Page 38 of Lost In The Dark

“I’ll walk you back to the house. You’re going to break your neck in those fucking boots. Where did you even get them? Don’t you have shoes?”

“I have shoes. I forgot them,” she answered as she started walking. I fell into step beside her, leaving enough of a gap tomake her more comfortable, but staying close enough to grab her if she stumbled again. “How did you know I was out here?”

“My office is at the back of the property. I was alerted when the front door of the house was opened, and I also have men patrolling the entire property twenty-four hours.”

“You do?” she asked as she started to look all around her. I pointed across the garden to where Leo was just heading down the far side of the house and she gasped. “I d-didn’t even see them.”

“They’re trained to be as unintrusive as possible. This is still your home,” I explained.

“Isn’t that a little over the top? Twenty-four hour patrols. Are we…is it really that dangerous?”

“I increased the patrols when you came here. They used to just do a sweep every couple of hours before.”

“So you…you think I’m in danger? Am I putting Asher and Eli in danger being here?” she asked as she stopped and faced me, panic all over her face, her eyes wide with fear once again.

“No one is in danger. I have the security covered. No one is getting on this property,” I tried to reassure her.

“But you d-do think someone could come for me?”

“It’s just a precaution,” I hedged.

“Don’t do that, please Kane. I need to know if it involves me. I n-need to know if my life is at risk,” she pleaded.

I sighed deeply then focused on her as she watched me with scrutiny. “We don’t know, is the honest answer. It’s unlikely the traffickers would bother coming to get you back, but there is achance some of the senator’s associates could be worried about what you know.”

“What I know? I d-don’t know anything. I barely remember a thing.”

“They don’t know that, and there was proof in the senator’s diary that he took you to some parties. It’s likely other high profile people were at those functions. People you can now identify if your memory returns,” I explained, hating every word. The last thing I wanted was to scare her more, but she was right – she should know what was going on.

“Parties? Why would he take me to parties? Wouldn’t everyone know what he was doing to me if they saw me?” she asked so naively it hurt. She really was so innocent. I had no idea how she was going to cope with the things I was sure she had been through when her memories returned.

“These parties would be filled with like minded monsters. The people who would be there would very likely have bought girls…or guys, just the way Hilton bought you.”

“Oh God!” She gasped as she stepped back and slammed a hand over her mouth. “Y-you mean like sex parties? Oh God!” she tried to back up again but tripped over the boots and fell back into the snow, thankfully on the grass, before I could catch her.

“Addy!” I rushed forward and dropped down to my knees beside her, the wet snow soaking through my cargo pants instantly.

“No,” she whispered as she curled on her side and covered her face. “No, no, no!”

“Addy, come on, angel. Sit up and look at me,” I told her as I tried to grab her arm to help her up, but her whole body was taut, and she had curled tightly into herself. I worried abouthow cold she would get now her jeans were soaking up the water. I was just glad my coat, which covered most of her, was waterproof.

As she lay there, continuing to chant ‘no’ as she covered her face, and refused to move, I knew I had to do something, so I picked her up in my arms and headed back to the pergola. I knew I should take her inside, but I didn’t want to. I had messed up by telling her too much and I wanted to fix it before her brothers took her from me.

“Addy?” I said softly as I sat with her in my lap and cradled her head to my chest. “Talk to me, please.”

She took in a loud breath then lifted her head to look at me. Her eyes were watery and she looked even paler than she had before, but I could see her fighting to keep it together. “I…I know what you’re talking about…the parties. I’ve seen it on TV. You mean they had like slaves, right? People like me who they trained. People they swapped at these parties, right?”

“I don’t know exactly, but yeah, I’m guessing it was something like that. The FBI has some intel on the group Hilton was a part of, but they don’t know who the members are. Dates in Hilton’s diary match up with some dates the FBI had for these gatherings, from an informant.”

“So I was there. I was his….h-his slave?” her voice broke at the end and tears slipped from her eyes and ran down her cheeks.

“We don’t know that, but if youwerethere, you can identify other attendees and they are not going to like that.”

“How would they know that I even got away?” she asked shakily. I was relieved when she tucked her arms around herself andleaned into me even more. I needed the contact. It was killing me that I was causing her more pain.

“When Hilton died, it was all over the news. They knew that a young woman had been questioned over the shooting. Then the secret rooms in the basement were found and it all came out about Hilton. It wouldn’t take much for the sick fucks that were at those parties to put two and two together.”

“Oh God! This is n-never going to end,” she whimpered.

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