Page 53 of West (The Moral Compass 1)
Stella walks around us again, looking us both up and down. Humming, she pokes at my stomach and then at my tits. Then, she does the same to Kara. I look at Kara, and she has tears in her eyes. It’s a rare thing for Kara to cry, and this breaks my heart even more. My poor Kara, my best friend, and all this shit because of me.
There are no words. Stella just nods at the men, and they pick up our clothes, but they don’t hand them back. Rick pulls out a gun and points to the door. I stand firm until a flash of pain goes through my head. The darkness doesn’t come, but I feel my feet moving forward without permission.
Before I know it, we are outside as a black van pulls up to the back door. We are manhandled into the back, shoved and pushed as the door pulls shut. There is silence until Rick growls and clears his throat. He’s looking at Kara like a hungry fucking hound.
Oh, God no. Please don’t do this. Not now, and not to her.
“Keep your fucking eyes and hands off the merchandise, dick head, unless you want your dick chopped off,” Stella smarts from the front seat of the van.
The van speeds off, and we are moving at high speeds, rocking and banging around in the back of a bloody van. No seats just the cold metal floor in nothing but our underwear. Sitting on our knees to keep our phones in place, fear and terror floods through my body. I just hold onto Kara in a hope that she can feel how truly fucking sorry I am. The journey seems to be taking forever. I can’t see anything, and I’ve no idea where we are but, suddenly, I hear gravel, and then the van slows to a stop.
I hear a shutter door go up, and the van moves again, but only a few feet at least. The shutter goes down and a minute or so later, the van doors are pulled open, and a group of men stand waiting. I look past the men and see a group of women and girls all huddled together in a corner. One of the guys moves a gun and signals for us to get out. Carefully, we move and stand, waiting for the next signal. Neither of us speak.
I look around, looking for my mother but she has disappeared. She must have gone to report to Ralph that she has completed her task. Ushered over to the other women, we are not put with them but kept to one side. Two of the men approach, one to me and one to Kara, looking us over, licking their fucking dirty, rotten lips as if they want to bite us.
“Get the fuck away! I will not tell you guys again. You damage anything, you pay for it. Got it? And what these girls are worth, you can’t fucking afford!” Stella shouts from a window above.
What the fuck? It all falls into place. We’ve been taken. We are going to be sold. Surely not, West won’t let this happen. Where is West? He promised me that it would all be okay. Why didn’t I just let Jaxon kill me that night? It would have saved all this. Tears fall from my eyes. I just can’t stop them. Guilt, fear, and sorrow all fill my heart to the point where I’m praying the thing will just stop beating.
Lights flash, gunshots sound, and smoke fills the air. Over the screams and shouts, I can’t make out anything. I’m holding Kara’s hand as we are pulled away and into another dark corridor.
Are we being saved?
Chapter 41
West
Theplanisgoingwell. We got across the street undetected. We got into the building. We got thirty females out. We shoot five of Ralphs’s henchmen.
But it doesn’t go great from there.
We know Sutton and Kara were taken in there. We know Ralph and Stella were in there, too, and I also know that the fucking snake Rick was there also. But not one of those people have been found. I search through the women and young girls just to be sure, but they are not there. A young woman approaches me, sadness in her eyes.
“They took them out the other door.” She points to a curtain. I run across the room and pull back the curtain to see a solid metal door. How had we missed it? But more importantly, where have they gone?
Siren’s blare, and blue and red flashing lights are everywhere. I groan under my breath. Hell of a time for the SWAT team to show up.
“We need to take you in for a statement, West,” the SWAT team leader says.
“Sorry, no can do. The job’s not over, and there are still two women missing. I’ll give you my statement when it’s complete and not a moment before.” I walk away.
I look out the door, watching to see if I can see anything. I look up and, in the distance, I spot a helicopter.
“Fuck!” I scream at the top of my lungs.
My team and some of the SWAT guys come over, and I point to the sky. “Can we get a bird up there to follow?” I ask.
Zed shakes his head, “Sorry, bud, but by the time it’s deployed, they’ll be long gone.” He confirms what I already know.
“I need to know when and where that fucker lands. Can we track it?” Then, it hits me like a tonne of bricks. The phones.
My sister is a hacker and can find anyone anywhere if there is the tiniest hint of digital trace. I pull out my phone and call East.
“East, honey, I need you to do me a favour,” I say.
“I wondered when you were going to bring me in on this. I’ve been sitting here twiddling my thumbs since South phoned me earlier. I know what you need from me to find the girls, but what have you got for me to work with?” she asks.
I give her the rundown about the phones and just pray that they still have them, even just one of them. She takes the numbers and goes quiet. “They are still online,” she says. “And they are on the move. The girls have done what you asked, West. You should be proud of them. We just need to hope they don’t get caught with them.” She realises that she has just given me a warning that we need to end this before they get caught. She sends me the tracking app, and I can see where they are. It looks like they are heading out to the country.
