Page 10 of Devil's Work: Dark

I have to get out of here.

4

RAE

As soon as he leaves, I right my dress and wait a few minutes to make sure he won’t catch me before sneaking out of the room. Two men walk up the stairs. They call out upon seeing me, wanting to tag-team me.

“Sorry,” I call back in a chipper voice, using some Oscar-worthy acting skills to make it happen. “Catch me after.” Totally unthinking, I turn the knob to the door I’m closest to. The door isn’t locked. I pop in and see an adult man in the middle of dropping his trousers. There’s a small child. A girl, maybe six, cowering in the corner crying. My scream catches in my throat and my stomach drops. I don’t know what to do.

Everything happens then, so fast, yet it almost seems in slow motion. He calls mebitchor something and stumbles to get to me because his pants are around his ankles. I pick up the closest object to me, a lamp, yank it from the wall, and swing it with all my might, striking him upside the head. He goes down. I don’t know if he’s dead or not, but I have to get this baby out of here.

“Come here, sweetheart. I’m getting you out of here.”

The little girl is shaking, but she comes to me. I scoop her up into my arms, kick off the stripper heels that Dela had me wear tonight, and leave the room calmly. I make sure to shut the door behind me. Once we make it to the servants’ stairs, I run. It takes us back through the kitchen.

We get stares and shouts of, “Hey, you shouldn’t be in here.” No one tries to stop us. I run out the door off the kitchen. It’s not the backyard. It’s the side, where the valet hangs the car keys and parks the cars.

I grab the closest set of keys. Most of these cars use fingerprints or something, but there are some with keys, like my sister’s. Though I don’t know whose car keys I’m taking. When the coast is clear, I walk calmly through the throng of cars, pressing the button on the fob until I hear the bleep and see lights. It’s a beamer. It probably belongs to one of the underage women, or the ones pretending to be.

I set the little girl in the backseat and buckle her in. Then slowly, I ease out of the parking spot, driving the path around to the front of the house. We’realmostoff the property when the yelling begins. Exactly what we don’t need. They’ve discovered us missing. My heartrate picks up, racing even faster. I didn’t think that was possible. The clammy hands. The sweating. All signs point to an impending panic attack. But even as I wipe the sweat droplets from my eyes, I know that I can’t let it happen. Both me and the little girl are dead if I don’t keep my head.

There’s one more obstacle, the guarded gate. I roll up, still sweating my ass off, but smile and wave. The phone inside the guardhouse rings. The guard, trying to look tough in his blue security uniform resembling a police uniform, with his gun visible in the holster, picks it up to answer and I might actually puke. What do I do? Run him over? I might have to.

To my utter shock and relief, he opens the gate and waves us through as he brings the receiver to his ear. The car is through the gate when the guard runs out, gun out of his holster shouting at me. He starts shooting at the back of the car. I speed down the road, trying to keep control of the Beemer.

“I’m taking you to the police,” I tell the girl. “Police officers help little girls like you.”

She continues to cry silently and sniffle in the backseat. I don’t know where the closest police department is. But we’re in the heart of the city when I see a police cruiser. I pull it over by honking my horn and waving at them while I pull off to the side of the road.

Two police officers approach my vehicle. I open the door. “Thank god,” I say. “I need help.”

“What can we help you with, miss?” the female officer asks. Her tone isn’t necessarily kind, but she’s not making me feel like a criminal either. She’s shorter than her partner by probably a foot. I can’t help but to wonder how she goes about taking down a perp. I think I’d like to watch that.

Focus, Rae.

“My sister brought me to this party at a mansion. I didn’t know what was going on. This old man thought I was fifteen and wanted to have sex with me. I didn’t want that and I tried to get away. I ducked into a room and found an adult man naked from the waist down with this little girl.”

That’s when the officers shine their flashlights in the backseat and see her crying.

“I knocked him out with a lamp—” The words begin to spill from my mouth in a mass of panicked relief. Yes, panicked relief is a thing. Panic from reliving the story and a shit ton of relief from giving it to them. “–and grabbed her to get her out. Then we took this car and escaped. I don’t know her name. I just know that she needs help. We both need help.”

The officers order me out of the car. The woman tries to lift the little girl, but she’s shaking and starts to cry harder. “Can I pick you up, sweetie?” I ask.

She nods.

The officers let me lift her into my arms and they escort me back to the police cruiser.

“Where is this party?” the male officer asks. Big, burly dude, he’d make you feel safe or scared out of your mind depending on why he’s around you. Thankfully for me, it’s safe. I don’t think my heart can handle anymore scared tonight.

“I’m not from here. It’s on the water. The backyard butts up to the water. It’s in a gated community. Huge mansions.”

He gets on the radio and calls in for units to take a look around a particular neighborhood as he drives us in the direction of, I hope, the police department.

When he turns to park by a door, he shuts off the engine and the officers exit the vehicle. They open the backdoor for me. Again, as I carry the little girl because she’s comfortable with me, someone drapes a blanket around her shoulders as we pass them. We’re led through the office down a hallway to a room with a table and chairs.

“We’ll have someone in here from the missing and exploited children’s unit in a few minutes.”

It’s more than a few minutes. The little girl starts to relax in my arms. She won’t let me put her down, though. “Can you tell me your name?” I ask her.

---