Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25

Frankie

A sharp pain cutting across my neck was my first warning that anything had happened. I never saw Tansie move, but in the blink of an eye she was standing behind me and I suddenly couldn't breathe.

"Frankie," Gabe shouted, sounding more distressed than I'd ever heard him.

Yet, it was as if everything were happening too fast for my emotions to keep up, so they'd just decided to shut down. A deeply ingrained instinct told me to keep my head still, so I looked around using only my eyes.

Gabe, Newt, and Sebastian were all looking at me terrified. Tansie stood pressed up against my back. One of her braids was undone, and I could just see the messy rope of hair in my peripheral.

Her hands hovered near each of my shoulders, holding tight to a wire that was wrapped around my neck.

Had she been hiding the wire in her hair the whole time?

That was a smart idea. I also had long braids. Maybe I should start doing the same thing.

Like a drowning man clinging to a single piece of driftwood, I couldn't stop thinking about the logistics of hiding a wire in my own hair. It was easier than facing the reality of my situation.

Tansie had a sharp garrote wire wrapped around my neck. Assuming she knew how to use such a weapon, one quick snap of her hands would kill me.

"Miss Bell, what are you doing?" Newt demanded. He tried to come closer, but Gabe and Sebastian both stopped him.

Gabe eyed her with a narrow look, glancing briefly at the boy in Ozias's arms like he was stitching pieces of a tapestry together.

"You've been telling us that this boy is your son, but that was a lie, wasn't it. Do you even know him at all?"

Tansie didn't answer, but she didn't have to. Ozias's response said everything.

He held the boy closer, and back up until his shoulder hit a wall. "What? She's got nothing to do with Milo. I've never even heard of this woman."

Since she was standing behind me, I couldn't see her, but the venom in Tansie Bell's voice made her sound like a completely different person.

"So, you're the one who's fucked everything up. As soon as that GPS tracker went back online, I knew something had gone wrong, but I never suspected you. Good job. You might be a better actor than I am."

Fuck.

It was all a trap.

We should have known.

It seemed like everywhere we turned someone was trying to get one over on us. No one could be trusted. Not even a seemingly innocent woman desperate to find her missing son.

Tansie tugged on the wire around my neck. "Get moving. Back up. Nice and slow."

The wire bit into my neck as I walked backward with her one step at a time. A drop of blood rolled down my neck, leaving a warm path on my skin, but it wasn't deep enough to do any real damage yet. Skin damage and muscle damage felt different, and I'd experienced enough of both to know the differences.

Focusing on my feet and trying not to trip as she led me out the office door, kept the panic at bay. Once we were out the door, Tansie ordered me to lock everyone else inside.

"I-I don't have a key."

Panic was starting to catch up to me. I could feel it like hot metal in the back of my throat.

If I was separated from the others, how long would I last?

I wasn't a fighter, and my value as a hostage would disappear the moment Tanise was safe.

I needed to get away from her, but Tansie merely laughed at my attempt to stall for time.

"You don't need a key. I know what you can do. If you can open a lock without a key, then you can re-lock it as well."

How did she know about that?

As far as I knew, she'd never seen me pick a lock.

How long had this woman been watching us?

Gabe and the others shouted in protest, but they didn't dare take a step closer as another drop of blood rolled down my neck.

Breathing deeply through my nose, I pulled the lock picks I'd brought out of my pocket and locked the office door.

Only the two of us remained in the hallway, but Tansie still didn't let me go. The wire remained securely around my neck as she led me down the stairs back toward the dock, always keeping me in front of her like a human shield.

"You don't have to do this," I said as I carefully navigated the stairs. "Senator McLeod is dead. Your operation won't survive without its leader. There's no point in fighting anymore."

Tansie just laughed at me as she kicked open the door leading out of the building with her foot.

Outside, at least a dozen security personnel waited for us, each as heavily armed as the next.

Her breath brushed over my skin as she spoke directly into my ear. "Senator McLeod certainly does seem like the kind of person you'd expect to run this place." Every member of security snapped to attention as soon as they noticed Tansie and me. "You and your friends have been in hiding so long, I thought you'd have figured it out a little better. If you want to go unnoticed, then you've got to give people what they expect to find so they stop looking."

Well… fuck.

The nearest security personnel saluted Tansie.

"Ma'am. What's going on?"

"There are intruders locked in the main office. Go take care of them. Then start getting everything ready for relocation. This location may have been compromised."

As soon as they had their orders, her goons sprang into action. Half of them immediately ran upstairs to deal with Gabe and the others. A few more headed off in a different direction, probably to start the "relocation process."

I didn't know exactly what that meant, but I could guess. They would take the children they had and disappear so they could set up again in a whole new location.

Maybe even a whole new country.

It had taken Sebastian and Gabe so much effort to track them down and they had succeeded mostly through luck. If these monsters disappeared now, we'd probably never find them again.

