by Samantha Bee
Even Ryder must be starving, and he wasn’t even held captive for long. The car gets quiet as all the talking faded and is replaced with the sounds of chewing. After a minute I hear Letty again as she tries to coax the little girl to let go of her neck and have some food. It seems like she doesn’t want to unbury her face from Letty’s chest to eat anything even though she must be starving.
Letty refuses to give up as she coos and praises the little girl. Even Kade starts trying to bargain with the little girl.
“Oh, I have an idea,” Letty exclaims, infusing her voice with excitement, “lets snuggle up together in a blanket, how’s that sound, sweet girl?” I don’t hear any response from the little girl, but Scar continues as if she said yes, “Good, good job, sweet girl. Let’s get all tucked in. Ooo this is nice and cozy,” she hums, and I wish I could see the two of them right now.
“You know what we need now?” she asks, pausing a moment and then once again continues as if the little girl answered her, “We need churros. We can have tacos later. You were so strong I think we deserve dessert first. What do you think?”
I don’t hear any response from the little girl, but I can hear the smile in Letty’s voice when she continues, “I agree, so you just gotta let go on my neck but stay curled up in my lap, okay? I like cuddling with you, and we can eat our churros together.”
I look at Mikey from the corner of my eye and see that he’s watching the back of the van. His hands are curled into fists in his lap and his eyes are filled with rage, but also awe and respect, with the softness of affection for Scar as she takes care of the little girl.
As soon as we stop at a stop light, I take a peek at the back and the sight feels like a punch to my chest. The little girl is curled up Letty’s lap with the blanket tucked in around them. She looks like a little angel and she watches Letty with absolute adoration written across her features. She is tiny and clearly traumatized, but what really hits me is how much she reminds me of Letty as a little girl.
Every protective instinct I have goes into overdrive at the sight of the two of them eating their churros, cuddled together. If I didn’t know better, I would think she was Letty’s biological daughter. Rage burns through my veins at the thought of this little girl being brutalized.
Fuck. I already know after just one glance, she has me wrapped around her finger. I see the look in Letty’s eyes and find myself looking towards Kade to see his reaction. He’s studying the two girls with more intensity than I’ve ever seen from him, and right then I know this little girl has all our hearts.
I drive quickly wanting to get these girls settled into a safe house as quickly as possible and get each of their stories to figure out what resources we are going to need to utilize for each of them. Usually, Scar would take point on that, but I can already tell she's going to be wrapped up in the little girl.
As soon as I park in the garage of the safe house all five of us guys jump out of the car to help the girls. Oh, and Ryder. He’s so quiet I kind of keep forgetting he’s here. He’s going to need some medical attention. All of them probably will knowing the treatment Romano gives his girls. Disgusting pig.
We should have a couple of female doctors already here waiting and ready for them. We keep all of our safe houses well stocked with clothes, food, and first aid supplies. We want everyone we rescue to have everything they need available to them immediately after we get them out.
Kade, Joe and I each get a room ready for the older girls and get them situated. Each room has a connected bathroom and a lock on their door so they can feel safe. The doctors will go through each girl, maybe I’ll just have the doctors get all the information that I’ll need to set them up.
“What happens to them now?” Ryder asks as I walk back towards Scar.
“Well, we have doctors here that will look over each of you guys and treat your injuries. After that, we find out each of the girls’ situations. If they have a home to go back to, then we will make sure they get there as well as give them a secure line to get ahold of us if any problems arise,” she explains to him. “We vet each family before sending the girls back so sometimes it can take a couple of days. Some of the girls don’t even realize it was their family that sold them, so it’s necessary to make sure we aren’t just sending them back to a bad situation. They’ll stay here until we sort it out and make sure it's safe.”
Ryder curses hearing that some of these girls get sold by their families but it's a sad truth. We learned that the hard way early on in this operation. Now we are vigilant about setting these girls up after we rescue them.
“If that’s the case, or they don’t have a family, we have a system of foster families that take in victims of trafficking. They’re all thoroughly vetted, are required to take mental evaluations and psychology classes plus attend mandatory therapy sessions while they have victims living with them. We also have a team that does random house visits to ensure the health and safety of each person.”
“Holy shit,” Ryder whistles. “Y’all are really thorough.”
Scar nods, hugging the little girl against her chest and rocking her and I notice she’s asleep, “Yeah, we try to really help these girls as much as we can. We have a rehab center for anyone who has become addicted to drugs, whether through the trafficking or from before. It’s totally free for them, they just have to agree to going. If they’re older than eighteen we help them figure out what they want to do. School, work, if they still need a family. We have a branch for everything.”
“How the fuck is this all possible?” he asks, totally in awe. I have to agree it's amazing what Scar has accomplished over the years.
“We work with an amazing foundation,” she answers simply.
It makes me smile how nonchalant she is about the whole thing. She built the fucking foundation from the ground up and has turned it into one of the biggest, and most successful anti-trafficking foundations in the world. It has received all types of awards and accolades.
