Page 101 of What's the time, Mr. Wolfe
“I do, sadly. We know she would snatch new-borns from hospital. She had gotten caught once but had pleaded some mental health issue and hadn’t been charged. They fled to Spain when the police were getting close to them.”
“Why you, Sebastian? Why did you take on this role of ridding the planet of them?”
He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “I had a sister; she was taken from the home in the middle of the night. I did what I could to protect her, but I wasn’t old enough. I lost her. I don’t want another child to go through that.”
“But you can’t stop them all,” I said, holding his hand.
“No, but I can make it known that there is a group, over two hundred strong, Ruby, who will hunt them down and serve our own brand of justice.”
“A vigilante group?”
“If that’s what you want to call us.”
“Where are you all?”
He chuckled gently. “You work with some. We’re scattered all over the country. We only come together occasionally.”
“Were they all kids from the same home.”
“No. Some have joined us at different times in their life from different places. We have a common goal and that is to stop what happened to us, Ruby.”
“Can you talk about it?”
He shook his head. “No, not now. You have too much to process. All I can tell you is that I was given up, I don’t know why, to a Catholic children’s home.Allof us suffered some form of abuse, whether that be physical or sexual… emotional. Some are dead, some are not. Some will die long before they should, some will live in utter hell. That’s all I want to say right now.”
I nodded, then raised his hand to my lips. I kissed his bruised knuckles gently. “I love you, Sebastian, do you believe me?”
He looked down at me. “Not yet, but I’m sure I will. You need to give me time.”
“I can do that. We are pretend married after all.”
He chuckled. “I promised you dinner.”
“You still want to go out?”
“Of course. What happened out there? Parked, done, filed away.” He’d pointed to his head as he spoke. “Get dressed, I’m hungry this time.”
I was a little surprised he could just switch off as quick as that. I couldn’t, for sure. However, I dressed and applied a small amount of makeup. I was sure there were more clothes in the closet than I’d remembered.
“Did you buy me new clothes?” I asked as he stood dressing on one side, while I was the other.
“Yeah, is that okay? You said you needed some things and I wanted to choose them for you.”
I ran my hand over a couple of lovely fitted dressed and paused on a black one. It was sophisticated, the kind I’d see in a magazine and lust after but believe it wouldn’t suit me.
“Of course it’s okay. Don’t suppose you bought me some underwear, did you?”
“In the drawer.”
He chuckled as I looked. It was full of everyday knickers and some super sexy ones. The next drawer was full of bras and a couple of basques. Underneath those, socks, and tights.
“Blimey, Sebastian.” I pulled out a pair of knickers. Well, I say knickers, they were more like dental floss!
“I can’t wait for the day I undress you and find those.”
I turned back to the rails. Beside them was a row of shelves that contained casual and smart tops, jeans, and hoodies.
“Look in the next cupboard,” he said.
