girls,” he said. “Do you have any idea where they could be?”
“I can’t believe it,” said Twitch.
“Trust me, little man, no one can believe it less than I do.”
* * *
Grizzly paced back and forth like a caged animal inside a storage unit not larger than ten by ten feet. The space felt infinitely smaller since it was packed, floor to ceiling, with boxes, a clear path no broader than one foot wide ran down its center.
The crickets outside were screaming in overlapping pulses. It was absolutely maddening.
The storage unit was becoming suffocating. Where were they?
Grizzly felt like a sitting duck, waiting helplessly and hiding amongst decades of videos. The VHS tapes and DVDs were all boxed up, the evidence of his life’s work—child pornography. If their plan soured, if anything were to go wrong and he was caught here with the boxes, it would be all over. No, that couldn’t happen. He had to trust his family would come through for him like they promised.
The immense rattle of the storage door lifting jarred Grizzly out of deep thought. He stopped his pacing.
On the other side stood Blair and Sarah.
Good. Right on time.
They entered quickly and rolled the door back down behind them.
“Were you followed?” he asked.
“Of course, we were,” said Blair.
“As planned,” Sarah added.
“Hunter and Ash are just outside the gate,” Blair went on. “How should we do this?”
* * *
It was a long drive through the deep forest. They drove down dirt roads that twisted and turned as surprisingly as the past few weeks. Linden drove, a white-knuckle grip around the steering wheel. Twitch sat in the passenger’s seat, leaning forward, trying with all his might to remember which right hand turns to make versus when to turn left. Eventually, they found it. With the moon shining brightly overhead, Linden pulled up to the quaint cabin that Twitch hoped with all his might would contain the ten missing girls from the farmhouse—ten missing girls from Linden’s files.
Chapter Thirteen
The storage unit facility was fortified behind an eight-foot chain fence topped with barbed wire and lined with security cameras. They had to assume the camera footage was being viewed in real time by a night watchman somewhere on the property. At least the facility was poorly lit and completely dark in places, Hunter discovered, as she walked the length of the fence with Ash trailing a few paces behind.
The rolling gate had closed too quickly behind Sarah’s vehicle when she and Blair had driven in. It had been hard enough following them without being detected. Luckily, they had been able to track the GPS on Blair’s phone from a half mile behind. Now, they just had to figure out how to get inside.
“That’s them,” said Hunter, her face pressed to the chain link fence, “it has to be.”
Ash joined her, looking where she appeared to be looking. Midway down one of the aisles, one of the storage units wasn’t closed completely. Its door hovered about an inch from the cement ground. There were lights on inside the unit. From their vantage point, it looked like a glowing bar amongst the darkness and shadows of the neighboring units.
“What if Blair was meeting Sarah just like we had met her?” questioned Hunter. “Innocently?” She knew that wasn’t the case, but she was having a hard time swallowing the fact that her sister was continuing to choose the corruption and madness over the peace of escape.
“Then, Sarah would’ve called us and looped us in,” said Ash.
“I literally cannot fathom why Sarah is a part of all this. How is that possible?” Hunter asked, as she continued to watch the glowing crack of the storage unit. They were definitely in there. Dark patches broke the glow, as feet and legs obstructed the light. They were pacing in there, plotting. Why a storage unit?
“It’s your entire family,” said Ash, turning to her.
“It’s insane. It’s actually insane,” she said. “And you know what? It makes me the normal one. How is that possible? I’m fucked up, seriously fucked up, and yet I’m the normal one.”
Ash brushed his hand across her lower back, wrapping it around her waist. When it finally arrived, reached the far side of her, he pulled her close until his lips, the tip of his nose, and the edge of his chin rested on her cheek. He kissed her, smelling her salty-sweet skin.
“We don’t choose where we come from,” he said. “We don’t pick our parents and who they are doesn’t have to dictate who we are.”
“But it does,” she said, gazing off into space, her vision softening. “It doesn’t have to but it does. He wants me to be a killer, and I am. He’s already won.”
“No, he wants you to be a killer for him, with him, by his side, and you aren’t doing that. What you’re doing is stopping him the best way you know how.”
“I was really resisting the idea that the police could help,” she said turning to him, resting her hands around the back of his neck. “But, once I trusted Sarah and believed
her arguments, I became so hopeful, you know? I felt like it really would turn out ok, how could it not? She was going to protect us from being arrested, from Grizzly, from everything. The police are never going to understand what we did back in Brooklyn, are they?”
Ash fell silent.
“They’re not going to understand what we did to the men at the farmhouse—that is—if they connect that it was our doing. Even if they do discover what my dad was doing and succeed at putting him in prison, we’ll end up in prison, as well, won’t we? Right along side him, one big happy family. You behind bars with Grizzly, and me tucked away with my lying, betraying mother and psychopath sister.” Hunter found herself laughing. She tried to stop and calm down, but she couldn’t. The laughter was uncontrollable. She was losing it.
Ash held her tightly until the belting laughter twisted into grim cries of anguish and falling tears.
“We don’t know what the future holds. We got this far didn’t we?”
“We got this far because we had a sick cop making sure we got this far so that she could have me to herself in whatever demented fantasy of a family reunion she had in mind. There’s no way we would’ve made it out of Brooklyn if she hadn’t been on the case, working everyone like fools,” said Hunter.
“We can’t worry about that, Hunter,” he said, holding her face in his hands, forcing her to look him in the eye and come back to him from the deep thoughts that were pulling her under. “We have to figure out how to get in there. We have to plan what we’ll do once we’re inside. Come on, think. I can’t do this without you. You have to focus. Breathe.”
She drew in a series of deep breaths while gazing into his eyes. Ash was her anchor. The sea was still stormy, it would still toss her about, but he kept her from drifting away.
When it seemed like Hunter had regained her faculties and stabilized, Ash glanced up at the storage unit then at the barbed wire that spiraled along the top of the fence.