“Which one,” he asks, “the only one I know that has those type of resources is,”
“The Mending Hearts Foundation,” I finish for him and he stares with his mouth open. I smirk, “That’s the one.”
“Well shit, then yeah. These girls are taken care of. You guys even help them pay for college or trade school,” he says in awe.
“The foundation does, yes,” Scar interjects just as Kade walks back into the room. We both stare at her before trading exasperated looks and rolling our eyes. The foundation is Scar’s baby, she is the sole reason it has done so well.
She took her trust fund and inheritance and invested it. She now has more businesses than I can keep track of but are very useful in laundering the money we make. She’s ridiculously intelligent, more so than I ever could have anticipated when we first met. I think she’s even surprised herself with everything she’s capable of.
I notice Ryder studying Kade and realize he didn’t miss the interaction between the two of us. Sharp guy.
“I want to work with you guys,” he says.
“What?” all three of us stammer out.
“You guys work with the biggest foundation in the country. I want to work with you.”
“We can get you in touch with the foundation’s training and hiring team,” she replies.
Ryder is already shaking his head, “On your team.”
“Look,” Scar sighs, “can we talk about this later? It’s not that simple and I’m exhausted.”
I look at Scar and really take her in. She looks exhausted, the bags under her eyes more pronounced than they were just a few hours ago and her face paler than normal. I can’t believe I didn’t notice before. I was just distracted by the girl.
“Ladybug, you don't look so good,” Kade says echoing my thoughts.
“Just need a shower and a nap,” she smiles.
Kade and I trade looks again, this time we are both unsure. It feels like she faded a lot faster than she should have. It doesn’t look like just an adrenaline cr
ash.
“Let’s get her in a bed and we will take you home,” I tell her, and she nods back but I don’t miss the look of relief in her eyes.
As soon as Scar tries to put the little girl in bed, she startles awake and clings to her letting out these heartbreaking little mewling sounds. Desperate and scared. My heart breaks. Scar looks up at me and Kade, unsure of what she should do. She clearly doesn’t have the energy for this, but I can see in her eyes she doesn’t want to leave the girl like this.
“How about you guys come stay at my house tonight?” I offer her. My house is bigger and a hell of a lot more secure than her shitty little apartment. They’ll have the space and be safe. Plus, everyone can come over and crash and we can talk about the information Scar snatched out of the office. She still has that guard's phone and laptop as well. Turned off so they can’t trace it, but she should be able to pull a lot of good information off of it.
She looks surprised by my offer. I think she thought I would push her to leave the girl and to be honest, normally I would. We aren’t supposed to bring victims home with us. We aren’t supposed to blur the lines. But we’ve never had a child so small and she clearly has formed an attachment to Scar. It seems like the best thing.
“It’s bigger and safer. The doctor will meet us there to look the girl over and you can lay down and stay with her,” I turn to look at Kade, “You and the guys come too. We have a lot of information to go over.”
“I could help with that,” interjects Ryder. He’s kind of reminding me of an overeager puppy right now. I raise my brow at him.
“I have a lot of information we collected on Romano’s operations before shit went south,” he explains.
“Look, I’ll be upfront, I still don’t know that we should trust you,” I admit to him. It just seems to all be going too well, too conveniently.
He sighs, “I promise I have nothing to do with the markets. I’m new to this rescuing thing but I need to do this,” a desperate plea enters his voice even though he tries to hide it.
I study him and really focus on his eyes and then it hits me. I recognize what I see there, and it becomes clear why Scar was so quick to trust him. He has the same pain and rage in his eyes as Scar does. I look to her and see her subtle nod.
“Fine. Ride with the boys. Kade you’re with us.”
The little girl’s mewling stopped almost instantly when she realized Scar wasn’t leaving her. I pull out my phone and call Adam. As soon as he answers I tell him to find someone to cover Scar’s shift on the bar tonight. She is in no condition to go to work right now. They know she does other work for me, but most people think she helps me with training and shit like that. Only a few of my employees, like Joe, are involved in this side of the business.
As soon as that’s taken care of, I text a doctor and then we head out.
Chapter Twelve
The guys are all set up in my living room drinking beer and eating sandwiches as I hook up Scar’s computer up to my tv so I can broadcast the security footage from the rescue mission. Joe, Ronan, and Mikey were really butthurt they didn’t get to see any of Scar’s kills and even Ryder is curious.
I discreetly cup my dick after thinking about her threat to him. That was brutal even by her normal standards.
I don’t think I would even want to be in the same room after that, but Ryder seems intrigued by not only her but all of us. I keep catching him studying our interactions like he’s trying to work out the dynamics in this group of misfits.
We are a fucking odd bunch, I’ll give him that. I get the show started and go to check on Scar and the little girl. She took them into her normal bedroom here. She told me to let the little girl get some sleep before having the doctor here, I think she needs a nap too. I hope she isn’t getting sick, it’s so unlike her to fade this fast.
