Gem Stone (7 page)

Mark squeezed her hand for reassurance.

"Christ," she whispered to Mark. "I feel like I'm going to be sick."

Mark bent her over at her knees and told her to try to catch her breath.

"Breathe. We'll get the lock open and check it out. Calm down. The cops are here. Everything will be fine." Even with those reassuring words, the doubt lacing his voice matched the doubt in her mind.

"I'm going to need a crowbar or bolt cutters to cut this off." A young deputy studied the shiny lock, shaking his head doubtfully.

God, he was innocent.

Gem shook her head. "Reid, can you pop this?"

"Yeah, probably. If I could see better. Anyone got a flashlight?"

Multiple lights immediately lit up the area. Reid stepped up and bent over the lock. He knew locks. Any kind and any size. A little too well apparently, as that's what got him sent him to juvie.

He pulled something out of his pocket and two anxious minutes later, he popped the lock open. "Easy." He removed it and stepped back. The young deputy stepped forward to pull the door open. Flashlights lit up the interior.

Misty lay crumpled and bound, on the cold floor.

Gem cried out. Squeezing between two others, she raced to her friend. She placed two fingers to Misty's neck and was relieved to feel a strong pulse beating under her fingertips. Gem dropped her head in relief.

"She's alive!"

Chaos ensued.

The deputy tried to move Gem back outside but she refused. Instead she flattened herself against the wall, barely giving him space to check Misty for injuries. Someone else called for an ambulance. Gem took one look at what should now be considered a crime scene… She groaned. If there'd been any clues here, they were long gone. As characters on her favorite TV show would say, this scene was now beyond contaminated.

She picked up the flashlight and gave the small room a quick once over.

"Hey, shine that light back here," a deputy demanded.

Gem turned the light in the deputy's direction. "Sorry, I wanted to make sure there was nothing important here."

"I already checked. The place is empty.

"Except for us." Crouching, she lay a gentle hand on Misty's head. Somewhere inside, her friend slumbered. Maybe that was for the best. Maybe Misty would be lucky and not remember this night.

"Go back out and stay with the group. We're going to need to talk to everyone once we get this little girl taken care of."

Great.
Like she wanted to talk to the cops about anything. Although, if it put these bastards away for what they'd done to Misty, she'd do it gladly. "No problem. You take care of her. She's not like the rest of us."

"The rest of you?" The deputy gave her a sharp glance as he pulled off his jacket and covered the prone girl.

"Yeah. Misty's sweet, naively so. She's friendly, bubbly."

"Oh. What are the rest of you?"

Mark answered from the open doorway. "Society's rejects."

The deputy stood up and reached for the flashlight. He shone it over Mark's grim face, then shone it on Gem's face, spending a moment longer, studying her. Then Reid and Stephen, crowding up against the door, were given the same cursory once over. "Why do you say that?"

"We're all from juvie. So's Misty, but she's different. We're finishing our time and learning to live in a society that doesn't want us."

"Is that right?" The cop glanced back at Gem.

She nodded. "Pretty much. We're the first place anyone looks if they want a scapegoat. But Misty's one of us. We would never hurt her."

"That may be, but someone sure as hell tried to."

G
em hated hospitals almost as much as she hated authority. At the moment both were necessary parts of her life. The doctor had given her a clean bill of health although why she'd had to be checked over she didn't understand. Since when did anyone worry about a few scratches from running through the brush? It was Misty who needed their help. She was still out cold and wouldn't be released tonight. The nurses had assured Gem she would survive though.

Apparently, she'd been knocked out with drugs that were still working their way through her system.

The hospital teemed with extra people. Including the three men who'd arrived at the home, uninvited, earlier that evening. She'd tried to tell the young deputies the three men had been involved in Misty's kidnapping, but no one was listening.
Figures.
No one gave a damn what Gemma and her friends had to say.

"Gemma? We're ready."

She looked up. A very tired looking John stood in front of her. His world had been shot to shit along with everyone else's. Standing up, she followed the group to the van. A million questions buzzed inside her head. She leaned back and closed her eyes once she'd settled inside. Thankful they'd located Misty, now she was looking forward to a bit of shut-eye in her own bed...

Until the van drove straight to the local sheriff's office.

Great.
They were in for another few hours of futile criticism and questioning. She knew she was considered to be trouble and clarifying that was all they were going to care about.

At least Misty had been found. Gem felt numb to the rest. What would happen, would happen. As much as she didn't want to go to yet another home or facility, if that's what happened, then…whatever. She could tolerate anything for a year. Misty couldn't though. She wasn't as tough. Now Gemma regretted that she hadn't really appreciated Misty when they'd had time to enjoy life together.

At the station, they were shepherded into a large conference room where the young deputy sat down to wait with them.
For what?

Gem glanced over at Mark. He caught her look, returned it with a one slight quirk of his lips. He knew how to play the game. A quick glance around at the others showed they weren't too interested in being here either.

A second deputy, a huge bull of a man walked in with the sheriff. The two wore genial smiles on their faces.

Great.
Though they were sure to meet both types, she recognized that the 'good cops' had arrived.
Not.
Gem snorted. They'd probably decided a honeyed approach would get more cooperation from them than lemon this time of night.

