Page 157 of Caught in the Crossfire

A few nodded, but most said nothing.

I tried again in Italian, and even more responded.

I stepped closer. “We’re going to get you out of here,” I said, repeating myself in Italian. “I don’t want to scare you.”

We needed Willow’s team. They knew what to do. I didn’t.

“Does anyone know where the keys are?” I asked, again in both languages.

A few of them pointed toward the auctioneer. I rifled through his pockets, finding a set of keys attached to a retractable chain. I yanked it from his belt loop and then began unlocking any cages still closed.

Cage after cage, person after person. All dressed in those white shift dresses. All up for sale.

I tried to remember the fact that we stopped them from being sold tonight, but it didn’t mean jack shit against the horrors they’d already been through. In the last cage, two girls waited, huddled together. When I opened it, they hesitated and made no move to leave.

“It’s okay,” I whispered, moving to the side. “You can come out now.”

As they stood, I caught sight of a body laying on the ground behind them.

My breath stuck in my throat. She was young. A teenager. Her hair was strawberry blonde, just shades lighter than mine. Her eyes were open, staring at the ceiling. Her chest was unmoving.

Blood coated her thighs and the bottom of her white dress.

My nails cut half-moon grooves into my palms.

Cold, dark cages. Metal digging into my skin. Lifeless eyes, accusing.

“Come,” I choked out. “Let’s get you out of here.”

“We can’t leave her,” one girl responded in accented English.

“We won’t,” I promised, my eyes filling with tears. “We’ll get her out of here. We’ll take her home.”

The world lurched to the side.

It was too much.

“We heard a gunshot!” Wynn shouted as he and Ciel roundedthe corner to the room. He stopped dead in his tracks, taking everything in. “Shit.”

My feet carried me as if on auto-pilot. The room was closing in.

I had to get out of here.

I couldn’t let them see.

“Help them,” I said, before stumbling out of the room and further down into darkness.

52

LEONA

Iwalked deeper into the darkness of the tunnel, hating every second the light got dimmer but having no other idea of what to do.

I was crumbling.

Cas followed behind me, but I didn’t turn around. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself standing, but after so many minutes of tasting blood, the nausea was overwhelming.

My pulse throbbed, drowning out whatever Cas had just said. My hands shook. I stared down at them, begging them to stop, but the tremors shook my entire arms.