I knock on her door before opening it and walking in. There is a little ball on the bed, and I realize it's the little girl dressed in one of Scar’s shirts she keeps here. I look down at the little bundle and notice Scar managed to get her clean and bandaged her up at least a little bit. The little girl is sound asleep holding on to the collar of the shirt she’s wearing. I smile to myself. We really have to figure out what her name is. I haven't heard her talk at all though. Something else to talk to the doctor about.
I hear a noise and turn around towards the bathroom door to see Scar standing in the doorway in only a towel with her wet hair hanging down her back and blood dripping down her arm.
What. The. Fuck.
I stamp down my urge to rage on her, instead walking up to her and grabbing her non-injured arm before leading her out of the room where the little girl is sound asleep.
As soon as we are away from her and the door is closed, I turn on her, “What the fuck is this, Letty?”
I gently grab her arm to examine the wound and the blood rushes out of my face.
“You were shot?”
I look up at her and she grimaces when she meets my eyes. I can’t even imagine what she sees on my face right now.
I don’t even know how to process everything I’m feeling right now. It all starts clicking and coming together. She’s been suffering from blood loss.
My screaming must have grabbed the guys attention because I can hear their own pissed declarations, but I ignore them, locked in on Scar. She doesn’t look away from me. Thank god, I’m likely to do something crazy right now, like wrap her in bubble wrap and lock her in my bedroom. Where she can’t get fucking shot.
“How the fuck could you put yourself at risk like this, Letty?” I whisper to her. I can hear the devastation in my voice but fuck. This girl owns my mind, body, and soul, and she can’t even be bothered to take care of herself.
“You were carrying around that little girl since you found her, all the while you’ve been bleeding out and you didn’t say anything,” my voice starts rising again as I lose control of my emotions, “not one fucking thing.”
“I know,” she whispers, “but I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not,” I hiss at her. “You have blood dripping down your arm from a goddamn gunshot wound. You’re fucking suffering from blood loss.”
“It’s okay, Luca,” she uses the same fucking gentle tone on me as she was using on the little girl and it sets me right the fuck off.
“Don’t give me that, Scar! You know this was a fucking bullshit move! We could have had you patched up in minutes. Fucking minutes. Do you really not see how selfish this was?” I can’t help but snap at her. I know that she sees it as being selfless, that she is putting the little girl’s needs ahead of her own, but this goes past that. This was being stupid. It was being brash and reckless and for what purpose?
“I needed to take care of her,” she yells back, losing her own temper. I know she hated being called selfish, I know it’s getting to her and messing with her head, but I can’t help but feel anything other than good about that. I let this girl get away with so goddamn much. I never push her, scared that it’ll be too much after everything she’s been through. Now I’m seeing maybe that was a mistake. Maybe it’s time I stop coddling her, start being more honest with her, make her see what the fuck she’s doing to me.
“I need you to take care of you!” I bark. “Don’t you fucking get that?” My emotions are all over the damn place and all of my pent-up feelings for this incredible, selfless, idiotic woman are spilling out of me with every word. “Why do you insist on punishing yourself for sins that weren’t yours?”
“That’s not what this was!” she yells back at and slams her good fist into my chest.
“Then what the fuck was it?” I ask as I grab her good arm and force her back against the wall. “Come on, Letty. Tell me that you didn’t let yourself slowly bleed out, that you didn’t carry extra weight in your injured arm, that you didn’t climb down a goddamn ladder that must have put your arm through searing agony. Tell me you didn’t put yourself in unnecessary pain and danger without saying a word because some fucked up part
of you feels like you deserve it?”
She shakes her head back and forth, but tears are gathering in her eyes and I know my words are hitting home, “Come on, Letty. Tell me I’m wrong,” she tries to pull her arm out of my grip, but I tighten my hold, “Tell me that suffering in silence didn’t feed your demons. That getting hurt saving that little girl didn’t appease their thirst for your blood.”
“No,” she whispers, still shaking her head back and forth in denial.
“Come on, sweet girl,” I taunt her with the nickname I used to always call her. The nickname I heard her use with the little girl, repeatedly. “You talk about your demons’ cravings for revenge, how the blood of those sick fucks feeds the chaos in your soul. So why can’t you admit to the ones that tell you to put yourself in danger? The ones that tell you, you deserve the pain?”
“I don’t know,” she whispers, hanging her head, no longer fighting against my hold.
I grab her chin and tilt it up towards me so I can look her in the eye, “It’s because you know it’s fucking selfish.”
My words cause the tears to finally run over and spill down her cheeks. “You have a whole team of people behind you who care about what happens to you. Who are loyal to you, who love you, who need you,” I pause, hesitating, “I need you, Letty,” I whisper, letting the vulnerability seep into my voice. “I need you to be safe and healthy. I fucking need you to care enough about yourself to get help when you’re fucking shot!”
I take several deep breaths as I try to reign in my emotions and step away from her and release her arm, “How can I be okay when you go on these missions if I can’t trust you to tell me when you’re not okay?”
“I am,” she starts again. This infuriating girl. Even with her truth written across her pretty cheeks, she still won’t admit to it.
I cut her off, “Don’t you fucking dare say you’re okay when you have blood dripping down your damn arm. Just don’t.”