As if either would work.

She slumped down in her chair and watched the scene unfold.

"Sorry to have to bring you in at this hour. We know you're all tired so we're going to get through this as fast as we can. John will be able to take you home again as soon as we're done."

Like hell.
That would only happen if none of them said anything incriminating while there.

"We're going to speak to each of you about what you saw and what you did this evening. Finding the girl is a huge step in the right direction, but we don't want this sort of thing to happen again. Therefore, I need to know what you know so we can catch this kidnapper." The sheriff shuffled some papers on his desk. "Your friend is going to be fine, by the way, but we can't speak with her until she wakes up and that's not going to be tonight." He motioned toward the big deputy.

"Ian, take the others out. We'll be talking to you one at a time. You've all been through this before, so this won't be anything new."

Gem quirked her lips in a half sneer, noticing a similar look on Mark's face. There it was – the reference to their less-than-savory history. Didn't matter how much any of them had worked to get past it and move on; they'd always be criminals in the eyes of society.

Narrow-eyed, Gem watched as all the other kids were removed from the room by the big deputy, leaving her with John and the sheriff. Great. She was first up. She half smiled at the look Mark tossed her way as he walked out.

"Gemma Stone. Could you please start in the beginning and tell us exactly what you know?"

"About what? About the strangers who came to the house and followed me to the bathroom?" That brought a quick frown to the sheriff's face. John opened his mouth, thought better of it and shut up.

"Or when they did a search of the house? Or after that when they tried to stop us from going outside to look for Misty?" Gem knew already how this interview would play out, but thought she'd give them something to think about first.

The sheriff studied her face for a moment. "You seem to have the wrong idea here. Those men were trying to help and they had your best interests at heart."

She just barely held back a snort.
As if.

"Right. That's why they wouldn't clearly identify themselves. And when the one did show me ID, he didn't leave it out long enough for me to fully read it. No explanation. Nothing. As you pointed out, we've all been here before. We don't believe anyone, especially those three goons."

John's face wrinkled as if he had a belly full of gas. "Gemma, let's keep this nice."

Gemma didn't even look at him. John meant well. He'd given them a decent place to live and they all appreciated the change in their surroundings, but none of her friends were under any illusions. There wouldn't be a happy end to this evening. Not for them.

"We're not going to discuss these men. Suffice it to say, they've been cleared by our office. I can see however, that their behavior may have given you the wrong impression…and that set off the mess of events that followed."

"Ya think?" The police said they'd cleared these men. Still, Gem knew law enforcement when she saw it, and the three men weren't it. They might be secret government team shit, but she doubted it. She recognized their type. They were thugs.

"Try to forget their obvious lack of professionalism and please tell us what happened next."

Interesting wording. Next? He didn't ask about what happened earlier, so Gem decided to keep her after curfew jaunt with Misty out of it – for the moment. She relayed the series of events, commenting on the actions of each of the men up to the moment she'd found Misty.

The sheriff took notes, stopped her once or twice and let her run down.

"What I'm hearing from all this is that because you felt the men were responsible for Misty's disappearance, you did what you could to get away from them so you could find her yourself. Which you did, thankfully. You even went so far as to enlist some of the other kids to get inside their vehicle to look for her." He shook his head at that.

John sighed heavily. "Oh Gemma, your panic and fear for Misty definitely blinded you to who was on your side and who wasn't."

"Is that right?" She gave him a wry smile. "Don't tell me they were concerned about Misty. Those three goons were standing around the car talking while we were out looking."

"Do you have anything else to add to your statement?"

"Like what?" she responded coolly, one eyebrow raised.

The sheriff's lips quirked. A gleam of amusement shone in his eyes. In another lifetime, Gem might have even liked him. Not in this one though – he was the law.

"Any idea how Misty made it to where she was found?"

Maybe she wouldn't have liked him. He was too stupid for words. "Uh, carried there by some asshole? Most likely Humpty and Dumpty, the two hired muscles and their
boss
…the third man that came to the house."

"Gemma," chided John. "Language please."

Gemma sighed and shifted in her seat. "Well, she didn't walk there on her own. Someone big enough and strong enough to carry her, stashed her in the pump house, probably hoping to move her later tonight."

The sheriff looked her directly in her eyes. "Why would Misty have been taken in the first place?"

'Too stupid for words' was an understatement. And just like that Gem had had enough. They didn't care about those thugs being involved and they really didn't care about Misty. "Who knows, but I doubt it was for anything good." She stood up. "Are we done now?"

Pushing his chair back, John rose hastily. "Gemma, I know this is hard, but they are only trying to help Misty."

There was nothing she could say to that garbage. She stared down at the sheriff, a bored look on her face.

He stared back, then nodded. "For now. But…"

"Right. Don't leave town. I get it." She walked to the doorway.

Only he stood up in front of her, towering above her. Gem stuck her jaw out. She'd had more experience dealing with bullies than dealing with friends. Nobody was going to intimidate her if she could help it.

"I was going to say, that we might need to speak with you again." His voice had gentled slightly. That was unexpected. She studied him under lowered lids, then nodded once. "To help Misty, fine. To get those assholes off the hook. Not."