Page 73 of Betraying Bexley

“Apartment twenty-three,” Bronx said.

He nodded, taking the stairs two at a time. “We should be careful, just in case.”

He and Bronx went first with Eito and Alex bringing up the rear. Jacolbi stayed below on lookout, in case one of Raul's men returned. Alé crept down the hall, the place was eerily quiet. He expected televisions to be blaring or music to be playing, maybe kids running around in the open-air courtyard, yet, there was nothing. Better yet, now that he thought about it, it'd been just as quiet the first time they were there. However, unlike last time, they wanted to get in and out without being seen.

"Here." Bronx pointed to the door. "Weird, there's no eviction notice taped to the window or the exterior." She tried the door and it opened.

Secondhand furniture along with ugly, crusty carpet gave way to moldy paint-chipped walls. The place was a real shithole. They stepped inside the space and Alé glanced around. No wonder why Bex didn't want anyone to see her home. The longer he stood there, the more pissed off he became. "Right. You heard what Asher said, search the place. Let's see if we can find anything important."

Alé started down the hall to the bedrooms. He pushed open one of the doors and found a used mattress on the floor. The room couldn’t be Bex’s, it was too sloppy and gross. He pulled the door closed and opened the one catty-corner to the first room. He grunted. This looked more like Bex’s room, though it was still a shitty space. A twin bed lay in the corner, covered by two sheets and a blanket. A ratty desk held Bex’s books along with a small stool she sat on. She had a dresser Alé swore would break if a strong gust of wind hit it. He closed the door behind him and went to the closet first. He didn’t know what he suspected he’d find there, but what he saw made it painfully obvious how much no one cared about Bex. Her clothes were between three and six sizes bigger than her. None of them were new and some were rotted through. Her shoes were tattered and worn. There were no books or toys from her childhood. No sense of her being a teenager. No television or stereo.

He went to her desk next and came up short when he saw the letter on top of one of her books. ‘Forgive me,’ was written on the front in bold script. Confused, Alé picked up the letter and opened it.

I’m sorry...

Alé’s mouth went dry. The more he read the sicker he became. Bex was planning on killing herself. The letter itself wasn’t very long, but what it contained was everything they uncovered along the way and more. The account numbers matched the ones Bronx found in the offshore accounts and they led directly back to Anderson Gunther. Maybe Bex didn’t know who the owner of the accounts were, but they’d seen those particular numbers several times.

Bex was their key and now, she was gone.

He stepped out of her room carrying the letter, he found Bronx in the main bedroom. She stared at Alé concern filling her eyes. He shook his head folding the letter and putting it into the pocket of his pants. He didn't think she could handle what Bex said since Bex had been kidnapped, not yet anyway. He took one last glance around the apartment and shook his head. There was nothing left for them or Bex there. Probably never was.

As he stepped out of the apartment, Alex grabbed his arm. “You’re not going to believe this.”

“What?”

"This apartment building is empty." Alex pointed toward the vehicle. "While you were inside, I went back to do a little research, it was too quiet. Anyway, I looked it up, guess who owns it?"

Alé despised guessing games. “Who?”

“Raul.”

Alé closed his eyes and dropped his head with a snort. “Fucking perfect. Just fucking perfect. How do you abuse and isolate your kid? How do you get away with almost killing your kid and no one calls the police?”

Alex blinked.

“By buying out the whole fucking building. The fucking eviction was a fake.” Alé smashed his hand against the door they stood in front of. “He’s been setting her up for years. No wonder why she wanted to kill herself.”

“What?” Bronx came up behind Alé. “What did you find?”

“Fuck!” Alé pulled the letter out of his pocket. “She planned on killing herself, while also doing what was right.” He handed the account numbers to Alex. “She has everything.”

“She was so alone. She came back here and was so alone.” Bronx’s voice broke and Alé turned to her. “I know. We’ll fix it. We’ll get her back.”

“No, it’s deeper. Look at her words.”

“Bronx, I know!” Alé tugged her into his arms. “I know. One thing at a time. We have to focus on one thing at a time.”

“I’ll call it in,” Alex said. “There’s nothing else here.”

“No there isn’t. This place is a ghost town.” Alé eased Bronx to the exit. “We’ll fix it. I promise. We just have to hold out hope Bex is okay.”

She nodded. “Do you think we have what we need to close the case?”

“I think so, but we won’t know for sure until we hand it all over Asher and Thomas.” He helped her up into SUV. “Until then we have to let them know what we found and what we didn’t find.”

The ride back to the base was quiet. They were all concerned about Bex, him and Bronx more so. Every hour that ticked by without word from Bex, Alé lost a little bit of hope. The letter would be forever burned into his mind. Bex wanted to die. She was so broken, death was the only way she could get out and, even at that, he didn't believe she'd find peace. What Alé wanted to do was scream at her. Rant and rave. He wanted to shake Bex and ask her why? But, he knew the answer. It stared him in the face every day they were at school. The apartment building was like the fucking cherry on top.

Once they were inside, he peeled off from the group, needing the space to come to grips with what he read and found at the apartment. Alé stepped off the elevator onto the barrack level, he couldn’t even look at his room. He glanced at his phone. It’d been four hours since Bex hightailed it out of the bunker. Four hours since he held her in his arms. Four hours since he’d watched her climax in his arms. Four hours since he filled her with his cum.

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