Page 48 of Break Out the Girl

Gods, he could have easily been taken to the superyacht with the others—and we would have rescued Sky and left Basil behind.

A cold, heavy weight settles right into the center of my stomach.

“We have to save them all,” I say. “Sky and any other kid on there.” My voice tightens as I look between Tally and François. “We can’t leave them to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. No way.”

Tally’s jaw clenches so hard a muscle leaps in his cheek. “Rory… look at the size of this craft. Look at the dinghy. We're five people, one of them with a busted ankle. If we try to load thirty or forty drugged, panicking kids into a pleasure boat in the middle of a probable gun-battle, we'll get everyone killed. Including Sky.”

“He is right,” François agrees, his voice the tone of bleak realism. “Logistically, an evacuation of that scale requires a vessel we do not possess. We cannot save them all. Not today.”

“So we just let them go?” I demand. It’s so wrong. “We're no better than the traffickers if we just turn our backs.”

“Yeah, she’s fucking right,” Basil curses. “But whatever, who cares about slum kids? No one.”

My heart twists. I want to tell him that I care. That he is absolutely invaluable. That he’s smart and brave and we will never abandon him.

But I don’t.

He won’t believe me. The boy needs actions, not words, to make him trust us.

I glance at Tally, his brow is furrowed. It’s the look he gets when he’s thinking fiercely. “You’ve an idea?” I ask.

He nods. “We don't need to carry them off the boat to stop the auction. We just got to keep the boat from moving away. So we destroy the engine, then they're stranded. As soon as we hit the shore, we call the authorities.”

Basil nods, his expression still wary. “Better than nothing I guess. Those douches can wreck the fuel lines or smash the main drive shaft before they grab your friend."

A slow, dangerous grin spreads across London’s face, his green eyes flashing with beautiful, chaotic malice. “Oh, young Fuckwad, there are so many ways to sabotage that big shiny tub. I’ll leave it like a sitting duck that can’t swim or fly.”

“And the cops will find a crippled slave-ship floating right in the middle of a crime scene,” Tally grunts, satisfaction entering his tone.

I let out a long, shaky breath, the suffocating guilt in my chest loosening just a tiny bit. We won’t be able to make sure each kid gets to safety, but at least this plan gives them a fighting chance.

“Alright,” I say, nodding sharply as I lock eyes with François then London. “Extract Sky, wreck the engines, and get out.”

London starts up singing a sea shanty, adjusting the throttle as the jet boat cuts deeper into the deep, dark water, spraying a fine mist of freezing brine over us all.

Soon.

Soon we’ll be putting our lives on the line for a girl who is worth every risk—and a ship full of kids who all deserve to be rescued too. I slump back against the bench, as a wave of emotion hits me so hard it takes my breath away.

For seventeen years, my life has been a lesson in isolation and survival. I was the princess, hidden away behind high walls and ironclad expectations. The only person I could truly trust was myself.

Until I went to Quo, I hadn’t even imagined another way.

I’d yearned to be away from my father, and Thomas Crankshawe, but my escape fantasies always ended with me living by myself in a fortress where no one could get to me. The doors would remain locked from the inside.

I didn't need friends, family, lovers or whatever.

When I imagined myself in that private penthouse fortress, the highlight was always being able to do whatever I chose. Watching movies. Reading books. Eat a cake.

Alone, alone, alone.

No conversations. I had no desire to learn other people’s stories. I didn’t want any arms wrapped around me. I didn’t want to forsake my liberty for anything.

And I certainly didn’t want a ragtag group of misfits and dangerous men muscling-in on freedom.

But look at me now.

The dream ahead is renting a tumbledown apartment and squeezing all the misfits in with me. It will be loud, chaotic, messy.