Page 68 of Silver Claw

“Emma,” I said, rage warring with pity. “My name is Kait. Lee has been…controlled, and you’re safe. I’m going to get you out of here.”

She didn’t respond at all until I placed her little cat at her side. The cat meowed, and Emma gasped and then came to life.She sat up, her movements careful, and snatched the cat to her chest.

She buried her face in its fur and began to sob.

I took pictures with my phone camera, which I’d give to Rick later. I took photos of the chain, the cuff, the bruises.

And just when I started to text Zach to ask him to find the key to the cuffs, I saw it hanging on a hook on the wall, maybe an inch out of her reach. I wondered if she’d tried to reach it, in the beginning, while he watched and laughed at her failed attempts.

Rick arrived as I was unlocking the cuff. He took one look at the girl and her battered body, then took my arm and pulled me aside.

Emma didn’t attempt to move off the bed, even with her ankle free of the cuff. She didn’t seem to notice us much at all.

“I think he’s been torturing her since she married him,” I told Rick.

“I have a team coming.” He sighed, and for an instant, he hooked my hand with his. “It never ends, does it?”

I thought of all the ghosts I saw. “Maybe,” I murmured. “Eventually.” I squeezed his fingers, worried because he looked so tired. “I think Lee Shope would have killed her soon.”

Finally, Emma was ready to talk to us. Her eyes were huge and dry in her pale face, her lips chapped and peeling. I had no idea what was going on inside her battered body, but I had to believe she would be okay.

“I’m Kait,” I told her, “and this is Detective Moreno. He’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”

“Can I have a drink of water?”

I knew better than to give her food or water. “The paramedics are on the way, Emma. You’ll get everything you need.”

She nodded. Then, “Is he dead?”

I felt guilty for having to tell her that the monster she was married to was still alive. “He’s not dead. He’s in police custody.”

“He won’t ever leave me alone. He will find a way to kill me. Even from jail. If he even goes to jail.”

I clenched my teeth, anger flaring once again. I honestly wished I’d killed him. “If you need me, please call me.” I slid my fingers into my pocket and pulled out one of the business cards Max had made, then handed it to her. “Lee won’t get near you again, Emma. But if anything at all happens and you need me, you call that number. I mean it.”

I felt Rick’s hand on my back. “Kait,” he said.

I straightened, hesitant to leave her. “People are coming to help you,” I said. And because there was nothing more I could do, I turned to leave as the room began filling up with police and paramedics.

I was glad Lee Shope was no longer downstairs, because I wasn’t sure I could have controlled myself. Some people shouldn’t exist.

But Emma was alive, and I believed she would eventually find joy in life, with her little cat.

I really believed she would.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“I’ll tell you what kind of bugIhate,” Gracie Dawn said. She pointed a finger at me, like I was the aforementioned bug. “Waspers. I hate those jerks. There’s no point to them, you know? They’re cockroaches with wings and stingers. Mean as hell, too. They’ll sting you because theylikeit.”

“What the actual hell,” Remy asked, “is a wasper?”

Max made a buzzing sound and twirled his finger through the air. “Wasp,” he said. “In this case, paper wasp. And they are actually docile? Despite Gracie’s belief to the contrary, they’re beneficial to—”

“I don’t care,” Remy said, and walked away.

I laughed as I headed into my office, Joe at my back, leaving Max and Gracie Dawn to their argument over winged insects.

The office was packed, and I was glad. I needed the distraction from worrying about Emma Shope as well as obsessing over why the council was calling me back in. They’d taken Joe, and they’d taken my blade. Did they think I’d appear with Anika Draper in my back pocket, or Voss’s head in a bag?