Save Me (Taken Series Book 1) (12 page)

              “You hungry?” I’m sure she’s probably starving and I doubt the little bit of food she was most likely given was any good or even healthy.

              “Yeah.” Her voice is still a whisper but that’s ok. I know she’s probably feeling a lot of different things right now. I just hope she doesn’t feel as if she has to whisper out of fear and just because she is overwhelmed.

              “Ok. I’ll make something fast and bring you something to drink.” I untangle myself from her and rise from the couch but before I make it to the kitchen she speaks up.

              “Ca…Can I sit and watch you in there? I don’t want to be alone.” She looks at me with fear in her eyes like she believes I would turn her away.

              “Baby girl, you don’t even have to ask. I could use the company. Maybe you can answer some questions for me or ask me questions.” I suggest.

              “Yeah. Ok. Umm. Can I just ask the questions? I’m not ready to think about what happened at the moment. Is that ok?” As much as I want the answers to my questions right now, I won’t push her to give them until she’s ready. I don’t know how traumatized she is and I would rather her give the information without feeling like she’s being cornered.

              “Yes. You can ask and I’ll answer the best I can. You just let me know when you’re ready to answer my questions. I won’t push you.” She nods her head and bites her lip nervously.

              “Ok.” She gets up and follows me into the kitchen as I get the soup cans out of the cupboard. It’s not the healthiest of meals but I’m sure it’s better than what she was eating while captured and it’s fast and easy. Tomorrow I’ll make her something real to eat.

              “Is there some water or juice to drink? I’m thirsty.” I point to the fridge as I pour the two cans of soup into a pot and set it on the stove to cook.

              “There are water bottles in the fridge and soda in the pantry if you want caffeine.”

              “Thank you.” As she opens the fridge and peruses its contents, I watch her closely. I don’t know what it is but it looks as though she’s hurt beyond just a few cuts and bruises. She favors her shoulder and doesn’t move her arm too much to do anything. Sierra grabs two water bottles out of the fridge and gives one to me as she opens hers and gulps down half the bottle before taking a breath. She’s probably dehydrated along with starving so I hand her my bottle to drink after she finishes hers.

“How did you know where to find me?” The hardest question to answer with a lot of aspects to explain.

              I take a deep breath and try to figure out where to start. I don’t want to lie to her and keep things from her but I’m not really supposed to tell her about my undercover job. As I contemplate where to start, Sierra just stares at me with patience and curiosity waiting for my answer.

              “Well, to answer that I need to start from the beginning.” She nods as if she already knew that. “I am undercover. Sort of anyways. I don’t really go to college online or have classes at night to take tests like you thought. I run an underground fight club. It’s not really underground but at a warehouse just on the outskirts of town but it’s illegal. I want to be a cop and I’ve been helping them catch criminals through my club.” I stop and wait to make sure she’s understanding what I’m saying while I turn off the stove and divvy up the soup into two bowls for us to eat. I don’t say anymore until we are both seated at the kitchen table and start eating.

              “Nobody knows I’m undercover aside from my sergeant and about two or three other officers who are undercover with me. Not even Damon knows and you know he knows everything about me.” She nods knowing this is true.

              “How did you get to be undercover? I mean, don’t you need to go to the police academy or something? I don’t remember you ever being gone more than a few days at a time.” Here is where it’s going to be hard to explain. Nobody ever knew this and I don’t want her to think badly of me after I tell her.

              “You know how I never really fought at school?” I wait for her to nod her understanding. “Well I didn’t fight in school because I fought out of school to keep from getting in trouble. I didn’t want to disappoint your parents.” Damon and Sierras parents were lifesavers for me. They accepted me just as I was, rage and all and I couldn’t stand seeing the disappointment on their faces when I would get into trouble at school.

“I was running my own fight scene at an abandoned house but it didn’t start out that way. I was needing an outlet for my rage so every time someone wanted to fight with me I would suggest they meet me at this abandoned house. Word got around that that’s where I fought and soon students would come and watch the fights and then they started betting. I always won the fights so then guys would come from other schools claiming they could beat me. It didn’t take long before people from all over would come and watch me fight and bet on me. I never did it for the money but when everyone placed bets they would take some of it and give it to me for winning the fights. It went from just me fighting assholes to other men fighting at the house and then people started to bet on them too. I don’t know how long this went on for. A year maybe two, but one day the place got busted. I was in the middle of a fight with some punk from our rival school when shouts rang out and the place was swarmed with cops all pointing their guns at everyone and coming in from all sides yelling for us to get down on the floor and put our hands on our heads.” Sierra gasped and I waited a minute before continuing.

“I was so scared. Not of the police, no. I was scared of what your parents would think of me and what you would think. Damon knew about this place but he stayed away because it wasn’t really his thing. He didn’t like fighting for the hell of it. He only fought when it was necessary. The cops arrested everyone and brought us in for questioning. Most of everyone was let go, probably with a ticket but they kept me longer and made me wait to be last. I didn’t know what they wanted but I knew I was in big trouble. I knew I would have this on my record and I was so disappointed in myself.” Thinking back to that day, it’s a relief to know they didn’t call my foster parents because I couldn’t handle the disappointed looks they would give me. Sierra has been quietly listening the whole time but I know she’s worried about how I made it to where I’m at now.

