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She shook her little head. “No. I’m okay.”
She truly did seem to be fine. There wasn’t a scratch on her. She was wearing pajamas I knew Lleyton had bought for her.
I glanced up at the other girls in her ‘class.’
They were all older, ranging in age from maybe eight to twelve.
I didn’t think any of them were okay. They had the sad, shut-off look I’d seen on too many kids. We might have gotten to Amelia on time, but I didn’t think we could say the same for the three girls who stared back at me.
I eyed them. “Are you okay?”
They all nodded quickly. Too quickly.
I wanted to reach out to them. Pull them behind me like I had with Amelia. Protect them from the people who hid their evil behind a fake veil of good. “I don’t think you are. But you will be, okay. I’ll make sure of it.”
The woman tutted. “Let’s go, girls. To my car immediately. You aren’t safe here.”
I blocked the doorway. I wasn’t sure whether to believe this woman or not when she made out like she didn’t know what was going on here. But it didn’t matter. I wasn’t letting her take these girls. “No.”
But I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold her back forever.
I took out my phone to call the police, then glanced up the stairs. Zeph could be killing Byron up there right now. Shouts floated down the stairs, too muffled by walls and floors to be discernible.
But I couldn’t leave these girls here with their abusers any longer. I had to do what was right.
I called nine-one-one and waited for the sirens to wail.
34
ZEPH
Ifound Byron in an office at the top of the stairs, half crouched, hiding behind his desk. His fingers still worked furiously over a keyboard though, banging keys so frantically he barely lifted his head when I entered.
Like he’d been expecting me.
Like I’d given him a head start by shouting his name as I’d taken the stairs two at a time.
He should have been running. Scared of what he knew I was capable of. I’d already given him a taste, leaving him black and blue, he had to know I could kill him if I wanted to.
There was nothing that should be keeping him in the room.
Nothing unless he was hiding his tracks.
“What are you doing?” My voice was as cold as I’d ever heard it.
The man I’d once admired didn’t answer. His continual clicking of keys filled the small space, mixing with panicked, too-quick breaths.
I yanked the screen around.
The clicks went silent.
The images on the screen were something no one ever wanted to see. No one but dirty, filthy perverts like Byron and his online friends. My eye caught on one image, and I recognized the young girl as one who had been downstairs.
My stomach rolled.
I let go of the computer screen, averting my eyes to things I wished I could erase from my memory forever.
This was what would have happened to Amelia if we hadn’t gotten here in time. She would have been another child, in an innocently named folder, that contained the most unholy of sins.