Faint shouting could be heard coming from the upper story of the building. Then gunshots rang out. Every muscle in my body locked up as panic rushed through me. I was truly terrified that I was listening to my friends die.

Yet, as the seconds ticked by, the shouting only grew in volume, and even more gunshots rang out over the bayou. It sounded like a war had broken out just above our heads.

"What is going on?" Tansie shouted.

Her attention shifted to the remaining security personnel as she demanded answers.

The wire around my neck fell slack.

I moved before I even consciously decided to do so. Gabe had taught me many ways to get away from someone holding me against my will, but he hadn't covered how to escape a garrote wire.

So, I improvised.

Throwing my head back, I slammed my skull into Tansie's face. Pain speared my head right in the same spot as my scar and I crumbled to my knees. For a moment, I was eighteen again, and lying in a pool of my own blood in the high school parking lot. I never saw the bat coming for me, but I felt the moment it made contact. Worse, however, was the sound of my attacker laughing as he left me to bleed alone.

However, the memory passed quickly, and I looked up to see Tansie doubled over, screaming in pain as she clutched an obviously broken nose. Blood dripped between her fingers and dribbled down her chin.

My head hurt, but this time I wasn't the one left bleeding.

Tansie's words were garbled as she shouted, but I could understand enough to know she was ordering security to kill me.

Several guns pointed in my direction. I couldn't run. The dock was wide open. There was no way to outrun a bullet.

So, I did the only thing I could. I dove into the swamp water below.

As soon as the murky water touched my skin, I shivered in disgust, but I stayed down long enough to swim under the dock. Although it only took a few seconds, I was already gasping for air when I re-emerged.

Rotted vegetation dripped from my hair into my eyes and I gagged. I already hated swamps, but now they were going to have a starring role in all my future nightmares.

Above the wooden boards of the docks, I could hear more gunfire. Then something heavy landed in the water near me. One of the security personnel stared up at me with vacant eyes before their body sank beneath the surface and disappeared.

Gripping onto the edge of the dock, I pulled myself up and peered over the wood.

Gabe and Sebastian steadily made their way across the dock. They were an army of two, systematically tearing their way through the building's security. Half a dozen bodies lay strewn over the wooden boards behind them, and I had no doubt that there were more inside the building. Although Sebastian still couldn't move very quickly thanks to his crutch, it didn't matter. They were methodical and precise as they disposed of every enemy they came across.

A hollow clicking sound rang across the dock as one of Gabe's guns ran out of bullets. He ducked back behind Sebastian while he reloaded, but with only one free hand, Sebastian couldn't provide as much cover fire as Gabe could.

A pair of heavy boots ran past me as one of the security personnel tried to charge at Sebastian and Gabe while they had a chance.

From my place hidden below the edge of the dock, I reached out and grabbed the charging man's ankles. He tripped and slammed face first into the boards. The echo of his impact with the wood alerted Gabe and Sebastian to his presence.

Gabe quickly finished reloading and shot the fallen man before he could stumble to his feet.

Blood seeped between the cracks of the wooden boards and dripped down into the swamp. Red puddles collected on the dock and stained the cuffs of Gabe's pants with each step he took.

Across the dock, I noticed a figure crawling in the opposite direction. At some point during the gunfight, Tansie had taken a bullet in the leg. She couldn't walk. Instead, she was dragging herself toward one of the boats.

I couldn't help Gabe and Sebastian with their shootout, but this was something I could handle.

Ducking back into the water, I carefully swam to the other side of the dock. Debris brushed against me under the water. I told myself it was just a branch, or a rock, or a particularly thick clump of vegetation. It couldn't possibly be one of the many bodies that had ended up in the water tonight or any of the man-eating beasts I knew resided in the water's depths.

So long as I didn't look, then the truth was whatever I wanted it to be.

I reached Tansie just as she tumbled into one of the boats. There was no way to silently climb into the boat with her, so I didn't even try. She easily saw me coming as I clawed my way out of the water and into the boat with her, but she was in no condition to fight back.

With a closer look, I could see that she'd been shot with more than one bullet. Her right leg was a bloody mess, and I silently cheered when I noticed it was the same leg that Sebastian had injured.

For a moment, as I stood over her dripping water and heaving for breath, I felt like our roles had been reversed. I was the monster, and she was the victim.

Then, I remembered everyone who had been hurt because of her, and the feeling passed.

"Please," she begged, looking up at me with such believable terror. "I didn't want to. They made me do it. Just let me go and you'll never hear from me again."

I was sure my grin showed a little too many teeth as I grabbed one of the boat's oars. "Nice try, but I'm not falling for that again."

The fear disappeared from her face and was replaced with cold indifference. "Worth a shot. Don't suppose I could pay you instead?"