“I sat in that room for hours but it felt like days with how nervous I was. It was a relief when they finally brought me out and took me to the interrogation room. It started out the same as the movies. The room was concrete walled, a single table with a glass of water and two chairs on either side of it and a chair in the corner with a one way mirror behind it. The cameras were up in two corners of the room and I waited for what seemed like forever before two detectives came in. I figured they would do the whole good cop/bad cop thing but I was shocked when they didn’t. They had a manila folder with a stack of papers inside and they both pulled up the chairs opposite of me and smiled. I thought it was a joke like maybe they were smiling because I was going to jail for the rest of my life.”

“Oh god. I don’t remember any of this. I would have thought that mom and dad would have said something or that you would have been in trouble. When did it happen?” Sierras face would be comical if it wasn’t for the fact that she is completely serious.

“I had started fighting at this place during my sophomore year. It was my senior year that they busted us. I could have lost everything. I almost did.” Sierra covers her mouth with shock but I continue on. “They opened the folder and pulled out a couple papers showing information on me. It was everything about me. My name, birthday, social security number, who my parents were, even the schools and foster parents I had. It was crazy. I was confused and so I didn’t say anything but I doubt they needed me to anyways. They knew everything about me as it was. Then they showed me a paper that had my stats on when and who I fought even. I was afraid to talk when I saw that in case I said something that would get me in even worse trouble. Then one of the officer says to me, ‘we have a proposition for you. You can take it or leave it but if you don’t take it then we will be forced to put this on your record. If you choose to take it then we won’t utter a word of this but you will be working for us.’ Of course I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have them ignore it so I asked them what it was they wanted from me.” I remember it like it was yesterday. I was scared and wanted to have hope that what they asked of me could be something that I could handle.

“They told me that they want me to continue with the fights but as an outsider. Apparently there were a lot of people who came to watch me fight that were being watched for illegal dealings. Mostly drugs but occasionally sex crimes and theft. They wanted me to set up a schedule for the fights and just keep an eye out for certain people. I was just supposed to let them know that they were there. So I agreed after asking a few more questions. They offered to pay me and said that when I reach the age aloud to join, that they will put me on the police force. I agreed and started setting up regular fight nights and moved it to the warehouse they gave me that was wired and had cameras nobody knew about. Nobody questioned me when I did this and the story was that the police had nothing on me so they could only ticket me with trespassing. I still fought to keep up the image so that nobody questioned me but it was fewer than before. They weren’t too happy about it but I couldn’t just stop or else people would suspect something was up. The cops said it was a secret undercover job because it wasn’t exactly funded by the station so only the three of us knew about it and then a third guy came in. That guy is the one who helped you escape tonight. He’s been working his way up the ranks to get to a guy called the ‘boss’ who runs a sex trafficking ring. That’s who we’ve been focused on the last year or so and only one person that we know of knows the identity of ‘the boss.’ As soon as we find out who it is and arrest him I’m done with the underground fighting. I’ll be on the force officially.”

“Wow.” Yeah. My sentiments exactly. “So, nobody knows what you really do?”

“Nope. Only you.” I trust Sierra and know she would never say anything but it’s a lot to take in. “Because of my connection with this club I had asked around to see if anyone had seen you and to keep an eye out. The guy who helped you escape tonight, Carson, he saw a guy bring you in…”

“It was my teacher, Mr. Morris.” I nod already knowing it was him.

              “He saw him bring you in and let me know. Normally when a girl comes in he waits until the auction and buys as many girls as he can with undercover cops acting as buyers and return them to their families but he knew that I wanted you back with me at any cost so he helped me save you.”

              “He showed me the text he sent you. I didn’t want to believe him at first thinking it was a trick but when I saw you I was so grateful. Can you thank him for me?”

              “Of course.” I’m grateful too because without him there I wouldn’t have gotten her in time. “Let’s get you in the shower and afterwards if you still want to ask questions then I’ll answer whatever else you want.”

              “Ok. That sounds great actually.” It’s going to be torture having her in the shower naked with water gliding down her body I can just imagine it. I need to reign it in. She doesn’t need me lusting after her right now. I lead her to the bathroom in the master bedroom leaving our bowls on the kitchen table for now and wait for her in the bedroom to finish her shower.             

Chapter 7

Sierra

After hearing Forrest’s story of how he found himself undercover and saving me I had no idea what to say. It was definitely not something I was expecting to hear from him. I actually half expected him to be a part of the underground dealings, not the one trying to catch the criminals doing them. I know that’s not something that’s very nice to think about but I never thought he wanted to be a police officer but I’m proud of him. I’m proud of the way he took the opportunity to help himself and to help others. Proud of him for trying to catch the criminals out there and make this world a better place. He’s come so far from the scrawny little boy who had anger issues to the amazing strong man he is today finding ways to channel that anger. He may have gotten to this spot because of it but he is doing something positive. This is a side of Forrest I never thought I would have seen let alone known about. I know he’s always been protective of me and willing to do whatever it took to help me and my family but the fact he is doing this means he’s willing to help others as well.

              When I walked into the house and he called me baby girl I broke. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I needed him like I needed air. I needed his arms around me holding me and making me feel loved and safe. I needed him to feel like I was actually saved. It didn’t seem real that I was here and out of that cell or even that room. I felt like I was dreaming and I didn’t want it to end. I was actually here with Forrest in his arms and out of that evil mans’ prison. I was almost lost forever. Who knows where I would have ended up if Forrest hadn’t shown up? Who knows who would have gotten me and what they would have done to me. I’m sure it would have been worse than what already happened.