Page 34 of Playing Hard to Get

The blond who was talking with Melody when we stepped away curled his arm around her waist and led her off to a back room. Anna glanced over her shoulder at us with a subtle nod, and the guy she was hanging on looked our way. Narrowed his eyes. Looked at us like we were getting in the way of him having a good time. Then he jerked his chin at us before wrapping his arm around Anna and leading her away.

She looked at me with a wry smile on her face. I elbowed Cael and followed my charge. Got as far as a dark stretch of hallway lined with closed doors when I saw Anna disappear into one of the rooms. By the time we got to the door, Anna stuck her head out with an eyebrow raised and met my eye. Then she disappeared inside, the door slamming between us.

I settled in against the wall opposite the door. Cael stood in the middle of the hall, one hand patting at the tuft of hair on the back of his head. The sconces hanging on the walls made it feel like a scene straight out of a horror flick.

“Might as well relax,” I told him, though I didn’t relax myself. “We’ll be here a while.”

It was hours before Anna showed her face. My worry didn’t lie in thoughts of the girl. I could hear her just fine, hear the same sounds I heard each time she was in my care. The moaning. The laughing. The sounds of a good time. It was the machine gun-carrying men that walked the halls, eyeing us, that I worried about.

When the door finally opened, she looked worse than I’d ever seen her. There was a sheen of white powder covering the skin above her lip and the tip of her nose. Her eyes were bloodshot and dilated. Her hair matted to her forehead, her clothes askew. She stumbled over the threshold and nearly collapsed to the floor.

I was there before she dropped. Got her limp body held up by an arm around her waist before Cael realized something was wrong. He scrambled forward and took some of her weight as I peeked inside the partially open door. Saw the dark-haired guy standing over a massive four-poster bed covered in thick, black bedding, wearing nothing but a pair of skin-tight black jeans. Saw the girl, Melody, laying half-naked and prone on top of mounds of pillows, looking worse than Anna.

It took everything within me to drag my eyes away, a heavy weight settling in my gut. But I knew we didn't have a choice. “Let’s go.”

Cael and I dragged Anna out of the house. Got her into the back seat of our black Suburban and rushed out of the area as fast as we could go.

“She okay?” I asked Cael as I crossed the gravel road a mile away from the house.

“She’s breathing,” he said back. “Increased heart rate, but not too fast. She should be alright.”

Looking through the rearview mirror, I saw my charge passed out in the back seat, her mouth hanging open and a string of drool leaking down her chin. Turned my eyes to the road and concentrated on getting us as far away from the drug house as we could.

A few hours later, I found a little motel with a vacancy sign lit up in the dark, dark night. Pulled in and got two rooms, then drove to the far end of the building and parked in front of our doors. I unlocked one room and propped the door open. Cael helped me get Anna out of the back seat, then grabbed her legs while I held her under her arms.

Once she was settled on the bed closest to the door, I rolled Anna onto her side so she wouldn’t suffocate if she vomited in the middle of the night. Didn’t know what she took, but by the looks of the syringes, pills, and powder covering that table by the bed, she would be out for a while.

Cael returned to the room with Anna’s suitcase. I set out a glass of water on the bedside table and a wastebasket by the side of the bed. Flipped on the lamp over the crooked table in the corner and took a seat in the dingy, padded chair.

Cael threw me a look before shutting the door. He handed me my spare phone, then sat on the edge of the second bed and shook his head.

“What is it?”

“That girl,” he said as he eyed Anna, his voice quiet, like he thought she would hear. “Don’t know whether to feel sorry for her or think she got what’s coming her way.”

“I hear ya.” I dragged my hand down my face. “Hated leaving that other one behind. But they knew what they were getting into. Went along willingly. Gotta take care of what we can and pray everything works out in the end.”

Cael looked at me, his eyes pained. “I don’t understand how you can do this.”

“It’s not all that bad. You haven’t seen half of what I have on a daily basis with this one. What happened in that bedroom? I usually get a front row seat.”

“You’re good with her,” Cael said. “Don’t understand how you can put up with that.”

I shrugged. “We came to an understanding.”

“Yeah?”

“After the first night I met her—it was a lot like tonight. Dragged her back to her hotel room after she was drunk and high, passed out in the limo on the way. She didn’t remember much. Was worried I was going to tell her daddy. But I told her, what she does doesn’t bother me. As long as she lets me do my job, I’ll make sure nothing happens to her. Proved to her the rest of the week I could keep my word, and she learned to live with me around.”

“Realized she needed a babysitter?”

“Something like that,” I said with a smile.

Cael’s hand went to the tuft of hair at the back of his head. He patted it down a few times. “She’s like a child.”

“Nah, more like a little sister.” I gave a quiet chuckle. “Not like mine, though, that’s for sure.”

“You got a sister?”