"Not on your life."

Wood met flesh with resounding smack as I struck her over the head with the oar. The blow sent uncomfortable vibrations up my arm, and I held tighter to the oar as I watched her slump over on the bottom of the boat.

She was unconscious, but still alive. I could have killed her, but that one blow felt like it had taken all my energy. My hands shook, and I leaned against the oar for support.

I'd done my part. Someone else could finish the job.

When I finally felt strong enough to stand without using the oar as a crutch, I looked up to find the gunfight on the dock drawing to a close. Only a few security personnel remained, and they were easily dispatched.

The swamp fell silent.

Gabe and Sebastian stood alone, chests heaving, back-to-back in the middle of a dock covered in bodies and bloody puddles.

I waved to get their attention. "Hey. Where's Newt?"

The two of them headed over to me but didn't holster their weapons.

"We left him and Ozias locked in the office to finish getting everything they could off the computers," Sebastian said as he approached. Looking down into the boat, he nodded toward Tansie. "She still alive?"

I climbed out of the boat to join him and Gabe on the dock. "Yeah. What should we do with her?"

Gabe slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. "If we bring her in, then the authorities can build a case against her and everyone who helped her."

"Yeah." Sebastian gave a distracted nod.

Then he raised his gun and shot her, pulling the trigger repeatedly until he ran out of bullets.

"What?" he said when he noticed us looking at him with concern. "After everything she's done to me, not to mention how many kids she's hurt with her part in this thing, there's no way I'm letting her live. I don't care if it means we can't make a case against her. Now, she can't hurt anyone else."

A few months ago, the idea of killing someone while they were unconscious and helpless would have turned my stomach. Now, I just nodded in agreement.

Did that make me a monster?

Maybe.

Did I regret it?

No.

"So now what?" I asked as I turned back toward the building. Sebastian's bullets had punched right through Tansie's body and through the bottom of the boat. Water slowly leaked through the holes and surrounded her, covering her body inch by inch. Eventually, she'd be pulled under the surface and swallowed by the swamp that had once been her safe haven.

It was a satisfying ending for her, but that didn't mean I wanted to stay around and watch. There was too much to do, and I wanted to get out of the swamp as quickly as possible.

Gabe's arm around my waist squeezed tighter for a moment in an awkward side hug. "Hopefully, Newt and Ozias are having luck with the computers. We need to round up the children who are here and get them to safety. Then… we salt the earth and make sure no one can ever use this place again."

Although Gabe made it sound so easy, the whole process took us several hours. Newt and Ozias were successful in copying everything off the office's computers and disconnected the hard drive to bring with us just in case. Hopefully, that would be enough to make a case against the pedophile ring even without their leader in custody.

The children trapped in the building, however, were a different matter. We first had to find a way to unlock all the doors in that prison hallway I'd noticed earlier. Then, even once the doors were opened, it took some time to convince the children who were locked inside to come out.

I couldn't blame them. Every time their door opened in the past it probably led to more pain. They had every reason to distrust us.

Surprisingly, the fact that several of them recognized Ozias and Milo actually helped. Out of all of us, the children seemed to trust him the most.

Ozias claimed that every time he'd been forced to pretend like he was an active member of the pedophile ring, the child in question had been too drugged to know what was happening. However, I wondered if, in some subconscious part of their minds, the children knew he'd never touched them.

The sun was rising by the time we were finally sailing away from Honey Island. It took several boats to bring all the children with us. Newt and Ozias were going around, checking on the children and trying to keep everyone as comfortable and calm as possible.

I should have been helping them, but I couldn't bring myself to face so many blank stares and empty eyes. The pedophile ring had called them dolls , and now I understood why. They seemed empty and fragile, like one wrong move would shatter them to pieces.

None of my physical therapy training had prepared me for this, and I didn't trust myself not to make it worse. These children needed a proper therapist that knew how to help them. My specialty lay in healing the body, not the mind. In this situation, I was as helpless as anyone else.

Instead, I stood next to Gabe and watched as the hidden building in the swamp disappeared.

Gabe's idea to "salt the earth" ended up involving less salt and more fire. Once we were certain that every living person had been cleared out of the building, and we'd gotten as much from the computers as possible, we set fire to the structure.

It ignited surprisingly easily. The building had definitely not been constructed with safety in mind. The dock proved to be especially flammable. Entirely made from wood, despite the moisture all around, it still acted as eager kindling. In only half an hour, a few flames managed to consume the entire building.

As we sailed away, I stood at the back of the boat to watch it all burn. The light of the flames eclipsed the rising sun and brought warmth to such a dank place.

A strange humming filled the air and all the nearby birds and insects swarmed into the air to escape the flames.

Honey Island Swamp sang as it was cleansed by fire. Only ashes would be left behind, but in their wake a new, clean environment could finally grow.